Josiah - From Improbable Stories to Inventive Historiography - Lowell K. Handy
Time for a Change (er, um, a 'Reform')?
Josiah - From Improbable Stories to Inventive Historiography - Lowell K. Handy
Lowell K. Handy [+]
Loyola University Chicago (retired)
Lowell K. Handy received his M.A. from the University of Iowa School of Religion and his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago Divinity School. Before retirement he taught for 15 years at Loyola University Chicago and was employed at the American Theological Library Association Religion Index Project for 28 years. He has been an active member of the Chicago Society of Biblical Research, Society of Biblical Literature, and American Schools of Oriental Research. In addition to journal articles and reference entries, Dr. Handy has published several books, including: Among the Host of Heaven: The Syro-Palestinian Pantheon as Bureaucracy; Entertaining Faith: Reading Short Stories in the Bible; Jonah's World: Social Science and the Reading of Prophetic Story; and edited volumes: The Age of Solomon: Scholarship at the Turn of the Millennium; Psalm 29 through Time and Tradition.
Description
This chapter deals with the literary relation of the cult “reform” of Josiah. It notes a couple major modern theories promoted as reasons for taking the religious sea-change seriously, then proposes that the world at the time does not support such a religious upheaval. That the story of Josiah's religious activity reflects literary formulas throughout cannot be used either to argue for a historical base or to maintain it is all fiction. The political events surrounding Judah would mitigate against such a wild change of religious culture.