Jezebel: The Untold Story of the Bible's Harlot Queen
by Lesley Hazleton
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Book Summary Information
Author: Lesley HazletonEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2007-10-16
ISBN: 0385516142
Number of pages: 272
Publisher: Doubleday Religion
Book Reviews of Jezebel: The Untold Story of the Bible's Harlot Queen
Book Review: Incredibly Rich and provocative
Summary: 5 Stars
Incredibly rich and provocative
What an incredibly rich and provocative book, not to mention a clever way of making an argument against "militant prophecy." The polytheism vs, monotheism argument has raged and still rages in the depth psychological tradition. James Hillman actually coined his new psychology a "polytheistic psychology." It's so intriguing to me that Lesley Hazleton framed her argument and the life of Jezebel in these terms.
Monotheism as a label describes much more than just a belief in one god. It suggests an orientation towards the phenomenal world, a specific form of consciousness that is linear, literal, and limited. Unlike the polytheistic zeitgeist that is imaginal and intuitive, the monotheistic perspective flattens the world with rationalism and literal representation. Hazleton certainly sees the imaginative and intuitive qualities in Jezebel.
Elijah always makes me think of the line, "One nation under one God," which is as succinct an indictment of monotheism's one-dimensional perspective as one could hope for, and a line from our own Pledge of Allegiance, no less. The polytheistic perspective speaks to the many facets and expressions of our imaginations. Polytheism articulates an alternative notion of human nature that encourages an understanding of self based in multiplicity, relatedness, and diversity.
Archetypally, Jezebel presented such a threat to Elijah because she represented the multiplicity of the religious function of the psyche, the natural spiritual impulse which lives in all of us and always gets snuffed out by old hoary prophets and their heavy tomes of scripture and codification. To Hillman, monotheism represents a literal, singular, and narrow definition of humanity that infiltrates all traditional notions of selfhood and the world. Polytheism provides a more open model for how humans create a notion of the self. It values multiplicity and process over fixed, solid entities anchored by the ideology of developmental determinism. Most significantly, Hillman argues that this congress of many voices and personalities not be placed under the dictatorial autocratic rule of the heroic ego. The heroic ego is the loudest voice in the psyche, the one that shouts over the multiplicity of voices, the one that steps on those other voices until it silences them and becomes the dictator voice, the only one heard. This is the colonizing ego in jackboots.
I mention all this Hillman business because I think Hazleton is spot on about why Jezebel was so brutally murdered and then devoured by dogs. I can't help but see the struggle between Jezebel and the prophets as an archetypal one which gives expression to the war between the ego and the self. As Jung said so many times, "Any victory for the self is a defeat for the ego." The strident ego of monotheism came roaring in on its chariot and murdered Jezebel as surely as intrapsychically, the ego tries to murder the self in individuation. I feel like Jezebel is the incarnation of an archetypal battle, one that has yet to be resolved. I'm with Sam Harris when he says that the "great monotheisms are an impediment to the advancement of civilization."
Anyway, what an extraordinary act of "historical magical realism" and a timely, cautionary tale for the woeful times in which we live. A beautiful work of scholarship and historical imagination. Thank you Lesley Hazleton for countering the "swiftboat" attack on Jezebel by those bald and smelly old prophets!
Mazeltov!
George R. Walczak Ojai, CA
Summary of Jezebel: The Untold Story of the Bible's Harlot Queen
There is no woman with a worse reputation than Jezebel, the ancient queen who corrupted a nation and met one of the most gruesome fates in the Bible. Her name alone speaks of sexual decadence and promiscuity. But what if this version of her story, handed down to us through the ages, is merely the one her enemies wanted us to believe? What if Jezebel, far from being a conniving harlot, was, in fact, framed?
In this remarkable new biography, Lesley Hazleton shows exactly how the proud and courageous queen of Israel was vilified and made into the very embodiment of wanton wickedness by her political and religious enemies. Jezebel brings readers back to the source of the biblical story, a rich and dramatic saga featuring evil schemes and underhanded plots, war and treason, false gods and falser humans, and all with the fate of entire nations at stake. At its center are just one woman and one man?the sophisticated Queen Jezebel and the stark prophet Elijah. Their epic and ultimately tragic confrontation pits tolerance against righteousness, pragmatism against divine dictates, and liberalism against conservatism. It is, in other words, the original story of the unholy marriage of sex, politics, and religion, and it ends in one of the most chillingly brutal scenes in the entire Bible.
Here at last is the real story of the rise and fall of this legendary woman?a radically different portrait with startling contemporary resonance in a world mired once again in religious wars.
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