Helpful Sources for Learning about Divination and Prophecy in History
Used in my study, The Symbolic Cosmos
(Click on an Image or Title to see Purchase Information)
Aune, David. Prophecy in Early Christianity and the Ancient Mediterranean World. Grand Rapids: Eerdmanns, 1983.
Much better than it sounds! Aune radically links prophecy to divination, and puts Christian prophecy in the context of ancient Pagan religion as well as the popular apocalyptic movements of the time of Jesus.
Cryer, Frederick H. Divination in Ancient Israel and its Near Eastern Environment: A Socio-Historical Investigation. JSOT Supplement Series, no. 142. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, JSOT Press, 1994.
Grabbe, Lester L. Priests, Prophets, Diviners, and Sages: a Socio-Historical Study of Religious Specialists in Ancient Israel. Valley Forge, PA: Trinity Press International, 1995.
Karcher, Stephen. The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Divination... Shaftesbury, Dorset: Element, 1996.
Moore, R.I. The Formation of a Persecuting Society: Power and Deviance in Western Europe, 950-1250. Oxford: Blackwell, 1987.
A gem that deserves to be better known! Read it and get a new understanding of the roots of repression in our Western society! Why were heretics (later, witches), Jews, and lepers, not to mention sexual minorities and women in general, really so hated and feared?
Overholt, Thomas W. Channels of Prophecy: the Social Dynamics of Prophetic Activity. Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 1989.
_______. Cultural Anthropology and the Old Testament. Old Testament Series, Gene M. Tucker, ed. Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 1996.
Philip M. Peek, ed., African Divination Systems: Ways of Knowing. Bloomington: Indiana Univ. Press, 1991.
Ricoeur, Paul. Interpretation Theory: Discourse and the Surplus of Meaning. Fort Worth: Texas Christian Univ. Press, 1976.
Tedlock, Barbara. Time and the Highland Maya, revised ed. Albuquerque: Univ. of New Mexico, 1992.
Thomas, Keith. Religion and the Decline of Magic. New York: Oxford Univ., 1971.
Tracy, David. Dialogue with the Other: the Inter-Religious Dialogue. Louvain Theological and Pastoral Monographs, no. 1. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans; Louvain: Peeters Press, 1991.
_______. Plurality and Ambiguity: Hermeneutics, Religion, and Hope. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago, 1987.
Wilson, Robert R. Prophecy and Society in Ancient Israel. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1980.
Wink, Walter. Engaging the Powers: Discernment and Resistance in a World of Domination. Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress: 1992.
See the Books that change everything.
Zuesse, Evan M. "Divination." In The Encyclopedia of Religion, ed. Mircea Eliade, 375-82. New York: Macmillan, 1987.
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