The Shape and Shaping of the Book of Psalms: The Current State of Scholarship

A new and innovative way to approach the Psalter that moves beyond form and cult-functional criticism Drawing inspiration from Gerald H. Wilson's The Editing of the Hebrew Psalter, this volume explores questions of the formation of the Psalter from the perspective of canonical criticism. Though called "canonical criticism," the study actually employs a number of historically traditional and nontraditional approaches to reading the text including form criticism, historical criticism of individual psalms as well as of the whole Psalter, and redaction criticism. The contributors are Phil J. Botha, Nancy L. deClaissé-Walford, Peter W. Flint, Jaco Gericke, Erhard S. Gerstenberger, Karl N. Jacobson, Rolf A. Jacobson, Christine Brown Jones, Jonathan Magonet, J. Clinton McCann Jr., Harry P. Nasuti, Sampson S. Ndoga, Catherine Petrany, W. Dennis Tucker Jr., Robert E. Wallace, and Derek E. Wittman. Features: Exploration of theological viewpoints, sovereignty, and the shape and shaping of Psalms Examination of the impact of canonical criticism on the study of the Psalter Sixteen essays from the Book of Psalms Consultation group and invited scholars Nancy L. deClaissé-Walford is Carolyn Ward Professor of Old Testament and Biblical Languages at McAfee School of Theology at Mercer University in Atlanta, Georgia. She is the author of Reading from the Beginning: The Shaping of the Hebrew Psalter (Mercer University Press), Biblical Hebrew: An Introductory Textbook and Introduction to the Psalms: A Song from Ancient Israel (both from Chalice Press).