This book deals with matters of self-representation and the presentation of selves. How does late-biblical literature portray individuals’ emotions, disappointments, desires, and doubts within particular cultural and religious frameworks? The goal is to explore ways in which followers of Yahweh, participating in long-standing traditions and specific socio-historical settings of late-biblical times, are shown to privatize and personalize religion. The author is interested in a variety of phenomena including the use of first-person speech in literary creations, the assumption of seemingly auto-b ... More

This book deals with matters of self-representation and the presentation of selves. How does late-biblical literature portray individuals’ emotions, disappointments, desires, and doubts within particular cultural and religious frameworks? The goal is to explore ways in which followers of Yahweh, participating in long-standing traditions and specific socio-historical settings of late-biblical times, are shown to privatize and personalize religion. The author is interested in a variety of phenomena including the use of first-person speech in literary creations, the assumption of seemingly auto-biographical forms and orientations, the emphasis on individual responsibility for sin and punishment, the creative and daring challenge to conventional ideas about the way the world operates, the interest in the emotional dimensions of biblical characters, the portrayal of everyday small things that relate to essential aspects of worldview, and descriptions of self-imposed ritual. This set of interests lends itself to exciting approaches in the contemporary study of religion, rooted largely in the sociology of religion. The concept of “lived religion,” developed by Robert Orsi, Meredith McGuire, and others, and related ideas about material religion, explored, for example, by Colleen McDannell, help to provide the study’s theoretical framework.