The Lure of Transcendence and the Audacity of Prayer : Selected Essays

"The discourse of prayer responds to the abiding lure of transcendence. From Gilgamesh to the primordial human beings in Eden to Odysseus, the quest for ultimate truths has summoned forth all manner of human effort - courageous, desperate, pious, impious, successful, failed, invited, forbidden - and like all such lures, one can never be certain whether the glimmer of transcendence is that of a bright and shining star that illuminates the shadows or only a shiny object that seduces one into an inescapable darkness (a fishing lure, for example). In this study, Samuel E. Balentine demonstrates how prayer's invocation of God transgresses the limits of human beings. The author shows how inviting, let alone commanding God to speak may be the »acme of bardic pretention,« but in the ancient world such transgression characterizes the audacity of prayer" Cover 1 Title 4 Preface 8 Table of Contents 12 List of Figures 14 Abbreviations 16 I. The God of Prayer: “I Am Not a Human Being” 18 1. Isaiah 45: God’s “I Am,” Israel’s “You Are” 20 2. “I Am a god and Not a Human Being”: The Divine Dilemma in Hosea 34 3. Written on the Heart, Erased from the Mind: Rewriting Moral Agency in Jeremiah 49 II. Enthroned on the Praises, Penitence, and Laments of Israel 70 4. Enthroned on the Praises and Laments of Israel 72 5. Jeremiah, Prophet of Prayer 87 6. The Prophet as Intercessor: A Reassessment 101 7. “My Servant Job Shall Pray for You” 114 8. “I Was Ready To Be Sought Out By Those Who Did Not Ask” 130 III. Prayer as a Vehicle for Theodicy 154 9. Prayer in the Wilderness Traditions: In Pursuit of Divine Justice 156 10. Prayers for Justice in the Old Testament: Theodicy and Theology 174 11. “You Can’t Pray a Lie:” Truth and Fiction in the Prayers of Chronicles 193 IV. Preaching and Praying the Prayers of the Hebrew Bible 212 12. Preaching the Prayers of the Old Testament 214 13. “Turn, O Lord! How Long?” 222 14. Praying East of Eden 235 V. Retrospectives and Prospectives 248 15. Prayer in the Hebrew Bible: Retrospective and Prospective 250 List of First Publications 264 General Bibliography 266 Index of Authors 284 Index of Scripture 289 The discourse of prayer responds to the abiding lure of transcendence. From Gilgamesh to the primordial human beings in Eden to Odysseus, the quest for ultimate truths has summoned forth all manner of human effort. In this volume, Samuel E. Balentine shows how inviting, let alone commanding God to speak may be the "acme of bardic pretention,".