Transforming Visions

"Tooman and Lyons present a wide range of significant scholars who address the key issue in Exilic and especially Ezekiel studies today--why and how did an almost total transformation of Israel's Religion take place during the Exile. Before exile, it was centered on active royal, ritualistic, and oracular activity; after exile, it centered on priestly-legislated and tradition-centered guidance of practical observance. The authors offer important insights on the concepts of idolatry, divine and human kingship, individual versus corporate moral responsibility, the role of divine holiness, the Exodus tradition, the importance of priestly viewpoints, and the way the Book of Ezekiel was written and enlarged. This single volume brings together all major trends in Ezekiel studies today."

--Lawrence Boadt, CSP,

Professor Emeritus, Washington Theological Union





"The present volume, edited by two rising Ezekiel scholars, Michael A. Lyons and William A. Tooman, makes a substantive contribution to the burgeoning discussion of the book of Ezekiel by emphasizing the theme of transformation, understood in relation to the text of Ezekiel, the traditions on which it draws and by which it developed, and its theological perspectives. Each essay engages a different aspect of the study of the book, and thereby opens and advances scholarly dialog in its own right."

Marvin A. Sweeney, from the Foreword