Today is the official release day for my book, Abraham’s Silence: The Binding of Isaac, the Suffering of Job, and How to Talk Back to God. However, it’s been available from the publisher by pre-order for a couple of weeks.
My Motivation for Writing Abraham’s Silence
Here is a short article about the book and my purpose in writing it, with a focus on a spirituality that can grapple with God in times of suffering. The article is written by a journalist for the Publishers Weekly supplement for the AAR-SBL annual meetings taking place this week (and next) in San Antonio.
The article, called “Gritty Spirituality: Biblical scholar J. Richard Middleton demonstrates how to ‘talk back to God’,” can be accessed here.
The journalist, Holly Lebowitz Rossi, interviewed me by phone for the article. She also interviewed Jim Kinney, the vice-president at Baker Academic about the book. I’ve been honored that Jim has supported this project from the start and greatly encouraged me along the way as I worked on it.
Small correction: the six years mentioned in the article should be thirty-six years (the phone connection wasn’t perfect).
My Upcoming Ted-Talk on Genesis 22
I will be giving a presentation on the core argument of the book as an “unscripted” seventeen minute Ted-type talk, at the Institute for Biblical Research (IBR), which meets just in advance of the Society of Biblical Literature (SBL) in San Antonio.
The IBR Unscripted talk is called, “Did Abraham Pass the Test in Genesis 22? Unbinding the Aqedah from the Straitjacket of Tradition.”
I’ve given multiple presentations on this topic over the past ten years, as I’ve worked on the book. But this is the first time I will present entirely without notes. 🙂
CREATION to ESCHATON 