The Fate of King David

Claudia V. Camp is Professor of Religion at Texas Christian University and was on the steering committee of the Seminar. She is currently co-general editor of the LHBOTS series, as well as the author or editor of 4 books and numerous articles. Florence Harkness Professor of Religion at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. His research and writing focuses on the cultural history of the Bible. He is author of several books, including Roadside Religion: In Search of the Sacred, the Profane, and the Substance of Faith and Mel Gibson's Bible. He has published essays on the Bible and popular culture in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Chronicle of Higher Education, and his work has been featured on National Public Radio's All Things Considered. He it co-editor, with Tod Linafelt, of the book series Afterlives of the Bible with the University of Chicago Press. His next book, The End of the Word As We Know It (Harcourt, 2009), examines the Bible business and the Christian culture industry in America. Tod Linafelt is professor of biblical literature at Georgetown University in Washington DC. Author of Surviving Lamentations and a commentary on the book of Ruth, and editor or co-editor of four books.

• Part One: Relating to David; "David and Tidings of Death: Crises and Characterizations in 2 Samuel" - Jan Quesada; "The Women in David's Life" - Toni Craven; "Michal and David: Love Between Enemies?" - Athalya Brenner; "Three Vignettes From the Life of David: Recollections From the Royal Court" - David Penchansky; ""Abigail and David" - Mary Shields; "A Literary Pattern for David's Marriages and Why We Don't See It" - Randall C. Bailey; Part Two: Reading David; "A Broken Hallelujah: Remembering Justice and the Cost of David's House" - Danna Nolan Fewell; "Heir and Land: the Royal 'Envelope' of the Books of Kings" - Walter Brueggemann; "David Encounters Etai" - Francis Landy; "Son of David, Son of Saul: Paul's Vanished Messiah" - Philip R. Davies; Part Three: Singing David ; "Danger and Rescue: David in the Titles of Psalms" - Robert Culley; "Psalm 23 and Method: Reading a David Psalm" - David J. A. Clines; "Penitent to a Fault: Reading 2 Samuel's David in Psalm 51" - Christopher Heard; "A Sharper Harper: the Visual Context of 1 Samuel 16:14-23" - Carole Fontaine; Part Four: Receiving David; "A Renaissance/Reformation David and Bathsheba, or the Bible's Classical Cringe" - Yvonne Sherwood; "From the 'Waters of Babylon' to 'King David': The Sexually Charged History of a Victorian Drawing" - Burke Long; "Brecht's David" - David Jobling; "A King Fit for a Child: the David Story in Modern Children's Literature" - J. Cheryl Exum; Part Five: Re-Locating David; "Through a Window: A Postcolonial Reading of Michal" - Judith McKinlay; "Taking Tamar into Local Communities: Reading 2 Samuel 13:1-22 in Context" - Gerald West; "Waving David Off" - Jione Havea; "David in Palestine" - Alice Bach (Title to be finalized).

Unlike many volumes in this literary genre, the Gunn Festschrift contains clearly focused studies of one biblical icon, by a star-studded cast of contributors who by good fortune are friends or colleagues of the "celebrated Festschriftee".  The introduction  by the three editors contains an insightful celebration of modern developments in biblical research, exemplified, first, in the life and works of David Gunn himself, and then in the contents of this quite remarkable volume. Part One is made up of close readings of  texts about  King David's relations with other characters (Michal, Abigail, Saul, Jonathan, Ittai, messengers of death).  Parts Two and Three consider David's role elsewhere in the canon, notably in Chronicles and Psalms, but also in the New Testament, while Part Four illustrates the reception history of the icon by examining a Victorian drawing,  modern children's Bibles and works by Theodore Beza and  Bertolt Brecht.  The final, post-colonialist part, entitled "Relocating David", shows what  can be gained by reading the Bible in dialogue with Tongan story-telling technique and a historical novel set in Aoteoroa, New Zealand, where David was born. --John F. A. Sawyer, University of Perugia