Download or read book Ancient Laws and Contemporary Controversies written by Cheryl Anderson and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2009-11-16 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Ten Commandments condone slavery, and Deuteronomy 22 deems the rape of an unmarried woman to injure her father rather than the woman herself. While many Christians ignore most Old Testament laws as obsolete or irrelevant-with others picking and choosing among them in support of specific political and social agendas-it remains a basic tenet of Christian doctrine that the faith is contained in both the Old and the New Testament. If the law is ignored, an important aspect of the faith tradition is denied. In Ancient Laws and Contemporary Controversies, Cheryl B. Anderson tackles this problem head on, attempting to answer the question whether the laws of the Old Testament are authoritative for Christians today. The issue is crucial: some Christians actually believe that the New Testament abolishes the law, or that the Protestant reformers Luther, Calvin, and Wesley rejected the law. Acknowledging the deeply problematic nature of some Old Testament law (especially as it applies to women, the poor, and homosexuals), Anderson finds that contemporary controversies are the result of such groups now expressing their own realities and faith perspectives. Anderson suggests that we approach biblical law in much the same way that we approach the U.S. Constitution. While the nation's founding fathers-all privileged white men-did not have the poor, women, or people of color in mind when they referred in its preamble to "We the people." Subsequently, the Constitution has evolved through amendment and interpretation to include those who were initially excluded. Although it is impossible to amend the biblical texts themselves, the way in which they are interpreted can-and should-change. With previous scholarship grounded in the Old Testament as well as critical, legal, and feminist theory, Anderson is uniquely qualified to apply insights from contemporary law to the interpretive history of biblical law, and to draw out their implications for issues of gender, class, and race/ethnicity. In so doing, she lays the groundwork for an inclusive mode of biblical interpretation.
Download or read book Ancient Laws and Contemporary Controversies written by Cheryl Anderson and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2009-11-16 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Ten Commandments condone slavery, and Deuteronomy 22 deems the rape of an unmarried woman to injure her father rather than the woman herself. While many Christians ignore most Old Testament laws as obsolete or irrelevant-with others picking and choosing among them in support of specific political and social agendas-it remains a basic tenet of Christian doctrine that the faith is contained in both the Old and the New Testament. If the law is ignored, an important aspect of the faith tradition is denied. In Ancient Laws and Contemporary Controversies, Cheryl B. Anderson tackles this problem head on, attempting to answer the question whether the laws of the Old Testament are authoritative for Christians today. The issue is crucial: some Christians actually believe that the New Testament abolishes the law, or that the Protestant reformers Luther, Calvin, and Wesley rejected the law. Acknowledging the deeply problematic nature of some Old Testament law (especially as it applies to women, the poor, and homosexuals), Anderson finds that contemporary controversies are the result of such groups now expressing their own realities and faith perspectives. Anderson suggests that we approach biblical law in much the same way that we approach the U.S. Constitution. While the nation's founding fathers-all privileged white men-did not have the poor, women, or people of color in mind when they referred in its preamble to "We the people." Subsequently, the Constitution has evolved through amendment and interpretation to include those who were initially excluded. Although it is impossible to amend the biblical texts themselves, the way in which they are interpreted can-and should-change. With previous scholarship grounded in the Old Testament as well as critical, legal, and feminist theory, Anderson is uniquely qualified to apply insights from contemporary law to the interpretive history of biblical law, and to draw out their implications for issues of gender, class, and race/ethnicity. In so doing, she lays the groundwork for an inclusive mode of biblical interpretation.
Download or read book Law Power and Justice in Ancient Israel written by Douglas A. Knight and published by Westminster John Knox Press. This book was released on 2011-08-22 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From leading Old Testament scholar Douglas A. Knight comes the latest volume in the Library of Ancient Israel series. Using socio-anthropological theory and archaeological evidence, Knight argues that while the laws in the Hebrew Bible tend to reflect the interests of those in power, the majority of ancient Israelitesâ€"located in villagesâ€"developed their own unwritten customary laws to regulate behavior and resolve legal conflicts in their own communities. This book includes numerous examples from village, city, and cult. Volumes in the Library of Ancient Israel draw on multiple disciplinesâ€"such as archaeology, anthropology, sociology, linguistics, and literary criticismâ€"to illuminate the everyday realities and social subtleties these ancient cultures experienced. This series employs sophisticated methods resulting in original contributions that depict the reality of the people behind the Hebrew Bible and interprets these insights for a wide variety of readers.
Download or read book An Introduction to Biblical Law written by William S. Morrow and published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. This book was released on 2017-05-12 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Informed, accessible textbook on law collections in the Pentateuch In this book William Morrow surveys four major law collections in Exodus–Deuteronomy and shows how they each enabled the people of Israel to create and sustain a community of faith. Treating biblical law as dynamic systems of thought facilitating ancient Israel's efforts at self-definition, Morrow describes four different social contexts that gave rise to biblical law: (1) Israel at the holy mountain (the Ten Commandments); (2) Israel in the village assembly (Exodus 20:22–23:19); (3) Israel in the courts of the Lord (priestly and holiness rules in Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers); and (4) Israel in the city (Deuteronomy). Including forthright discussion of such controversial subjects as slavery, revenge, gender inequality, religious intolerance, and contradictions between bodies of biblical law, Morrow's study will help students and other serious readers make sense out of texts in the Pentateuch that are often seen as obscure.
Download or read book Restorative Readings written by L. Juliana Claassens and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2015-05-15 with total page 181 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Bible has the unfortunate legacy of being associated with gross human rights violations as evident in the scriptural justification of apartheid in South Africa as well as slavery in the American South. What is more, the Hebrew Bible also contains numerous instances in which the worth or dignity of the female characters are threatened, violated or potentially violated, creating a situation of dehumanization in which women are viewed as less than fully human. And yet the Bible continues to serve as a source of inspiration for readers committed to justice and liberation for all. But in order for the Bible to speak a liberative word, what is necessary is to cultivate liberating Bible reading practices rooted in justice and compassion. Restorative Readings seeks to do exactly this when the authors in their respective readings seek to cultivate Bible reading practices that are committed to restoring the dignity of those whose dignity has been violated by means of racial, gender, and sexual discrimination, by the atrocities of apartheid, by the HIV/AIDS pandemic, and by the dehumanizing reality of unemployment and poverty.
Download or read book The Laws of the Imperialized written by Chung Man Anna Lo and published by Langham Publishing. This book was released on 2024-04-30 with total page 326 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Being the first legal corpus in the biblical canon, Exodus 19–24 is a law collection that belonged to a people living under the shadow of empire. Using an integrated approach of postcolonial studies and historical-comparative analysis, this important study analyzes the relationship between the laws given to the Israelites on Mount Sinai and cuneiform law collections. Dr. Anna Lo skillfully integrates postcolonial understandings of the colonized people to explore how the similarities and differences reflect the imperialized authors’ wrestling with the imperial legal metanarrative and subjugation of their time. This investigation into the dynamic of acceptance, ambivalence, and resistance invites attention to this selection of Scripture as a work of conservative revolutionists. Dr. Lo’s thorough work provides an important way forward for scholars to consider responses of the imperialized to empires in the past as well as to reflect on their own response to hegemonic domination today.
Download or read book Latinxs the Bible and Migration written by Efraín Agosto and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-10-27 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the conjunction between migration and biblical texts with a focus on Latinx histories and experiences. Essays reflect upon Latinxs, the Bible, and migration in different ways: some consider how the Bible is used in the midst of, or in response to, Latinx experiences and histories of migration; some use Latinx histories and experiences of migration to examine Biblical texts in both First and Second Testaments; some consider the “Bible” as a phenomenological set of texts that respond to and/or compel migration. Cultural, literary, and postcolonial theories inform the analysis, as does the exploration of how migrant groups themselves scripturalize their biblical and cultural texts.
Download or read book The Cambridge Companion to the Hebrew Bible and Ethics written by C. L. Crouch and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2021-01-21 with total page 355 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Cambridge Companion to the Hebrew Bible and Ethics offers an engaging and informative response to a wide range of ethical issues. Drawing connections between ancient and contemporary ethical problems, the essays address a variety of topics, including student loan debt, criminal justice reform, ethnicity and inclusion, family systems, and military violence. The volume emphasizes the contextual nature of ethical reflection, stressing the importance of historical knowledge and understanding in illuminating the concerns, the logic, and the intentions of the biblical texts. Twenty essays, all specially commissioned for this volume, address the texts' historical and literary contexts and identify key social, political, and cultural factors affecting their ethical ideas. They also explore how these texts can contribute to contemporary ethical discussions. The Cambridge Companion to the Hebrew Bible and Ethics is suitable for use in undergraduate and graduate courses in liberal arts colleges and universities, as well as seminaries.
Download or read book Hearing the Old Testament written by Craig G. Bartholomew and published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. This book was released on 2012-05-02 with total page 494 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Hearing the Old Testament world-class scholars discuss how contemporary Christians can better hear and appropriate God's address in the Old Testament. This volume is part of a growing interest in theological interpretation of the Old Testament. Editors Craig G. Bartholomew and David J. H. Beldman offer a coherent and carefully planned volume, a truly dialogical collaboration full of up-to-date research and innovative ideas. While sharing a desire to integrate their Old Testament scholarship with their love for God - and, thus, a commitment to listening for God's voice within the text - the contributors display a variety of methods and interpretations as they apply a Trinitarian hermeneutic to the text. The breadth, expertise, and care evidenced here make this book an ideal choice for upper-level undergraduate and seminary courses. Contributors: Craig G. Bartholomew David J. H. Beldman Mark J. Boda M. Daniel Carroll R. Stephen G. Dempster Tremper Longman III J. Clinton McCann Jr. Iain Provan Richard Schultz Aubrey Spears Heath Thomas Gordon J. Wenham Al Wolters Christopher J. H. Wright
Download or read book The Genesis of Liberation written by Emerson B. Powery and published by Westminster John Knox Press. This book was released on 2016-04-04 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Considering that the Bible was used to justify and perpetuate African American enslavement, why would it be given such authority? In this fascinating volume, Powery and Sadler explore how the Bible became a source of liberation for enslaved African Americans by analyzing its function in pre-Civil War freedom narratives. They explain the various ways in which enslaved African Americans interpreted the Bible and used it as a source for hope, empowerment, and literacy. The authors show that through their own engagement with the biblical text, enslaved African Americans found a liberating word. The Genesis of Liberation recovers the early history of black biblical interpretation and will help to expand understandings of African American hermeneutics.
Download or read book Hearts Ablaze written by Rolf Nolasco and published by Church Publishing, Inc.. This book was released on 2022-10-18 with total page 124 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Meditations addressing the spiritual needs of queer Christians. A new look at ten selected parables of Jesus, that expands the scope of interpretation of each story to highlight God's extravagant welcome of all people. The perspective in the reflections is deeply personal and written to be used by both individuals and groups. Queer affirming churches, seminaries, and retreat centers will benefit from this resource as they continue to champion the flourishing of their queer siblings in Christ.
Download or read book Our Witness written by Brandan J. Robertson and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2018-03-27 with total page 185 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The stories of LGBT+ Christians are not untold, but have often been unheard by faith leaders and communities. While so much of the conversation about LGBT+ inclusion has focused on theology and ideology, few have actually interacted with the raw, real stories and experiences of LGBT+ Christians. In this volume, LGBT+ Christian activist and theologian Brandan Robertson has brought together stories of LGBT+ Christians from around the world combined with his theological insights to create a powerful book that will challenge, convict, and inspire readers from all theological backgrounds to examine their posture and message toward the LGBT+ community and embrace the revival that the Holy Spirit is igniting among queer Christians around the world.
Download or read book Let My People Live written by Kenneth N. Ngwa and published by Presbyterian Publishing Corp. This book was released on 2022-04-12 with total page 186 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Let My People Live reengages the narrative of Exodus through a critical, life-affirming Africana hermeneutic that seeks to create and sustain a vision of not just the survival but the thriving of Black communities. While the field of biblical studies has habitually divided "objective" interpretations from culturally informed ones, Kenneth Ngwa argues that doing interpretive work through an activist, culturally grounded lens rightly recognizes how communities of readers actively shape the priorities of any biblical interpretation. In the Africana context, communities whose identities were made disposable by the forces of empire and colonialism—both in Africa and in the African diaspora across the globe—likewise suffered the stripping away of the right to interpretation, of both sacred texts and of themselves. Ngwa shows how an Africana approach to the biblical text can intervene in this narrative of breakage, as a mode of resistance. By emphasizing the irreducible life force and resources nurtured in the Africana community, which have always preceded colonial oppression, the Africana hermeneutic is able to stretch from the past into the future to sustain and support generations to come. Ngwa reimagines the Exodus story through this framework, elaborating the motifs of the narrative as they are shaped by Africana interpretative values and approaches that identify three animating threats in the story: erasure (undermining the community's very existence), alienation (separating from the space of home and from the ecosystem), and singularity (holding up the individual over the collective). He argues that what he calls "badass womanism"—an intergenerational and interregional life force and epistemology of the people embodied in the midwives, Miriam, the Egyptian princess, and other female figures in the story—have challenged these threats. He shows how badass womanist triple consciousness creates, and is informed by, communal approaches to hermeneutics that emphasize survival over erasure, integration over alienation, and multiplicity over singularity. This triple consciousness surfaces throughout the Exodus narrative and informs the narrative portraits of other characters, including Moses and Yahweh. As the Hebrew people navigate the exodus journey, Ngwa investigates how these forces of oppression and resistance shift and take new shapes across the geographies of Egypt, the wilderness, and the mountain area preceding their passage into the promised land. For Africana, these geographies also represent colonial, global, and imperial sites where new subjectivities and epistemologies develop.
Download or read book Postcolonial Commentary and the Old Testament written by Hemchand Gossai and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2018-11-01 with total page 347 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first volume to provide a wide range of postcolonial interpretations of and commentaries upon significant texts in the Hebrew Bible. The volume intersects with the work of the key theorists in postcolonial studies such as Fanon, Senghor, Said and Spivak as well as with scholars such as Sugirtharajah, Kwok Pui-lan, and Segovia who have applied this theory to biblical studies. Texts have been chosen specifically for their relevance to postcolonial discourse, rather than seeking to cover each biblical document. This volume is designed to demonstrate how historical criticism, postmodernism, and the important concerns of postcolonial readings may be integrated to obtain an informed explanation of the Hebrew Bible and the writings of early Judaism. The chapters are written by scholars who represent a spectrum of national, indigenous, and diasporic contexts. Taken together these perspectives and the interpretations they yield represent a continued expansion of the manner in which Old Testament texts are read and interpreted through postcolonial lenses, reminding readers that the interpretive trajectories of these texts are almost inexhaustible. As such the volume serves as not only an addition to ongoing scholarship on postcolonialism but also as an expansion of the horizon for dialogue.
Download or read book Doing the Bible Better written by Marek P. Zabriskie and published by Church Publishing, Inc.. This book was released on 2014-09 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: • Bible-reading program that transforms lives and the church experience • Develops the power of a daily disciplined spiritual practice Despite the fact that Episcopalians are among the best-educated Christian groups in the United States, they also rank among the least biblically literate denomination. The author maintains “we can do Bible better” and shows why it is absolutely critical to do so. How can this weakness become a strength and source of spiritual growth for Episcopalians, their churches, and dioceses? As an evangelist for biblical literacy and spiritual nourishment, Zabriskie shows the way forward for the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion.
Download or read book The Liberation of Method written by David Janzen and published by Fortress Press. This book was released on 2021-10-19 with total page 287 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The field of biblical studies has championed the historical-critical method as the only way to guarantee objective interpretation. But in recent decades, women, people of color, scholars from the Two-Thirds World, and members of the the LGBTQIA+ community have pursued hermeneutical approaches that provide interpretations useful for marginalized communities who see the Bible as a resource in their struggles against oppression. Such liberative strategies remain at the margins of the field. The Liberation of Method argues that this marginality must end, and that liberative methods should become the central methods of biblical studies. The first part of the book draws upon the hermeneutics of philosophical pragmatism to argue that, because readers are responsible for the interpretation, there is no necessary connection between the meanings they produce and the ones ancient authors may have intended. As a result, the historical-critical method, which prioritizes the study of the ancient contexts of biblical writings, becomes an optional rather than a necessary aspect of interpretation. The second part of The Liberation of Method argues that if we truly hope to create an ethical academic field, more privileged scholars and students must see their minoritized colleagues as the leaders in the field, as models of the ethical liberative standards of interpretation.
Download or read book Open Wide the Gates written by Brian D. Cunnington and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2023-10-13 with total page 421 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The culture wars show no sign of abating. Same-sex sexuality continues to be one of the most brutal and bloody fronts in those wars and Christians, the fiercest combatants. Friendships, families, churches, and denominations continue to draw their lines-in-the-sand, split, and go their separate ways. Meanwhile, the lives of many, young and old, are deeply scarred and some even lost in the crossfire. It doesn't have to be that way! Challenging the arguments that perpetuate that conflict, Open Wide the Gates presents a carefully developed biblical, theological, and ethical argument for the welcome, affirmation, and inclusion of gays and lesbians in the life and ministry of the local church. Its irenic tone and clearly articulated presentation provides pastors, denominational leaders, and concerned laypeople with a reliable guide for navigating these often-turbulent waters. In this comprehensive study, Brian D. Cunnington points to a path forward, a path for following Jesus in the twenty-first century characterized by grace, love, and hope; a path that demonstrates the radical presence of God's kingdom here on earth for all people, regardless of their sexual orientation.
