You may have to Search all our reviewed books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
This new textbook outlines a gender-critical perspective on the New Testament and other early Christian writings.
A collection of essays on early Christian, Jewish and Greco-Roman religious discourses in antiquity, focusing on the construction of gender in relationship to broader cultural and religious themes, argumentation and identity formation in the early centuries of the common era.
"Children's Bibles are often the first encounter people have with the Bible, shaping their perceptions of its stories and characters at an early age. The material under discussion in this book not only includes traditional children's Bibles but also more recent phenomena such as manga Bibles and animated films for children. The book highlights the complex and even tense relationship between text and image in these Bibles, which is discussed from different angles in the essays. Their shared focus is on the representation of 'others' foreigners, enemies, women, even children themselves in predominantly Hebrew Bible stories. The contributors are Tim Beal, Ruth B. Bottigheimer, Melody Briggs, Rubn R. Dupertuis, Emma England, J. Cheryl Exum, Danna Nolan Fewell, David M. Gunn, Laurel Koepf, Archie Chi Chung Lee, Jeremy Punt, Hugh S. Pyper, Cynthia M. Rogers, Mark Roncace, Susanne Scholz, Jaqueline S. du Toit, and Caroline Vander Stichele" -- Publisher description.
None
This collection of essays, originating in the SBL International Meetings in Berlin (2002) and Cambridge (2003), explores the current reception of historical criticism in feminist biblical studies, pushing the boundaries of past study and opening new vistas for future research. By framing the discussion in the context of the current reevaluation of both historical criticism and feminist exegesis, the contributors highlight the ongoing need to engage methodological issues. In addition, a strong postcolonial emphasis throughout the volume challenges the hegemony of Western biblical interpretation, promoting a format of dialogue and engagement. The collection brings together diverse cultural and...
Reading Heikki Räisänen’s hermeneutics in context, Timo Eskola explores the development of Western New Testament interpretation. Reclaiming a Wredean approach to the Scriptures, Räisänen focuses on tradition and interpretation. He builds on Weberian sociology, adopted through Peter Berger’s theories, and substitutes sacralized culturalism for biblical theology. After examining fourteenth century Quran-criticism and its impact on Reimarus, Eskola discusses the genesis of the revised history-of-religion theory that Räisänen developed when investigating the Quran’s relationship to the Bible. Sociology then becomes a link between standard historicism and poststructuralism as Räisänen reinterprets Berger’s sociology of knowledge. Räisänen’s sacralized culturalism finally becomes the theory from which his magnum opus The Rise of Christian Beliefs has been written.
The last thirty years have witnessed increasing diversity in methodology and perspectives within biblical studies. One of the most dynamic and continually expanding contributions to this development is that of postcolonial studies, known for its fresh approaches as well as for its complex theoretical foundations. The present book aims at introducing both student and scholar to this emerging field. Part One discusses in a structured and pedagogical way the theoretical location of postcolonial biblical studies as well as its critique of and contributions to New Testament exegesis more specifically. Part Two presents five articles by scholars from Africa, Asia, and North America, illustrating the diversity of current postcolonial studies as applied to individual New Testament texts.
In this book, Colleen Conway looks at the construction of masculinity in New Testament depictions of Jesus. She argues that the New Testament writers necessarily engaged the predominant gender ideology of the Roman Empire, whether consciously or unconsciously. Although the notion of what constituted ideal masculinity in Greek and Roman cultures certainly pre-dated the Roman Empire, the emergence of the Principate concentrated this gender ideology on the figure of the emperor. Indeed, critical to the success of the empire was the portrayal of the emperor as the ideal man and the Roman citizen as one who aspired to be the same. Any person who was held up alongside the emperor as another source...
While most scholars focus on the character of Cornelius as a model Gentile, Bonnie Flessen argues that Cornelius is also a model male figure for Luke's audience. When analyzed closely, the characterization of Cornelius reveals a multifaceted rhetorical strategy regarding both gender and empire. This strategy lifts up a rather surprising portrait of an exemplary man who represents the Roman Empire and yet nevertheless manifests the virtues of submission, piety, and generosity. Flessen also proposes a hermeneutic of masculinity as a means to exegete Acts and other New Testament texts. This critical lens provides interpreters with a way of thinking about gender when female characters are absent or sparse. Although constructs of gender are embedded in texts, interpreters can use recent scholarship on masculinity along with extrabiblical evidence as tools to excavate the contours of the male figure in antiquity.
Luke’s Rhetorical Compositions offers new ideas in Lukan scholarship, especially in regard to Aelius Theon’s first-century rhetoric manual (Progymnasmata) and inter-textual, Lukan-Pauline, biblical studies. Two chapters deserve special mention: the material in chapter 3 is a groundbreaking discussion of Acts 2:38 in which its Greek verb tense speaks to the subsequent reception of the gift of the Holy Spirit following salvation, not coincident with salvation. In Acts 2:38 it is Luke’s intention to portray Peter as promising the gift of the Holy Spirit to hearers and to those beyond narrative time as a Pentecostal experience. Chapter 9 discusses Luke’s use of progymnasmatic examples in his descriptions of the salvation experience. It also discusses Luke’s clarification of Paul using narrative persuasion from Jesus tradition and history. Also, Luke’s use of basic soteriological vocabulary provides clarity and plausibility. His distinctive selection of examples from the Jesus tradition and his duplication of Paul’s soteriological vocabulary is very helpful.