Minimalism draft-summary

LAWRENCE J. MYKYTIUK E-MAILS:

In an article series I am writing, a subset of three articles completed last Nov. 26th might be of interest to some members of PaleoJudaica. These three introduce and attempt a representative sample of methodological developments for writing ancient Israel’s history in the era of biblical minimalism, beginning with 1992 publications.

These article are a “first pass” over the literature in an effort that I hope eventually to develop into an summary overview. Such an overview should define areas of agreement, usually qualified agreement, and the parameters within which the various positions fall. The twenty-four scholars whose works are sampled and summarized come from outside the minimalist camp. Their methodologies permit or promote a positive view of historicity in the Hebrew Bible. I do not necessarily agree with any given scholar whose work I summarize or cite.

Scholars, librarians—and those who, like me, may wish to function as both—occasionally write bibliographic essays and review articles which seek to track directions of movement within a field. I hope that scholars who hold a variety of positions regarding the controversy might profit from the bibliographic essay that is found in this article series.

The Author’s Accepted Manuscripts of all three appear on an open-access web site. Each open-access article has a link to the publisher’s Official Version of Record:

Strengthening Biblical Historicity vis-à-vis Minimalism, 1992-2008, Part 1: Introducing a Bibliographic Essay in Five Parts (November 2010)

Strengthening Biblical Historicity vis-à-vis Minimalism, 1992-2008 and Beyond, Part 2.1: The Literature of Perspective, Critique, and Methodology, First Half (November 2012)

Strengthening Biblical Historicity vis-à-vis Minimalism, 1992-2008 and Beyond, Part 2.2: The Literature of Perspective, Critique, and Methodology, Second Half (November 2013)

Earlier PaleoJudaica mentions of Professor Mykytiuk are here, here, and links.