Download or read book Sexual Politics in the Biblical Narrative written by Esther Fuchs and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2003-04-01 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is for anyone interested in religious studies and women's studies, as well as for biblical scholars. It offers a feminist oppositional reading of the biblical text. The main argument is that the Bible constructs a fictional universe in which women are shown to be intent on promoting male interests, and, for the most part, appear as secondary characters whose voice and point of view are often suppressed. In their limited roles as mothers, wives, daughters and sisters, women are constructed as male-dependent pawns intent on securing the status of their male counterparts. The Biblical narrative highlights the contribution of women as reproductive agents and protectors of sons. In this challenging collection of essays, Fuchs focuses on type-scenes as a way of demonstrating the mechanisms by which the texts validates male power and superiority. She also deconstructs the Biblical sexual politics by asking whose interest is being served by the 'good' women of the Bible.Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement series, Volume 310.

Download or read book Women in the Hebrew Bible written by Alice Bach and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-10-31 with total page 566 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Women in the Hebrew Bible presents the first one-volume overview covering the interpretation of women's place in man's world within the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament. Written by the major scholars in the field of biblical studies and literary theory, these essays examine attitudes toward women and their status in ancient Near Eastern societies, focusing on the Israelite society portrayed by the Hebrew Bible.

Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Biblical Narrative written by Danna Fewell and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2016-06-01 with total page 657 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Comprised of contributions from scholars across the globe, The Oxford Handbook of Biblical Narrative is a state-of-the-art anthology, offering critical treatments of both the Bible's narratives and topics related to the Bible's narrative constructions. The Handbook covers the Bible's narrative literature, from Genesis to Revelation, providing concise overviews of literary-critical scholarship as well as innovative readings of individual narratives informed by a variety of methodological approaches and theoretical frameworks. The volume as a whole combines literary sensitivities with the traditional historical and sociological questions of biblical criticism and puts biblical studies into intentional conversation with other disciplines in the humanities. It reframes biblical literature in a way that highlights its aesthetic characteristics, its ethical and religious appeal, its organic qualities as communal literature, its witness to various forms of social and political negotiation, and its uncanny power to affect readers and hearers across disparate time-frames and global communities.

Download or read book From Deborah to Esther written by Lillian Rae Klein and published by Fortress Press. This book was released on 2003 with total page 170 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Hebrew Bible's fascinating narratives about women have occasioned some of the most important biblical scholarship of the last generation. Lillian Klein contributes to that wealth with her absorbing studies of key figures in the narrative material: Deborah, Jephtha's daughter, Delilah, Jael, the whore of Gaza, Kaleb's daughter Achsah, Hannah, Esther, the wife of Job, David's wife Michal, and Bathsheba. With a marvelous eye for the telling detail -- or its absence -- Klein examines the biblical portraits, often unfortunately brief, of these women and the dynamics of gender, power, and honor at work in their stories. A remarkably lucid and careful scholar, Klein has surfaced the underlying and ironic ideals of womanhood in a society that both honored and marginalized women in stories of seduction and rivalry, deviation and obedience, public shame and private power.

Download or read book The Bible after Babel written by John J. Collins and published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. This book was released on 2005-11-15 with total page 222 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Biblical scholars today often sound as if they are caught in the aftermath of Babel -- a clamor of voices unable to reach common agreement. Yet is this confusion necessarily a bad thing? Many postmodern critics see the recent profusion of critical approaches as a welcome opportunity for the emergence of diverse new techniques. In The Bible after Babel noted biblical scholar John J. Collins considers the effect of the postmodern situation on biblical, primarily Old Testament, criticism over the last three decades. Engaging and even-handed, Collins examines the quest of historical criticism to objectively establish a text's basic meaning. Accepting that the Bible may no longer provide secure "foundations" for faith, Collins still highlights its ethical challenge to be concerned for "the other" -- a challenge central both to Old Testament ethics and to the teaching of Jesus.

Download or read book Feminist Theory and the Bible written by Esther Fuchs and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2016-02-23 with total page 161 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Feminist Theory and the Bible: Interrogating the Sources conceptualizes, contextualizes and maps a new kind of burgeoning scholarship that has grown up in recent decades. This scholarship emerged in the margins of Feminist Studies and Biblical Studies and has yet to find a foothold in either one of these more established contexts. In this book, Esther Fuchs argues that in order to find an enduring, stable place in the academe, this scholarship requires a theoretical perspective. Biblical Studies as a whole has not yet been sufficiently theorized as an academic field, and currently consists of multiple disciplines relying for the most part on traditional scholarly discourses. In this regard, Feminist Biblical Studies is both a departure from and an important supplement to both Feminist Studies and Biblical Studies.

Download or read book A Better Story written by Glynn Harrison and published by Inter-Varsity Press. This book was released on 2017-01-19 with total page 159 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The architects of the sexual revolution won over the popular imagination because they knew the power of story. They drew together radical new ideologies, often complex and hard to grasp, and melded them into the simpler structure of narrative. Crucially, they cast narratives that appealed to the moral instincts of ordinary, decent people. This moral vision overwhelmed the church and silenced its faltering apologists. The author argues that if Christians still believe they have have good news in the sphere of sexual ethics, then two big tasks lie ahead. Our first priority is to work out what has gone so badly wrong, both in our understanding and application of what the Bible teaches and the way we have presented our case to the non-churched. And then we must offer a better story, one that fires the imagination with such force that people will say, 'I want that to be true.' This book offers a confident, biblically rooted moral vision which needs to be shared with prayer and courage.

Download or read book Deborah s Daughters written by Joy A. Schroeder and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2014 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Joy A. Schroeder explores centuries of Jewish and Christian interpretations of the biblical story of Deborah, an authoritative judge, prophet, and war leader who violently defeated her enemies.

Download or read book Feminist Expositions of the Old Testament in Africa Tanzania in the Context of the Office Held by Deborah in Judges 4 and 5 written by Hoyce Lyimo-Mbowe and published by Logos Verlag Berlin GmbH. This book was released on 2015 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Both women and men were leaders since ancient times; however, few female leaders are reported. Deborah is one of the powerful female leaders during the ancient Israel. This work explored the feminist expositions of the Old Testament in Africa, with focus on the context of the offices held by Deborah as narrated in the book of Judges Chapter 4 and 5. The exegetical part shed light onto the role played by the female leaders among the Israelites. The feminist paradigms in Judges 4 and 5 demonstrate how female characters in these chapters construct a way to disagree with what seems to oppress women and deny their leadership capability. The findings of this study determine that gender should not be perceived as having an effect on leadership in general.

Download or read book The Liturgy of Politics written by Kaitlyn Schiess and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2020-09-08 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A generation of young Christians are weary of the political legacy they've inherited. Could it be that the church's politics are shaped by its habits and practices? Contending that we must recognize the formative power of the political forces around us, Kaitlyn Schiess urges the church to recover historic Christian practices that shape us according to the truth of the gospel.

Download or read book Gendered Violence in Biblical Narrative written by Esther Brownsmith and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2024-04-15 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book uses three examples of violent biblical stories about women, explored through the lens of conceptual metaphor theory in relation to culinary language used within these texts, to examine wider issues of gender and sexual violence in the Hebrew Bible. Utilising the tools of conceptual metaphor theory, feminist criticism, and classic textual analysis, Brownsmith interrogates some of the most troubling biblical passages for women—neither by redeeming them nor by condemning them, but by showing how they are intrinsically shaped by the enduring metaphor of woman as food in the Hebrew Bible, ancient Near East, and beyond. The volume explores three main case studies: the Levite’s “concubine” (Judges 19); Tamar and Amnon (2 Sam 13); and the life and death of Jezebel (primarily 1 Kings 21 and 2 Kings 9). All depict violence toward a woman as perpetrated by a man, interwoven with culinary language that cues their metaphorical implications. In these sensitive but critical readings of violent tales, Brownsmith also draws on a broad range of interdisciplinary connections from Ricoeur to ancient Ugaritic epics to modern comic books. Through this approach, readers gain new insights into how the Bible shapes its narratives through conceptual metaphors, and specifically how it makes meaning out of women’s brutalized bodies. Gendered Violence in Biblical Narrative: The Devouring Metaphor is suitable for students and scholars working on gender and sexual violence in the Hebrew Bible and the ancient Near East more broadly, as well as those working on conceptual metaphor theory and feminist criticism.

Download or read book The Passionate Torah written by Danya Ruttenberg and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2009-06-01 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this unique collection of essays, some of today’s smartest Jewish thinkers explore a broad range of fundamental questions in an effort to balance ancient tradition and modern sexuality In the last few decades a number of factors—post-modernism, feminism, queer liberation, and more—have brought discussion of sexuality to the fore, and with it a whole new set of questions that challenge time-honored traditions and ways of thinking. For Jews of all backgrounds, this has often led to an unhappy standoff between tradition and sexual empowerment. Yet as The Passionate Torah illustrates, it is of critical importance to see beyond this apparent conflict if Jews are to embrace both their religious beliefs and their sexuality. With incisive essays from contemporary rabbis, scholars, thinkers, and writers, this collection not only surveys the challenges that sexuality poses to Jewish belief, but also offers fresh new perspectives and insights on the changing place of sexuality within Jewish theology—and Jewish lives. Covering topics such as monogamy, inter-faith relationships, reproductive technology, homosexuality, and a host of other hot-button issues, these writings consider how contemporary Jews can engage themselves, their loved ones, and their tradition in a way that’s both sexy and sanctified. Seeking to deepen the Jewish conversation about sexuality, The Passionate Torah brings together brilliant thinkers in an attempt to bridge the gap between the sacred and the sexual. Contributors: Rebecca Alpert, Wendy Love Anderson, Judith R. Baskin, Aryeh Cohen, Elliot Dorff, Esther Fuchs, Bonna Haberman, Elliot Kukla, Gail Labovitz, Malka Landau, Sarra Lev, Laura Levitt, Sara Meirowitz, Jay Michaelson, Haviva Ner-David, Danya Ruttenberg, Naomi Seidman, and Arthur Waskow.

Download or read book Ethical Ambiguity in the Hebrew Bible written by Shira Weiss and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2018-06-30 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this book, Shira Weiss elucidates the moral tradition of the Hebrew Bible by subjecting ethically challenging biblical texts to moral philosophical analysis. Examining the most essential questions of Jewish Thought, she uses contemporary philosophy to decipher Scriptural ethics as uncovered from a variety of biblical stories. Aided by ancient, medieval, and contemporary resources, Weiss presents a comprehensive discussion of enduring ethical questions that arise from biblical narrative and continue to be contested in modern times. She shows how such analysis can unsettle assumptions and beliefs, as well as foster moral reflection. Ethical Ambiguity in the Hebrew Bible will be of interest to scholars and students of ethics, philosophy, Jewish thought, biblical theology, and exegesis.

Download or read book The Absence of God in Biblical Rape Narratives written by Leah Rediger Schulte and published by Fortress Press. This book was released on 2017-08-15 with total page 173 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this groundbreaking work to identify and address God’s absence in three key rape narratives in the Hebrew Bible, Leah Rediger Schulte finds a pattern that indicates a larger community crisis. With a careful look at Genesis 34, Judges 19, and 2 Samuel 13, this study outlines God’s absence, a foreign presence, and a persistent problem that is resolved incorrectly to highlight consequences of the Israelites breaking their covenant with God. Using methodologies from literary criticism and gender studies and situating rape in its historical context, this volume makes distinctions between modern constructs of rape and biblical rape. Commentaries and studies on rape in the Bible often read a modern understanding of the victim and rapist back into the biblical text, missing how it would have been understood in ancient Israel. These biblical rape scenes are intimately connected to and assist in telling the story of Israel’s history as a people and their covenantal relationship with their deity.

Download or read book Feminist Companion to Judges written by Athalya Brenner-Idan and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 1993-11-01 with total page 243 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book of Judges is replete with female figurations, and has, therefore, received a lot of attention from feminist critics. This volume of essays, however, changes the motivation behind this apparent centrality of female figures, claiming that in fact strong androcentric premises underlie the texts. The overall theme of this sparkling collection focusses on wives, daughters and mothers, and their relationships. An introductory section surveys the women of Judges, investigation satire, paradigm and deviation and the midrashic sources; Brenner and Van Dyck investigate the story and song of Deborah; Fuchs and Exum turn their attention to Jephthah's daughter; Amit and Reinhartz look at women in the Samson story. Finally, three essays, including one by Mieke Bal, deal with the brutal finale of the book in chapters 19-21.

Download or read book Wom b an A Cultural Narrative Reading of the Hebrew Bible Barrenness Narratives written by Janice P. De-Whyte and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2018-06-12 with total page 332 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Wom(b)an: A Cultural-Narrative Reading of the Hebrew Bible Barrenness Narratives Janice Pearl Ewurama De-Whyte offers a reading of the Hebrew Bible barrenness narratives. The original word “wom(b)an” visually underscores the centrality of a productive womb to female identity in the ANE and Hebrew contexts. Conversely, barrenness was the ultimate tragedy and shame of a woman. Utilizing Akan cultural custom as a lens through which to read the Hebrew barrenness tradition, De-Whyte uncovers another kind of barrenness within these narratives. Her term “social barrenness” depicts the various situations of childlessness that are generally unrecognized in western cultures due to the western biomedical definitions of infertility. Whether biological or social, barrenness was perceived to be the greatest threat to a woman’s identity and security as well as the continuity of the lineage. Wom(b)an examines these narratives in light of the cultural meanings of barrenness within traditional cultures, ancient and present.

Download or read book The Understanding of Adultery in the Hebrew Bible written by Alexander Izuchukwu Abasili and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2016-06-09 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Adultery, though not an umbrella concept for all the sexual prohibitions in the Hebrew Bible, enjoys a certain pride of place. Remarkably, it is the one sexual prohibition attested in all biblical genres, which makes it very representative in the Hebrew Bible. It is the only Hebrew biblical sexual prohibition explicitly mentioned in the Decalogue. A solid understanding of Hebrew biblical adultery, therefore, is an important step towards grasping the vital role of human sexuality in the Hebrew Bible, both in terms of inter-human relationships and the relationship between the human and the divine. Without prejudice to the contents of the Hebrew biblical lexicons and theological dictionaries, this work aims at providing a comprehensive understanding of adultery in the Hebrew Bible: its meaning, punishments and the implications thereof. Among others, it corrects some wrong assumptions about the concept of adultery in the Hebrew Bible, and provides a balanced and unbiased Hebrew biblical conception of adultery and the implications thereof for todays couples.