Customer Reviews

Piety and Politics: The Dynamics of Royal Authority in Homeric Greece, Biblical Israel, and Old Babylonian Mesopotamia (The Bible in Its World)

5 star:		(3)
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This book is great for anyone interested in learning how kings were viewed in Ancient Greece, Babylon and Israel. It is a wonderful introduction into the documents, stories and myths that informed the decisions and shaped the consciousness of the people. The wealth of knowledge and the summaries of the stories that shaped the people will initiate any reader into the cultures of the ancient world, but the author's examination and evaluation of particular texts can inform the experts as well.

This book really is a fantastic introduction to the interaction of politcs and relgiion in biblical Israel, OB Mesopotamia, and Homeric Greece - easy to read, engaging, and informative.

This is some pretty high concept of some esoteric type subjects so I can't really comment on the content so much, plus there is a preview feature for this particular book so I think most people can figure out if it covers the material they are interested in.
I would like to comment on the physical book itself, and since these customer reviews can be edited, I can add further opinions as I read along. I got this book in the mail just a little while ago and have taken a look at it. Eerdmans is the publisher and I have quite a few books made by them and I have always been pleased with their products as far as being of a high quality item. This is too, and I am making a note of this because I have gotten quite a few books lately that I am not so thrilled about, meaning I don't see the physical book as being of such high standard and it is almost as if that was only an after-thought, maybe in the world of digital reading. To me, this particular book I just got epitomizes the height of good book-making to be so perfectly readable. I bought the hard-cover book used and advertised as very-good, when that is an under-rating and could pass for new, in my opinion. Just the proportions of its size I think is ideal and the choice for paper is the best in a few ways, as in the ability to easily turn the page, the smoothness and color of the paper and its ability to take the ink for the printing. I have other books that seem as if there are little chunks, barely perceivable, in the matrix that do not take the ink, if that is the right term because sometime it looks like lazer printing where you can hold the book up to light coming in from a window, at an angle, and the printing sits up off the page and is reflective, like a crust. This book I am reviewing is not like that at all and it makes me happy just looking at it, without even considering what the words are.