How Are the Mighty Fallen?: A Dialogical Study of King Saul in 1 SamuelThis book marries the several elements: a given text (1 Samuel), a focal character (King Saul), a spacious and creative theorist (Mikhail Bakhtin), a historical context (the collapse of monarchic Israel and the moment for return. The dilemma for the exile community is to return with royal leadership or without it); a reading challenge is: can a character be a cipher for a corporate experience (Saul represent the whole monarchic experience)? The author argues that the narrative of 1 Samuel may be read as a riddle propounding the complex story of Israel/Judah's experience with kings as an instruction for those pondering leadership choices in the sixth century. The work is an extended reflection on what went wrong with kings and why new leadership must be attempted. The extended riddle of Saul works to show how the life of the king is fundamentally destructive, not because any is malicious but because of many factors of weakness and inadequacy that will be familiar to readers. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 79
Page 4
... experience of it take shape within language . Not unrelated to the previous set of historiographical issues , there is nonetheless a distinction worth catching . When narrative scenes are presented to us , as they are in 1 Samuel , vig ...
... experience of it take shape within language . Not unrelated to the previous set of historiographical issues , there is nonetheless a distinction worth catching . When narrative scenes are presented to us , as they are in 1 Samuel , vig ...
Page 9
... experience with kings.11 My reading of Saul , then , counts on the sense that the text is not reporting accurately on an early figure but draw- ing a lone figure into which to distill communal experience — not so easy a thing to do ...
... experience with kings.11 My reading of Saul , then , counts on the sense that the text is not reporting accurately on an early figure but draw- ing a lone figure into which to distill communal experience — not so easy a thing to do ...
Page 12
... experience . Gerbrandt writes : " ... the Deuteronomist's view of kingship cannot be pre- sented even tentatively totally apart from his understanding of Israel , of Yahweh , and of their relationship to each other ' ( 1986 : 89 ) . Key ...
... experience . Gerbrandt writes : " ... the Deuteronomist's view of kingship cannot be pre- sented even tentatively totally apart from his understanding of Israel , of Yahweh , and of their relationship to each other ' ( 1986 : 89 ) . Key ...
Page 14
... experience . The Samuel - Saul experience hence encapsulates first what was needed and then what failed . Fifth : the question of the relationship between God and people that has already been spoken of . Here , again , once a coherent ...
... experience . The Samuel - Saul experience hence encapsulates first what was needed and then what failed . Fifth : the question of the relationship between God and people that has already been spoken of . Here , again , once a coherent ...
Page 16
... experience was not exile and whom Sacchi supposes to have longed for a royal ( Davidic ) restoration . The practical gain , for the present purposes , is to factor the figure of Jehoiachin in terms of who supports and who does not , who ...
... experience was not exile and whom Sacchi supposes to have longed for a royal ( Davidic ) restoration . The practical gain , for the present purposes , is to factor the figure of Jehoiachin in terms of who supports and who does not , who ...
Contents
1 | |
55 | |
CHRONOTOPIC REPRESENTATION OF THE ARK 1 SAMUEL 47 | 116 |
THE AUTHORING OF A KING AND A HERO 1 SAMUEL 812 | 163 |
THE FIRING OF KING SAUL 1 SAMUEL 1315 | 223 |
SAULS DISCOURSES OF DESIRE 1 SAMUEL 1619 | 262 |
PURSUIT AND ESCAPE SURPLUS AND SURVIVAL 1 SAMUEL 2023 | 323 |
LOOPHOLE LANGUAGE AND THE STALKING OF SAUL 1 SAMUEL 2426 | 367 |
THE DEATH OF KING SAUL AND THE ARCHITECTONICS OF HIS CHARACTERIZATION 1 SAMUEL 272 SAMUEL 1 | 411 |
CONCLUSION | 447 |
Bibliography | 468 |
Index of References | 481 |
Index of Authors | 490 |
Other editions - View all
How Are the Mighty Fallen?: A Dialogical Study of King Saul in 1 Samuel Barbara Green Limited preview - 2003 |
How Are the Mighty Fallen?: A Dialogical Study of King Saul in 1 Samuel Barbara Green Limited preview - 2003 |
How Are the Mighty Fallen?: A Dialogical Study of King Saul in 1 Samuel Barbara Green No preview available - 2003 |
Common terms and phrases
Abishai Achish Ahimelech Amalek Amalekite anointed answer asked authoring Bakhtin battle Beth Shemesh biblical text bring Chapter characterizes choice chronotope Clark and Holquist clear communication construction context death deed deity Deuteronomistic History dialogism direct discourse discussion divine drawing dynastic Edelman Elides Elqanah ephod episode exile fact father Fokkelman 1986 genre Gibeah God's Hannah hear hero Hophni and Phinehas human insight Israel Israelites Jabesh Jehoiachin Jobling Jonathan Keilah king king's kingship Kiriath-jearim language least linked loophole māšāl matter McCarter Michal Mikhail Bakhtin Miscall monarchy Morson and Emerson moves Nabal narrative narrator narrator's offered Peninnah perhaps Philistines polyphonic Polzin position possible present priest problem prophet question readers reading relation relationship response role royal Samuel Saul's scene scholars seems sense Shiloh simply sons speak specifically speech spirit story struggle suggests talk thing tion utterance words YHWH YHWH's