Biblical Poems Embedded in Biblical Narratives


Book Description

Biblical Poems Embedded in Biblical Narratives is an easy-to-use course book that synthesizes Sharon Chace's interests in poetry, art, and biblical studies. Pastors and teachers will be able to craft their unique presentations for the first session--introducing both the subject and each other--based upon Sharon's introduction. The following sessions include reflections and practices to evoke responses from participants. This course is ideal for teachers who want their students to both think critically and explore their own spirituality. Chace's bridge-building theology, rooted in the humanities, is timely. Academic discourse, warm personal reflections, and a keen understanding of human nature combine in this instructional tool to create a broadly appropriate and engaging course.




Biblical Poems Embedded in Biblical Narratives


Book Description

Biblical Poems Embedded in Biblical Narratives is an easy-to-use course book that synthesizes Sharon Chace’s interests in poetry, art, and biblical studies. Pastors and teachers will be able to craft their unique presentations for the first session—introducing both the subject and each other—based upon Sharon’s introduction. The following sessions include reflections and practices to evoke responses from participants. This course is ideal for teachers who want their students to both think critically and explore their own spirituality. Chace’s bridge-building theology, rooted in the humanities, is timely. Academic discourse, warm personal reflections, and a keen understanding of human nature combine in this instructional tool to create a broadly appropriate and engaging course.




On Biblical Poetry


Book Description

On Biblical Poetry takes a fresh look at the nature of biblical Hebrew poetry beyond its currently best-known feature, parallelism. F.W. Dobbs-Allsopp argues that biblical poetry is in most respects just like any other verse tradition, and therefore biblical poems should be read and interpreted like other poems, using the same critical tools and with the same kinds of guiding assumptions in place. He offers a series of programmatic essays on major facets of biblical verse, each aspiring to alter currently regnant conceptualizations in the field and to show that attention to aspects of prosody--rhythm, lineation, and the like--allied with close reading can yield interesting, valuable, and even pleasurable interpretations. What distinguishes the verse of the Bible, says Dobbs-Allsopp, is its historicity and cultural specificity, those peculiar encrustations and encumbrances that typify all human artifacts. Both the literary and the historical, then, are in view throughout. The concluding essay elaborates a close reading of Psalm 133. This chapter enacts the final movement to the set of literary and historical arguments mounted throughout the volume--an example of the holistic staging which, Dobbs-Allsopp argues, is much needed in the field of Biblical Studies.




Reading the Bible for a Change, Second Edition


Book Description

Which Bible passages are for Christians today and which relate only to ancient readers? Can I simply pick and choose for myself the verses I think best fit my situation? Who gets to decide? Is there a different meaning for each individual reader? What am I supposed to know to read the Bible well? Ray Lubeck has devoted his life to helping others discern for themselves God's truth in the Scriptures and to showing them how it relates to their everyday lives. Reading the Bible for a Change will guide you in how to: -Read each biblical passage in light of its literary style and larger context -Ask and explore the most fruitful questions for understanding the meaning of a passage -Avoid common interpretive mistakes -Hear God, the divine Author, speak through the Bible's human authors -Identify the life-changing truths of Scripture that apply to life today -Move beyond merely reading the Bible to being shaped by and following it Having taught for over three decades at the undergraduate and graduate levels, as well as in many ministry contexts, Ray values the importance of holding the interest of students of the Bible. This book is written in an accessible and engaging style, using illustrations, charts, stories, and relevant examples to help the reader grasp key concepts. The second edition has been extensively revised in light of recent scholarly developments and years of use within the classroom, incorporating substantial amounts of updates and new material. Reading the Bible for a Change will equip you with the tools to discover for yourself the life-changing truths revealed in God's word. If you begin practicing these steps, you will embark on a lifetime journey of Scripture reading that will enable you to see for yourself how captivating and transforming it is when we read the Bible on its own terms rather than on ours.




Strength to Strength


Book Description

Essays that engage the scholarship of Shaye J. D. Cohen The essays in Strength to Strength honor Shaye J. D. Cohen across a range of ancient to modern topics. The essays seek to create an ongoing conversation on issues of identity, cultural interchange, and Jewish literature and history in antiquity, all areas of particular interest for Cohen. Contributors include: Moshe J. Bernstein, Daniel Boyarin, Jonathan Cohen, Yaakov Elman, Ari Finkelstein, Charlotte Elisheva Fonrobert, Steven D. Fraade, Isaiah M. Gafni, Gregg E. Gardner, William K. Gilders, Martin Goodman, Leonard Gordon, Edward L. Greenstein, Erich S. Gruen, Judith Hauptman, Jan Willem van Henten, Catherine Hezser, Tal Ilan, Richard Kalmin, Yishai Kiel, Ross S. Kraemer, Hayim Lapin, Lee I. Levine, Timothy H. Lim, Duncan E. MacRae, Ivan Marcus, Mahnaz Moazami, Rachel Neis, Saul M. Olyan, Jonathan J. Price, Jeffrey L. Rubenstein, Michael L. Satlow, Lawrence H. Schiffman, Daniel R. Schwartz, Joshua Schwartz, Karen Stern, Stanley Stowers, and Burton L. Visotzky. Features: A full bibliography of Cohen’s published works An essay on the contributions of Cohen




The Art of Biblical Poetry


Book Description

Analyzes the structure, functions, and metaphors of the poetry in Psalms, Job, Proverbs, and other books of the Old Testament




Reading Biblical Narrative


Book Description

This is an enormously instructive and practical hands-on introduction for students of the Bible as literature, by one of the world’s leading exponents of Hebrew narrative technique. Issues covered include: introduction to the art of reading, the narrator and his characters, narrative structure, narrative devices.




Reading Biblical Narrative


Book Description

Narrator, characters, action, hero, quest, plot, time and space, entrances and exits--these are the essential components of all narrative literature. This authoritative and engaging introduction to the literary features of biblical narrative and poetry will help the reader grasp the full significance of these components, allowing them to enter more perceptively into the narrative worlds created by the great writers of the Bible.




Understanding the Hebrew Bible


Book Description

Understanding the Hebrew Bible: A Guide for the Perplexed is written clearly and jargon-free and provides an orientation to the vast compendium of biblical materials by explaining the different kinds of writing found in the Bible, including storytelling, law, history, prophecy, wisdom and poetry. Each section is informed by current biblical scholarship, but presented in a manner accessible to a general audience. Unlike other introductions that focus entirely on biblical history and its historical context, this book surveys the full range of biblical writing. A preface establishes a conceptual model for understanding the Bible, and explorers the differences between the traditional Jewish and Christian readings of this Scripture. Readers will discover in this book a concise, useful companion to the Book of Books.




My Bright Abyss


Book Description

A passionate meditation on the consolations and disappointments of religion and poetry