506 - Sociological Approaches to the Old Testament

Sociological Approaches to the Old Testament
By Robert R. Wilson
Philadelphia, Fortress, 1984. 83 pp. $4.50.

Not a sentence is wasted in Robert Wilson's important contribution to the Fortress "Guides to Biblical Scholarship" series. The past two decades have seen a flurry of scholarly studies which incorporate the methods and findings of sociology and anthropology into the investigation of biblical texts and Israelite history. Wilson sets this new" emphasis into its larger context, showing its beginnings in the Middle Ages and an earlier heyday at the turn of the present century. He offers important guidelines 'by which methodological pitfalls of the past may be recognized and avoided. Professor of Old Testament at Yale Divinity School, Wilson has written several important monographs and articles using the new sociological approach. He draws effectively upon his own research to offer illustrations of the values and limits of the method in connection with such topics as premonarchic judiciary systems, the significance of Old Testament genealogical texts, and the problem of false prophecy.

Katharine Doob Sakenfeld
Princeton Theological Seminary
Princeton, N.J.