Piercing Leviathan

Piercing Leviathan
Author: Eric Ortlund
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Total Pages: 238
Release: 2021-09-21
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1514003384

One of the most challenging passages in the book of Job is the Lord's long description of a hippopotamus and crocodile. In this NSBT, Eric Ortlund argues that Behemoth and Leviathan are better understood as symbols of cosmic chaos and evil, helping readers appreciate the reward of Job's faith (and ours) as we endure in trusting God while living in an unredeemed creation.

Slaying the Dragon

Slaying the Dragon
Author: Bernard Frank Batto
Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
Total Pages: 264
Release: 1992-01-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780664253530

"Batto argues persuasively that biblical authors, like other ancient Near Eastern authors, used mythic traditions in composing their new syntheses. . . . His bold argument is impressive".--Richard J. Clifford, Professor of Old Testament, Weston School of Theology, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

The God Who Makes Himself Known

The God Who Makes Himself Known
Author: W. Ross Blackburn
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Total Pages: 243
Release: 2013-03-05
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 083088419X

Countering scholarly tendencies to fragment the text over theological difficulties, this New Studies in Biblical Theology volume contends that Exodus should be read as a unified whole, and that an appreciation of its missionary theme in its canonical context is of great help in dealing with the difficulties that the book poses.

Creation and Chaos in the Primeval Era and the Eschaton

Creation and Chaos in the Primeval Era and the Eschaton
Author: Hermann Gunkel
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
Total Pages: 420
Release: 2006-10-10
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1467424722

Foreword by Peter Machinist Hermann Gunkel's groundbreaking Schöpfung und Chaos, originally published in German in 1895, is here translated in its entirety into English for the first time. Even though available only in German, this work by Gunkel has had a profound influence on modern biblical scholarship. Discovering a number of parallels between the biblical creation accounts and a Babylonian creation account, the Enuma Elish, Gunkel argues that ancient Babylonian traditions shaped the Hebrew people's perceptions both of God's creative activity at the beginning of time and of God's re-creative activity at the end of time. Including illuminating introductory pieces by eminent scholar Peter Machinist and by translator K. William Whitney, Gunkel's Creation and Chaos will appeal to serious students and scholars in the area of biblical studies.

Heroism in the Harry Potter Series

Heroism in the Harry Potter Series
Author: Dr Katrin Berndt
Publisher: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2013-05-28
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1409478416

Taking up the various conceptions of heroism that are conjured in the Harry Potter series, this collection examines the ways fictional heroism in the twenty-first century challenges the idealized forms of a somewhat simplistic masculinity associated with genres like the epic, romance and classic adventure story. The collection's three sections address broad issues related to genre, Harry Potter's development as the central heroic character and the question of who qualifies as a hero in the Harry Potter series. Among the topics are Harry Potter as both epic and postmodern hero, the series as a modern-day example of psychomachia, the series' indebtedness to the Gothic tradition, Harry's development in the first six film adaptations, Harry Potter and the idea of the English gentleman, Hermione Granger's explicitly female version of heroism, adult role models in Harry Potter, and the complex depictions of heroism exhibited by the series' minor characters. Together, the essays suggest that the Harry Potter novels rely on established generic, moral and popular codes to develop new and genuine ways of expressing what a globalized world has applauded as ethically exemplary models of heroism based on responsibility, courage, humility and kindness.

Now My Eyes Have Seen You

Now My Eyes Have Seen You
Author: Robert Fyall
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Total Pages: 209
Release: 2002-07-15
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0830826122

For Robert Fyall, the mystery of God's ways and the appalling evil and suffering in the world are at the heart of Job's significant contribution to the canon of Scripture. This New Studies in Biblical Theology volume offers a holistic reading of Job, with particular reference to its depiction of creation and evil, and finds significant clues to its meaning in the striking imagery it uses.

Leviathan's Ruse, Vol. 1

Leviathan's Ruse, Vol. 1
Author: Alexander Lawrence
Publisher:
Total Pages: 404
Release: 2016-04-04
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780997257809

In Leviathan's Ruse, Alexander Lawrence exposes the tactics of the Dragon while tackling popular misconceptions and unbiblical views that have infected the church. He illuminates six major components to the great deception that Satan has leveled against us since the Garden of Eden, and explains how these relate to biblical end-time prophecies.

The Serpent in Samuel

The Serpent in Samuel
Author: Brian A. Verrett
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 214
Release: 2020-02-17
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1725259842

In this study, Brian A. Verrett argues that 1–2 Samuel contains a serpent motif by practicing biblical theology and literary criticism. This motif derives from the serpent in Genesis 3, and its function within the Samuel narrative is to heighten the reader’s anticipation in the coming messiah, who is the son of David and the seed of the woman from Genesis 3:15. This messiah will defeat the serpent and inaugurate his glorious reign over a renewed world. When 1–2 Samuel is read in this way, one appreciates previously unnoticed features of the text, understands aspects of the text that were formerly confusing, and rightly sees that the whole of 1–2 Samuel is a messianic document.

Genesis 1 as Ancient Cosmology

Genesis 1 as Ancient Cosmology
Author: John H. Walton
Publisher: Penn State Press
Total Pages: 229
Release: 2011-06-23
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1575066548

The ancient Near Eastern mode of thought is not at all intuitive to us moderns, but our understanding of ancient perspectives can only approach accuracy when we begin to penetrate ancient texts on their own terms rather than imposing our own world view. In this task, we are aided by the ever-growing corpus of literature that is being recovered and analyzed. After an introduction that presents some of the history of comparative studies and how it has been applied to the study of ancient texts in general and cosmology in particular, Walton focuses in the first half of this book on the ancient Near Eastern texts that inform our understanding about ancient ways of thinking about cosmology. Of primary interest are the texts that can help us discern the parameters of ancient perspectives on cosmic ontology—that is, how the writers perceived origins. Texts from across the ancient Near East are presented, including primarily Egyptian, Sumerian, and Akkadian texts, but occasionally also Ugaritic and Hittite, as appropriate. Walton’s intention, first of all, is to understand the texts but also to demonstrate that a functional ontology pervaded the cognitive environment of the ancient Near East. This functional ontology involves more than just the idea that ordering the cosmos was the focus of the cosmological texts. He posits that, in the ancient world, bringing about order and functionality was the very essence of creative activity. He also pays close attention to the ancient ideology of temples to show the close connection between temples and the functioning cosmos. The second half of the book is devoted to a fresh analysis of Genesis 1:1–2:4. Walton offers studies of significant Hebrew terms and seeks to show that the Israelite texts evidence a functional ontology and a cosmology that is constructed with temple ideology in mind, as in the rest of the ancient Near East. He contends that Genesis 1 never was an account of material origins but that, as in the rest of the ancient world, the focus of “creation texts” was to order the cosmos by initiating functions for the components of the cosmos. He further contends that the cosmology of Genesis 1 is founded on the premise that the cosmos should be understood in temple terms. All of this is intended to demonstrate that, when we read Genesis 1 as the ancient document it is, rather than trying to read it in light of our own world view, the text comes to life in ways that help recover the energy it had in its original context. At the same time, it provides a new perspective on Genesis 1 in relation to what have long been controversial issues. Far from being a borrowed text, Genesis 1 offers a unique theology, even while it speaks from the platform of its contemporaneous cognitive environment.

Translating Tolkien

Translating Tolkien
Author: Thomas Honegger
Publisher:
Total Pages: 250
Release: 2011
Genre: Translating and interpreting
ISBN: 9783905703160

As in the preceding volume (TolkieninTranslation), the studies presented here deal with a wide range of problems and challenges connected with the task of translating Tolkien's work. Contributions do not only discuss aspects of translation into different languages (German, Dutch, Swedish, Hebrew), but also offer in-depth analysis of especially difficult areas of translation (names, Tolkien's invented languages). Moreover, with the initial publication of this volume having closely followed the release of the third and final part of the movie in 2003, it could take stock and make a first assessment of Jackson's achievement (or failure). Five out of twelve contributions united in this volume thus deal with the movie under the aspect of 'translation'. The preceding volume, Tolkien in Translation, is available as number 4 in the Cormare Series from Walking Tree Publishers.