The Songs of Africa

this useful volume opens a door onto the ethiopian psalter, a hybrid text containing the biblical psalms but also unique ethiopian creations, delivering to us a book that is ‘not just a text, but a world.’ designed for a wide audience, the volume includes essays on many fascinating aspects of this text world—from its motifs and concerns to the practices of the scribes who made them. --  wendy laura belcher, Princeton University

thomas c. oden was a remarkable scholar and teacher whose long and varied life touched many areas of theology and spirituality.  in his last years, oden’s attention turned to african christianity and he began a project on the ethiopian canticles.  the superb essays gathered in this volume represent some of the fruit of those labors.  they shed new light on one of the earliest layers of historic christianity, a living tradition in which liturgy, theology, and poetry coinhere in the vitality of faith. --timothy george, Beeson Divinity School of Samford University

this volume attends to many points of view—an impressive statistical analysis of the manuscripts of the ethiopian psalter, a detailed description of their use in context, a careful and broad look at the exegetical and theological tradition—on the ethiopian canticles exactly as songs from africa, thus vindicating on the one hand to them their right geographical appurtenance, and on the other hand to africa its important role also in the transmission of a written heritage. -- alessandro bausi, University of Hamburg, Asien-Afrika-Institut

this work illustrates, as vibrantly as do the colourful manuscripts themselves, the invaluable contribution of africa to bridging the cultures of east and west and of antiquity and the modern world. —  michelle p. brown fsa, University of London

foreword Alessandro Bausi, University of Hamburg, Asien-Afrika-Institut, Director, Ethiopic Studies, Editor, Encyclopaedia Aethiopica

acknowledgements

introduction: introducing the earliest christian songs of sub-saharan africa Thomas C. Oden, Center for Early African Christianity, New Haven, CT

1. st yared and the ethiopian tradition Ralph Lee, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London

2. between “then and there” and “here and now”: An Introduction to the Codicology of the Museum of the Bible Ethiopic Psalters Steve Delamarter, George Fox University, Co-Director, The Textual History of the Ethiopic Old Testament Project

3. the durability of the canticles Thomas C. Oden

4. the dual-textual histories of the ethiopic canticles: an exploration of textual history and social location Steve Delamarter, with Sam Aldridge, Jeremy Brown, Brian Jeanseau and Shaun Short

5. the classic Andmta Commentaries on Selected Canticles Ralph Lee

6. the marian canticles in liturgy and culture pg#

Verena Böll, Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, Orientalisches Institut

7. hymns to mary in The Psalter of the Virgin Ralph Lee

8. paradoxes, biblical types, and the incarnation in the Wddasse Maryam Desta Heliso, Ethiopian Graduate School of Theology, Addis Ababa

9. the context, content, and conservation of the g‘z canticles Baye Yimam, University of Addis Ababa, Director, Institute of Ethiopian Studies

10. the use of the psalms in ethiopic enoch loren stuckenbruck, ludwig-maximilians-universität münchen, head, faculty of protestant theology, institute of new testament studies

11. ethiopian christian music and dance: Zema and Aqwaqwam Mersha Alehegne, Addis Ababa University, Department of Linguistics and Philology

12. the ascendancy of the canticles in daily life, worship, and festivals Mersha Alehegne

13. conclusions and hypotheses for further investigation Thomas C. Oden

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