The Formation of the ‘Book’ of Psalms

Reconsidering the Transmission and Canonization of Psalmody in Light of Material Culture and the Poetics of Anthologies

by David Willgren

Book cover: The Formation of the ‘Book’ of Psalms

Extent: 491 pages

Publisher: Mohr Siebeck

Subjects: Biblical Studies

Series: Forschungen zum Alten Testament 2.Reihe

Series volume number: 88

Language: English

Paperback (Published)

(September 2016)

ISBN: 9783161547874

Price: $143.00

Out of stock

By conceptualizing the `Book’ of Psalms as an anthology, and by inquiring into its poetics by means of paratextuality, David Willgren provides a fresh reconstruction of the formation of the `Book’ of Psalms and concludes, in contrast to the canonical approach, that it does not primarily provide a literary context for individual psalms. Rather, it preserves a dynamic selection of psalms that is best seen not as a book of psalms, but as a canon of psalms.


In this study, David Willgren attempts to provide answers to two fundamental questions in relation to the formation of the `Book’ of Psalms: “how?” and “why?”. The first relates to the diachronic growth of the collection (how are these processes to be reconstructed, and on what grounds?), while the second relates to questions of purpose (to what end are psalms being juxtaposed in a collection?). By conceptualizing the `Book’ of Psalms as an anthology, and by inquiring into its poetics by means of paratextuality, David Willgren provides a fresh reconstruction of the formation of the `Book’ of Psalms and concludes, in contrast to the canonical approach, that it does not primarily provide a literary context for individual psalms. Rather, it preserves a dynamic selection of psalms that is best seen not as a book of psalms, but as a canon of psalms.

  • By (author) David Willgren