Wednesday, September 02, 2009

How Did Jonathan Love David?

Jim West mentions a book by Anthony Heacock due out in February 2010, Jonathan Loved David: Manly Love in the Bible and the Hermeneutics of Sex. I've been eyeballing this publication, oh, let's see, for about seven months now, though last time I looked it was slated for release this fall. From the blurb at Sheffield Phoenix Press:
"The relationship between the Hebrew heroes David and Jonathan has caught the attention of popular and scholarly writers alike. Yet there is little agreement about the nature of this relationship that speaks of a love between two men that 'surpasses the love of a man for a woman' (2 Sam. 1.26). Weighing the arguments of scholars including Nissinen, Stone and Zehnder, Heacock produces a meta-critical analysis of the many interpretations of the relationship between David and Jonathan, identifying three dominant readings: the traditional political-theological interpretation, the homoerotic interpretation, and the homosocial interpretation... Heacock turns the debate on its head by abandoning claims to historical veracity and embracing the input of the contemporary queer reader."
It promises to be stimulating (sorry), but I wonder about the merit of supplanting questionable exegesis with honest eisegesis. I'll be sure to review it this winter. In the meantime, congratulations to Anton are in order. He's a librarian, after all, and for that reason alone deserves the press.

3 Comments:

Blogger Stephen C. Carlson said...

I hope N.T. Wrong comes back from retirement to review this book. It seems up his alley.

9/02/2009  
Blogger Loren Rosson III said...

Heh-heh.

9/02/2009  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi Loren, just to let you know that the book is now out in print :-)

6/11/2011  

Post a Comment

<< Home