Norman K Gottwald

Norman Karol Gottwald (born 1926) is an American Marxist biblical scholar and political activist.

His most influential work is The Tribes of Yahweh: A Sociology of the Religion of Liberated Israel, 1250-1050 B.C.E. (1979). In it he employed a sociological approach to the study of early Israelite religion and politics. Gottwald proposed Israelites emerged as local Canaanite peasants sought to overthrow the corrupt regimes they lived in. Their action was fueled by a liberating faith in the deity Yahweh. They dislocated to the previously unsettled Judean hills in order to form a more equal community. These ideals are reflected in the legendary stories of the Pentateuch, Joshua and Judges.