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Palgrave Macmillan

Speaking of Gods in Figure and Narrative

  • Book
  • © 2011

Overview

Authors:
  1. Deeanne Westbrook
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Table of contents (13 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xi
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Introduction

    • Deeanne Westbrook
    Pages 1-16

  3. In the Beginning: Time and the Figurative Forms of Creation

    • Deeanne Westbrook
    Pages 17-29

  4. End-Times and Doom-Eagerness

    • Deeanne Westbrook
    Pages 31-48

  5. The Power and the Glory: Divine Combatants, Heavenly Hosts, and Holy War

    • Deeanne Westbrook
    Pages 49-68

  6. All in the Family: The Secret Sex Lives of Gods

    • Deeanne Westbrook
    Pages 69-88

  7. Fathers and Sons: Violence and Sacrifice

    • Deeanne Westbrook
    Pages 89-103

  8. Look Who’s Talking—and Writing: The Language of Heaven

    • Deeanne Westbrook
    Pages 105-117

  9. The Great Figures of Life and Death: Dualism and Divine Judgment

    • Deeanne Westbrook
    Pages 119-136

  10. The Ways of God to Men: Belief, Preordination, Predestination, Rewards and Punishments, Spiritual Economics

    • Deeanne Westbrook
    Pages 137-154

  11. Prophecy and Plot: The Making of the Hero and the Villain

    • Deeanne Westbrook
    Pages 155-169

  12. Prayer, Praise, and the War Plot

    • Deeanne Westbrook
    Pages 171-180

  13. Holy Madness

    • Deeanne Westbrook
    Pages 181-203

  14. Reflections

    • Deeanne Westbrook
    Pages 205-214

  15. Back Matter

    Pages 215-249
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Keywords

About this book

Speaking of Gods analyzes the figurative-narrative creation of gods, their heavenly abodes, and behaviors, reaching back to the beginning of history in Sumer, Babylon, Egypt, Persia and Greece, and continuing through the figures and narratives of a biblical tradition that includes the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament, and the Qur'an.

Reviews

"A brilliant strategy - to read the narratives of the gods as linguistic embodiments of limit-questions. This is a remarkable book. The author coaxes insight and mystery from a wide range of classical scriptures and contemporary literature - all the while engaging opposing as well as supportive arguments for her claims. Graced with elegant writing and touched with irony and occasional humor, this book can elicit wonder as well as appreciation." - Mary Gerhart, Professor of Religious Studies Emerita, Hobart and William Smith College

About the author

DEEANNE WESTBROOK Professor Emerita of English at Portland State University. She is the author of Ground Rules: Baseball and Myth and Wordsworth's Biblical Ghosts and has published articles on the Romantic poets and prose writers, mythology, baseball literature, and the Bible.

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