Utopia, dystopia and uchronia in Chronicles

Steven Schweitzer’s Reading Utopia in Chronicles (2007) breathes the excitement of a new insight into that quiet corner of biblical scholarship that is Chronicles’ study. Along with work on Chronicles by Christine Mitchell, Julie Kelso’s new book, O Mother, Where Art Thou? (Equinox 2008), and the edited collection by Ehud Ben Zvi called Utopia and Dystopia in the Prophetic Literature (2006), it looks as though Chronicles’ scholarship is at the beginning of a shakeup. All of them share the assumption that for all the gains of historical critical study, its agenda it too limited and it leaves too many questions begging about this fascinating literature.