Psalms in Community: Jewish and Christian Textual, Liturgical, and Artistic Traditions

The Psalms, initially shaped by the experience of the people of Israel, expressed the hopes and fears, the yearnings for and devotion to God, of two religious traditions, each diverse in time and space. To study the Psalms, therefore, it is necessary to move beyond their initial cultural context and to see how they were appropriated by and contributed to the religious lives of Jews and Christians across the centuries. These essays provide that complex diachronic perspective. They represent a spectrum of disciplines, including biblical studies, liturgical studies, musicology, art history, theology, and literature. The result is a richly textured appreciation of the way the Psalms have functioned in these communities of conviction for more than two thousand years. Paperback edition is available from the Society of Biblical Literature (www.sbl-site.org)