David Jobling (born 1941) is a Canadian Old Testament scholar. He was professor of Old Testament language and literature at St. Andrew's College, Saskatoon. Jobling was a "mediating critic" between the schools of

structuralism Structuralism is an intellectual current and methodological approach, primarily in the social sciences, that interprets elements of human culture by way of their relationship to a broader system. It works to uncover the structural patterns t ...

and the

New Criticism New Criticism was a Formalism (literature), formalist movement in literary theory that dominated American literary criticism in the middle decades of the 20th century. It emphasized close reading, particularly of poetry, to discover how a work of l ...

in biblical studies. He also combined

deconstruction In philosophy, deconstruction is a loosely-defined set of approaches to understand the relationship between text and meaning. The concept of deconstruction was introduced by the philosopher Jacques Derrida, who described it as a turn away from ...

with both liberation theology and

feminist theology Feminist theology is a movement found in several religions, including Buddhism, Hinduism, Zoroastrianism, Sikhism, Jainism, Neopaganism, Baháʼí Faith, Judaism, Islam, Christianity, and New Thought, to reconsider the traditions, practices, scri ...

. Norman K. Gottwald notes that Jobling "has been a leader of literary analysis of the Hebrew Bible", and has "made a great impact in his use of ideological criticism and his engagement with feminist criticism." Jobling wrote two volumes of ''The Sense of Biblical Narrative: Structural Analyses in the Hebrew Bible'' (1978 and 1986). He also wrote a commentary on

1 Samuel The Book of Samuel () is a book in the Hebrew Bible, found as two books (1–2 Samuel) in the Old Testament. The book is part of the Deuteronomistic history, a series of books (Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings) that constitute a theological ...

in the ''Berit Olam'' series (1998). He was President of the Canadian Society of Biblical Studies in 1992–93. In 2006, a ''

Festschrift In academia, a ''Festschrift'' (; plural, ''Festschriften'' ) is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during their lifetime. It generally takes the form of an edited volume, containing contributions from the h ...

'' was published in his honor. ''Voyages in Uncharted Waters: Essays on the Theory and Practice of Biblical Interpretation in Honor of David Jobling'' included contributions from Norman K. Gottwald, David M. Gunn, and

Norman Habel Norman Charles Habel (born 1932) is an Australian Old Testament scholar. His ancestors are Wends from the forests of Prussia. Habel was born near Hamilton, Victoria, and was ordained in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Australia in 1955, serv ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jobling, David Living people 1941 births Old Testament scholars Canadian biblical scholars Academic staff of the University of Saskatchewan