Christopher Heard

(From the back cover) In Dynamics of Diselection, Christopher Heard brings literary-aesthetic and socio-historical considerations, often practiced in isolation from one another, into a meaningful synergy that illumines both the literary features and the social functions of Genesis 12–36. Heard rigorously scrutinizes and focuses attention upon the ambiguities (some long known, some heretofore unreocgnized) in the characterizations of Lot, Ishmael, Esau, and Laban. He painstakingly charts the range of possible resolutions of those ambiguities, noting the lack of guidance provided by the narrator for readers negotiating these options. Heard argues that the narrator's penchant for leaving these ambiguities unresolved is neither accidental nor a generic feature of language, but is instead a strategy giving robustness to the narratives' ideological function in promoting ethnic exclusivity in post-exilic Judah. Heard's careful examination thus provides a richer understanding of why Genesis 12–36 was written as it was, and thereby gives new depth and vigor to studies of the form and function of the book of Genesis.

1.1 “Oh that you would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that your hand would be with me, and that you would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!” In this form—the quotation is from the New King James Version—the words of 1 Chron 4: 10 have become stunningly popular with millions of readers of Bruce Wilkinson's runaway bestseller The Prayer of Jabez.

Abstract Of all the world's literary works which may appropriately be labeled religious classics, the Hebrew scriptures and the Daode Jing stand out as two of the most popular across cultural and linguistic boundaries. One might suppose that the cross-cultural popularity of these classics would have brought them into frequent contact with one another. However, not much seems to have been done to relate the Bible to the Daode Jing in a constructive way.

Imaginefor a moment that some intrepid Hollywood figure set out to make a" realistic" and" accurate" motion picture portrayal of the book of Genesis. Naturally, given the sort of audience that would tend to be drawn to a dramatization of a biblical book, our producer does not wish to titillate or appeal to prurient interests.