WlTH THE PUBLICATION OF THIS VOLUME, Patrick Miller has now completed the editing of three volumes of my journal articles. He had proposed exactly three volumes on (1) biblical theology, (2) prophetic faith, and (3) the Psalms. This triad of themes is now completed with this volume, following Old Testament Theology: Essays in Structure, Theme, and Text (1992) and A Social Reading of the Old Testament: Prophetic Approaches to Israel's Communal Life (1994).
The appearance of this volume provides an appropriate occasion for me to express my gratitude to Patrick Miller, without whom these volumes would never have appeared. I can identify three aspects of his work with these materials that leave me greatiy indebted to him. First, the whole project was his idea, for I would never have had the presence or nerve to imagine such a reprinting. Second, he has worked imaginatively in his introductions to the volumes and the ordering of the several articles to suggest a layer of intentionality and coherence to my articles, a coherence I would never have had the wits or courage to suggest. Third, he has done the careful and meticulous work of editing, discerningly making changes that have invariably produced improvement. It is an extraordinary gift to me to have Miller interrupt his own important research and writing in order to make diese volumes possible.
In his introduction, Miller has noted my hurried, ad hoc way of working and has managed to be positive about it. All the more I am aware of his contrasting ways of working, which are marked
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