Unspeakable Things Unspoken

Unspeakable Things Unspoken
Author: Isabelle M. Hamley
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 266
Release: 2019-01-30
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1532649762

The story of the raped and murdered woman of Judges 19 and the civil war and mass marriage that ensue in chapters 20-21 are hardly favorite tales of the Hebrew Bible. The chapters have often been dismissed as little more than an anachronistic epilogue, an awkward amalgamation of earlier stories or a "text of terror," proof of patriarchal oppression. This book argues that, far from being a clumsy collage, Judges 19-21 is a carefully narrated tale that chronicles the descent of a nation into extreme individualism and fragmentation. In dialogue with continental philosopher Luce Irigaray, it will uncover the dynamics of identity formation and how differential constructions of identity of the One and the Other yield patterns of victimization and justification of violence. This literary-philosophical reading will bring out silences and missed possibilities for the subjectivity of women, whilst also shedding light on the victimization of men within the logic of totalitarian identity constructions. The end of Judges therefore offers a theological conclusion to the book as a whole and opens up avenues for thought on theological anthropology, understandings of identity and gender, and a theological commentary on violence.

Tamar's Tears

Tamar's Tears
Author: Andrew Sloane
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 399
Release: 2011-11-14
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1608999823

Evangelical and feminist approaches to Old Testament interpretation often seem to be at odds with each other. The authors of this volume argue to the contrary: feminist and evangelical interpreters of the Old Testament can enter into a constructive dialogue that will be fruitful to both parties. They seek to illustrate this with reference to a number of texts and issues relevant to feminist Old Testament interpretation from an explicitly evangelical point of view. In so doing they raise issues that need to be addressed by both evangelical and feminist interpreters of the Old Testament, and present an invitation to faithful and fruitful reading of these portions of Scripture.

Genesis

Genesis
Author: Miguel A. De La Torre
Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
Total Pages: 402
Release: 2011-01-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0664232523

This volume in the Belief series provides a new and interesting theological interpretation of Genesis through the themes of liberation and the concerns of the poor and marginalized. De La Torre wrestles with Genesis texts, remembering Jacob's wrestling at Peniel (Gen. 32:24-32), and finds that "there are consequences when we truly wrestle with the biblical text, struggling to see the face of God." This commentary provides theological and ethical insights that enables the book of Genesis to speak powerfully today.

A Companion to Medieval Christian Humanism

A Companion to Medieval Christian Humanism
Author: John P. Bequette
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 362
Release: 2016-04-08
Genre: History
ISBN: 9004313532

A Companion to Medieval Christian Humanism explores the perennial questions of Christian humanism as these emerge in the writings of key medieval thinkers, questions pertaining to the dignity of the human person, the human person’s place in the cosmos, and the moral and educational ideals involved in shaping human persons toward the full realization of their dignity. The contributors explore what form these questions take for medieval thinkers and how they answer these questions, thereby revealing the depth of medieval Christian humanism. Contributors are: C. Colt Anderson, David Appleby, John P. Bequette, Benjamin Brown, Richard H. Bulzacchelli, Nancy Enright, David P. Fleischacker, Justin Jackson, Ian Levy, J. Stephen Russell, Aage Rydstrøm-Poulsen, Andrew Salzmann, John T. Slotemaker, Benjamin Smith, and Eileen C. Sweeney

Patience—A Theological Exploration

Patience—A Theological Exploration
Author: Paul Dafydd Jones
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 633
Release: 2022-11-17
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0567694402

What does it mean to exercise patience? What does it mean to endure, to wait, and to persevere-and, on other occasions, to reject patience in favor of resistance, haste, and disruptive action? And what might it mean to describe God as patient? Might patience play a leading role in a Christian account of God's creative work, God's relationship to ancient Israel, God's governance of history, and God's saving activity? The first instalment of Patience-A Theological Exploration engages these questions in searching, imaginative, and sometimes surprising ways. Following reflections on the biblical witness and the nature of constructive theological inquiry, its interpretative chapters engage landmark works by a number of ancient, medieval, modern, and contemporary authors, disclosing both the promise and peril of talk about patience. Patience stands at the center of this innovative account of God's creative work, God's relationship with ancient Israel, creaturely sin, scripture, and God's broader providential and salvific purposes.

The Repentant Abelard

The Repentant Abelard
Author: J. Ruys
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 448
Release: 2014-12-03
Genre: History
ISBN: 1137051876

The Repentant Abelard is both an innovative study and English translation of the late poetic works of controversial medieval philosopher and logician Peter Abelard, written for his beloved wife Heloise and son Astralabe. This study brings to life long overlooked works of this great thinker with analyses and comprehensive notes.

Archives of the Black Atlantic

Archives of the Black Atlantic
Author: Wendy W. Walters
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 237
Release: 2013-09-02
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1136753591

Many African diasporic novelists and poets allude to or cite archival documents in their writings, foregrounding the elements of archival research and data in their literary texts, and revising the material remnants of the archive. This book reads black historical novels and poetry in an interdisciplinary context, to examine the multiple archives that have produced our historical consciousness. In the history of African diaspora literature, black writers and intellectuals have led the way for an analysis of the archive, querying dominant archives and revising the ways black people have been represented in the legal and hegemonic discourses of the west. Their work in genres as diverse as autobiography, essay, bibliography, poetry, and the novel attests to the centrality of this critique in black intellectual culture. Through literary engagement with the archives of the slave trader, colonizer, and courtroom, creative writers teach us to read the archives of history anew, probing between the documents for stories left untold, questions left unanswered, and freedoms enacted against all odds. Opening new perspectives on Atlantic history and culture, Walters generates a dialogue between what was and what might have been. Ultimately, Walters argues that references to archival documents in black historical literature introduce a new methodology for studying both the archive and literature itself, engaging in a transnational and interdisciplinary reading that exposes the instability of the archive's truth claim and highlights rebellious possibility.

The Absence of God in Biblical Rape Narratives

The Absence of God in Biblical Rape Narratives
Author: Leah Rediger Schulte
Publisher: Fortress Press
Total Pages: 173
Release: 2017-08-15
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1506432581

In this groundbreaking work to identify and address God’s absence in three key rape narratives in the Hebrew Bible, Leah Rediger Schulte finds a pattern that indicates a larger community crisis. With a careful look at Genesis 34, Judges 19, and 2 Samuel 13, this study outlines God’s absence, a foreign presence, and a persistent problem that is resolved incorrectly to highlight consequences of the Israelites breaking their covenant with God. Using methodologies from literary criticism and gender studies and situating rape in its historical context, this volume makes distinctions between modern constructs of rape and biblical rape. Commentaries and studies on rape in the Bible often read a modern understanding of the victim and rapist back into the biblical text, missing how it would have been understood in ancient Israel. These biblical rape scenes are intimately connected to and assist in telling the story of Israel’s history as a people and their covenantal relationship with their deity.

Telling Terror in Judges 19

Telling Terror in Judges 19
Author: Helen Paynter
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 104
Release: 2020-02-06
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1000046443

Telling Terror in Judges 19 explores the value of performing a ‘reparative reading’ of the terror-filled story of the Levite’s pilegesh (commonly referred to as the Levite’s concubine) in Judges 19, and how such a reparative reading can be brought to bear upon elements of modern rape culture. Historically, the story has been used as a morality tale to warn young women about what constitutes appropriate behaviour. More recently, (mainly male) commentators have tended to write the woman out of the story, by making claims about its purpose and theme which bear no relation to her suffering. In response to this, feminist critics have attempted to write the woman back into the story, generally using the hermeneutics of suspicion. This book begins by surveying some of the traditional commentators, and the three great feminist commentators of the text (Bal, Exum and Trible). It then offers a reparative reading by attending to the pilegesh’s surprising prominence, her moral and marital agency, and her speaking voice. In the final chapter, there is a detailed comparison of the story with elements of modern rape culture.

The Oxford Handbook of Feminist Approaches to the Hebrew Bible

The Oxford Handbook of Feminist Approaches to the Hebrew Bible
Author: Susanne Scholz
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 697
Release: 2020-10-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0190077506

The Oxford Handbook of Feminist Approaches to the Hebrew Bible brings together 37 essential essays written by leading international scholars, examining crucial points of analysis within the field of feminist Hebrew Bible studies. Organized into four major areas - globalization, neoliberalism, media, and intersectionality - the essays collectively provide vibrant, relevant, and innovative contributions to the field. The topics of analysis focus heavily on gender and queer identity, with essays touching on African, Korean, and European feminist hermeneutics, womanist and interreligious readings, ecofeminist and animal biblical studies, migration biblical studies, the role of gender binary voices in evangelical-egalitarian approaches, and the examination of scripture in light of trans women's voices. The volume also includes essays examining the Old Testament as recited in music, literature, film, and video games. The Oxford Handbook of Feminist Approaches to the Hebrew Bible charts a culturally, hermeneutically, and exegetically cutting-edge path for the ongoing development of biblical studies grounded in feminist, womanist, gender, and queer perspectives.