Subproject C08

Metaphors for God in the Emergent Prophecy of Doom: The Book of Amos as a Landmark of Religious Meaning-Making

Subproject C08 investigates metaphors for God in the Book of Amos, one of the earliest and most influential examples of the prophecy of doom in the Hebrew Bible. It explores how the emergence of this new form of prophecy in the late eighth century BCE gave rise to innovative ways of speaking about the divine and how metaphor served as a key means of religious meaning-making in this process.

The project focuses on various parts of the book, among them the cycle of prophetic visions and a series of poetic doxologies. These texts employ a rich range of metaphors to describe God’s presence, actions, and relationship to the world. By analyzing these metaphors systematically, C08 examines how the Book of Amos constructs a new understanding of divine agency at a moment when prophecy shifted from affirming existing political and religious orders to announcing judgment and destruction.

Combining biblical scholarship with metaphor theory, the project offers the first comprehensive metaphorological study of the Book of Amos. It investigates both the literary development and the rhetorical functions of metaphors for God, while contributing new material to the CRC’s Thesaurus of Religious Metaphors. More broadly, the project explores how metaphor enabled ancient communities to articulate new conceptions of the divine in times of profound religious and social change.