Leviticus as Discourse: Difficulty and Generativity

Leviticus as Discourse is an inquiry into textual interpretation as an activity of self-orientation. It explores how readers orient themselves to texts they do not understand, why they do it, and what happens in the process. Drawing on the work of Paul Ricoeur, George Steiner, and a range of voices across disciplines and faiths, Part I develops a hermeneutic of discourse in which difficulty features prominently as both challenge and opportunity. Part II tests this hermeneutic of “difficult discourse” through three exegetical probes of the function of discourse as it is portrayed in Leviticus. In light of this theoretical and exegetical work, the book concludes by suggesting that the extent of a text’s difficulty may be precisely the extent of its potential to enlarge and enrich our ways of seeing the world and our place within it. Anchored in robust scholarship and close reading of the biblical text, Leviticus as Discourse demonstrates the practical value of developing transferable interpretive skills to offer a fresh take on the relevance of Leviticus for contemporary readers.

Allison K. Hamm is an independent scholar, educator, and coach. She lives in Durham, North Carolina, and is adjunct professor of Hebrew Bible and theology at Duke Divinity School.