Methodology

Abstract

Articulating a thoughtful methodology is desideratum, for today’s analyses of Israelite religion (indeed, of the academic study of religion in general) are dramatically different than those of past generations. This chapter articulates the academic disciplines required for the task at hand: textual studies (including epigraphy, linguistics and comparative Semitics), archaeology, art history, the philosophy of religion, and various social-scientific approaches (e.g. socio-linguistics, gender, ethnicity, ritual performance, spatial theory). The categories of “religion” and “Israelite” are probed. Particular attention is then devoted to the nature of our source material including (a) textual sources (e.g. epigraphy, onomastica, the Hebrew Bible) and source-criticism of the Hebrew Bible; (b) the nature of the archaeological record, and (c) the use of comparative ancient Near Eastern materials.