Biblical Terror: Why Law and Restoration in the Bible Depend Upon Fear

Description

For biblical authors and readers, law and restoration are central concepts in the Bible, but they were not always so. To trace out the formation of those biblical concepts as elements in defensive strategies, Cataldo uses as conversational starting points theories from Zizek, Foucault and Deleuze, all of whom emphasize relation and difference. This work argues that the more modern assumption that biblical authors wrote their texts presupposing a central importance for those concepts is backwards. On the contrary, law and restoration were made central only through and after the writing of the biblical text in particular, those that were concerned with protecting the community from threats to its identity as the “remnant”. Modern Bible readers, Cataldo argues, must renegotiate how they understand law and restoration and come to terms with them as concepts that emerged out of more selfish concerns of a community on the margins of imperial political power. Cover Half-title Title Copyright Dedication Contents Preface Abbreviations Chapter 1. Introduction Premise, Authorial Perspective, and Understood Audience Caveats: What Must Be Said Before What Can Be Said I Did It My Way: How Visions of a Restored World Reflect the Subject's Desire Defining Revelation, Law, and Restoration as Pillars of Monotheism Within the Context of This Study Understanding the Role of Conflict and Anxiety in the Centralizing of Law and Restoration in the Bible Understanding the Importance of Revelation for Law and Restoration Within the Biblical Texts How the Theories of Foucault, Deleuze, and Žižek Are Helpful Description of Chapters Chapter 2. The Problems of Revelation, Ritualizatio, Contradiction, and Law's Dependence Upon Them Revelation as a Strategy for Difference Biblical Law and Its Encouragement of Ritualization Are Attempts to Stabilize Contradiction Why Biblical Ritual Preserves Difference Law Defines Ethics and Preserves Difference How Law Might Be an Expression of Power Law, Intermarriage, Prejudice: Expressions of Identity Through Contrapositional Strategies Casting Žižek Upon the Contraposition Between Annihilation and Restoration Contraposition in Intermarriage Why Prohibiting Intermarriage Interrupted the Social Order Chapter 3. Restoration in Haggai-Zechariah as Dependent Upon Difference The (De)Constructive Role of Ideology Saving the Temple from the “Other” Jerusalem Temple as a Potentializing Symbol The Necessity of Violence for Utopia Petersen's Typology of the Profane "Other," or Satan The Law as Constructive in Light of Petersen's Typology Finding Order in Restoration Chapter 4. The Role of Exclusion in Monotheistic Law Let's Dispense With Theocracy Exclusion Is the Dark Side of Monotheistic Law Biblical Law in the Discourse of Power The Role of the Social Body in the Law: Ritualization and Exclusion Law as a Negative, Repressive Power? Legal Taboos or Categorical Restrictions: Further Discussion on Legalized Strategies of Exclusion The Intent of Monotheistic Law Was to Create a New Normative Order The Reactionary Nature of Law? A Final Word on Law as a Framework for Restoration Chapter 5. Constructivism as a Consequence of Exile Understanding the Social and Political Aspects and Impacts of Constructivism “We Are the World”: Defining "People" as a Shared Object in Malachi “We Bow Down at Your Temple… and Give Thanks”: Temple as a Shared Object in Haggai-Zechariah Foucault's Theory on Power Helps Us Discern Some Important Things About the Temple Ezra-Nehemiah: The Law as a Lurking Body "I'm Better Than You": Deutero-Isaiah the Ideal Social-Political Body “This Land Is My Land”: "Law" and the Power of Land Claim as Shared Objects in Jeremiah Chapter 6. Differentiating Exiles Difference and Distinction: A Primer The Exile as a “Univocal” Event and Its Quality as a Symbol of Difference The Role of a Value System in Self-Preservation The Necessity of Exile for Restoration Betrays Utopian Desire Chapter 7. Returning to The Centrality of Religion The Problematic Dichotomization of Religion and Society in Ancient Israel Problematic Reconstructions Joseph Blenkinsopp's "Sectarian Phase" Fear + Desire = Monotheism The Impotence and Power of Revelation Bibliography Index of References Index of Authors