A Critical Engagement

This volume honours the distinctive contribution to Hebrew
Bible studies over four decades by Cheryl Exum, Professor
Emerita of Biblical Studies in the University of Sheffield. Her
special interests have lain, first, in the modern literary
criticism of the Hebrew Bible, where her key work was
Tragedy and Biblical Narrative: Arrows of the Almighty.
Asecond area has been feminist criticism of the Hebrew Bible;
here her notable contributions were Fragmented Women:
Feminist (Sub)versions of Biblical Narratives and Plotted,
Shot, and Painted: Cultural Representations of Biblical
Women. A more recent, and now almost favourite, theme is the
Bible and cultural studies, especially the Bible and art. Key
works here have been a series of edited volumes, such as
Beyond the Biblical Horizon: The Bible and the Arts, and The
Bible in Film / The Bible and Film. Her fourth area of
continuing interest has been the Song of Songs, with many
articles culminating in her perceptive commentary in the Old
Testament Library series.
In this rich volume, 25 of her friends and colleagues offer her
papers on all these themes. Several are on or around the Song
of Songs (Graeme Auld, Fiona Black, David Clines, Sara
Japhet, Martti Nissinen, Yair Zakovitch), and topics of
feminist interest (Yairah Amit, Athalya Brenner, Claudia
Camp, Hugh Pyper, Jack Sasson). Cultural studies are
represented by Alice Bach, Hans Barstad, Andrew Davies,
David Gunn, Martin O'Kane, John Sawyer and Ellen van
Wolde, and literary criticism by Michael Fox, Edwin Good,
Norman Gottwald, Edward Greenstein, Francis Landy, Burke
Long and Hugh Williamson.