Download or read book The Blessing and the Curse written by Jeff S. Anderson and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2014-07-07 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The "magical power of the spoken word" is a topic that often comes up in a discussion of biblical blessings and curses. What is the source of social and linguistic power behind these blessings and curses? Many theologians would agree that God can and does bless, but does God also curse? If so, what does that mean to the biblical theology of the Old Testament and the Christian church? Anderson's The Blessing and the Curse applies speech act theory as one way to understand the performative function of blessings and curses. The concept of speech acts provides a method of recognizing the potent social power of language to accomplish certain ends, without drawing a hard line of distinction between word-magic and religion. Even though the chief concepts and practices of blessings and curses are deeply rooted in the broad cultural environment of the ancient Near East, tracing specific trajectories of Old Testament blessings and curses as theological themes conveys broad, inescapable implications for the biblical narrative and the Christian church.

Download or read book The Blessing and the Curse written by Adam Kirsch and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 2020-10-06 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An erudite and accessible survey of Jewish life and culture in the twentieth century, as reflected in seminal texts. Following The People and the Books, which "covers more than 2,500 years of highly variegated Jewish cultural expression" (Robert Alter, New York Times Book Review), poet and literary critic Adam Kirsch now turns to the story of modern Jewish literature. From the vast emigration of Jews out of Eastern Europe to the Holocaust to the creation of Israel, the twentieth century transformed Jewish life. The same was true of Jewish writing: the novels, plays, poems, and memoirs of Jewish writers provided intimate access to new worlds of experience. Kirsch surveys four themes that shaped the twentieth century in Jewish literature and culture: Europe, America, Israel, and the endeavor to reimagine Judaism as a modern faith. With discussions of major books by over thirty writers—ranging from Franz Kafka to Philip Roth, Elie Wiesel to Tony Kushner, Hannah Arendt to Judith Plaskow—he argues that literature offers a new way to think about what it means to be Jewish in the modern world. With a wide scope and diverse, original observations, Kirsch draws fascinating parallels between familiar writers and their less familiar counterparts. While everyone knows the diary of Anne Frank, for example, few outside of Israel have read the diary of Hannah Senesh. Kirsch sheds new light on the literature of the Holocaust through the work of Primo Levi, explores the emergence of America as a Jewish home through the stories of Bernard Malamud, and shows how Yehuda Amichai captured the paradoxes of Israeli identity. An insightful and engaging work from "one of America’s finest literary critics" (Wall Street Journal), The Blessing and the Curse brings the Jewish experience vividly to life.

Download or read book The Semantics of Blessing and Cursing in Ancient Hebrew written by James K. Aitken and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 332 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Blessings and curses represent complex social and theological phenomena, and challenge our linguistic and conceptual understandings of the society in which they are used. This volume gathers together the semantic information for the words used in ancient Hebrew (including inscriptions, Ben Sira and Qumran) for the field of 'blessing and cursing'. Since semantics must take into account the context in which the words are used, Part 1 surveys different approaches to the understanding of blessing and cursing in Israelite religion and society, and the anthropological and linguistic approaches taken in interpreting them. The relevance of these approaches to a semantic study is noted, and a summary of the second part of the volume is given. Part 2 is a detailed presentation of the data for each word, including discussion of the root, morphology, translations in the ancient versions, position within the semantic field and scholarly literature. The aim is to provide as full a treatment as possible for a semantic interpretation of the field. The volume has been produced as part of the international project, the Semantics of Ancient Hebrew Database.

Download or read book Blessing the Curse written by Ksenija Magda and published by Langham Global Library. This book was released on 2020-09-30 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The message of the kingdom of God, as brought to us by Christ, is a message that overturns hierarchies, sets free the enslaved, and breaks the power of the curse upon humanity. Yet when it comes to women, the church has chosen all too often to live according to the structures of sin and death, offering them not the good news of Christ, but the curse of Genesis, as their inheritance. In this powerful and challenging text, Ksenija Magda traces the impact of the curse – and the ever-present temptation to choose the world and its power over the servant-hearted humility of Christ – on our families, our church structures, our nations, and ultimately, our gospel witness. The question of how we view, treat, oppress or empower women is not, Magda reminds us, peripheral to the gospel but foundational. She warns that if men and women will not partner together in building the kingdom of God, they will find themselves partners in the work of upholding the world’s structures of power and oppression. Will we choose to bless the curse or to redeem it? To live in the death that our foreparents chose in the garden, or accept the life and freedom held out to us by Christ? This is a question upon which human history and the hope of our restoration hangs.

Download or read book A Blessing a Curse written by ReShonda Tate Billingsley and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2017-04-18 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "What in heaven's name kind of drama will holy rivals Rachel Jackson Adams and Jasmine Cox Larson Bush--prominent first ladies of the Baptist church--get themselves into next? Since he first met Jasmine, Rachel's father Simon Jackson has had a funny feeling about her. She eerily resembles his first teenage love. After doing some digging, Simon makes a shocking revelation--Jasmine may be his daughter. Rachel thinks the idea is absurd, but to pacify her ailing father, she sets out to debunk his theory. When Jasmine discovers what's going on, she heads to the Jackson Family Reunion in Smackover, Arkansas, in search of the truth"--

Download or read book The People and the Books 18 Classics of Jewish Literature written by Adam Kirsch and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2016-10-04 with total page 335 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An accessible introduction to the classics of Jewish literature, from the Bible to modern times, by "one of America’s finest literary critics" (Wall Street Journal). Jews have long embraced their identity as “the people of the book.” But outside of the Bible, much of the Jewish literary tradition remains little known to nonspecialist readers. The People and the Books shows how central questions and themes of our history and culture are reflected in the Jewish literary canon: the nature of God, the right way to understand the Bible, the relationship of the Jews to their Promised Land, and the challenges of living as a minority in Diaspora. Adam Kirsch explores eighteen classic texts, including the biblical books of Deuteronomy and Esther, the philosophy of Maimonides, the autobiography of the medieval businesswoman Glückel of Hameln, and the Zionist manifestoes of Theodor Herzl. From the Jews of Roman Egypt to the mystical devotees of Hasidism in Eastern Europe, The People and the Books brings the treasures of Jewish literature to life and offers new ways to think about their enduring power and influence.

Download or read book Sati the Blessing and the Curse written by John Stratton Hawley and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 1994 with total page 229 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sati symbolizes ultimate loyalty and self-sacrifice. It often figures near the core of a Hindu identity that feels embattled in a modern world. Yet to those who deplore it, sati is a curse, a violation of every woman's womanhood.

Download or read book Blessing or Curse written by Derek Prince and published by Baker Books. This book was released on 2006-09-01 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Life's trials and triumphs can seem accidental. One person may feel that life is a constant struggle in which pitfalls abound and someone seems out to get him. Another may feel that every day is a gift from God with special blessings just for her. That's because forces are at work in our lives: the blessings of a loving God or the curses of our spiritual adversary. This hugely popular classic work of Derek Prince helps readers recognize if there are curses at work in their lives and shows them how to get out from under those curses to live under God's blessings. This third edition of Blessing or Curse includes an extensive new study guide for small group or individual use.

Download or read book Blessings and Curses written by Judy Kelly and published by Black Rose Writing. This book was released on 2018-02-08 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Olivia Douglass is undecided about becoming a priest even after she has completed seminary. She is adopted and for most of her life, she has had a curse over her that she has held secret. In order to help her find out whether or not she is led to the priesthood, her parish priest gives her an assignment - to pray with an inmate on death row. The relationship with the inmate makes her curious about her own life before she was adopted. Before he is executed, the inmate asks for Olivia's help and in honoring his personal request, she discovers something in her past that threatens to uproot her ordinary life with her adopted family and causes her to desperately struggle to hold on to her persona and position.

Download or read book Doubling and Duplicating in the Book of Genesis written by Elizabeth R. Hayes and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2016-08-25 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The style of the Hebrew Bible has long been of significant interest to scholars and exegetes alike. Early Jewish and later Christian commentaries point out the importance of the exact wording in interpreting the text, and many an article has been written on features such as repetition and inclusio. With the rise of literary and narrative criticism in biblical studies, these features have received even more attention. The current book stands in the tradition of Robert Alter in that it focuses on how the text of Genesis is written and phrased. More explicitly, it is interested in why Genesis is formulated the way it is and how this affects the reader in his/her encounter with the text. Doubling and Duplicating is not only concerned with a style-as-analysis frame for interpreters but also with its role as a guide for any audience and its gateway to the ancient mind-set (ideological, ontological, and so on). All of the contributors to this collected volume focus on the form of the book of Genesis—that is, on its use of language and formulation. Yet, each author does this in his/her own way, depending on the most fitting tool for the specific research question or based on the researcher’s methodological background. Thus, the essays represent the various approaches in current literary and stylistic criticism as applied to the biblical corpus. Furthermore, the recurring duality of the features discussed in each of the contributions adds to the overall unity of the volume. This recurrence suggests the presence of a stylistic feature in the book of Genesis, the feature of doubling and duplicating, that surpasses the other features of the individual units or stories. This book offers insights about meaning-making on both the micro- and the macro-text levels.

Download or read book Curse Breaking written by Bob Larson and published by Destiny Image Publishers. This book was released on 2013-05-21 with total page 143 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Get free and stay free! Behold, I set before you today a blessing and a curse: the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you today; and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God (Deut. 11:26-28) Blessings or Curses? You have a role to play and a choice to make. In this book, Bob Larson shows you how to break every curse over your life and pass on a heritage of blessing to future generations. Have you ever wondered: Are curses real? Can Christians inherit generational curses? Is there a link between sin and bondage? Jesus Christ came to break the power of sin in your life—this includes the power of curses! Curse-Breaking empowers you to: Identify and break curses in your life, family, and over your children Walk in consistent victory over the devil’s strategies Use the weapons of Scripture and prayer to conquer curses effecting your emotions, finances, health, and relationship with God Through dynamic personal stories, uncompromised Bible teaching, and powerful prayers, you will learn the keys to breaking curses and walking in spiritual freedom.

Download or read book Blessing and Curse in Syro Palestinian Inscriptions of the Iron Age written by Timothy G. Crawford and published by Peter Lang Incorporated, International Academic Publishers. This book was released on 1992 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Blessing and Curse in Syro-Palestinian Inscriptions of the Iron Age is an examination of blessings and / or curses in all published alphabetic inscriptions from Iron II (1000-586 B.C.E.) Syria-Palestine. Inscriptions having either blessing, curse, or both (in general or specific forms) have been collected and sorted according to the presence therein of deity names. Those inscriptions which call upon Yahweh, God of Israel, for blessing or curse have been separated from those which call upon other deities and from those which did not contain a deity name. The blessings and curses in these inscriptions have then been compared and contrasted both to each other and the Hebrew Bible in order to show what the various peoples of that area and time meant by blessing and curse and how they expressed these ideas.

Download or read book Financial Derivatives written by Simon Grima and published by Emerald Group Publishing. This book was released on 2020-02-17 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Should we fear financial derivatives, or embrace them? Finance experts Simon Grima and Eleftherios I. Thalassinos explore what financial derivatives are, and whether the investment world should consider them useful tools, or a complete waste of time and money.

Download or read book Curse of Blessings written by Mitchell Chefitz and published by Running Press. This book was released on 2006-04-04 with total page 96 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Curse of Blessings is a paradox. It is a tale of utter simplicity that expresses life's most complex truths. It is a story that can be read in a sitting, but which will stay with you forever. It is life--distilled to its purest element--while revealing the world in all its richness and wonder. The Curse of Blessings takes four characters on a journey that will transform them--or not--depending on what they are willing to let themselves hear. Once in a generation a book comes along that is able to convey universal truths and wisdom within the simplest of frameworks. Like Jonathan Livingston Seagull and The Celestine Prophecy before it, The Curse of Blessings is just such a book. With a haunting, lyrical touch, Mitchell Chefitz presents a teaching tale that is at once disturbing, profound and inspiring-for those who are willing to listen. The Curse of Blessings can reveal nothing....or it can show you everything. The choice is yours.

Download or read book The Uncommon Reader written by Alan Bennett and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 2007-09-18 with total page 126 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From one of England's most celebrated writers, a funny and superbly observed novella about the Queen of England and the subversive power of reading When her corgis stray into a mobile library parked near Buckingham Palace, the Queen feels duty-bound to borrow a book. Discovering the joy of reading widely (from J. R. Ackerley, Jean Genet, and Ivy Compton-Burnett to the classics) and intelligently, she finds that her view of the world changes dramatically. Abetted in her newfound obsession by Norman, a young man from the royal kitchens, the Queen comes to question the prescribed order of the world and loses patience with the routines of her role as monarch. Her new passion for reading initially alarms the palace staff and soon leads to surprising and very funny consequences for the country at large. With the poignant and mischievous wit of The History Boys, England's best loved author Alan Bennett revels in the power of literature to change even the most uncommon reader's life.

Download or read book Kintu written by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2018-01-25 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Ugandan literature can boast of an international superstar in Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi' Economist An award-winning debut that vividly reimagines Uganda’s troubled history through the cursed bloodline of the Kintu clan In this epic tale of fate, fortune and legacy, Jennifer Makumbi vibrantly brings to life this corner of Africa and this colourful family as she reimagines the history of Uganda through the cursed bloodline of the Kintu clan. The year is 1750. Kintu Kidda sets out for the capital to pledge allegiance to the new leader of the Buganda kingdom. Along the way he unleashes a curse that will plague his family for generations. Blending oral tradition, myth, folktale and history, Makumbi weaves together the stories of Kintu’s descendants as they seek to break free from the burden of their past to produce a majestic tale of clan and country – a modern classic.

Download or read book Why We Curse written by Timothy Jay and published by John Benjamins Publishing. This book was released on 2000 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Neuro-Psycho-Social Theory of Speech draws together information about cursing from different disciplines and unites them to explain and describe the psychological, neurological, cultural and linguistic factors that underlie this phenomenon.