Critical Issues Essays: selecting one topic from Judges. These essays should be @750-1000 words in length and should show adequate research (using resources from the course and other commentaries/theological dictionaries as appropriate). The reflections should demonstrate critical interaction with the topic at hand as well as demonstrating how this topic is related to the broader narrative of the books of Joshua-Judges.
Critical Issues in Judges Topics (Choose One )
1) It has been suggested to you that there may be a concern for priestly ideology and worldviews in the book of Judges, but that these are suppressed or rather employed as a method to critique Israelite society and leadership during this period. Reflect on this a bit by looking at the places in which a priestly activity or reference is made and then situating that within the bigger picture of the book of Judges. In other words, even though the activities of the priests are muted in the book of Judges, does the appearance of priestly activity indicate something key to the story of Judges?
2) Comment on the theological implications of what appears to be a failed system of Judges. How does this office, which is initially endowed with both God’s call and empowerment (Spirit), speak to the activity of God in the book? In other words, how are we to understand the seeming failure of the system in light of God’s activity? Are there any other instances in the book that might address this tension between what God intends to do and the actualization of that activity?
3) In the view of the instructor, the book of Judges creates a strong forward momentum (a strong narrative gravity inclined towards 1 Samuel) that drives the reader out of the book as quickly as it can. It does not sit easily with its own story and desires to make right what appears to be wrong in the book. How does this apparent desire to move forward quickly as a reaction to the issues in Judges suggest or characterize how we might understand a reading of the monarchy? In other words, the origins of the monarchy are somewhat belabored (God’s initial reaction in 1 Samuel 8 is that the monarchy appears to be a problem), but the story of Judges appears to push us quickly and inexorably to that point in the story. How are we to understand the connection between the story of the Judges and the rise of the monarchy?
The essays should follow Turabian citation style.
Theessaysshouldshowadequateresearchactivity–textbooks, commentaries, articles. A source must be cited accurately and clearly in the footnotes and in the bibliography.The source must alsobeshowntohavebeenreadandengagedwithbythestudentinthepaper.