THE NEW LIBRARY Y LLFRGELL NEWYDD – PUBLIC EDUCATION
Poet Prophets of the Old Testament
Five lectures on why poets and poetry are central to everyday life and faith
by John Rogerson
“Where there is no vision, the people perish” was the text for a sermon preached by John Rogerson at Llansantfraed, Powys as part of the 2016 Coleridge in Wales Festival. Positive responses to the sermon from those present led these public lectures. Poetry is vital for faith, says John in these five brilliantly scholarly and engaing talks. ‘We desperately need prophets, and we desperately need poets.We need to hear them speaking about the eternal now in our own present.’ Far more attention should be paid to the poetic side of the Old Testament prophets, and to the implications of their poetic language for understanding God and for talking about God. John Rogerson was a remarkable international authority on the Old Testament, and an Anglican Priest (see biog at bottom of page). Discover here how the poetry of the Bible was rediscovered, and what it means for us today. The lectures, and the book of these lectures, are part of our central collection here at the New Library in south Wales, UK – The Kingdom of Heaven Collection.
Read the book of these five lectures Poet Prophets of the Old Testament by John Rogerson – click here.
Lecture 1: Rediscovery of Hebrew poetry in the 18th century
OVERVIEW: British scholarship in the 18th century changed the way we read the Bible, and the way the bible is printed around the world. Large parts of the Old Testament were discovered to be poetry. It was found that Biblical poetry work across and through translations because the form of the poetry is based on parallelism – ideas that resonante with each other within the lines. The prophets delivered their message as radical poets. This rasies the question, “What is poetry?” and asks in what way is poetry essential to the Biblical message.
Read the book of these five lectures Poet Prophets of the Old Testament by John Rogerson – click here.
Lecture 2: Poet prophets of the Old Testament
OVERVIEW: The prophets are not people who see into the future, but people who see profoundly into the present. Poetry can be approached through the lens of the philosophy of knowledge. Poetry is a way of thinking, and refers to its own world and its own existence, which is different from empirical thinking. Poetry depicts the world around us in such a way as to create new perpsectives in which familiar things apperar differently, things unconnected are brought together, meaning is imparted to what may seem pointless, and human understanding of the world is changed.
Read the book of these five lectures Poet Prophets of the Old Testament by John Rogerson – click here.
Lecture 3: Forms of Old Testament prohecy
OVERVIEW: The Old Testament prophets were not only poets; they were performers… street entertainers and creators of political and theological societal interventions.
Read the book of these five lectures Poet Prophets of the Old Testament by John Rogerson – click here.
Lecture 4: Servant Songs of Isaiah 42 – 53
OVERVIEW: In the 19th century the way we read the Book of Isaiah was changed. The book was discovered to contain ‘Servant song’ poems that describe a servant of God which differ in significant ways from descriptionas of Israel as servant of God appearing in other chapters of Isaiah. Who is this servant? How can we interpret the poetry about the servant? These poems help us to explore the journey between being outsiders in our thinking, and moving to become insiders – invited into discovery, enjoinment and participation in the mission of the Bible.
Read the book of these five lectures Poet Prophets of the Old Testament by John Rogerson – click here.
Lecture 5: What do poet prophets of the Old Testament say to us today?
OVERVIEW: The Old Testament offers profound insights into the power of redemptive suffering. The prophets’ contemplation of suffering has much to offer the world and Church today. Is God detached from suffering, or involved in it? Biblical scholarship has rescued the Old Testament prophets, recognising that they were preachers. We must not project onto God our human emotions and suffering, but at the same time understand that biblical language about God suffering is describing something real. There is a gulf between the human and the divine that can only be bridged by God’s side, when God in His freedom wills this. Yet we are sought to seek God, because he can be found, and found in His mercy, allowing us to face a future with confidence, knowing that God is with us and for us. Poetry enables the expression of mystery that lies beyond the power of empirical thinking. The offer is here and now. In God, and poetry, time does not work backwards and forwards, but in terms of an ever present now. The prophets speak of the reality of God and the nature of the world in which we live. In the discovery of poetry as a way of talking about God, Christians have lots to learn from the Jewish tradition.
ABOUT JOHN ROGERSON
John William Rogerson was born in London in 1935 and educated at Bec School, Tooting, the Joint Services School for Linguists, Coulsdon, where he completed an intensive course in Russian, and the Universities of Manchester, Oxford and Jerusalem, where he studied theology and Semitic languages. He was ordained in 1964 and served as Assistant Curate at St. Oswald’s, Durham. From 1964 to 1975 he was Lecturer, and from 1975 to 1979 Senior Lecturer in Theology at Durham University before moving in 1979 to become Professor and Head of the Department of Biblical Studies at the University of Sheffield, retiring in 1996. He was made an honorary Canon of Sheffield Cathedral in 1982 and an Emeritus Canon in 1995. In addition to many essays and scholarly articles, his published books include Myth in Old Testament Interpretation (1974), Psalms (Cambridge Bible Commentary, with J. W. McKay, 1977), Anthropology and the Old Testament (1978), Old Testament Criticism in the Nineteenth Century: England and Germany (1984), The New Atlas of the Bible (1985, translated into nine languages), W. M. L. de Wette. Founder of Modern Biblical Criticism. An Intellectual Biography (1991), The Bible and Criticism in Victorian Britain. Profiles of F. D. Maurice and William Robertson Smith (1995), An Introduction to the Bible (1999, 3rd edition 2012), Theory and Practice in Old Testament Ethics (2004), According to the Scriptures? The Challenge of using the Bible in Social, Moral and Political Questions (2007), A Theology of the Old Testament. Cultural memory, communication and being human (2009), The Art of Biblical Prayer (2011), On Being a Broad Church (2013), Cultural Landscapes and The Bible. Collected Essays (2014). He was awarded the degree of Doctor of Divinity for published work by the University of Manchester in 1975, and has also been awarded the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Divinity by the University of Aberdeen and the Honorary Degree of Dr. theol. by the Friedrich-Schiller-Universität, Jena and the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität, Freiburg im Breisgau.
Read the book of these five lectures Poet Prophets of the Old Testament by John Rogerson – click here.
