Song of Exile
The Enduring Mystery of Psalm 137
David W. Stowe
Reviews and Awards
"Stowe's study of Psalm 137 is one of the best examples of reception history written for nonspecialists, a riveting investigation that takes the reader into surprising places of American culture and beyond...[I]t proves to be nothing short of eye opening." - William P. Brown, Interpretation
"David Stowe's focus is on subsequent, even contemporary use of the psalm, what we now call 'reception history.' Readers will be astonished by the rich inventory of belated uses of the psalm that Stowe has provided, mostly musical and in contexts of anguish. The psalm is now impressively contemporary with its pulses of pathos, resolve, and a will for vengeance." - Walter Brueggemann, Professor Emeritus of Old Testament, Columbia Theological Seminary
"Breathtaking! David Stowe's dazzling gloss on Psalm 137 and its compelling transit across centuries of American and European cultural, religious, and musical life is a wondrous testament to learning, curiosity, and the power of enthralling narrative. Song of Exile uplifts the power of words as few books do, a haunting exercise of scholarship and moral imagination." - Jon Butler, Howard R Lamar Professor Emeritus of American Studies, History & Religious Studies, Yale University
"In this elegant account of Psalm 137 and its textual and musical reception, David Stowe marshals extraordinary erudition and interpretive imagination to fashion a probing inquiry into the perennial human experience of exile. Song of Exile invites readers to ponder history, memory, vengeance, forgiveness, and forgetting as classically expressed in the Psalmist's lyric 'By the Waters of Babylon' and movingly explored by Stowe's commentary on its afterlife from the biblical era to our own times." - Stephen A. Marini, Elisabeth Luce Moore Professor of Christian Studies, Wellesley College