Onslaught against Innocence

Dr André LaCocque is Professor Emeritus of Old Testament at Chicago Theological Seminary. He is the author of The Trial of Innocence, The Feminine Unconventional, and Romance, She Wrote, and the co-author (with Paul Ricoeur) of Thinking Biblically: Exegetical and Hermeneutical Studies.

• Abbreviations1. IntroductionThe Object of This Book. The Yahwist as Author. Date of Composition. Authorial Omniscience. A Matter of Temporality2. The Anthropological DimensionCain Is an Agriculturist and Abel Is a Shepherd. The Brothers’ Sacrifices from a Phenomenological Viewpoint. The Introduction of Sin into the World. A Crux Interpretum – Verse 7. The First Crime. A Woman’s Glory and Her Sons’ Competition. The Oedipal Cain. In the Field. Alienation.3. The Theological DimensionKinship Relations Belong to the Sacred. Soul Murder. God’s Favoritism? Sacrifice Revisited. The Divine and Human in Reciprocity. God’s Power – To Be Interpreted4. The Psychological DimensionViolence and the Sign upon Cain. Two in One. No Rehabilitation of Cain. Cain – A Tragic Figure? The Psychology of Abel, the Kin of Cain. Paranoia. Cain Builds the First City5. Genealogy and CultureCain’s Genealogy in Genesis 4 (and 5). The Yahwist and the Origin of Culture and Civilization. The Song of Lamech. Hope Has the Last Word.ConclusionBibliographyIndex of Ancient SourcesAuthor Index

"In considering the comments of other scholars, L[aCocque] reiterates that the YHWH of J [the Yahwist] is not capricious, although unfathomable. What is particularly enthralling are the wide-ranging links that L. brings to his work from authors such as Dostoievsky, Kafka, Freud and Jung, to name but a few." G.W. Ashby, Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, Vol 35.5, June 2011 "This is a fine series of reflections, at home in exegesis and moral philosophy, and not afraid to ponder such difficulties as the absence of forgiveness in Genesis." Richard Briggs, in Theological Book Review