Welcome to our book review site go-pdf.online!
You may have to Search all our reviewed books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
De-demonising the Old Testament
Judit M. Blair challenges the common view that azazel, lilith, deber, qeteb and reshef are names of 'demons' in the Hebrew Bible, claiming that major works on the subject proceed from the assumption that these terms were demons in the ancient Near East and /or later, or that they were deities who became 'demonised' by the authors of the Hebrew Bible. Without questioning the validity of traditional methods she supplements the existing works by making an exegesis based on a close reading of all the relevant texts of the Hebrew Bible in which these five terms occur. Close attention is paid to the linguistic, semantic, and structural levels of the texts. The emphasis is on a close examination of the immediate context in order to determine the function of each term. The author notes different signals within the texts, especially the use of the various poetical/rhetorical devices: personification, parallelism, similes, irony, and mythological elements.
The Transformation of Tĕhôm
Tehom, the Hebrew Bible’s primeval deep, is a powerful concept often overlooked outside of creation and conflict contexts. Primeval waters mark the boundary between life and death in the Hebrew Bible and the ancient Near East, representing the duality of both deliverance and judgment. This book examines all contexts of Tehom to explain its conceptual forms and use as a proper noun. Comparative methodology combined with affect and spatial theories provide new ways to understand how religious communities repurposed Tehom. These interpretations of Tehom empower resilience in times of suffering and oppression.
Magic at the Crossroads
Explore the Forbidden Path of the Ultimate Rebel When you separate the religious dogma from the symbolic nature of the devil, who really is he? Kate Freuler presents the infamous figure as a symbol, not a deity, and reveals how to use this radical philosophy to strengthen yourself and your witchcraft. The devil represents rebelling against all-powerful, oppressive systems of any kind. Through historical references, religious writings, and pop culture, this book explores the intersection between witchcraft and the rebel archetype. Freuler dispels common myths, providing examples from a variety of texts and personal stories about her own connection to this misunderstood symbol. She also shares a variety of hands-on rituals you can use for self-empowerment. From the devil's relationship with the old gods to the shadow work associated with him, Magic at the Crossroads invites you to see this controversial symbol with new eyes.
The Materiality of Power
"Were there countervailing cosmic realms ruled by Yahweh and Asherah in late pre-exilic Israel? Brian B. Schmidt presents five case studies corroborating the existence of a daimonic realm replete with intermediary protecticve spirits and a pandemonium that wreaked havoc upon both the living and dead. Having converged with Egypt's protective deities Bes and Beset, YHWH and Asherah also possessed the enhanced powers to govern a counteractive apotropaic realm from which Asherah mediated divine portections for humanity." -- bck cover
Evil, Spirits, and Possession
In Evil, Spirits, and Possession: An Emergentist Theology of the Demonic David Bradnick develops a multidisciplinary view of the demonic, using biblical-theological, social-scientific, and philosophical-scientific perspectives. Building upon the work of Pentecostal theologian Amos Yong, this book argues for a theology informed by emergence theory, whereby the demonic arises from evolutionary processes and exerts downward causal influence upon its constituent substrates. Consequently, evil does not result from conscious diabolic beings; rather it manifests as non-personal emergent forces that influence humans to initiate and execute nefarious activities. Emergentism provides an alternative to contemporary views, which tend to minimize or reject the reality of the demonic, and it retains the demonic as a viable theological category in the twenty-first century.
Sobriquet
The About the Book information is not available at this time.
Atonement and Purification
Biblical scholars frequently attempt to contextualize the Priestly ritual corpus by comparing it to other ancient Near Eastern ritual traditions. This comparative approach tends to detect a hidden polemic at work in the Priestly Source (P) which was meant to highlight its distinctly monotheistic outlook. Isabel Cranz reframes current understandings of P by comparing Priestly rituals of atonement to their Assyro-Babylonian counterparts. In this way she shows how the Priestly ritual corpus is highly specialized and concerns itself primarily with sanctuary maintenance. Viewing P in this new light in turn helps to demonstrate that the authors of P were not interested in discrediting foreign rituals or pushing a monotheistic agenda. Instead P primarily aimed to confirm the Aaronide priests as the only legitimate priestly group fit for service at the altar. Subsequently if a polemical agenda is present in P it can be shown to be directed against rivals and critics of the Aaronide priesthood, not other rituals of the ancient Near East.
The King and the Land
The King and the Land offers an innovative history of space and power in the biblical world. Stephen C. Russell shows how the monarchies in ancient Israel and Judah asserted their power over strategically important spaces such as privately-held lands, religious buildings, collectively-governed towns, and urban water systems. Among the case studies examined are Solomon's use of foreign architecture, David's dedication of land to Yahweh, Jehu's decommissioning of Baal's temple, Absalom's navigation of the collective politics of Levantine towns, and Hezekiah's reshaping of the tunnels that supplied Jerusalem with water. By treating the full range of archaeological and textual evidence available for the Iron Age Levant, this book sets Israelite and Judahite royal and tribal politics within broader patterns of ancient Near Eastern spatial power. The book's historical investigation also enables fresh literary readings of the individual texts that anchor its thesis.
