The Psalter as Witness

In a mere twelve essays, the methodological fervor of current Psalms scholarship is well represented. This volume addresses a remarkably wide range of topics, from politics to theology, the performative to space construction, poverty, and aesthetics. Moreover, The Psalter as Witness generously features emerging and well-established scholars.

~William P. Brown, William Marcellus McPheeters Professor of Old Testament, Columbia Theological Seminary

The Psalter as Witness engages with concerns such as the nature of community, feminism, ethics, politics, the poor, and Zionism in the Psalms; with theological themes such as the mercy and transcendence of God; and with literary issues such as the shaping of the Psalter. Its non-partisan approach makes for stimulating reading for anyone--a specialist or not--who is interested in exploring what the Psalms say about God and his people then and now.

~Susan Gillingham, Professor of the Hebrew Bible, Worcester College, University of Oxford

Depression is difficult to define. It is commonly described as a chemical imbalance, a subjective experience of despondency, or even a semiotic construct. The various theories of depression--biochemical, psychological, cultural--often reflect one’s philosophical anthropology. How one defines the human person is telling in how one defines mental disorder. Philosophy and the sciences tend to offer reductive explanations of what it means to be human, and such approaches rarely consider that we may be spiritual beings and so fail to entertain a theological approach.Peter J. Bellini invites us to reimagine the person in light of the image of God in Christ, the divine enfleshed in human weakness. The Cerulean Soul offers a relational theological anthropology that engages with science and philosophy under a cruciform framework, assuming and affirming human contingency and limitations. With reference to Christ’s incarnation, Bellini reveals how depression is inexorably tied to our relationship with God as his created beings: original, fallen, and renewed. What emerges is a therapeia of depression that fills the gaps in our present attempts to determine the malady’s etiology and treatment.Taking the missio Dei of union with the risen Christ as its goal, The Cerulean Soul opens up the perennial problem of human despondency to an eschatological trajectory of hope and peace, redemption and transformation, given freely in Christ through the healing and sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. Christoformity, informed by the subversive kingdom of God, gives new form to all persons, "abled" and "disabled." This promise holds true whether we understand disorder of the mind to be part of the natural order of creation, a consequence of fallen choices, or even an instrument of growth.

The abundance of footnotes, technical terms, and Hebrew throughout make this volume particularly useful for those with a professional interest in the study of the Psalms.

~Brother John R. Barker, OFM, The Bible Today