Between Heaven and Earth
eBook - PDF

Between Heaven and Earth

Divine Presence and Absence in the Book of Ezekiel

  1. 200 pages
  2. English
  3. PDF
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - PDF

Between Heaven and Earth

Divine Presence and Absence in the Book of Ezekiel

About this book

With the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple and the exile of members of the Israelite community to the land of its enemies, whose gods were represented as divine statues, the prophet Ezekiel faced a challenge: how to respond to the enemies' taunts that Israel's God was absent, whereas the foreigners' gods self-evidently were present. Thus, to ask the question, "Where is God" was to face several complex and tangled problems. How is God to be represented? How is Yahweh to be differentiated from other deities? What is Yahweh's relationship to Israel in exile?

Kutsko sets out to answer these questions within the theme of divine presence and absence, particularly as it relates to the kabod theology in Ezekiel. He shows that God's absence becomes, for Ezekiel, an argument for his presence and power, while the presence of idols indicated their absence and impotence. Ezekiel extends this proposition into a corollary: God's presence is not consigned to sanctuary, for God is a sanctuary. In this regard, absence from the Temple is a message of judgment and the precursor to a message of restoration. If God can become a sanctuary, his presence in exile becomes a message of victory even over imperial powers. This conceptualization of Yahweh, then, ends up defining the power and position of Israel's God in distinctively universal terms. In this contribution, the book of Ezekiel plays a central and previously unappreciated role in the development of Israelite theology, and monotheism in particular.

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Yes, you can access Between Heaven and Earth by John F. Kutsko in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in History & Ancient History. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Information

Publisher
Eisenbrauns
Year
1999
Print ISBN
9781575060415
eBook ISBN
9781575065205

Table of contents

  1. Front Cover
  2. Series Page
  3. Title Page
  4. Copyright Page
  5. Dedication
  6. Contents
  7. Preface
  8. Abbreviations
  9. Chapter 1: The Inquiry and Its Background
  10. Chapter 2: Idolatry and Theodicy:
  11. Chapter 3: Idolatry and Theophany: Legitimate Expressions of God’s Presence
  12. Chapter 4: Idolatry and Theonomy: The Power of God’s Presence
  13. Chapter 5: Summary and Conclusion
  14. Appendix
  15. Indexes