Nameless, Blameless, and Without Shame

Nameless, Blameless, and Without Shame

Author: Gina Hens-Piazza

Publisher: Liturgical Press

Published: 2003

Total Pages: 156

ISBN-13: 9780814659618

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Employing three venues of literary analysis (conventional literary criticism, new literary criticism, and postmodern literary criticism), this book conducts a character study of the two cannibal mothers before a king (2 Kings 6:24-33). Training our attention upon these minor characters yields major insights. In particular, the postmodern literary assessment discloses the violence encoded in texts by the privileging of the powerful and the empowering of the privileged. Moreover, the broader ties that such a character study yields connect these cannibal mothers to portraits of other pairs of biblical mothers and their plight (the two mothers before Solomon, Sarah and Hagar, Rachel and Leah) and prompt us to search for counter-stories in the biblical tradition and in our own lives opposing the violence embedded there. Book jacket.


Book Synopsis Nameless, Blameless, and Without Shame by : Gina Hens-Piazza

Download or read book Nameless, Blameless, and Without Shame written by Gina Hens-Piazza and published by Liturgical Press. This book was released on 2003 with total page 156 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Employing three venues of literary analysis (conventional literary criticism, new literary criticism, and postmodern literary criticism), this book conducts a character study of the two cannibal mothers before a king (2 Kings 6:24-33). Training our attention upon these minor characters yields major insights. In particular, the postmodern literary assessment discloses the violence encoded in texts by the privileging of the powerful and the empowering of the privileged. Moreover, the broader ties that such a character study yields connect these cannibal mothers to portraits of other pairs of biblical mothers and their plight (the two mothers before Solomon, Sarah and Hagar, Rachel and Leah) and prompt us to search for counter-stories in the biblical tradition and in our own lives opposing the violence embedded there. Book jacket.

Material Culture and Women's Religious Experience in Antiquity

Material Culture and Women's Religious Experience in Antiquity

Author: Mark D. Ellison

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2021-09-27

Total Pages: 363

ISBN-13: 1793611947

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How can material artifacts help illuminate the religious lives of women in antiquity? In what ways do archaeological and art historical studies recover women’s religious perspectives and experiences that the literary record misses or underrepresents? The authors of the essays in this volume set out to answer such questions in fascinating, new case studies of women and ancient religions in the Near East and Mediterranean world. They cover a broad historical, geographic, and religious spectrum as they explore women’s lives from the time of ancient Egypt in the second millennium BCE into the early medieval period, from the Syrian Desert to Western Europe, in the religious traditions of Egypt, Canaan, Greece, Rome, ancient Israel, early Judaism, and early Christianity. Working at the intersections of religion, archaeology, art history, and women’s history, these authors make fresh contributions to interdisciplinary studies, and their essays will be of interest to students and scholars across these academic fields.


Book Synopsis Material Culture and Women's Religious Experience in Antiquity by : Mark D. Ellison

Download or read book Material Culture and Women's Religious Experience in Antiquity written by Mark D. Ellison and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2021-09-27 with total page 363 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How can material artifacts help illuminate the religious lives of women in antiquity? In what ways do archaeological and art historical studies recover women’s religious perspectives and experiences that the literary record misses or underrepresents? The authors of the essays in this volume set out to answer such questions in fascinating, new case studies of women and ancient religions in the Near East and Mediterranean world. They cover a broad historical, geographic, and religious spectrum as they explore women’s lives from the time of ancient Egypt in the second millennium BCE into the early medieval period, from the Syrian Desert to Western Europe, in the religious traditions of Egypt, Canaan, Greece, Rome, ancient Israel, early Judaism, and early Christianity. Working at the intersections of religion, archaeology, art history, and women’s history, these authors make fresh contributions to interdisciplinary studies, and their essays will be of interest to students and scholars across these academic fields.

Mourner, Mother, Midwife

Mourner, Mother, Midwife

Author: L. Juliana M. Claassens

Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press

Published: 2012-01-01

Total Pages: 140

ISBN-13: 066423836X

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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


Book Synopsis Mourner, Mother, Midwife by : L. Juliana M. Claassens

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

Isn't This Bathsheba?

Isn't This Bathsheba?

Author: Sara M. Koenig

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2011-11-08

Total Pages: 201

ISBN-13: 1608994279

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Bathsheba is undeniably a minor character in the biblical plotline, appearing in only four chapters in Samuel and Kings combined, and even therein saying and doing very little. Thus she is often ignored or mentioned merely parenthetically. When Bathsheba has been considered, she has been depicted in a myriad of ways on the spectrum from helpless victim to hapless seductress. In fact, with so many different interpretations of her throughout the centuries, it is easy to find oneself asking, along with the anonymous informant in 2 Sam 11:3, "Isn't this Bathsheba?"This study argues that while she is a minor character, Bathsheba is complex and positive, and shows development from when she first appears in Samuel to when she fades out of the story in Kings. Koenig compares close and careful reading of Bathsheba in the Masoretic Text with the story as it appears in the versions of the Septuagint, the Peshitta, and the Targum of Jonathan. In those versions, Bathsheba's characterization as a complex, generally positive individual and as a character who shows development remains consistent with the Masoretic Text: not in spite of the changes from the Hebrew into Greek, Syriac, and Aramaic, but because of them. This study also considers how Bathsheba is portrayed in early Jewish interpretations from Josephus, the Talmud, and rabbinic Midrash. Even there, the portrayal of Bathsheba is rich and positive. Studying Bathsheba's character has implications for a broader understanding of how texts are read, how meanings are gathered, and how characters are built.


Book Synopsis Isn't This Bathsheba? by : Sara M. Koenig

Download or read book Isn't This Bathsheba? written by Sara M. Koenig and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2011-11-08 with total page 201 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bathsheba is undeniably a minor character in the biblical plotline, appearing in only four chapters in Samuel and Kings combined, and even therein saying and doing very little. Thus she is often ignored or mentioned merely parenthetically. When Bathsheba has been considered, she has been depicted in a myriad of ways on the spectrum from helpless victim to hapless seductress. In fact, with so many different interpretations of her throughout the centuries, it is easy to find oneself asking, along with the anonymous informant in 2 Sam 11:3, "Isn't this Bathsheba?"This study argues that while she is a minor character, Bathsheba is complex and positive, and shows development from when she first appears in Samuel to when she fades out of the story in Kings. Koenig compares close and careful reading of Bathsheba in the Masoretic Text with the story as it appears in the versions of the Septuagint, the Peshitta, and the Targum of Jonathan. In those versions, Bathsheba's characterization as a complex, generally positive individual and as a character who shows development remains consistent with the Masoretic Text: not in spite of the changes from the Hebrew into Greek, Syriac, and Aramaic, but because of them. This study also considers how Bathsheba is portrayed in early Jewish interpretations from Josephus, the Talmud, and rabbinic Midrash. Even there, the portrayal of Bathsheba is rich and positive. Studying Bathsheba's character has implications for a broader understanding of how texts are read, how meanings are gathered, and how characters are built.

Lamentations

Lamentations

Author: Gina Hens-Piazza

Publisher: Liturgical Press

Published: 2017

Total Pages: 168

ISBN-13: 0814681549

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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.


Book Synopsis Lamentations by : Gina Hens-Piazza

Download or read book Lamentations written by Gina Hens-Piazza and published by Liturgical Press. This book was released on 2017 with total page 168 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.

Transgression and Transformation

Transgression and Transformation

Author: L. Juliana Claassens

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2021-07-15

Total Pages: 225

ISBN-13: 0567696286

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This volume on feminist, postcolonial and queer biblical interpretation gathers perspectives from a global body of researchers; in offering innovative interpretations of key texts from the Hebrew Bible, both established and emerging biblical scholars consider the question of how commonplace interpretative practices may be considered to be transgressive in nature. Utilizing innovative strategies, they read against the grain of the text and in support of the marginalized, the subordinated or subaltern others both in the text and in our world today. Important questions regarding power and privilege are constantly raised: whose voices are being heard, and whose interests are being served? Knowing all too well the harm that stereotypical constructions of the Other can do in terms of feeding racism, sexism, homophobia and imperialism in their respective interpretative communities, the essays in this volume interrogate constructions of ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and class, both in the text as well as in their respective contexts. By means of these thought-provoking interpretations, the contributors show their commitment not merely the sake of scholarship but to a scholarly ethos, which in some shape or form contributes to the cultivation of more just, equitable societies.


Book Synopsis Transgression and Transformation by : L. Juliana Claassens

Download or read book Transgression and Transformation written by L. Juliana Claassens and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2021-07-15 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume on feminist, postcolonial and queer biblical interpretation gathers perspectives from a global body of researchers; in offering innovative interpretations of key texts from the Hebrew Bible, both established and emerging biblical scholars consider the question of how commonplace interpretative practices may be considered to be transgressive in nature. Utilizing innovative strategies, they read against the grain of the text and in support of the marginalized, the subordinated or subaltern others both in the text and in our world today. Important questions regarding power and privilege are constantly raised: whose voices are being heard, and whose interests are being served? Knowing all too well the harm that stereotypical constructions of the Other can do in terms of feeding racism, sexism, homophobia and imperialism in their respective interpretative communities, the essays in this volume interrogate constructions of ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and class, both in the text as well as in their respective contexts. By means of these thought-provoking interpretations, the contributors show their commitment not merely the sake of scholarship but to a scholarly ethos, which in some shape or form contributes to the cultivation of more just, equitable societies.

Exploring Christian Spirituality

Exploring Christian Spirituality

Author: Bruce H. Lescher

Publisher: Paulist Press

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 260

ISBN-13: 9780809142163

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Sandra Schneiders commands respect as one of the most significant and influential figures in the emergence of the study of Christian spirituality as an academic discipline, as the focused and disciplined exploration of religious experience. This book honors her contributions to the field by addressing issues that are emerging at the creative "edges" of the discipline. In this volume, colleagues and students of Dr. Schneiders and other collaborators in the academic discipline of Christian spirituality examine crucial issues from their various disciplinary and methodological perspectives. Questions of methodology address the status of spirituality as a discipline, interdisciplinarity, and self-implication. Other essays explore the "edges" of Christian spirituality and biblical spirituality, gender studies, the natural sciences, nature writing, the social sciences, and interfaith issues. This collection of essays will provoke students and scholars of Christian spirituality, as well as practitioners, to continue critically thinking, discussing, writing, and practicing it.


Book Synopsis Exploring Christian Spirituality by : Bruce H. Lescher

Download or read book Exploring Christian Spirituality written by Bruce H. Lescher and published by Paulist Press. This book was released on 2006 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sandra Schneiders commands respect as one of the most significant and influential figures in the emergence of the study of Christian spirituality as an academic discipline, as the focused and disciplined exploration of religious experience. This book honors her contributions to the field by addressing issues that are emerging at the creative "edges" of the discipline. In this volume, colleagues and students of Dr. Schneiders and other collaborators in the academic discipline of Christian spirituality examine crucial issues from their various disciplinary and methodological perspectives. Questions of methodology address the status of spirituality as a discipline, interdisciplinarity, and self-implication. Other essays explore the "edges" of Christian spirituality and biblical spirituality, gender studies, the natural sciences, nature writing, the social sciences, and interfaith issues. This collection of essays will provoke students and scholars of Christian spirituality, as well as practitioners, to continue critically thinking, discussing, writing, and practicing it.

Valuable and Vulnerable

Valuable and Vulnerable

Author: Julie Faith Parker

Publisher: Society of Biblical Lit

Published: 2013-11-11

Total Pages: 269

ISBN-13: 1930675860

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Just as women in the Bible have been overlooked for much of interpretative history, children in the Bible have fascinating and compelling stories that scholars have largely ignored. This groundbreaking book focuses on children in the Hebrew Bible. The author argues that the biblical writers recognized children as different from adults and used these ideas to shape their stories. She provides conceptual and historical frameworks for understanding children and childhood, and examines Hebrew terms related to children and youth. The book introduces a new methodology of childist interpretation and applies it to the Elisha cycle (2 Kings 2-8), which contains forty-nine child characters. Combining literary insights with social-scientific evidence, the author demonstrates that children play critical roles in the world of the text as well as the culture that produced it.


Book Synopsis Valuable and Vulnerable by : Julie Faith Parker

Download or read book Valuable and Vulnerable written by Julie Faith Parker and published by Society of Biblical Lit. This book was released on 2013-11-11 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Just as women in the Bible have been overlooked for much of interpretative history, children in the Bible have fascinating and compelling stories that scholars have largely ignored. This groundbreaking book focuses on children in the Hebrew Bible. The author argues that the biblical writers recognized children as different from adults and used these ideas to shape their stories. She provides conceptual and historical frameworks for understanding children and childhood, and examines Hebrew terms related to children and youth. The book introduces a new methodology of childist interpretation and applies it to the Elisha cycle (2 Kings 2-8), which contains forty-nine child characters. Combining literary insights with social-scientific evidence, the author demonstrates that children play critical roles in the world of the text as well as the culture that produced it.

Elisha's Profile in the Book of Kings

Elisha's Profile in the Book of Kings

Author: Keith Bodner

Publisher: OUP Oxford

Published: 2013-07-25

Total Pages: 191

ISBN-13: 0191503169

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Elisha's Profile in the Book of Kings uses the tools of literary criticism to read the Elisha narrative as an integral component of the Deuteronomistic History compiled in the aftermath of the Babylonian invasion and destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BCE. From his investiture in 1 Kings 19 to his final cameo in 2 Kings 13, Elisha the prophet has one of the most extensively-narrated careers in Israel's royal history. During a particularly dark and contested era where the corrupt northern kings hold sway, Elisha enters the ideological battleground and boldly raises his voice and performs remarkable signs to stem the tide of injustice and religious inconstancy. Empowered by a double portion of his master Elijah's spirit, Elisha is a double agent who continues the task of dismantling the Omride dynasty. Moving between the international stage and more domestic locales, Elisha travels widely and interacts with a host of characters from virtually every socio-economic category, visiting foreign capitals and cities under siege as well as wealthy homes and obscure villages. With actions that range from feeding a multitude to mind-reading and raising the dead, Elisha's performance eclipses that of his master and ensures a lasting place in ancient Israel's prophetic heritage.


Book Synopsis Elisha's Profile in the Book of Kings by : Keith Bodner

Download or read book Elisha's Profile in the Book of Kings written by Keith Bodner and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2013-07-25 with total page 191 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Elisha's Profile in the Book of Kings uses the tools of literary criticism to read the Elisha narrative as an integral component of the Deuteronomistic History compiled in the aftermath of the Babylonian invasion and destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BCE. From his investiture in 1 Kings 19 to his final cameo in 2 Kings 13, Elisha the prophet has one of the most extensively-narrated careers in Israel's royal history. During a particularly dark and contested era where the corrupt northern kings hold sway, Elisha enters the ideological battleground and boldly raises his voice and performs remarkable signs to stem the tide of injustice and religious inconstancy. Empowered by a double portion of his master Elijah's spirit, Elisha is a double agent who continues the task of dismantling the Omride dynasty. Moving between the international stage and more domestic locales, Elisha travels widely and interacts with a host of characters from virtually every socio-economic category, visiting foreign capitals and cities under siege as well as wealthy homes and obscure villages. With actions that range from feeding a multitude to mind-reading and raising the dead, Elisha's performance eclipses that of his master and ensures a lasting place in ancient Israel's prophetic heritage.

Searching for Sarah in the Second Temple Era

Searching for Sarah in the Second Temple Era

Author: Joseph McDonald

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2020-02-20

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13: 0567689131

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Seeking to build upon recent scholarship based on Biblical women, Joseph McDonald uses a character-centered literary approach to read the story of Sarah as it was told and retold in the Second Temple period. McDonald offers an alternative to the usual approaches to “rewritten Bible” narratives, which often emphasize near-context, synoptic comparison of retold stories and their scriptural precursors, arguing that examination of retold narratives as narratives reveals important aspects of their internal literary effects, that may otherwise go unnoticed. Taken together, McDonald suggests that such readings reveal one of Sarah's trans-narrative or “deep traits,” as a curious, multi-faceted resemblance to the character of Abraham. The richness of her images, however, shows that this resemblance is not the ultimate distillation of Sarah, but a symptom of the kind of restriction that she consistently faces in this literature. McDonald concludes that creative readings of the narratives featuring Sarah in the Hebrew Bible, the Septuagint, the Genesis Apocryphon, and the Jewish Antiquities of Josephus illuminate Sarah as a complex and sometimes contradictory figure, whose individuality and agency often struggle to escape limitations placed upon her – both by other characters, such as Abraham and God, and by the narrators of her tales.


Book Synopsis Searching for Sarah in the Second Temple Era by : Joseph McDonald

Download or read book Searching for Sarah in the Second Temple Era written by Joseph McDonald and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2020-02-20 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seeking to build upon recent scholarship based on Biblical women, Joseph McDonald uses a character-centered literary approach to read the story of Sarah as it was told and retold in the Second Temple period. McDonald offers an alternative to the usual approaches to “rewritten Bible” narratives, which often emphasize near-context, synoptic comparison of retold stories and their scriptural precursors, arguing that examination of retold narratives as narratives reveals important aspects of their internal literary effects, that may otherwise go unnoticed. Taken together, McDonald suggests that such readings reveal one of Sarah's trans-narrative or “deep traits,” as a curious, multi-faceted resemblance to the character of Abraham. The richness of her images, however, shows that this resemblance is not the ultimate distillation of Sarah, but a symptom of the kind of restriction that she consistently faces in this literature. McDonald concludes that creative readings of the narratives featuring Sarah in the Hebrew Bible, the Septuagint, the Genesis Apocryphon, and the Jewish Antiquities of Josephus illuminate Sarah as a complex and sometimes contradictory figure, whose individuality and agency often struggle to escape limitations placed upon her – both by other characters, such as Abraham and God, and by the narrators of her tales.