The Roles of Israel's Prophets

This book offers a new and fruitful approach to a major area of Old Testament study. Expressing dissatisfaction with current critical theories of Israelite prophecy, which have regularly depended on the categories of office and charisma to designate essential features, Petersen looks instead to modern 'role theory' for a conceptual apparatus which can take account not only of what prophets regularly did in common but also of the significant variety apparent in Israelite prophetic performance.

• Preface
• 1. Introduction: Beyond "charisma" and "office" --
• 2. Role theory and the study of prophecy --
• General considerations --
• Role enactment --
• Ecstasy --
• Prophetic role enactment --
• 3. Role labels: Theoretical considerations, the role labels --
• 4. Two role labels and one role --
• 5. Role rationale: Distinguishing between --
• Role label --
• Social context --
• Ancient near Eastern parallels --
• Divine commission form --
• Conception of prophetic function and constitutive traditions --
• Mode of divine-human communication --
• International orientation --
• Role rationale and conclusions --
• 6. The stuffy of prophetic roles: further issues --
• Role skills --
• Role expectation --
• Complex role phenomena --
• 7. Conclusions.
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index of authors
• Index of Biblical Passages