Assessment

Continuous Assessment: 50% Final Examination: 50%

Module Aims

To enable students to interpret the Old Testament prophets and the literature attributed to them.

Indicative Syllabus:

• Prophecy within its Ancient Near Eastern context
• Brueggemann’s conception of the prophetic imagination
• Prophets in Samuel-Kings: The Elijah cycle
• Eighth-century prophets: Amos, Hosea, Isaiah and Micah
• Jeremiah and the fall of Jerusalem
• Exilic prophets: Second Isaiah
• Post-exilic prophets: Haggai and Zechariah
• Key themes: critique and energising; Zion theology; social justice; Exodus
• Prophetic tales: Jonah

Learning Outcomes

• — Interpret prophetic texts within their historical, socioeconomic, political and religious context
• — Apply appropriate reading strategies to a variety of prophetic genres
• — Compare the treatment of key theological themes and motifs across a number of different texts
• — Discuss the role of prophetic imagination in both biblical and modern contexts
• — Suggest ways in which the prophetic literature continues to be significant for the life of faith

Bibliography

• — Walter Brueggemann, The Prophetic Imagination. (40th anniversary edition) Fortress Press, 2018.
• — Carol J Dempsey, The Prophets: A Liberation-Critical Reading, Augsburg Fortress, 2000.
• — Nahum Ward-Lev, The Liberating Path of the Hebrew Prophets: Then and Now, Orbis, 2019.