> 111 Books on Religion and Politics A Selection > Content > Foreword 3 > Antiquity 4 > Middle and Early Modern Ages 13 > Modernity 29 > Cross-epochal 54 > Imprint 67 Titelbild: Buchcover > Content 2 > Foreword Academics working in the humanities and social sciences projects. We are very grateful for the generous research often find it difficult to present the results of their work: conditions in a Cluster of excellence which make it much Our ideas and concepts are complex and fluid; and they easier to write those books. are never a final statement beyond discussion. To the contrary – they are meant to be rethought and refined All of the books collected on this list have been written or by other researchers. One of the classical and particularly edited by scholars working in our cluster. They are thus all appropriate formats to present our research is the book. results of interdisciplinary collaboration and discussion. Of course, writing monographs is not all we do: most of Some, though of course not all of these books follow an what we write will be published in the form of research interdisciplinary approach; others are interdisciplinarily articles in journals or in edited books; in addition, some reflected contributions to the discourse of a specific discip- of us write essays; others have produced films; again others line. The boundaries between disciplines, however, are not organised and contributed to exhibitions. Writing books, fixed; they need to be constantly rethought and renegotia- nevertheless, is the central and most important aspect ted. We have therefore ordered the books according to his- of our work. For this reason we promised in our propo- torical periods (antiquity, middle and early modern ages, sal to write books and we are happy to present the result modernity) with the additional cross-epochal category. of many years of research in the form of a collection of 111 books published since 2009. Books are the format in This list is not meant to select the best books written in which complex ideas can be developed in sufficient detail. our cluster – we would find it difficult, or even absurd, Books, typically, are the result of many years of work – to make such choices. It is a representative list aimed at either of a single researcher in her chamber or of many presenting an appropriately complex picture of the many researchers collaborating in a larger project. different aspects of our work. Our choices, of course, are highly subjective – it is not even sure that we were fully Many beautiful books in this collection have originally aware of all books written. In any event: It was great fun been written as doctoral dissertations. Writing such a to look through the many fascinating books, and we hope book is a highly adventurous endeavour: The young that it will be as enjoyable to scroll through our list. researcher often feels left alone with her questions (even if she is not), and the best young researchers have sizea- ble doubts as to the validity and originality of their ideas. Prof. Dr. Nils Jansen, Prof. Dr. Gerd Althoff, Other books are Habilitationen – books embarked upon PD Dr. Astrid Reuter with the aim of earning a professorial position in the Principal Investigators of the Cluster of Excellence German academic system: Many of the most important "Religion and Politics" of Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität books in Germany have been written as Habilitationen Münster (WWU) – they are the research of academics in their best age, ideally, as in our cluster, working in a protected space and with plenty of time. Again other monographs have been written by senior academics. It has often been deplored that is has become exceptionally difficult for scholars in the modern university to find the time necessary for such > Foreword 3 > Antiquity Achenbach, Reinhard, Ruth Ebach, and Jakob Wöhrle Albertz, Rainer, Exodus, Ex 1-18 / Ex 19–40 (Zürcher (eds.), Wege der Freiheit. Beiträge zu einem Symposion Bibelkommentare AT, vol. 2.1 / vol. 2.2), Zürich: zur Entstehung und Theologie des Exodusbuches aus Theologischer Verlag Zürich 2012 / 2015. Anlass des 70. Geburtstags von Rainer Albertz, Zürich: Theologischer Verlag Zürich 2014. In modern research on the Old Testament, both the origins and the theology of the Book of Exodus are the subject of intensive debate. In the form of twelve lectures given at a sympo- sium in honour of the 70th birthday of Rainer Albertz, internationally renowned experts address various aspects of research on the Book of Exodus. Among other things, the resulting volume covers its literary embedding in the Pentateuch, The historical-critical commentary on the Book of Exodus the historical background to the priestly passages, the provides the reader with a detailed exegesis (about 700 narrative of God, the significance of the statutes docu- pages) of a central part of that foundation chart (Torah, mented in the Book of Exodus as well as various indivi- Pentateuch), by which ancient Israel intended to define dual stipulations and even the relevance of the Exodus its religious and ethnic identity after the loss of its own tradition for Christian theology. The studies investigate statehood in a new way. Aiming at this goal, different elite the priestly Exodus narrative and its historical back- groups of priests and lay people had to find a compro- ground in the Persian period and its imperial ideology mise. The theological discussions about Israel’s historical, (J. Wöhrle), the contextual relations within the Hexateuch legal and cultic foundations, which were held by these and the Pentateuch (R. Achenbach; R. Albertz), the groups over a period of about 500 years, including Israel’s scribal efforts to dertermine Jewish identity in the multi- relations to other nations, will be reconstructed from the religious culture of the post-exilic period (S. Olyan; given Hebrew text of the Book of Exodus by using liter- H. Utzschneider, C. Nihan) and the correlation of the ary- and composition-critical methods. The relevance of concepts of freedom and law (T. Krüger). Further essays these discussions for the present day will be determined. refer to sociological issues (T. Römer; R. Schmitt) and That way a new model for explaining the formation of problems of literary form and hermeneutics (J. Ebach; the Pentateuch will be tested. Finally, the reader will find R. Kessler; F. Crüsemann). several summaries and digressions to get some informa- tion about the possible historical background of the Exo- dus and Sinai events including the legal and cultic institu- tions derived from them. > Antiquity 4 Albertz, Rainer, and Rüdiger Schmitt, Family and ted. The book presents a typology of cult places that Household Religion in Ancient Israel and the Levant, extends from domestic cults to local sanctuaries and state Winona Lake (IN): Eisenbrauns 2012. temples. It details the beliefs of family religion as expressed in the almost 3,000 individual Hebrew personal Over the last decades, names that have so far been recorded in epigraphic and family and household biblical material. The Hebrew onomasticon is further religion has become a topic compared with 1,400 Ammonite, Moabite, Aramean and of Old Testament scholar- Phoenician names. These data encompass the vast majo- ship in its own right, fed rity of known Hebrew personal names and a substantial by what were initially three sample of the names from surrounding cultures. In this distinct approaches: impressive compilation of evidence, the authors describe the religious-historical the variety of rites performed by families at home, at a approach, the gender- neighborhood shrine or at work. Burial rituals and the oriented approach and the ritual care for the dead are examined. A comprehensive archaeological approach. bibliography, extensive appendixes and several indexes The first one pursues round out the textual material to form a one-volume answers to questions of the compendium of Ancient Israelite Family and Household commonality and difference between varieties of family Religion in the Iron Age. religion and describes the household and family religions of Mesopotamia, Syria/Ugarit, Israel, Philistia, Egypt, Beck, Hans, and Peter Funke (eds.), Federalism in Greece and Rome. Gender-oriented approaches also Greek Antiquity, Cambridge: Cambridge University contribute uniquely important insights into family and Press 2015. household religion. Pioneers of this sort of investigation show that, although women in ancient Israelite societies The world of ancient were very restricted in their participation in the official Greece witnessed some cult, there were familial rituals performed in domestic of the most sophisticated environments in which women played prominent roles, and varied experiments especially as related to fertility, childbirth, and food with federalism in the pre- preparation. Archaeologists have worked to illuminate modern era. In the volatile many aspects of this family religion as enacted by and interstate environment of related to the nuclear family unit and have found evidence Greece, federalism was a that domestic cults were more important in Israel than has creative response to the previously been understood. One might even conceive of challenge of establishing every family as having actively partaken in ritual activities regional unity, while at within its domestic environment. The book analyzes the the same time preserving a appropriateness of the combined term family and degree of local autonomy. household religion and identifies the types of family that To reconcile the forces of integration and independence, existed in ancient Israel on the basis of both literary and Greek federal states introduced, for example, the strati- archaeological evidence. Comparative evidence from Iron fication of legal practice, a federal grammar of religious Age Philistia, Transjordan, Syria, and Phoenicia is presen- festivals and cults and the notion of proportional repre- > Antiquity 5 sentation. Federalism in Greek Antiquity provides the and examine a wide spectrum of questions, from the first comprehensive reassessment of the topic.