Psalms, Books 4–5

2021 Catholic Media Association Award second place award in academic studies

In this close reading of Psalms 90–150, Nancy L. deClaissé-Walford discovers meanings in the Psalms that were “there all along” but hidden beneath layers of interpretation built up over the centuries. Approaching the canonical storyline of the Psalter with feminist-critical lenses, she reads against the dominant mind-set, refuses to accept the givens, and seeks to uncover a hidden/alternate/parallel set of societal norms. DeClaissé-Walford attends to how context affects the way hearers appropriate the Psalter’s words: women, for the most part, hear differently than men; women of privilege differently than women living in poverty. Her interchanges with students and scholars in post-apartheid South Africa bring the biblical text alive in new ways for today’s believers.