A God of Vengeance?

by Zenger, Erich; Maloney, Linda M.

• ISBN13: 9780664256371
• ISBN10: 0664256376
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1996-01-01
• Publisher: Westminster John Knox Pr

Summary

The aggressive tone of the psalms that deal with violence is often viewed as in direct opposition to Jesus' command to love one's neighbor. Erich Zenger, a preeminent international scholar, offers to Christians a new understanding of these powerful, albeit disquieting, psalms. To Zenger, these psalms are laments that cry out against violence and injustice in the world and have great relevance to people of faith today. Readers will appreciate Zenger's forthright discussion of how to use these psalms in modern prayer.

Author Biography

Erich Zenger is Professor of Biblical History at the University of Munster in Germany.

Table of Contents

Preface
Abbreviations
A Complex Problem	p. 1
Unpleasant and Repulsive Psalms	p. 1
The Constant Presence of Enemies throughout the Book of Psalms	p. 9
Protest and Rejection in the Name of Christianity	p. 13
Objection in the Name of a Humane Ethics	p. 22
A Look at the Psalms Themselves	p. 25
Psalm 12: Protest against the Violence of Violent People	p. 26
Psalm 139: Passionate Struggle against Structural Violence	p. 28
Psalm 58: A Cry for Right and Justice	p. 34
Psalm 83: Witness for God, When Everything Else Is a Denial of God	p. 38
Psalm 137: What Remains for the Powerless	p. 47
Psalm 44: Transformation of the Image of a Violent God	p. 51
Psalm 109: They Attack Me without Cause, but I Am a Prayer	p. 55
Toward a Hermeneutic of the Psalms of Enmity and Vengeance	p. 63
"... To Judge the Living and the Dead"	p. 63
A God of Vengeance After All?	p. 69
A Dynamic World Image and a Realistic View of the World	p. 73
Poetic Prayers	p. 76
The Psalms of Vengeance: A Revelation of God?	p. 80
Practical Consequences	p. 87
Revitalization of Lament in Liturgical Prayer	p. 87
Practicing and Dramatizing the Psalms as Contextual Poetry	p. 90
Reciting the Psalms of Enmity as Canon	p. 92
Suggestions for a New Language of Prayer	p. 94
Notes	p. 97
Selected Bibliography	p. 103
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