What if God is absent? The challenge of incorporating Esther into a biblical theology

Abstract

This study suggests that consideration be given to the theological potential of the book of Esther in the minority approach to the text, which explores the obvious: that God, religious practice, and theology as conventionally conceived, are absent. This is what makes the book unique in Scripture. By too easily ‘discovering’ within Esther theological themes and affirmations commonplace in the OT, we minimise the significance of the book’s distinctive contribution: God is absent. ‘All attempts on the part of critics to circumvent the areligiosity of the book of Esther shortchange the most remarkable characteristic of the book’ (André LaCocque, Esther Regina, p. 62). Rather, we should ask the question as framed by Samuel Wells, ‘What does the church know that it would otherwise not know’ (‘Esther’, in Esther and Daniel, p. 10), if God had been explicitly present in Esther? How might the answer to this question enrich our biblical-theological reflections? My purpose in this brief account is not to provide definitive answers to these questions but rather to indicate fruitful possibilities for reading Esther theologically.