The End of Biblical Studies


Book Description

In this radical critique of his own academic specialty, biblical scholar Hector Avalos urges his colleagues to concentrate on educating the broader society to recognize the irrelevance and even violent effects of the Bible in modern life.




The Death of Scripture and the Rise of Biblical Studies


Book Description

The Death of Scripture and the Rise of Biblical Studies examines the creation of the academic Bible. Beginning with the fragmentation of biblical interpretation in the centuries after the Reformation, Michael Legaspi shows how the weakening of scriptural authority in the Western churches altered the role of biblical interpretation. Focusing on renowned German scholar Johann David Michaelis (1717-1791), Legaspi explores the ways in which critics reconceived the role of the Bible. This book offers a new account of the origins of biblical studies, illuminating the relation of the Bible to churchly readers, theological interpreters, academic critics, and people in between. It explains why, in an age of religious resurgence, modern biblical criticism may no longer be in a position to serve as the Bible's disciplinary gatekeeper.




History and Ideology in the Old Testament


Book Description

The end of the millennium sees biblical study in a state of transition. The traditional position of historical approaches is widely questioned and `historical criticism' is regarded as passe. There is a search for approaches - literary or sociological - that are less tied to history. On the other hand there is a more radical approach to the history of Israel, that sees true history as distinct from the biblical narrative and dependent on sources other than the Bible. Biblical narratives thus express not the actual events but the ideological and religious aspirations of writers in much later times. `Ideology' has become one of the key words, but is used in very divergent ways. All this is linked with the intellectual movement known as post-modernism. Some connections between post-modernism and theology are suggested by Professor Barr in the final chapter. This book is important because it tries to bring together various threads of these different movements and to state a position from which we may advance into the new millennium.




The Oxford Handbook of Biblical Studies


Book Description

The Oxford Handbooks series is a major new initiative in academic publishing. Each volume offers an authoritative and up-to-date survey of original research in a particular subject area. Specially commissioned essays from leading figures in the discipline give critical examinations of the progress and direction of debates. Biblical studies is a highly technical and diverse field. Study of the Bible demands expertise in fields ranging from Archaeology, Egyptology, Assyriology, and Linguistics through textual, historical, and sociological studies to Literary Theory, Feminism, Philosophy, and Theology, to name only some. This authoritative and compelling guide to the discipline will, therefore, be an invaluable reference work for all students and academics who want to explore more fully essential topics in Biblical studies.




This Abled Body


Book Description

She opened for jazz great Billie Holiday, shared the set with Marilyn Monroe, and flirted on-screen with Jack Lemmon. In her dream role, Gene Roddenberry beamed her aboard the Starship Enterprise as Yeoman Janice Rand in the original “Star Trek” series. But a terrifying sexual assault on the studio lot and her lifelong feelings of emptiness and isolation would soon combine to turn her starry dream into a nightmare.




Democratizing Biblical Studies


Book Description

"Schüssler Fiorenza addresses such questions as, What are the educational practices and procedures that are advocated by traditional educational models, and how can they be changed? What kinds of educational and communicative practices do biblical studies need to develop in order to fashion an emancipatory democratizing rhetorical space and a forum of many voices? To envision, articulate, debate, and practice a radical democratic ethos of biblical studies, she identifies emerging didactic models that can foster such a radical democratic style of learning"--Pbk. cover.




Salvation to the Ends of the Earth


Book Description

The saving mission of Jesus constitutes the foundation for Christian mission, and the Christian gospel is its message. This second edition of a classic NSBT volume emphasizes how the Bible presents a continuing narrative of God's mission, providing a robust historical and chronological backbone to the unfolding of the early Christian mission.




Encountering the Book of Hebrews (Encountering Biblical Studies)


Book Description

Although the Book of Hebrews "is not exactly what most of us would regard as a user-friendly book," notes Donald Hagner, "Hebrews has always been popular among Christians." Encountering the Book of Hebrews was written to help students more fully appreciate the complexities of this favorite section of Scripture. Hagner begins by exploring introductory issues (e.g., historical backgrounds, author, audience, date, purpose, structure, genre) and overarching themes (e.g., heavenly archetypes and earthly copies, the use of the Old Testament, the attitude toward Judaism). The heart of the book then offers a chapter-by-chapter exposition of Hebrews. Unlike commentaries, it does not try to be exhaustive--examining all details and answering all questions--but instead guides students to the issues that are most important for their study of this difficult book. Hagner concludes with a final look at the contribution of Hebrews to the New Testament, New Testament theology, the church, and the individual Christian. As with other volumes in the Encountering Biblical Studies series, Encountering the Book of Hebrews is designed for classroom use and includes a number of helpful features, including further-reading sections, key terms, chapter objectives, and outlines along with numerous sidebars and illustrations.




End Times


Book Description

As R. Paul Stevens leads you to examine for yourself what the Bible says about end times, you'll learn what you can do now to be ready for the future--whatever it holds. In this thirteen-session LifeGuide® Bible Study features additional questions for starting group discussions and for meeting God in personal reflection, together with expanded leader's notes and a "Now or Later" section in each study.




Reframing Biblical Studies


Book Description

Until recently, biblical studies and studies of the written and material culture of the ancient Near East have been fragmented, governed by experts who are confined within their individual disciplines’ methodological frameworks and patterns of thinking. The consequence has been that, at present, concepts and the terminology for examining the interaction of textual and historical complexes are lacking. However, we can learn from the cognitive sciences. Until the end of the 1980s, neurophysiologists, psychologists, pediatricians, and linguists worked in complete isolation from one another on various aspects of the human brain. Then, beginning in the 1990s, one group began to focus on processes in the brain, thereby requiring that cell biologists, neurologists, psychiatrists, psychologists, linguists, and other relevant scientists collaborate with each other. Their investigation revealed that the brain integrates all kinds of information; if this were not the case, we would not be able to catch even a glimpse of the brain’s processing activity. By analogy, van Wolde’s proposal for biblical scholarship is to extend its examination of single elements by studying the integrative structures that emerge out of the interconnectivity of the parts. This analysis is based on detailed studies of specific relationships among data of diverse origins, using language as the essential device that links and permits expression. This method can be called a cognitive relational approach. Van Wolde bases her work on cognitive concepts developed by Ronald Langacker. With these concepts, biblical scholars will be able to study emergent cognitive structures that issue from biblical words and texts in interaction with historical complexes. Van Wolde presents a method of analysis that biblical scholars can follow to investigate interactions among words and texts in the Hebrew Bible, material and nonmaterial culture, and comparative textual and historical contexts. In a significant portion of the book, she then exemplifies this method of analysis by applying it to controversial concepts and passages in the Hebrew Bible (the crescent moon; the in-law family; the city gate; differentiation and separation; Genesis 1, 34; Leviticus 18, 20; Numbers 5, 35; Deuteronomy 21; and Ezekiel 18, 22, 33).