Rhetoric and Social Justice in Isaiah

(Hardback)

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Rhetoric ad Social Justice in Isaiah applies a literary methodology to the book of Isaiah in order critically to explore the nature and sources of the social justice encoded in the world created by the text. After a close reading of Isaiah 1: 16 & 17, Gray establishes grounds for a trajectory to Isaiah 58, preparatory to examining if it offers a deepening of the concept of social justice in the Isaianic corpus. Gray raises the issue of divine reliability to assess the impact on the theme of social justice of the rhetoric of universal punishment by the divine/prophetic voice. He evaluates the ways the stark Isaianic dichotomy between reliance on God and anything of human origin is affected by trust in God being destabilized: if trust in God is demonstrated to be difficult on account of legitimate doubts about divine justice, then the way is opened for retaining an active human role in the search for justice. Gray demonstrates the ways that social justice attains primacy in Isaiah, the ways that humanity if given a role in pursuing social justice, and the ways that Isaiah 58 impinges upon the idea of social justice within the book as a whole.

Reviews

"Using a text-based approach rather than one that is author-based or reader-based, Gray has produced a very sophisticated study of justice in Isaiah. Throughout its pages Gray engages many different scholars, as the extensive footnotes and twenty-five page bibliography attest. The book is written for scholars."- Dianne Bergant, The Bible Today, May / June 2007 -- The Bible Today
Reviewed in International Review of Biblical Studies, 2007.
"This is an appropriate resource for missionary institutes, seminaries and undergraduate programs in biblical studies...[Gray] provides insightful and sometimes provocative comments on contemporary issues of human rights, including American foreign policy, the Israeli-Palestinian tensions, and political dramas in post-colonial Africa." -Journal of Hebrew Scriptures -- Michael Duggan
Reviewed by Seth B Tarrer, Theolgical Book Review, Vol.19 no.2 2007

Author Bio

Mark Gray is the author of Amnon: A Chip Off the Old Block Rhetorical Strategy in 2 Samuel 13: 7-15 The Rape of Tamar and the Humiliation of the Poor.