Description
About the Author
Matthew V. Novenson is Senior Lecturer in New Testament and Christian Origins at the University of Edinburgh. He has also been a visiting professor at Dartmouth College and Duke University and a visiting research fellow at Durham University. He is the author of Christ among the Messiahs (Oxford University Press, 2012).
Reviews
Novenson surveys and successfully disrupts the discourse about messianism, and his fresh approach suggests new directions for scholarly inquiry on the messianic idea by utilizing methods and techniques from literary studies ... Upper-level and graduate students as well as senior scholars in literature, religious studies, and theology will find great reward in this inquiry. * Patrick Horn, Reading Religion *
From a new angle, and with a fascinating range of biblical, rabbinic, and patristic instances ... Whatever conclusions are reached by students of messianism, they will not be sorry to have read this stimulating and informative book. * William Horbury, Catholic Biblical Quarterly *
combine[s] a close engagement with an impressive array of scholarship and its history, exegetical rigour, and attention to a wide range of primary sources, with a clarity of argument and style. * Judith M. Lieu, Theology *
Matthew Novenson's study of ancient messianism is revisionary as well as elegantly simple [and] has enormous implications for understanding the Jewish origins of Christianity and a variety of New Testament texts. * Grant Wacker, Christian Century *
Matthew Novenson deconstructs and de-mystifies 'the messianic idea,' a ghost of nineteenth century scholarship on ancient Judaism and early Christianity, by focusing on the way inherited scriptures were used in new social contexts. In the process, he injects a healthy dose of historical realism into a subject that has often suffered from vagueness. This is an important contribution to the study of Judaism and Christian origins. * John J. Collins, Holmes Professor of Old Testament, Yale University *
The import of the term 'messiah' lies not in whom it names, urges Matthew Novenson, but in how it works. By attending to various projects of scriptural interpretation, from ancient texts through to the modern scholarship on them, he offers his reader a fresh conceptualization of an entire area of biblical research. Both in its scope and in its aims, The Grammar of Messianism is an outstanding accomplishment. * Paula Fredriksen, author of From Jesus to Christ *
In this powerfully argued book, Matthew Novenson offers a fresh approach to the study of ancient Jewish and Christian messianism, urging us to jettison the concept of the 'messianic idea' that has dominated much of scholarly discussion and to replace it with an understanding of messianism as an interpretive tradition, and then demonstrating how fruitful this approach can be. * Martha Himmelfarb, author of Jewish Messiahs in a Christian Empire: A History of the Book of Zerubbabel *
Book Information
ISBN 9780190053215
Author Matthew V. Novenson
Format Paperback
Page Count 384
Imprint Oxford University Press Inc
Publisher Oxford University Press Inc
Weight(grams) 567g
Dimensions(mm) 155mm * 231mm * 23mm