This book applies current research on oral traditional poetry to the biblical metaphor of the mourning earth as expressed in nine texts, illustrating an oral aesthetic within the biblical prophetic traditions over a range of historical settings and prophetic genres. Paperback edition is available from the Society of Biblical Literature (www.sbl-site.org).

As a young Norwegian Lutheran teenager in rural Wisconsin, Brocker lay awake one night worrying whether he believed in Jesus enough to get to heaven. This getting-to-heaven anxiety reflected an excessive focus on individual salvation and a loss of concern for the well-being of the Earth community. A faith journey that leaves Earth behind is misguided. Ever since those early teen years Brocker has been on a journey to come home to Earth. Coming Home to Earth makes the case that there is no salvation apart from Earth and that Earth care is at the core of our identity and mission as followers of Jesus. The ecological consequences of a loss of concern for the well-being of Earth have been devastating. Brocker is especially concerned to determine what will motivate followers of Jesus to make radical changes in our way of life so that we can participate in the healing of wounded Earth and all of its inhabitants, both human and nonhuman. We are far more likely to make needed sacrifices for our fellow creatures if we share God's delight in and affection for them, and cherish Earth as our home.

J. Andrew Dearman considers the prophetic figure's historical roots in the covenant traditions of ancient Israel, includes his own translation of the biblical text, and masterfully unpacks Hosea's poetic, metaphorical message of betrayal, judgment, and reconciliation. --from publisher description

Paperback edition available from the Society of Biblical Literature (www.sbl-site.org).

Engages with the social cosmos of the Bible, in which all creatures, even 'inanimate' ones, are alive and able to interact.

For some years the view has become established that the Book of the Twelve is a systematically structured literary unity. An exegesis which takes the final canonical text seriously undertakes to understand the structure and theological intention of this unity. The papers collected here attempt to reveal significant structures which overarch the individual components. Particular emphasis is placed on the reconstruction of thematic threads which are created when individual prophets take up topics from their predecessors (e.g. Jehovah's Day, conversion, role of the peoples) and intensify them. The papers were written between 1999 and 2002 under the aegis of the Society of Biblical Literature's Working Group on The Formation of the Book of the Twelve.

Presented in this volume are the remains of twenty-two homilies and a collection of fragments delivered by Origen around A.D. 240. The original texts of the homilies on Jeremiah have not come down to us completely; two of the homilies survive only in a Latin translation of St. Jerome. The homily on I Kings 28, while not a part of the homilies on Jeremiah, deals with the Witch of Endor and has been added to this volume in virtue of its own inherent interest.

In The Briny South Nienke Boer examines the legal and literary narratives of enslaved, indentured, and imprisoned individuals crossing the Indian Ocean to analyze the formation of racialized identities in the imperial world. Drawing on court records, ledgers, pamphlets, censors’ reports, newsletters, folk songs, memoirs, and South African and South Asian works of fiction and autobiography, Boer theorizes the role of sentiment and the depiction of emotions in the construction of identities of displaced peoples across the Indian Ocean. From Dutch East India Company rule in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to early apartheid South Africa, Boer shows how colonial powers and settler states mediated and manipulated subaltern expressions of emotion as a way to silence racialized subjects and portray them as inarticulately suffering. In this way, sentiment operated in favor of the powerful rather than as an oppositional weapon of the subaltern. By tracing the entwinement of displacement, race, and sentiment, Boer frames the Indian Ocean as a site of subjectification with a long history of transnational connection—and exploitation.

On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the genocide in Rwanda and coinciding with the intensification of violent attacks on the civilian population in the East Kivu region of the Democratic Republic of Congo scholars and students from Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenia, Cameroon, South Africa, Germany, Austria, Bosnia-Hercegovina and Switzerland joined together in Rwanda to discuss the topic "Overcoming violence". This volume is a documentation of the lectures of this conference, organised by the Protestant Institute of Arts and Social Sciences (PIASS) in Butare, the Presbyterian Church of Rwanda (EPR) and the Faculty of Protestant Theology of the Ruhr-University Bochum (RUB).

Reading Romans as Lament examines how and why Paul uses such a high volume of Old Testament lament in his letter to the Romans. Lament is not merely a poignant cry of distress, but a distinct form of prayer scattered across the pages of the Old Testament. It contains a distinct literary footprint and theology. Although often overlooked, Romans contains a great deal of this prayer form through its various lament citations and echoes. When these citations and echoes are heard, it impacts the interpretation of the letter's argumentation and sheds historical light on suffering in the early church. Building on the work of both Old Testament scholarship and recent trends in Pauline Studies, most notably Claus Westermann and Richard B. Hays, this book explores how Paul uses the language and theology of Old Testament lament to address the tension between what his gospel promises and the pain his listeners experience. The echoes of lament in Romans indicate that suffering stems from various sources, but they share a common concern with divine wrath. The experience of pain, including concern over God's wrath, is a reality for the "righteous" in Rome. Paul consistently answers their cries of distress with the gospel.