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JONATHAN E. DYCK, The Theocratic Ideology of the Chronicler (Biblical Interpretation Series 33; Leiden/New York/Cologne: Brill, 1998). Pp. xi + 256. NLG 90, $51.50.
The Chronicler's ideology, seen within the context of the emerging theocratic community of Judah during the Persian Period, forms the subject of this revised Ph.D. dissertation (Sheffield, 1994) on the place of religion and politics in I and 2 Chronicles. While interpreting Chronicles in light of its historical context is not new, as Dyck admits, interpretation with reference to "ideology," at least as that concept is understood in the social sciences, is.
The book falls into two parts. Chaps. 1 and 2, the first part, are heavily concerned with matters of method and comprise a detailed theoretical discussion about the relationship between purpose and ideology. D.'s point in all this is that recent scholarship has too narrowly focused upon "purpose," that is, upon matters of intention or motive. The imprecise results...