The Fate of King David: The Past and Present of a Biblical Icon

Description

Celebrating the five hundredth volume, this Festschrift honors David M. Gunn, one of the founders of the Journal of Old Testament Studies, later the Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies, and offers essays representing cutting-edge interpretations of the David material in the Hebrew Bible and later literary and popular culture. Essays in Part One, Relating to David, present David in relationship to other characters in Samuel. These essays demonstrate the value of close reading, analysis of literary structure, and creative, disciplined readerly imagination in interpreting biblical texts in general and understanding the character of David in particular. Part Two, Reading David, expands the narrative horizon. These essays analyze the use of the David character in larger biblical narrative contexts. David is understood as a literary icon that communicates and disrupts meaning in different ways in different context. More complex modes of interpretation enter in, including theories of metaphor, memory and history, psychoanalysis, and post-colonialism. Part Three, Singing David, shifts the focus to the portrayal of David as singer and psalmist, interweaving in mutually informative ways both with visual evidence from the ancient Near East depicting court musicians and with the titles and language of the biblical psalms. Part Four, Receiving David, highlights moments in the long history of interpretation of the king in popular culture, including poetry, visual art, theatre, and children's literature. Finally, the essays in Part Five, Re-locating David, represent some of the intellectually and ethically vital interpretative work going on in contexts outside the U.S. and Europe.

Tod Linafelt is professor of biblical literature at Georgetown University in Washington DC. Author of Surviving Lamentations and a commentary on the book of Ruth, and editor or co-editor of four books. Florence Harkness Professor of Religion at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. His research and writing focuses on the cultural history of the Bible. He is author of several books, including Roadside Religion: In Search of the Sacred, the Profane, and the Substance of Faith and Mel Gibson's Bible. He has published essays on the Bible and popular culture in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Chronicle of Higher Education, and his work has been featured on National Public Radio's All Things Considered. He it co-editor, with Tod Linafelt, of the book series Afterlives of the Bible with the University of Chicago Press. His next book, The End of the Word As We Know It (Harcourt, 2009), examines the Bible business and the Christian culture industry in America. Claudia V. Camp is Professor of Religion at Texas Christian University, USA and was on the steering committee of the Seminar. She is currently co-general editor of the LHBOTS series, as well as the author or editor of 4 books and numerous articles.

Unlike many volumes in this literary genre, the Gunn Festschrift contains clearly focused studies of one biblical icon, by a star-studded cast of contributors who by good fortune are friends or colleagues of the "celebrated Festschriftee". The introduction by the three editors contains an insightful celebration of modern developments in biblical research, exemplified, first, in the life and works of David Gunn himself, and then in the contents of this quite remarkable volume. Part One is made up of close readings of texts about King David's relations with other characters (Michal, Abigail, Saul, Jonathan, Ittai, messengers of death). Parts Two and Three consider David's role elsewhere in the canon, notably in Chronicles and Psalms, but also in the New Testament, while Part Four illustrates the reception history of the icon by examining a Victorian drawing, modern children's Bibles and works by Theodore Beza and Bertolt Brecht. The final, post-colonialist part, entitled "Relocating David", shows what can be gained by reading the Bible in dialogue with Tongan story-telling technique and a historical novel set in Aoteoroa, New Zealand, where David was born. --John F. A. Sawyer, University of Perugia This is no ordinary Festschrift, neither is the person to whom it is dedicated. David Gunn has inspired and mentored generations of biblical scholars, enabling us to navigate our discipline's sometimes arcane paths with insight and integrity. Imitating David Gunn, this volume combines a depth of insight with a usefulness usually lacking in the Festschrift genre, cohering as the collection does around the figure of the biblical David. Each of the essays draws in some way on David Gunn's pioneering work and goes on to offer fresh resources for reflecting on biblical David for future generations of scholars, teachers, and students. David Gunn's mantle of scholar and mentor has been passed on. This volume celebrates both Davids. --Gerald West, School of Religion and Theology, University of KwaZulu-Natal Mentioned in Hebrew Studies, Volume LII. Review in Review of Biblical Literature