Vindicating Vengeance and Violence?: Commentary Approaches to Cursing Psalms and their Relevance for Liturgy

Psalms that seem to vindicate vengeance and violence are often omitted from liturgy, but worshippers need to find hermeneutical strategies to answer what to make of imprecatory passages. Elisabet Nord identifies three popular and generic hermeneutical approaches often applied to cursing psalms, including the tacit preconceived notions of these prominent approaches.

Format: Hardback
Length: 320 pages
Publication date: 22 November 2023
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Psalms that appear to condone vengeance and violence are frequently excluded from liturgy, as evidenced by the majority of breviaries employed by worshipping communities worldwide. Although rarely read, the so-called cursing psalms are well-known to many for their imprecatory passages, which pose difficulties for readers who wish to utilize the entire Book of Psalms as their prayer book. Because passages that call for vengeance and violence are scattered throughout the psalm collection and frequently "intertwined with the most exquisite things," as observed by C. S. Lewis, both liturgists and laypeople must develop substantial hermeneutical strategies to address what to make of imprecatory passages. However, despite the abundant exegetical guidance provided through commentary literature, both past and present, worshippers are stuck at a point of convergence between exegetical support and liturgical rejection. Through the process of metacommentary on Psalms 58, 109, 137, and 139, Elisabet Nord identifies three popular and generic hermeneutical approaches often applied to cursing psalms, including the tacit preconceived notions of these prominent approaches. The latter helps to uncover the liturgical relevance—and sometimes lack thereof—of scholarly advice on how to interpret and navigate psalms calling for vengeance and violence as prayers.

Weight: 632g
Dimension: 159 x 236 x 28 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781978715752