October 18, 2004

MINNEAPOLIS - Mark Smith's The Memoirs of God: History, Memory, and the Experience of the Divine in Ancient Israel is an insightful work that examines the variety of ways that collective memory, oral tradition, history, and history writing intersect. Integral to all this are the ways in which ancient Israel was shaped by the monarchy, the Babylonian exile, and the dispersions of Judeans and the ways in which Israel conceptualized and interacted with the divine-Yahweh as well as other deities.

Contents:
Introduction
1. The Biblical Backdrop to the Story
2. Challenges to Israel during the Biblical Period
3. Biblical Monotheism and the Structures of Divinity
4. The Formation of Israel's Concepts of God: Collective Memory and Amnesia in the Bible
Postscript: Biblical Memory between Theology and History

"In this extremely well-written book, Mark Smith brings his groundbreaking work on the religion of ancient Israel to the general public. Going beyond his earlier work, this book also applies the revolutionary work of historians on collective memory to understanding the history and religion of ancient Israel. Readable, yet scholarly, this delightful book deserves to be ready by both Christians and Jews, scholars and students, or anyone interested in understanding the Bible." - William M. Schniedewind, University of California, Los Angeles

"This new book by Mark Smith is not simply a study of the history and religion of ancient Israel nor of the literature of the Hebrew Bible, but of the complicated interface between them - of how the Bible chose to remember the history and religion of the Israel that gave it birth. As Smith compellingly argues, the formation of memory is indeed the central characteristic of the Biblical text, and in a wide-ranging provocative discussion, he allows us to see the multiple ways in which the Biblical authors struggled to make sense of their past and to define its ongoing significance for them." -Peter Machinist, Harvard University

"Sophisticated in its analysis yet accessible in its presentation, this book is a brilliant piece of intellectual and cultural history. Informed by the author's wide knowledge of Near Eastern literature, it tells the complex and fascinating story of ancient Israel's evolving traditions and beliefs. Memoirs should be required reading for anyone, general reader or specialist, who wants to understand how collective memory as well as amnesia worked together to produce the monotheism that became the hallmark of Hebrew scripture." -Carol Meyers, Duke University, author of Households and Holiness: The Religious Culture of Israelite Women.

"Remarkable for his range of interests, erudition, and mastery of detail, Mark Smith here makes available to non-specialists new thinking on two key issues in biblical interpretation: collective memory and monotheism. Smith skillfully shows how profoundly these issues affect the meaning of divinity in the Bible, the concept of history, and the formation of Israel's concept of God. On the way, the reader is constantly brought up to date on a wide variety of biblical topics. Highly recommended." -Richard Clifford, Weston Jesuit School of Theology.

"Mark Smith's view of the evolution of monotheism in Israel is highly persuasive, and should command a consensus. In this book he enriches the discussion by explaining the process of selective memory that shaped the biblical account. An important contribution to the study of the religion of Israel." -John J. Collins, Yale Divinity School.

Mark S. Smith is Skirball Professor of Bible and Near Eastern Studies at New York University. He is the author of The Pilgrimage Pattern in Exodus (1997), The Early History of God (2nd ed.; 2000), and The Origins of Biblical Monotheism (2001).

Format: Paperback 208 pages, 6 x 9 inches. Item No: 0800634853. Price: $21.00.

To order The Memoirs of God please call Fortress Press at 1-800-328-4648 or visit the web site at http://www.augsburgfortress.com/.

Fortress Press