Document Type

Contribution to Book

Publication Date

2025

Publisher

Gorgias Press

Source Publication

Embodying the Tradition: Essays in Memory of Joseph Mueller, SJ

Source ISSN

9781463248215

Abstract

In recent decades, there has been a significant shift in scholarly perspectives on ancient Near Eastern cultic images. This shift moves away from the traditional view that regarded cultic statues as merely idolatrous representations — an attitude often reflected in certain biblical narratives—toward a more nuanced understanding of these images as paradoxical channels for divine presence. Recent research on polemics against idolatry in the Hebrew Bible and other Jewish texts reveals efforts to recontextualize traditions of cultic statues within the lives of biblical patriarchs and prophets, portraying them as bearers of the sacred.

Comments

Accepted version. "Adam as Imago Dei Statue in the Hebrew Bible," in Embodying the Tradition : Essays in Memory of Joseph Mueller, SJ, Ed. Andrei Orlov. Piscataway, NJ : Gorgias Press, 2025: 241-268. Publisher link. © 2025 Gorgias Press. Used with permission.

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