The articles in this volume of collected essays written over the last two decades and all
revised updated and supplemented with unpublished material are grouped around two themes:
Divine Secrets and Human Imaginations. The first essays deal with the production initiation
use and function the abduction repatriation and the replacement of divine images their
outer appearance and the many facets of the divine presence theology in Ancient Mesopotamia.
The essays on the second topic deal with human imaginations human constructs and constructed
memories which assign meaning to the past or to things or experiences that are beyond human
control. Thematically several aspects of the human condition are examined such as the ideas
associated in the Old Testament and the Ancient Near East with death corporeality enemies
disasters utopias and passionate love. Berlejung's book is a gift to biblical scholarship
particularly to those of us outside the circle of continentalscholarship. Its blend of deep
erudition and broad intellectual horizons is simply inspiring providing a feast for the
scholarly imagination. Ronald Hendel in RBL 06 2022
