The book of Amos preserves powerful critiques of injustices in ancient Israel, and accordingly it has become famous as a resource for social justice movements across the centuries. The text has also been a testing ground for the history of prophets and prophetic literature. Given these emphases on socio-economic justice and historical dimensions of human culture, there has been a glaring neglect of “nature" themes in Amos and how these references to the non-human, created universe function in shaping the moral character of the readers. Without ecological features, the ethical message is hollow, since the character of humans and even of Yahweh as God are often evaluated and illustrated by realities in the rest of the natural world. Amos reciprocally connects the natural world (cosmos) and the moral world (ethos) together, implying that the condition and conceptions of the cosmos are partly reflective of human character and partly formative for human character in turn. The second aspect deserves attention at last. There is an ethos of the cosmos in Amos. Nature is not neutral.
To describe this cosmos and ethos, the study proceeds in two steps for each major section of the translated Hebrew text. First, after establishing a historical setting for the final form of the text, there is a careful analysis of the "creation rhetoric." followed by a second step that doubles back to ask how such nature imagery encourages or discourages moral “character formation” for an audience in Judah. The rhetorical analysis uses insights into genre and speech act theory, while the ethical analysis uses character ethics to discuss practices, dispositions, and desires for visions of good and evil in Amos. In the end, the cosmos in Amos is more than ancient cosmology or dispensable background scenery. Built into the cosmos are dynamics that link justice with matters of life and death, and only through the nature imagery does the audience most vividly gain reverence for each other, their world, and their God. From earthquakes to new growth, creation shapes character. Creation rhetoric and character formation are mutually related and profitably compared for Old Testament ethics. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:mcmaster.ca/oai:macsphere.mcmaster.ca:11375/28777 |
| Date | January 2019 |
| Creators | Stewart, Alexander Coe |
| Contributors | Boda, Mark J., Konkel, August H., Christian Theology |
| Source Sets | McMaster University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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