A Critical Engagement

This volume honours the distinctive contribution to Hebrew Bible studies over four decades by Cheryl Exum, Professor Emerita of Biblical Studies in the University of Sheffield. Her special interests have lain, first, in the modern literary criticism of the Hebrew Bible, where her key work was Tragedy and Biblical Narrative: Arrows of the Almighty. Asecond area has been feminist criticism of the Hebrew Bible; here her notable contributions were Fragmented Women: Feminist (Sub)versions of Biblical Narratives and Plotted, Shot, and Painted: Cultural Representations of Biblical Women. A more recent, and now almost favourite, theme is the Bible and cultural studies, especially the Bible and art. Key works here have been a series of edited volumes, such as Beyond the Biblical Horizon: The Bible and the Arts, and The Bible in Film / The Bible and Film. Her fourth area of continuing interest has been the Song of Songs, with many articles culminating in her perceptive commentary in the Old Testament Library series. In this rich volume, 25 of her friends and colleagues offer her papers on all these themes. Several are on or around the Song of Songs (Graeme Auld, Fiona Black, David Clines, Sara Japhet, Martti Nissinen, Yair Zakovitch), and topics of feminist interest (Yairah Amit, Athalya Brenner, Claudia Camp, Hugh Pyper, Jack Sasson). Cultural studies are represented by Alice Bach, Hans Barstad, Andrew Davies, David Gunn, Martin O'Kane, John Sawyer and Ellen van Wolde, and literary criticism by Michael Fox, Edwin Good, Norman Gottwald, Edward Greenstein, Francis Landy, Burke Long and Hugh Williamson.