You have no items in your shopping cart.
Close
Search
Filters

Re-Reading the Prophets Through Corporate Globalization

A Cultural-Evolutionary Approach to Economic Injustice in the Hebrew Bible


Using societal patterns of exploitation that are evidenced in agrarian societies from the Bronze Age to modern-day corporate globalization, Re-Reading the Prophets offers a new approach to understanding the hidden contexts behind prophetic complaints against economic injustice in eighth-century Judah.
Publisher: Gorgias Press LLC
Availability: In stock
SKU (ISBN): 978-1-60724-978-8
  • *
Publication Status: In Print
Publication Date: Apr 8,2010
Interior Color: Black
Trim Size: 6 x 9
Page Count: 343
Languages: English
ISBN: 978-1-60724-978-8
$168.00
Your price: $100.80
Ship to
*
*
Shipping Method
Name
Estimated Delivery
Price
No shipping options

While prophetic texts attributed to eighth-century Judah offer some of the Bible’s most scathing attacks against economic exploitation, their socio-economic contexts remain hidden. Theories as to motivations, societal consequences, and even the identities of the perpetrators and victims of these acts are largely speculative. Re-Reading the Prophets Through Corporate Globalization offers a fresh approach to understanding these ancient texts.

Corporate Globalization is the most recent cycle in an ancient series of large-scale trade systems, often resulting in cultural-evolutionary patterns that lead to land consolidation and unequal wealth distribution. Building upon Marvin Chaney’s and D.N. Premnath’s theory that prophetic complaints against landownership abuse reflect such a shift during Judah’s absorption into the Assyrian trade-nexus, this book explores the interpretive value of the presence of these patterns in corporate globalization. While the current economic system is vastly different from its Iron Age counterpart, the wounds that it inflicts appear to be similar, allowing for new questions and meaning to be drawn from biblical texts that have been reluctant to give up their secrets.

While prophetic texts attributed to eighth-century Judah offer some of the Bible’s most scathing attacks against economic exploitation, their socio-economic contexts remain hidden. Theories as to motivations, societal consequences, and even the identities of the perpetrators and victims of these acts are largely speculative. Re-Reading the Prophets Through Corporate Globalization offers a fresh approach to understanding these ancient texts.

Corporate Globalization is the most recent cycle in an ancient series of large-scale trade systems, often resulting in cultural-evolutionary patterns that lead to land consolidation and unequal wealth distribution. Building upon Marvin Chaney’s and D.N. Premnath’s theory that prophetic complaints against landownership abuse reflect such a shift during Judah’s absorption into the Assyrian trade-nexus, this book explores the interpretive value of the presence of these patterns in corporate globalization. While the current economic system is vastly different from its Iron Age counterpart, the wounds that it inflicts appear to be similar, allowing for new questions and meaning to be drawn from biblical texts that have been reluctant to give up their secrets.

Write your own review
  • Only registered users can write reviews
*
*
Bad
Excellent
*
*
*
*
ContributorBiography

MatthewCoomber

Matthew J. M. Coomber (PhD University of Sheffield) is Associate Professor of Biblical Studies at St. Ambrose University and an Episcopal priest. In addition to authoring Re-Reading the Prophets through Corporate Globalization, he has edited Bible and Justice: Ancient Texts, Modern Challenges (Equinox, 2011), and co-edited Fortress Commentary on the Bible: Old Testament and Apocrypha (2016). Coomber is currently authoring Through the Centuries: Amos and Micah (Wiley-Blackwell) editing a six-volume series entitled The Cascade Companion on Bible and Economics (Cascade).

  • Dedication Page (page 5)
  • Table of Contents (page 7)
  • Preface (page 11)
  • Acknowledgments (page 13)
  • Abbreviations (page 17)
  • 1Introduction: The Lost Contexts of Eighth-Century Prophecy (page 19)
    • A. Traditional Interpretations of Landownership Abuse in Eighth-Century Judah (page 22)
      • Biblical Commentary on Mic. 2.1…2 and Isa. 5.8…10 (page 23)
      • Mic. 2.1…2 (page 25)
      • Isa. 5.8…10 (page 31)
  • 2Cultural-Evolutionary Theory and Economic Motivation (page 51)
    • A. Foundations and Development of Cultural-Evolutionary Theory (page 54)
      • Reactions to Xenophobia in Early Cultural-Evolutionary Theory (page 57)
      • The Theory of Multilinear Evolution (page 61)
    • B. Motivations for Economic Behavior (page 64)
      • The Substantivist/Structuralist Schools (page 65)
      • The Formalist/Ecological Schools (page 70)
      • Structuralism and the Ecological in the Context of Biblical Interpretation (page 74)
    • C. The Development of Political Economies in Subsistence Communities (page 78)
      • Economic Strategy in Subsistence Agriculture (page 78)
      • Causes and Consequences of Adaptation (page 80)
      • Negative Consequences of a Strengthened Political Economy (page 84)
    • D. The Interpretive Value of Cultural-Evolutionary Theory in Biblical Studies (page 89)
      • Chaneys and Premnaths use of Cultural-Evolutionary Theory (page 91)
  • 3Trade and Transformation in the Ancient World (page 95)
    • A. Effects of Interregional Trade in the Bronze Age (page 97)
      • Cycles of Urbanism and Trade in the EarlyBronze Age (page 99)
      • Middle Bronze Age Cycles (page 103)
      • Evidence of Societal Transformation in the Bronze Age (page 105)
      • Latifundialization in the Wider Ancient Near Eastern Context (page 110)
    • B. Eighth-Century Palestine and Neo-Assyrian Expansion (page 115)
      • The Revitalization of Ekron (page 116)
      • Ashkelon in the Assyrian Trade Nexus (page 124)
    • C. Judahs Entrance into an Eighth-Century World System (page 129)
      • Societal Transformation in Judah (page 131)
      • Eighth-Century Judean Transformation as Cultural Evolution (page 141)
  • 4Twentieth-Century Corporate Globalization (page 153)
    • A. The Development of Twentieth-Century Corporate Globalization (page 156)
      • Development of the IMF and the World Bank (page 158)
      • Bretton Woods Vision Versus Actualization (page 162)
      • Conditionality and Social Change in the Developing World (page 167)
    • B. The 1980s Debt Crisis and Cultural-Evolutionary Theory (page 178)
      • The Roots of the Debt Crisis (page 179)
      • Crisis Management and Perpetuation (page 182)
      • Attempts to Address the Negative Outcomes ofStructural Adjustment (page 189)
    • C. Conclusion (page 191)
  • 5Reshaping Landownership in Tunisia (page 197)
    • A. A Brief Introduction to Land Tenure in Tunisia (page 197)
      • Why Tunisia Is a Useful Case Study (page 198)
      • Traditional Land Tenure in Rural Tunisia (page 200)
    • B. French Prologue to Land Abuses in Independent Tunisia (page 203)
      • Effects of Colonialism on Tunisian Subsistence Farmers (page 205)
    • C. Tunisian Independence and Land Reforms (page 207)
      • The Privatization of Traditional Collectives (page 208)
      • 1950s Land Reforms and Cultural-Evolutionary Theory (page 215)
    • D. The 1960s Néo-Destourian Socialist Experiment (page 221)
      • The Rise of Néo-Destour Socialism (page 222)
      • The Failings and Collapse of Néo-Destourian Socialism (page 224)
      • Socialist Destour and Cultural-Evolutionary Theory (page 228)
    • E. Privatization, Liberalization, and Oppression in the 1970s (page 229)
      • Land Privatization (page 229)
      • Acceptance of World Bank Conditions (page 232)
      • Policy Failures, Resistance, and Violent Oppression (page 234)
      • Policies of the 1970s and Cultural-Evolutionary Theory (page 235)
    • F. Solidification of Societal Change in the 1980s and Its Consequences on Standards of Living (page 238)
      • Effects of Accelerated Liberalization on Public Heath (page 240)
      • Effects of Accelerated Liberalization on Wealth Discrepancy (page 241)
      • Accelerated Liberalization and Cultural-Evolutionary Theory (page 242)
    • G. Conclusion (page 243)
  • 6Insights to Be Gained through the Modern Context (page 245)
    • A. Introduction (page 245)
      • What Globalization and Tunisia Might Contribute (page 246)
    • B. The Voices of the Oppressed (page 250)
      • Displacement of Subsistence Farmers and Altered Social Relations (page 251)
      • The Poorest of the Poor (page 255)
      • Observations of an Educated Peasant (page 263)
      • Contempt for the Poor amongst the Elite (page 268)
      • An Alternative Perspective (page 270)
    • C. Shifts in Regional Power Structures (page 273)
      • Tunisian Power-Shifts and the Prophetic Texts (page 276)
      • Potential Motivations behind the Composition of Isa. 5.8…10 and Mic. 2.1…2 (page 278)
    • D. Conclusion (page 282)
  • 7Conclusion (page 283)
    • A. What Has Been Discovered (page 284)
      • The Contextual Problem and the Use of Cultural Evolution (page 284)
      • Historical and Archaeological Precedence (page 286)
      • The Evolution of World Systems into the Modern Day (page 289)
      • Modern-Day Corporate Globalization and Tunisia (page 290)
      • The Value of This Interdisciplinary Approach (page 293)
    • B. Contributions Offered by This Study (page 294)
      • The Issue of Perpetrators and Victims (page 294)
    • C. Potential for Future Study (page 299)
  • Bibliography (page 303)
  • Index (page 333)
Customers who bought this item also bought
Picture of Averroes, the Decisive Treatise

Averroes, the Decisive Treatise

The Decisive Treatise is perhaps the most controversial work of Averroes (Ibn Rushd, 1126-1198) and belongs to a trilogy which boldly represent the philosophical contribution to Islamic theology of this famous Andalusian commentator on Aristotle. The Decisive Treatise is a fatwa (a legal opinion) that the judge, Averroes, promulgated for his fellow Malikite jurists in order to demonstrate that the study of philosophy is not only licit from the point of view of religious law, but even mandatory for the skilled people. However, many subjects are dealt with in this comparatively short book: An epistemology aimed to show that philosophical truth and religious truth are not in contradiction; a sociology of knowledge pointing out that humans are classified in three classes (philosophers, theologians, common folk); a Qur’anic hermeneutics suggesting how to approach philosophically the Holy Book in agreement with religious requirements and linguistic rules.
$117.00 $70.20
ImageFromGFF

Xenophon's Memorabilia and The Apology of Socrates translated by Sarah Fielding

Sarah Fielding (1710-1768), the younger sister of Henry Fielding, and the close friend of his literary rival Samuel Richardson, was one of the very few English women to master ancient languages like Latin and Greek. With the help of Shaftesbury's nephew, James Harris, a distinguished writer, scholar and grammarian, she embarked on the ambitious project of translating Xenophon's Memorabilia and the Apology of Socrates from the Greek. This work, titled Memoirs of Socrates, with the Defence of Socrates before his Judges, was finally released in 1762. She proved a discreet editor and a talented Hellenist, whose elegant style garnered praise from Tobias Smollett in his Critical Review. This superb translation is re-published in its entirety for the first time since the 18th century.
$141.00 $84.60
ImageFromGFF

In the Arms of Biblical Women

The less-discussed character in the Bible is the woman: two talking animals therein have sometimes received more page space. This volume shines the light of close scrutiny in the less-trodden direction and focuses on biblical and allied women, or on the feminine side of Creation. Biblical women are compared to mythical characters from the wider Middle East or from contemporary literature, and feminist/womanist perspectives are discussed alongside traditional and theological perspectives.
$168.00 $100.80
ImageFromGFF

Sleep and Sleeplessness in Byzantium

In recent decades certain historians have intimated that Byzantine society - and monastics in particular - suffered from a lack of sleep (whether described in negative terms as sleep deprivation or sleep abstinence). Sleep-abstinence surely permeated Byzantine society: it is encountered in every age, sex and class, together with its institutions, beliefs, practices, rituals, morals and mythologies. However, sleep is a biological phenomenon as well. One cannot possibly appreciate the Byzantines' stance towards it, nor assess the veracity, aims and effectiveness of their ideas and attitudes in relation to sleep-abstinence, unless one is ready to tackle the biological aspect. Moreover, without the biological aspect, the claim that the Byzantines were sleep-deprived is impossible to substantiate. This book approaches this subject by using a bio-cultural method, which combines sleep medicine with theology, history, and critical research, in order to analyse the practice of sleep-abstinence and the attitudes towards sleep in Byzantium. Focusing on Greek documentary sources, this book investigates whether Byzantines did indeed practice sleep abstinence or sleep deprivation, and their rationales for curtailing their sleep. Chapters cover the mechanics of sleep in the modern world and in the ancient world, the place of monastic vigil, and the vigil of the laity.
$169.00 $101.40