Family and Sustainable Social Order: A Sociological Reading of Selected Texts of the Old Testament

Contents: Preface. 1. General Introduction. 2. Nature and Dynamics of the Family: A Sociological Overview. 3. The Social World of Family in the Deutoronomistic Tradition: A Socio-Historical Survey. 4. Family in the Deuteronomistic Tradition: A Sociological Reading of Selected Family Texts. 5. Significance of Deuteronomistic Emphases on Family. Bibliography.

This book mainly focuses on the centrality of the institution of family in order to maintain a sustainable Israelite social order. It deals with the roles and functions of the family as found in the Deuteronomistic tradition of the Old Testament. It analyses selected texts of the Deuteronomistic Tradition using the Sociological Reading of the biblical text to understand the roles and functions of the family as the mechanism which sustains and maintains the people's social and religious stability. It reveals that the future of Israelite society as well as today's social order depends to a great extent on the success or failure of the family. In that sense, this book reveals that the family acts as the foundation of the nation on which the structure of the social order is based.