Religion and Cult: The Old Testament and the Phenomenology of Religion

Synopsis: In this innovative work Mowinckel employs the phenomenology of religion to investigate how religion was lived and experienced in ancient Israel and Judah. Using his considerable expertise he draws important comparisons between the religious practices in the Old Testament and ancient Near Eastern religions Christianity and tribal religions from around the world. Endorsements: The Norwegian scholar Sigmund Mowinckel is a rarity in the discipline. His work is still compelling and taken seriously nearly a century after its publication. Mowinckels big insight that he exposited in many directions is that communal worship in ancient Israel is a generative enterprise that functions to provide a social construction of an alternative world. His insight is of immense importance in contemporary study especially in a culture of technological reductionism that is matched by rationalistic theology that lacks dynamism. Contemporary readers will be powerfully instructed by the welcome re-issuance of this classic work. --Walter Brueggemann author of A Pathway of Interpretation Author Biography: Sigmund Mowinckel was Professor of Old Testament at the University of Oslo Norway and a towering figure among biblical scholars in the twentieth century. Among his numerous ground-breaking works available in English are The Psalms in Israels Worship He That Cometh and The Spirit and the Word.