Book Concept (Late entry from Oct. 8, 2008)

Here’s some more info about the concept for a book God and I sketched out today (October 8, 2008)

Title: “gods of Metal – Hearts of Stone: a pastor reads the clobber passages”

Chapter outline:

1) Strange bedfellows: how incest, child sacrifice, man-sex and bestiality are linked together in Leviticus 18 and 20 (hint: it’s not about sex)
a) Unpacking Leviticus 18 – incest laundry list followed by unlikely trio (preamble & postlude)
b) Leviticus 20 adds and deletions – embedding the trio and the new order of the list
c) Where else Molek appears: Jeremiah, Isaac, and Moses (Ex 22)
d) Where else bestiality appears: Dt 27 (another 10) and the tauromorph (Ex 32 and 1 Ki 12)
e) The needy of Ex 22 and Dt 27 and Lev 19
f) Lev 20 and the punishment that fits the crime (see also Dt 27 curses)
2) Stranger in a strange world: the girls that didn’t make the list (and why we don’t notice them)
a) Daughters unprotected – adultery and property rights – this is a different world
b) Rethinking the list – when is this happening? Vulnerability and sleeping with the enemy.
c) Dishonor in Lev 18 and 20 – who is harmed and who cares
d) Rape and its aftermath
e) Sodom and Dinah – and restoring Benjamin
3) Unlocking the adjective code: man-sex and other detestable abominations in the Hebrew Bible (looks are deceiving)
a) Review of the adjectives used in Lev 18/20
b) The consistent link between “detestable” and idolatry
c) Other (surprising) detestable things
d) Why detestable? (and why even asking that question makes all the difference)
4) (Not) idol chatter: how the Ten Commandments bless the beasts and the children (and why we should care)
a) Something here about child and animal sacrifice?
5) Through a glass darkly: Tamar and the abundance of bronze at the tabernacle gate (ask the dogs and whores whose it is)
6) Exchanging glory: how reading Romans 1 and Leviticus 18/20 makes sense of man-sex (don’t skip the intro!)
a) Draw on some other exchange passages
7) The Sin of Sodom: Ezekiel’s wheel and the dust on Jesus’ sandals (why reading trumps assumptions)

Id’ love to know what you think.

Peace,
Bo