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This paperback edition brings to a wide audience one of the most innovative and meaningful models of God for this post-Auschwitz era. In a thought-provoking return to the original Hebrew conception of God, which questions accepted conceptions of divine omnipotence, Jon Levenson defines God's authorship of the world as a consequence of his victory in his struggle with evil. He traces a flexible conception of God to the earliest Hebrew sources, arguing, for example, that Genesis 1 does not describe the banishment of evil but the attempt to contain the menace of evil in the world, a struggle that continues today.
Writing from a Jewish perspective, Jon Levenson reviews many often neglected theoretical questions. He focuses on the relationship between two interpretive communities--the community of scholars who are committed to the historical-critical method of biblical interpretation and the community responsible for the canonization and preservation of the Bible.
Many famous antique texts are misunderstood and many others have been completely dismissed, all because the literary style in which they were written is unfamiliar today. So argues Mary Douglas in this controversial study of ring composition, a technique which places the meaning of a text in the middle, framed by a beginning and ending in parallel. To read a ring composition in the modern linear fashion is to misinterpret it, Douglas contends, and today's scholars must reevaluate important antique texts from around the world. Found in the Bible and in writings from as far a field as Egypt, China, Indonesia, Greece, and Russia, ring composition is too widespread to have come from a single source. Does it perhaps derive from the way the brain works? What is its function in social contexts? The author examines ring composition, its principles and functions, in a cross-cultural way. She focuses on ring composition in Homer's Iliad, the Bible's book of Numbers, and, for a challenging modern example, Laurence Sterne's Tristram Shandy, developing a persuasive argument for reconstruing famous books and rereading neglected ones.
In this volume, Jon Levenson subjects the powerful story in Genesis of Abraham's calling, his experience in Canaan and Egypt, and his near-sacrifice of his beloved son Isaac to a careful literary and theological analysis.
“The best introduction I know to the Jewish faith presented in the Hebrew Scripture.” —Eugene B. Borowitz, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion A treasury of religious thought and faith—places the symbolic world of the Bible in its original context. “A challenging, exciting work in Jewish theology. Not to be missed.” —Ruth Segal Bernards, Sh’ma “A significant advance in Jewish-Christian understanding could be made if Christians would read Sinai & Zion.” —John Simpson, Provident Book Finder “Beautifully written, theologically sensitive, and ecumenical.” —Richard J. Clifford, S.J., Weston School of Theology “It is a book which has been longed for. It is also a very good book.” —T. R. Hobbs, Biblical Theology Bulletin “In this eminently readable work of biblical scholarship of the highest order, Levenson enables that Bible’s many voices to speak for themselves and yet communicate a coherent religious vision.” —Robert L. Cohn, Journal of Religion
"The near sacrifice and miraculous restoration of a beloved son is a central but largely overlooked theme in both Judaism and Christianity. This book explores how this notion of child sacrifice constitutes an overlooked bond between the two religions."--
Among the books of the Old Testament, the book of Esther presents significant interpretive problems. The book has been preserved in Greek and Hebrew texts that diverge greatly from each other. As a result, Jews and Protestants usually read a version of the book of Esther that is several chapters shorter than the one in most Catholic and Orthodox Bibles. Jon D. Levenson capably guides the reader through both the longer Greek version and the shorter Hebrew one, demonstrating their coherence and their differences. This commentary listens to the voices of modern scholarship as well as rabbinic interpretation, providing a wealth of interpretive results
This book offers a new framework for reading the Bible as a work of reason.
The topic of the election of Israel is one of the most controversial and difficult subjects in the entire Bible. Modern readers wonder why God would favour one specific people and why Israel in particular was chosen. This focused volume seeks to bring to a wide audience the on-going, rich theological dialogue on the election of Israel.
"Levenson provides a masterful reading of Jewish, Christian, and Islamic thinking that yielded three different portraits of Abraham. He sets the record straight about the biblical patriarch."---Sidney H. Griffith, author of The Church in the Shadow of the Mosque: Christians and Muslims in the World of Islam --Book Jacket.