Dr Daniel R Driver, sometime postgraduate student of St Mary’s College St Andrews and currently Assistant Professor of Religion Studies at Tyndale University College, has some interesting research planned:
Biblical scholars have long noted the disconnect between the finality of death in the Hebrew Bible and traditional Jewish and Christian doctrines of an afterlife. Developmental explanations have won broad support. A neglected aspect of the problem, however, is the way in which the Hebrew Scriptures themselves supported later belief in life’s triumph over death. By tracing the reception history (Wirkungsgeschichte) of a series of key psalms—for the Psalter is where we find the most extreme statements of death’s overwhelming power (e.g., Psalms 6, 18, 22, 30, 88, 116)—this monograph-length study will contribute to an understanding of how a late biblical idea was retrospectively transferred to, or read from, older language.
Aside from being extremely interesting of itself, I am convinced Dr Drivers’ research will be useful to ministers engaged in care of the dying and the bereaved who seek to employ the Psalter, and for the pastoral care of nurses and other healthcare professionals, who are confronted with the reality of death and dying in their daily work.
