Approaches to the 'Chosen Place': Accessing a Biblical Concept

Deuteronomy's command to restrict cultic practice to one "chosen place" has occupied a central position in scholars' understandings of the book and their reconstruction of Israelite political and religious history. The debates about the date of Deuteronomy, its proposed connections to "Josiah's reform", and, most profoundly, the "Deuteronomistic History (DH) hypothesis" have dominated study of the idea of "chosen place". These debates have, to a large extent, determined how we read Deuteronomy and the Former Prophets in general. Through a reading of key texts from these corpora, this book provides a new, textually grounded, perspective of the "chosen place."

• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Abbreviations
  
  
• Chapter 1: Introduction
• Chapter 2: Chosen Place and Chosen City
• Chapter 3: 'Centralization' in Deuteronomy 12
• Chapter 4: 'Jerusalem' in the Former Prophets
• Chapter 5: The Cultic Context of the 'Chosen Place'
• Chapter 6: 'Centralization' and the Story of Josiah's Reform: Is Deuteronomy 12 Central to Josiah?
• Chapter 7: Divine Election as a Principle of Authority
• Chapter 8: Kings Revisited: Kingship in Deuteronomy and the Former Prophets
• Chapter 9: Conclusions
  
  
• Bibliography
• Index