NEWS
ICU Professor Selected for an Academic Award by the Korean Society of Old Testament Studies
Update: December 7, 2018
ICU's Senior Associate Professor Johannes Unsok Ro (major: Philosophy and Religion, Environmental Studies) won the Academic Award (Monograph) from the Korean Society of Old Testament Studies, the award ceremony for which was held on Friday, November 30, 2018, in Seoul, South Korea.
The Korean Society of Old Testament Studies is the largest academic society researching the Old Testament in South Korea and presents academic awards every year to researchers who have carried out superior research activities in the Monograph and Article sections.
Senior Associate Professor Ro's book, Poverty, Law, and Divine Justice in Persian and Hellenistic Judah, (SBL Press, April 2018) was rated highly for its academic character and went on to win the Academic Award in the Monograph Section.
Poverty, Law, and Divine Justice in Persian and Hellenistic Judah (Ancient Israel and Its Literature)
■ Author: Johannes Unsok Ro
■ Publisher: SBL Press
■ Published: April 20, 2018
■ Price: 5,772 yen + tax, $53.95 (Hardcover)
Overview of the book
The book expands existing academic perspectives and covers various fields such as the nations, societies, economies, religions and laws in the Old Testament, and discusses the interactions between them. Further, through those interactions, it seeks to discover which social entities coexisted with and were involved in the formation of the Old Testament. The book, which was published as part of the series Ancient Israel and its Literature by SBL Press, a world-renowned publisher for Biblical Studies, is the compilation of the outcome of research carried out by the author in English over the last 10 years. The author employs philological, historical and sociological approaches to analyze texts such as the Pentateuch, Prophetic Books and Book of Psalms to present a new hypothesis that the socioeconomic inequalities and status inconsistency in the Judean communities in the Persian and Hellenistic era had a deep impact on the theological developments of the time period. This hypothesis has been effectively used to study the mutual influence of the Covenant Code (Exodus 20:22-23:19), Holiness Code (Leviticus 17-26), and Deuteronomic Code (Deuteronomy 12-26) and is expected to provide valuable insights for reconstructing the formative history of the Psalms of the Poor.
Comment from Senior Associate Professor Johannes Unsok Ro:
I am honored by the recognition I have received for my research from the Society of Old Testament Studies in Korea, where Biblical Studies are carried out very actively. I would like to continue further research activities and spread the name of ICU to Bible societies around the world through outstanding research. I would also like to serve as the bridge between the Bible societies in South Korea and Japan.