When Prophecy Failed

by Robert P. Carroll

Groundbreaking study of the prophets, based on Festinger's theory of cognitive dissonance. A clear account of current views of Israelite prophets and prophecy, of interest to social psychologists and theologians.

Genres: Religion

258 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1979

Reviews

[Janelle Zeeb · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was useful to learn more about the prophets and how they may have operated, and some problems with prophecies and possible ways that later prophets may have understood those prophecies. Carroll's discussion was helpful to me when I was researching a few prophecies that didn't happen exactly. I found his discussion over conflicts between prophets and the complexities of how to tell who was a real prophet and who wasn't quite interesting. But I was not so convinced by how Carroll seems to think all the prophecies that did not happen are therefore not ever going to be fulfilled, since these prophecies might still be fulfilled in the future during the Millennium dispensation.

He also seems to take the view that there was a lot of editing done to the prophetic traditions, and thinks that many books of the Old Testament were edited by later "deuteronomists" with a particular bias towards history. I am more skeptical of these views, and so I didn't necessarily agree with his arguments that depended on these assumptions. He seems to make the prophets mostly just humans who cared about motivating social change, and not genuine messengers from God.

While the difficulties with some prophecies that he points out are helpful, his overall argument is not as helpful or convincing if you want to believe the prophets were genuinely inspired by God, that the Bible is inerrant, and that some prophecies are yet to be fulfilled. But it is helpful to debunk the claims that all prophecy was fulfilled exactly down to the finest details, which sometimes come up in apologetic arguments.

[Taymaz Azimi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was looking for a book on the question: "Why did prophecy cease?" This book was not exactly about my question. However, it helped me understand the reasons behind the fall of prophecy. 'When Prophecy Failed' is primarily about the failure of prophecy in a post disaster community.
The problem with the book is its literature. The language is quite old fashioned (the book is written in late 70s anyway); and it can be very (very) boring.