Biblical Theology of Exile

Building upon his The Religion of the Landless: The Social Context of the Babylonian Exile (Meyer Stone, 1989), the author has produced a thoughtful work on a central biblical concept that is both historical and theological. Works on biblical theology are almost compelled to begin with an apology for the method employed. Smith-Christopher does not fail to do so ('Biblical Theology: On Matters of Methodology', 1-26), signalling in his comment upon post-modern metaphysical critiques that he does not intend to allow a hyper-critical or hyper-sceptical critique to claim exclusive legitimacy in the conversation. While attempting to be critical of his own assumptions, Smith-Christopher is persuaded that both history and theology can be carried out with integrity, especially when focussing upon a discrete theme like exile. 'Discrete', however, does not mean `miniscule', for the author is convinced that one must see the exile of Judah not only as human catastrophe-its actual happening can be defended on historical grounds-but also as an event that engendered significant new social and theological enterprises. Smith-Christopher writes from his own participation in an historical 'peace church' and finds a promising correlation between the 'stateless existence' that was the destiny of the Jewish exiles and the kinds of church community that is praised by some Christian theologians. As a result, he is eager to question both Constantinian and Wellhausian views of 'exile' as an intrinsically negative socio-religious matrix that lost something essential. Nevertheless, Smith-Christopher is wary of seeing the experience or model of exile through rose-colored glasses, wanting with E. Said not to 'belittle its mutilations'. The author proposes reading exilic texts-it was after all a premier period for literary brilliance-'with the presumption of resistance, but not necessarily a resistance based on nationalist aspirations'. Contrary to recent trends, Smith-Christopher argues for the historical trauma and severity of the exile ('Violence and Exegesis: The History of Exile', 27-73). Against C.C. Torrey and his intellectual heirs, Smith-Christopher is convinced that the exile was a very big event indeed, not an insignificant incident that well served a political agenda that has been described more recently as 'the myth of the empty land' (Barstad, 1996). To the contrary, Smith-Christopher argues that the events were 'catastrophic and transformative for Hebrew existence'. Here Smith-Christopher comes to his original and exceedingly useful contribution: '(T)he impact of the Babylonian exile must make far more use of nonbiblical documents, archaeological reports, and a far more imaginative use of biblical texts read in the light of what we know about refugee studies, disaster studies, postcolonialist reflections, and sociologies of trauma' (emphasis mine). Smith-Christopher believes that evidence for the benign role of the Persian empire vis-à-vis its depende