Samuel E. Balentine

Consider Leviathan

Biblical Studies & Commentaries

“Ask the animals . . . speak to the earth, and it will teach you,' (Job 12:7–8). In this book, Brian Doak has listened more carefully to what the ‘moral ecology of Job’s natural world’ has to teach us than anyone else to date. His remarkable examination of the relationships between suffering, the human and Divine self, and Job’s natural world demonstrates why this ancient story stands at the center of a biblical view of nature.”

David and His Theologian

Biblical Studies & Commentaries

“"Walter Brueggemann is unexcelled in his ability to discern historical, literary, and theological connections between the Bible and our common work. This is amply demonstrated in this welcome collection of his essays on David, 'the carrier of all the ambivalence Israel knew about guarantees and risks in the world YHWH governs.' For a focused probe on the royal establishment, and on the man who most enigmatically embodied it, there is no better place to begin than by reading David and His Theologian.”

Development of an Icon

Biblical Studies & Commentaries

“Herbst offers a comprehensive analysis of Solomon scholarship over the last thirty years, which in itself will be an invaluable resource for scholars. He then focuses on the tension between positive and negative accounts of Solomon in 1 Kings 1-11 and demonstrates how a diachronic approach uncovers the ideologies of different authors and editors. The payoff is not simply a thicker and sharper textual analysis but also a rich theological perspective on an iconic figure who mirrors the nation of Israel itself: 'promises early on, failures all the way through, but hope to the very end.'”

Tenacious Solidarity

Ethics, Culture & Social Issues

“With an inquisitive eye, an invincible passion for truth and honesty, and a crackling imagination, Brueggemann invites us to think more deeply–in accord with the 'transformational potential' of the biblical witness–about contemporary social, political, and economic issues that would deny our agency and steal our hope for a better world. Who better to lead us into a tenacious solidarity with the God who lives in and beyond scripture than Walter Brueggemann. He has himself long been an exemplar of provocative testimony; we readers have long been and shall remain his grateful students.”

The Bible on Forgiveness

Biblical Studies & Commentaries

“What kind of relationship can there be between a just God and a sinful people? Donald Gowan pursues this question by clearly unfolding the Bible's witness to the mysterious and abiding possibility of divine forgiveness. With so much pain in this world, Gowan demonstrates why understanding how God forgives us, and how we may live like God by forgiving others, is both urgent and imperative.”

Truth-Telling as Subversive Obedience

Theology

“"The persuasion of a book that dares to address 'truth-telling' about God, the world, and humankind, rests largely on its author's capacity to discern and communicate clearly truths that may be easily overlooked or minimized by others. In this collection of articles . . . Walter Brueggemann demonstrates yet again his prescient theological skills. For those who linger over Pilate's question to Jesus, What is truth?, Brueggemann's contention that truth about God is relentlessly connected to the pain of this world is and remains an imperative in search of a faithful response.”

Who Needs the Old Testament?

Apologetics

“Dell confronts the ‘New Atheists’ head-on, demonstrating how their reading of the Old Testament ignores its cultural context and misrepresents its account of God, the world, and humankind. With equal rigour, she examines the conflicted intersection between Church and Academy, where scholarly skepticism seeds a growing clerical reluctance to preach and teach the Old Testament. . . . With the skill of a scholar and the passion of one committed to the work of the church in the modern world, Dell demonstrates why and how the Old Testament offers a rich and realistic account of life in all its messiness. As she puts it, the Old Testament ‘can be our friend, even if a challenging one at the end of the day’.”