New Titles Tuesday, November 23

Here is a selection of titles added to the catalogue in the past week

 Disembodied souls: the Nefesh in Israel and kindred spirits in the ancient Near East, with an appendix on the Katumuwa Inscription /Richard C. Steiner. In this book,. Steiner rejects the claim that the ancient Israelites could not conceive of a disembodied nefesh [soul]based on a broad spectrum of textual, linguistic, archaeological, and anthropological evidence spanning the millennia from prehistoric times to the present.

 House of weeping: the motif of tears in Akkadian and Hebrew prayers /by David A. Bosworth. Bosworth draws on modern research on weeping to understand references to the petitioner’s tears in biblical and other ancient Near Eastern prayers. Bosworth finds that prayers that mention weeping also indicate that the deity is angry, so tears are a means of calming divine wrath. The book includes comparisons of Hebrew Psalms and Akkadian prayers with reference to modern scientific research on weeping.

 Household and family religion in Persian-period Judah: an archaeological approach /by José E. Balcells Gallarreta.

Invention of the first-century synagogue /Lidia D. Matassa ; edited by Jason M. Silverman and J. Murray Watson

Perchance to dream: dream divination in the Bible and the ancient Near East /edited by Esther J. Hamori and Jonathan Stökl. TWU AUTHOR For the first time in a single collection, scholars examine how dream divination was used in different ancient cultures. The essays, written by scholars specializing in different regions and bodies of literature, shed light on dream divination in the Bible, the Talmud, and in writings from Canaan, Mesopotamia, and Hittite Anatolia. Contributors include , Andrew B. Perrin

 Political memory in and after the Persian Empire /edited by Jason M. Silverman and Caroline Waerzeggers.This volume brings together in dialogue a broad array of scholars with the goal of seeking a broader context for assessing Persian kingship through the anthropological concept of political memory.

Priests and cults in the Book of the Twelve /edited by Lena-Sofia Tiemeyer.This book discusses the depictions of the cult and its personnel in the twelve prophetic books commonly referred to as “The Book of the Twelve” or “The Minor Prophets.”

 Sounding sensory profiles in the ancient Near East /edited by Annette Schellenberg and Thomas Krüger. In this collection of eighteen essays, biblical and ancient Near Eastern scholars apply the questions and methods raised by cultural anthropologists on the role of the senses to Israel, Mesopotamia, and Egypt. Experts offer insights into the meaning of the senses in ancient texts and images, examining the classical senses (seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, tasting) as well as other senses (such as kinethesis and the sense of balance) and sense-related issues (such as disgust, sensory imagination, and disabilities).

The Book of the Twelve and the new form criticism /edited by Mark J. Boda, Michael H. Floyd, and Colin M. Toffelmire. Contributors to this volume explore the theoretical issues at stake in recent changes in form criticism and the practical outcomes of applying the results of these theoretical shifts to the Book of the Twelve. This volume combines self-conscious methodological reflection with practical examination of specific texts in an effort to demonstrate the practical consequences of theoretical decisions and the value of certain methodological stances.

 The Cambridge companion to Spinoza /edited by Don Garrett.

The Cambridge companion to the Gospels /edited by Stephen C. Barton; Todd Brewer. The Cambridge Companion to the Gospels, second edition, takes account of new directions in gospels research, notably: the milieu in which the gospels were read, copied, and circulated alongside non-canonical gospels; renewed debates about the sources of the gospels and their interrelations; how central gospel themes are illuminated by a variety of critical approaches and theological readings; the reception of the gospels over time and in various media; and how the gospels give insight into the human condition.

 The Habsburgs: to rule the world /Martyn Rady. In The Habsburgs, historian Martyn Rady tells the epic story of the Habsburg dynasty and the world it built — and then lost — over nearly a millennium, placing it in its European and global contexts. Rady reveals how they saw themselves — as destined to rule the world, not through mere territorial conquest, but as defenders of Christian civilization and the Roman Catholic Church, guarantors of peace and harmony, and patrons of science and learning. Lively and authoritative, The Habsburgs is the engrossing definitive history of the remarkable dynasty that forever changed Europe and the world.

 The ledger and the chain: how domestic slave traders shaped America /Joshua D. Rothman. Rothman tells the disturbing story of the Franklin and Armfield company and the men who built it into the largest and most powerful slave trading company in the United States. In so doing, he reveals the central importance of the domestic slave trade to the development of American capitalism and the expansion of the American nation. Rothman argues that the men who perpetrated the slave trade were respected members of prominent social and business communities and understood themselves as patriotic Americans. By tracing the lives and careers of the nation’s most notorious slave traders, The Ledger and the Chain shows how their business skills and remorseless violence together made the malevolent entrepreneurialism of the slave trade. And it reveals how this horrific, ubiquitous trade in human beings shaped a growing nation and corrupted it in ways still powerfully felt today.

 The new Cambridge companion to St. Paul /edited by Bruce W. Longenecker. The New Cambridge Companion to St. Paul provides an invaluable entryway into the study of Paul and his letters. Composed of sixteen essays by an international team of scholars, it explores some of the key issues in the current study of his dynamic and demanding theological discourse.