Sure to provoke discussion and debate as it offers a unique approach to some old and perplexing issues in the history of ancient Israel and its religion, Cook’s study is a bold new proposal for synthesizing the social history of Israel’s religious traditions. Among the many “Yahwisms” coexisting in ancient Israel was an initially small minority stream of theological tradition composed of geographically and socially diverse groups in northern and southern Israel. These groups shared a religious commitment to a covenantal, village-based, land-oriented Yahwism that arose before the emergence of Israelite kingship. It eventually rose to dominance, and its theology provided robust resources for dealing with the Babylonian exile. It thus came to occupy a prominent place in the present canon of the Hebrew Bible. Cook combines detailed study of biblical texts with a carefully constructed social-scientific method and body of data to argue for the early origins of biblical Yahwism. This book is written to be accessible to lay readers and also of significant interest to Hebrew Bible students and specialists.
Dr. Stephen L. Cook serves as the Catherine N. McBurney Professor of Old Testament Language and Literature at Virginia Theological Seminary, the largest of the accredited seminaries of the Episcopal Church. He and his wife Catherine, a psychotherapist, live amid the seminary community on its campus in Alexandria, Virginia with their daughter from China, Rebecca, who attends the campus Butterfly House preschool.
Prior to joining the VTS faculty in 1996, Stephen served on the faculty of Union Theological Seminary at Columbia University in New York City for four years. He did his doctoral training in Old Testament at Yale University after having completing the M.Div. degree at Yale's Divinity School, where he also served as an instructor and fellow. His undergraduate work was at Trinity College, Connecticut, where he graduated with honors as a religion major in 1984.
Stephen is the author of several books, including The Apocalyptic Literature (Abingdon, 2003); The Social Roots of Biblical Yahwism (Society of Biblical Literature, 2004); and Prophecy and Apocalypticism (Fortress, 1995). Most recently, he has written Conversations with Scripture: 2 Isaiah (Morehouse, 2008), and "The Season of Epiphany" in New Proclamation Year B, 2008-2009, Advent through Holy Week (Fortress, 2008). His other publications include journal articles, introductions and annotations to biblical books for both the New Oxford Annotated Bible and the Harper Collins Study Bible, and several entries for The New Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible. Recently published, The New Interpreter's One Volume Bible Commentary contains his commentaries on three biblical books. He maintains a fascinating Bible Blog on the web.
Stephen has served in several capacities as an officer of the Society of Biblical Literature, most recently as a Regional Coordinator for the guild. He is also the Corporation Representative for Virginia Seminary to the American Schools of Oriental Research and a member of such other professional societies as the Anglican Association of Biblical Scholars and the Catholic Biblical Association. He is in high demand around the country as a lecturer, seminar speaker, and workshop leader
