Book excerpt: At a time when the focus of Psalms research has increasingly shifted from the form-critical concerns of Hermann Gunkel and his followers, Defining the Sacred Songs argues for the continued importance of genre as an interpretative category in the post-critical era. Drawing on insights from the Psalms' long interpretative tradition, Nasuti is able to bring a fresh perspective on the role that the genre definition of these texts plays in both contemporary scholarship and the life of the communities that use them. The result is a better appreciation of the peculiar power of the Psalms and a new understanding of the nature of genre analysis in modern biblical studies.