Download or read book Mourner Mother Midwife written by L. Juliana M. Claassens and published by Westminster John Knox Press. This book was released on 2012-01-01 with total page 140 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Juliana Claassens explores alternative Old Testament metaphors that portray God as mourner, mother, and midwife--images that resist the violence and bloodshed associated with the dominant warrior imagery

Download or read book Prophetic Wisdom written by Charles R. Strain and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2024-06-01 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Classical Buddhism lacked an understanding of systemic injustice and its contribution to collective suffering. Despite the teaching of impermanence, classical Buddhist schools viewed social institutions as given and offered no path to social transformation. Today, Buddhists are shaped by multiple religious and secular traditions, including those stemming from the Hebrew prophets. The prophetic tradition offers a socially and religiously powerful concept—the concept of justice—that reconfigures the Buddhist dharma. In a time of unparalleled peril, Buddhists are challenged as never before to turn wisdom into strategic action to foster systemic social change. Compassion is not enough. Prophetic Wisdom shows how Engaged Buddhists can expand their understanding of the causes of collective suffering and develop nonviolent means for social transformation through a dialectic of love, power, and justice. It concludes by confronting the poison of racism in the American body politic.

Download or read book Mudhouse Sabbath written by Lauren F. Winner and published by Paraclete Press. This book was released on 2015-08-01 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner’s original Mudhouse Sabbath has sold 45,000 copies, been translated into three languages, and spawned a successful video study series. After her conversion from Orthodox Judaism to Christianity, Winner found that her life was indelibly marked by the rich traditions and spiritual practices of Judaism. She here presents eleven Jewish practices that can transform the way Christians view the world and God, including attentive eating, mourning, candle-lighting, and Sabbath-keeping. Since first publishing the book, Lauren has earned her MDiv and PhD, and become an Episcopal priest. Her thought has deepened and developed. This new Study Edition incorporates the complete original text plus primary texts from Jewish and Christian sources, and new material on each of the eleven topics. The result is a powerful work for Christians wanting to explore in depth and understand the Jewish origins of Christianity. “At a time when we are so aware of the differences between Judaism and Christianity, Lauren Winner’s book on what we can learn from each other is so refreshingly welcome.”—Rabbi Harold Kushner, author of When Bad Things Happen to Good People

Download or read book The Return of Mother God written by Tony Scazzero and published by Tony Scazzero. This book was released on 2023-01-20 with total page 97 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Most people become upset and even angry when it’s suggested that the God they know as Lord and Father might also be called God the Mother. Yet a society that reveres the feminine creates beauty, love, and equality. More importantly, the return of Mother God is needed as conferring with Her will improve our thinking to better handle the challenges of life. The future prosperity of all countries would be ensured if men and women equally shared tasks working side by side. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that humanity will benefit from a kinder gender-balanced divinity. Since God is the male/female parent of all mankind, until the Divine Mother is welcome back into our hearts, humanity cannot fulfil their potential. Mother God brings the highest awareness with limitless nurturing.

Download or read book A Hole in the World written by Amanda Held Opelt and published by Worthy Books. This book was released on 2022-07-19 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a raw and inspiring reflection on grief--selected by Publishers Weekly as one of the best books of the year--a mourning sister processes her personal story of loss by exploring the history of bereavement customs.​ When Amanda Held Opelt suffered a season of loss—including three miscarriages and the unexpected death of her sister, New York Times bestselling writer Rachel Held Evans—she was confronted with sorrow she didn't know to how face. Opelt struggled to process her grief and accept the reality of the pain in the world. She also wrestled with some unexpectedly difficult questions: What does it mean to truly grieve and to grieve well? Why is it so hard to move on? Why didn’t my faith prepare me for this kind of pain? And what am I supposed to do now? Her search for answers led her to discover that generations past embraced rituals that served as vessels for pain and aided in the process of grieving and healing. Today, many of these traditions have been lost as religious practice declines, cultures amalgamate, death is sanitized, and pain is averted. In this raw and authentic memoir of bereavement, Opelt explores the history of human grief practices and how previous generations have journeyed through periods of suffering. She explores grief rituals and customs from various cultures, including: the Irish tradition of keening, or wailing in grief, which teaches her that healing can only begin when we dive headfirst into our grief the Victorian tradition of post-mortem photographs and how we struggle to recall a loved one as they were the Jewish tradition of sitting shiva, which reminds her to rest in the strength of her community even when God feels absent the tradition of mourning clothing, which set the bereaved apart in society for a time, allowing them space to honor their grief As Opelt explores each bereavement practice, it gives her a framework for processing her own pain. She shares how, in spite of her doubt and anger, God met her in the midst of sorrow and grieved along with her, and shows that when we carefully and honestly attend to our losses, we are able to expand our capacity for love, faith, and healing.

Download or read book Death in Medieval Europe written by Joelle Rollo-Koster and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2016-10-04 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Death in Medieval Europe: Death Scripted and Death Choreographed explores new cultural research into death and funeral practices in medieval Europe and demonstrates the important relationship between death and the world of the living in the Middle Ages. Across ten chapters, the articles in this volume survey the cultural effects of death. This volume explores overarching topics such as burials, commemorations, revenants, mourning practices and funerals, capital punishment, suspiscious death, and death registrations using case studies from across Europe including England, Iceland, and Spain. Together these chapters discuss how death was ritualised and choreographed, but also how it was expressed in writing throughout various documentary sources including wills and death registries. In each instance, records are analysed through a cultural framework to better understand the importance of the authors of death and their audience. Drawing together and building upon the latest scholarship, this book is essential reading for all students and academics of death in the medieval period.

Download or read book Maternal Grief in the Hebrew Bible written by Ekaterina E. Kozlova and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017-05-26 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Setting out from the observation made in the social sciences that maternal grief can at times be a motor of societal change, Ekaterina E. Kozlova demonstrates that a similar mechanism operates also in the biblical world. Kozlova argues that maternal grief is treated as a model or archetype of grief in biblical and Ancient Near Eastern literature. The work considers three narratives and one poem that illustrate the transformative power of maternal grief in the biblical presentation: Gen 21, Hagar and Ishmael in the desert; 2 Sam 21: 1-14, Rizpah versus King David; 2 Sam 14, the speech of the Tekoite woman; Jer 31: 15-22, Rachel weeping for her children. Although only one of the texts literally refers to a bereaved mother (2 Sam 21 on Rizpah), all four passages draw on the motif of maternal grief, and all four stage some form of societal transformation.

Download or read book Blessed Are the Peacemakers written by Helen Paynter and published by Zondervan Academic. This book was released on 2023-11-07 with total page 349 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume in Biblical Theology for Life series dives deeply into the topic of human violence. Before exploring what the Bible says about violence, Old Testament scholar Helen Paynter sets out the contours for the study ahead by addressing the various definitions of violence and the theories of its origins, prevalence, and purpose. What is violence? Is there such a thing as "natural violence"? Is violence a human or social construct or can we describe natural phenomena as violent? How does the concept of violence relate to the concept of evil? Violence is everywhere; is it escapable? How do we resist violence? Having queued up the questions, Paynter takes us to the Bible for answers. Starting with the creation narratives in Genesis considered in comparison with the ancient Near Eastern myths and moving to the conquest of Canaan--the most problematic of biblical narratives--she investigates how these deep myths speak to the origins of human violence and its consequences. The prevalence of violence through biblical history is inescapable. Scripture reveals the hydra-like nature of human violence, investigating types of violence including but not limited to: structural violence, verbal violence, sexual violence, violence as public /political act, racialised violence, including "othering." Through the voices of the prophets and then in the teaching of Jesus, the Bible reveals that the seeds of violence exist within every human heart. Even though we see evidence of resistance movements in the Bible, such as the responses to attempted genocide in Exodus and Esther, it is only on the cross that an absorption of violence by God takes place: a defeat of violence by self-sacrifice. Along the way, Paynter considers other relevant biblical themes, including the apocalypse, "crushing the serpent's head," and the concept of divine vengeance, culminating in the resurrected Christ's lack of vengeance against those who did him to death. In light of the New Testament, we will consider how the first Christians responded to the structural violence of slavery and patriarchy and how they began to apply Jesus' redemptive, non-vengeful theology to their own day. The book concludes by discussing of what this means for Christians today. For many of us who live without routine encounters with or threats of violence, we must consider our responsibility in a world where our experience is the exception. With attention to the multi-headed hydra that is violence and the concealed structures of violence in our own Western society, Paynter challenges readers to consider their own, perhaps inherited, privilege and complicity. The question of how we regard "others," both as individuals and as societies, is a deeply relevant and urgent one for the church: The church can and should be a wholly non-othering body. So what implications does this have for the church and, for example, Black Lives Matter or the rampant xenophobia in our society or immigration and global migration issues? How do we resist evil? What does it mean to turn the other cheek when the cheek that has been slapped is not our own? How do we resist the monster without becoming the monster?

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 Psalms written by Denise Dombkowski Hopkins and published by Liturgical Press. This book was released on 2016 with total page 464 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Feminist biblical interpretation has reached a level of maturity that now makes possible a commentary series on every book of the Bible. It is our hope that Wisdom Commentary, by making the best of current feminist biblical scholarship available in an accessible format ... will aid readers in their advancement toward God's vision of dignity, equality, and justice for all. - Book jacket.

Download or read book Claiming Her Dignity written by L. Juliana M. Claassens and published by Liturgical Press. This book was released on 2016 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: To be human means to resist dehumanization. In the darkest periods of human history, men and women have risen up and in many different voices said this one thing: Do not treat me like this. Treat me like the human being that I am. "Claiming Her Dignity "explores a number of stories from the Old Testament in which women in a variety of creative ways resist the violence of war, rape, heterarchy, and poverty. Amid the life-denying circumstances that seek to attack, violate, and destroy the bodies and psyches of women, men, and children, the women featured in this book absolutely refuse to succumb to the explicit, and at times subtle but no less harmful, manifestations of violence that they face."

Download or read book Looking Forward Looking Backward written by Fredrica Harris Thompsett and published by Church Publishing, Inc.. This book was released on 2014-05 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: * A wide-ranging exploration of the past, present, and future effects of women's ordination on the church * Edited by a well-respected theologian and featuring a diversity of voices from across the Anglican Communion This new book gauges the current and future impact and implications of women's ordination on the church, preaching, pastoral care, the episcopate, and on lay women across the Anglican Communion. The editor draws upon a rich variety of writers and thinkers for this new book.

Download or read book Contemporary Mission Theology written by Gallagher, Rogert L. and published by Orbis Books. This book was released on 2017-02-16 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Jesus Wept The Significance of Jesus Laments in the New Testament written by Rebekah Eklund and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2015-02-26 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Lament does not seem to be a pervasive feature of the New Testament, particularly when viewed in relation to the Old Testament. A careful investigation of the New Testament, however, reveals that it thoroughly incorporates the pattern of Old Testament lament into its proclamation of the gospel, especially in the person of Jesus Christ as he both prays and embodies lament. As an act that fundamentally calls upon God to be faithful to God's promises to Israel and to the church, lament in the New Testament becomes a prayer of longing for God's kingdom, which has been inaugurated in the ministry and resurrection of Jesus, fully to come.

Download or read book Our Divine Parent written by Joshua Joel Spoelstra and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2020-07-24 with total page 92 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Our Divine Parent traces the metaphorical theme of God's burgeoning family that spans the entire Bible. The family of God is a place of being, belonging, and becoming; and relationship with the Triune God as Divine Parent is characteristic of value and dignity, provision and protection, transformation and maturation, purpose and calling. Not merely a series of events relegated to the past, the family of God is an ongoing, present phenomenon--a salvation-relationship into which God invites all peoples to be adopted, redeemed children of God.

Download or read book Women in the Bible written by Jaime Clark-Soles and published by Westminster John Knox Press. This book was released on 2020-12-01 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What was it like to be a woman in the biblical period? It depended, in part, on who you were: a queen, a judge, a primary wife, a secondary wife, a widow, a slave, or some other kind of "ordinary woman." In Women in the Bible, Jaime Clark-Soles investigates how women are presented in Scripture, taking into account cultural views of both ancient societies as well as our own. While women today are exercising leadership in churches across a number of denominations and our scholarly knowledge related to women in the Bible has grown immensely, challenges remain. Most of Christendom still excludes women from religious leadership, and many Christians invoke the Bible to circumscribe women's leadership in the public square and in the home as well. It is more urgent than ever, therefore, to investigate closely, honestly, and intrepidly what the Bible does and doesn't say about women. In a multipronged approach, Clark-Soles treats well-known biblical women from fresh perspectives, highlights women who have been ignored, and recovers those who have been erased from historical memory by particular moves made in the transmission and translations of the text. She explores symbolic feminized figures like Woman Wisdom and the Whore of Babylon and reclaims the uses of feminine imagery in the Bible that often go unnoticed. Chapters focus on themes of God's relationship to gender, women and violence, women as creators, and women in the ministry of both Jesus and Paul. Clark-Soles aims to equip clergy and other leaders invested in the study of Scripture to consider women in the Bible from multiple angles and, as a result, help people of all genders to live God's vision of better, more just lives as we navigate the challenges of our complex, globally connected world. --- Table of Contents Series Foreword Acknowledgments Introduction 1. Of Canaanites and Canines: Matthew 15 2. God across Gender 3. Women and Violence in the Bible: Truth Telling, Solidarity, and Hope 4. Women Creating 5. The Book of Ruth: One of the "Women's Books" in the Bible 6. Magnificent Mary and Her Magnificat: Like Mother, Like Son 7. Women in Jesus’s Life and Ministry 8. Jesus across Gender 9. Women in Paul’s Ministry 10. The Muting of Paul and His Female Coworkers: Women in the Deutero-Pauline Epistles Conclusion: In the End, Toward the End (Goal): Truth, with Hope Works Cited Scripture Index Subject Index

Download or read book Hannevi ah and Hannah written by Nancy C Lee and published by James Clarke & Company. This book was released on 2016-07-28 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Is it possible to hear women prophets' utterances embedded within lyrics of prophetic books? If so, women prophets should be represented as implied composers along with men. A few scholars have raised this question, yet a clear method for discerningwomen's voices - apart from feminine grammatical forms, genres used, and women's perspectives - has not been offered. This study offers a reliable method, based on the sound patterns of lyrical Hebrew. It discerns a consistent, clear signature of women's composing more broadly, and a different signature of men's composing, across all lyrical genres and historical periods. This methodological key, when turned, unlocks and throws open a window on a significant women's Hebraic composing tradition,resounding in texts where women's voices are attributed, and where they are unattributed. There are also surprising ramifications here for the biblical narratives composed by women and rooted in oral tradition. Integrating indigenous cultural, postcolonial, feminist, and oral poetic approaches, this inquiry moves past closed doors of previous suppositions, including that ancient Israel was simply patriarchal. It also brings a new appreciation of the practice of female and male prophets lyricising in partnership, in an indigenous culture in which women, individually or as a group, were not always given credit for their contributions.