“I am Joseph!”: Luther’s Last Lectures on the Last Chapters of Genesis

Cover
Contents
Preface
Introduction and Preliminary Information
1 The Literary Genre of Luther’s Expanded Joseph Narrative
	The Genre of the Biblical Novel by Thomas Mann
	The Egyptian Tale of the Two Brothers
	The Story of Joseph in a Nutshell
	Luther’s “Commentary” on Genesis
2 Introductory Exploration of Luther’s Themes
	Luther’s Language Captures Suffering
	Making Inroads on the Theology of Language and the Divine Performative
	Philosophy of Language and Luther’s Theology
	A Foray into Luther’s Higher Modalities of Performativity
3 Theology of the Cross I
	The Epistemology of the Theology of the Cross
4 Outside Resources
	Robert Alter: The Art of Biblical Narrative and Its Influence on Luther’s Narrative
	James Samuel Preus: Naked Words
	Paul Ricoeur’s Dialectic of Life and Thought and Walter Brueggemann’s Performative Songs
	Nicolas Berdyaev: Noumenology
	John Dominic Crossan: Living in Language and Ludwig Wittgenstein’s Language Games
	Abraham Joshua Heschel: In Depth Theology
	A.C. Thiselton: Language Events
	Summing Up Outside Resources
5 Empathy Has to Do with Suffering, e.g., That of Jacob
	Luther Introduces His Enarrations on the Joseph Novelle by Describing Jacob’s Suffering
6 In Depth Theology: Dreams, Prophesies, and Visions
	Luther: Send Me No Visions or Dreams: I Have Scripture
	Freud Ignored the External Word with Dream Interpretation
	Scripture as the External Word, Not Dreams
	Re-symbolizing Luther’s Theology for Our Time
	Words and Force
		Summary I
		Summary II and Ernst Cassirer
7 Words That Enter the Heart
	Theology of the Cross II
	Faith as God’s Gift and Not Our Own Doing
	Facing Our Contradictions in the Games God Plays
	The Language of God
	“It’s all in the Game,” Reaching Back and Reaching Ahead
	The Gospel Genre in the Living Language of God
	Transitioning from the Word of God to the Language of God
	Breaking New Ground along the Way
	Performative Language Theology
8 The Trinity and Luther’s Language of Sending
	The Kingdom of Faith Is surrounded by All God’s Promises
	The Gospel Genre Is Uniquely Christian
	Conclusion
	Appendices
		Joseph’s Egyptian Name
		Abrēk
		The Wife of Potiphar and Was Potiphar a Eunuch?
Bibliography
Index of Names
Index of Subjects
Bible References