This brief volume brings together three of Norman Gottwald's classic essays that address issues of social class and ideology as they pertain to the interpretation of the biblical documents. The small format makes them useful for classroom and small-group use, providing definitions, theoretical concerns, and applications to specific texts. The author has been a leader in the social-scientific analysis of the Bible for almost fifty years. Contents Social Class as an Analytic and Hermeneutical Category in Biblical Studies Social Class and Ideology in Isaiah 40-55: An Eagletonian Reading Ideology and Ideologies in Israelite Prophecy ""Norman Gottwald is perhaps the most influential Old Testament scholar of his generation; his social scientific perspective plus his passionate erudition has decisively changed how we do our work. This volume is fully representative of his work and a great source for future work. We may be grateful that Wipf and Stock have offered us this most significant work."" --Walter Brueggemann, Columbia Theological Seminary Norman K. Gottwald, Professor Emeritus of Old Testament at New York Theological Seminary, is the author of numerous groundbreaking works, including The Tribes of Yahweh, The Hebrew Bible: A Socio-literary Introduction, and Politics in Ancient Israel. His most recent essays and reviews are also collected in Social Justice and the Hebrew Bible, 3 vols. (Cascade Books, 2016).