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The Abingdon Old Testament Commentaries series provides compact, critical commentaries on the books of the Old Testament for the use of theological students and pastors. The commentaries are also for upper-level college or university students and to those responsible for teaching in congregational settings. In addition to providing basic information and insights into the Old Testament writings, these commentaries exemplify the tasks and procedures of careful interpretation, to assist students of the OT in coming to an informed and critical engagement with the biblical texts themselves. Brueggemann takes full account of the most important current scholarship and secondary literature, while not attempting to summarize that literature or to engage in technical academic debate. The fundamental concern of this and every volume is analysis and discussion of the literary, socio-historical, theological, and ethical dimensions of the biblical texts themselves. Each volume attends to issues of special concern to students of the Bible: literary genre, structure and character of writing, occasion and situational context of the writing, wider social and historical context, the theological and ethical significance of the writing within these several contexts, and other similar issues. In this volume on Deuteronomy, Brueggemann show the importance of the biblical book for the shape and substance of Israel's faith. Deuteronomy gave classic articulation to the main themes characteristic of Judaism, and, derivatively, of Christianity. In examining the relationship of Israel to God, Brueggemann makes suggestion on how such covenant fidelity might be lived out by believers today.
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