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No Other Gods: Emergent Monotheism in Israel (1997) is a book by Robert Karl Gnuse.

Abstract

Drawing upon the popular evolutionary model within biological circles of his time known as punctuated equilibrium, Gnuse argues that monotheism emerged in Israel as a process of both evolution and revolution via a series of "several intellectual 'jumps' with a final major breakthrough in the exile" (347). After demonstrating how archeology has transformed the tradition perception of Israel's emergence in Canaan from a radical entrance and military campaign to one of a peaceful, internal, and gradual process, Gnuse provides an impressive survey of how contemporary biblical scholarship has accordingly changed its views of the rise of monotheism in Israel. In contrast to the traditional presentation of Albright, scholars now assume that pre-exilic Israel was primarily polytheistic and there was only a small minority of 'Yahweh-aloneist', a term coined by Bernard Lang, during this time period. A series of small steps, including the controversy between Elijah and Elisha and the Omrides, as well as the reforms of Josiah, started the trajectory towards monotheistic belief in Israel, but even at the point of the monotheistic breakthrough in the exile, monotheism was not guaranteed. Rather, the conditions of the exile provided a unique situation that forced the Israelites to define their identity in the face of an alien world. Consequently, instead of situating our conversations about the rise of monotheism within the Egyptian, Mesopotamia, and Canaanite milieu, Gnuse suggests that more fruitful comparisons can be made from the literature and culture of "India, Persia, and Greece, who were more truly contemporary with the formation of the biblical texts and canon" (228). Consequently, argues Gnuse, the post-exilic period, while previously seen as a time of dormancy, now ought to be investigated with keen interest as many significant developments occurred during this time period. Likewise, he suggests that biblical theologians and especially the older Heilsgeschite models, need to be radically re-conceptualized in light of new historical findings. In light of these changes, Gnuse suggests that process theology may be a place for biblical theologian to start when trying to reconcile new historical findings with contemporary theological implications. ~Deborah Forger

"This is the first full-scale assessment of the theological, social and ideational implications of our new understandings of ancient Israel's social and religious development. Scholars now stress the gradual emergence of Israel out of the culture of ancient Palestine and the surrounding ancient Near East rather than contrast Israel with the ancient world. Our new paradigms stress the ongoing and unfinished nature of the monotheistic 'revolution', which is indeed still in process today. Gnuse takes a further bold step in setting the emergence of monotheism in a wider intellectual context: he argues brilliantly that the interpretation of Israel's development as both an evolutionary and revolutionary process corresponds to categories of contemporary evolutionary thought in the biological and palaeontological sciences (Punctuated Equilibrium)."--

Editions and translations

Published in Sheffield [England]: Sheffield Academic Press, 1997 (Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement Series 241).

Contents

• 1 - New understandings of the Israelite settlement process
• 2 - Recent scholarship on the development of monotheism in ancient Israel
• 3 - Monotheism in ancient Israel's world
• 4 - History of monotheism in Israel
• 5 - Worldview of emergent monotheism among the Jews
• 6 - Ongoing tradition of emergent monotheism
• 7 - Hebrew Bible and process theology
• 8 - Punctuated equilibria as an evolutionary model for the social sciences and Biblical studies

External links

• [ Google Books]