Item Details

title

Divergent Divine Memories: Divine National Power, Cultural Memory, and the Deuteronomistic History of 1&2 Kings

author

Frye III, Leslie Gray

abstract

The following thesis seeks to read the history as presented by the biblical text as the cultural memory of ancient Israel. Scholars widely regard the historical books (Joshua-2 Kings) as having been influenced by the ideology of Deuteronomy and therefore find a significant compositional level(s) to the text which they call the Deuteronomistic History. The Deuteronomistic History read as cultural memory separates the modernist link between historical referent and its narrative representation and as such highlights the particular social, political, and religious contexts and motivations of those composing this history. The thesis raises the question: does this memory preserve a singular understanding of divine national power? Through an exegetical examination of 1 Kings 18, 2 Kings 5, and 2 Kings 3, the contention is argued that at the earliest iterations of these texts there are divergent understandings of divine national power (monotheistic, monolatrous, and polytheistic), but later phrases of the Deuterononmistic History alongside of changing cultural dynamics in ancient Israel resulted in a re-remembering of these conceptions that eventually became universally monotheistic.

subject

1&2 Kings

Cultural Memory

Deuteronomistic History

Divine Conception

Elijah-Elisha Cycles

contributor

Hoglund, Kenneth G. (committee chair)

Neal, Lynn S. (committee member)

Pace, Leann (committee member)

date

2013-06-06T21:19:29Z (accessioned)

2013-06-06T21:19:29Z (available)

2013 (issued)

degree

Religion (discipline)

identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/10339/38540 (uri)

language

en (iso)

publisher

Wake Forest University

type

Thesis