Biblical Profiles: Contemporary Reflections on Old Testament People

Roland J. Faley has written a penetrating, absorbing account of Old Testament personalities, male and female, good and bad, well known, and not so well known, but all compelling, fully fleshed out, and relevant to this day. They include Hannah, God's faithful servant; Doeg, a false, Iago-like figure; Hophni and Phinehas, profaners of all things of God; Saul, Israel's great and divinely appointed first king; and David, great leader of his people, warrior, musician, but feckless father and reprehensible philanderer and murderer. This is a classic compendium of stories chosen to delight and shock, to disturb, haunt and teach us about what we should and should not do. The boldly drawn characters leap out from the pages to admonish us to go on with our search for solutions to problems that span the centuries. Highlights: · timeless, well-chosen, and well-written tales, with appeal to the general and biblical reader. · cuts across all denominations through its message of universality. · includes an appendix of lectionary references and bibliography. · fascinating reading. †

A Franciscan friar, Roland J. Faley is currently scholar in residence at Oblate School of Theology, San Antonio, Texas. He has degrees from Catholic University, St. Thomas University in Rome and the Biblical Institute in Rome. He was the minister general of his religious order and has taught in seminaries and universities here and abroad. He is the author of Footprints on the Mountain, Bonding With God, and Apocalypse Then and Now (all Paulist Press).