Description
Erhard Gerstenberger (1932-2023) has been a highly influential exegete of the Psalms for several decades. He demonstrated how the Psalms were able to modulate the deepest feelings of individuals and communities, encompassing a wide variety of existential experiences relating to God and the world. Gerstenberger believed that psalmic poetry grew out of diverse and real-life situations.
The first two essays in Charting the Course of Psalms Research deftly review the secondary literature. The first covers the ‘lyrical literature’ of the Old Testament, and the second considers the history of interpretation of the Psalms. The remaining essays explore the social settings of the Psalms and their connection to theology and communication theory, and include two chapter translated into English for the first time and edited by K.C. Hanson. Student and researcher alike will be enriched by the insights Gerstenberger provides.
About the Author
Erhard S. Gerstenberger (1932-2023) was Professor Emeritus at the University of Marburg, where he taught Old Testament from 1985-1997, and served as Dean of the Department of Protestant Theology from 1993-1994. His numerous works have been translated into many languages, and he remains an influential biblical scholar.
K.C. Hanson is Editor in Chief of Wipf and Stock publishers, and has numerous theological publications. Hanson worked closely with Gerstenberger on the translations for this book.
Contents
Editor’s Foreword by K.C. Hanson
Preface
Acknowledgements
List of Abbreviations
1. The Lyrical Literature
2. The Psalms in Form-Critical Perspective
3. The Psalms: Genres, Life-Situations, and Theologies – Towards a Hermeneutics of Social Stratification
4. Theologies in the Book of Psalms
5. Modes of Communication with the Divine in the Hebrew Psalter
6. The Psalms and Ritual Praxis
7. Non-Temple Psalms: Their Cultic Setting Revisited
8. The Psalter as Book and as Collection
Bibliography
Author Index
Scripture Index
