The Bible and Empire

The Bible and Empire
Author: R. S. Sugirtharajah
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 266
Release: 2005-06-16
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9781139443708

At a time of renewed interest in Empire, this stimulating volume explores the complex relationship between the Bible and the colonial enterprise, and examines some overlooked aspects of this relationship. These include unconventional retellings of the gospel story of Jesus by Thomas Jefferson and Raja Rammohun Roy; the fate of biblical texts when marshalled by Victorian preachers to strengthen British imperial intentions after the India uprising of 1857; the cultural-political use of the Christian Old Testament, first by the invaders to attack temple practices and rituals, then by the invaded to endorse the temple heritage scorned by missionaries; the dissident hermeneutics of James Long and William Colenso confronting and compromising with colonial ambitions; and finally the subtly seditious deployment of biblical citations in two colonial novels. This innovative book offers both practical and theoretical insights and provides compelling evidence of the continuing importance of postcolonial discourse for biblical studies.

Jesus as Guru

Jesus as Guru
Author: Jan Peter Schouten
Publisher: Rodopi
Total Pages: 314
Release: 2008
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9042024437

People in India form images of Jesus Christ that link up with their own culture. Hindus have given Jesus a place among the teachers and gods of their own religion, seeing in his life something of the wisdom and mysticism that is so central to Hinduism. Christians in India also make use of the concepts provided by Hinduism when they wish to express the meaning of Christ. Thus, in any case, Jesus is--for Hindus and Christians--a guru, a teacher of wisdom who speaks with divine authority. But for many Hindu philosophers and Christian theologians there is much more that can be said about him within the Indian framework. He can be described as an avatara, a divine descent, or linked to the Brahman, the all-encompassing Reality. This study looks at both Hindu and Christian views of Christ, starting with that of the Hindu reformer Rammohan Roy at the beginning of the nineteenth century, as well as those of the first Christian theologians of India. The views of Mahatma Gandhi and the monks of the Ramakrishna Mission are discussed, and those of influential Christian schools such as the Ashram movement and dalit theology. Five intermezzos indicate how artists in India portray Jesus Christ.

The New Cambridge History of the Bible: Volume 4, From 1750 to the Present

The New Cambridge History of the Bible: Volume 4, From 1750 to the Present
Author: John Riches
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 871
Release: 2015-04-13
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1316194116

This volume examines the Bible's role in the modern world - beginning with a treatment of its production and distribution that discusses publishers, printers, text critics, and translators and continuing with a presentation of new methods of studying the text that have emerged, including historical, literary, social-scientific, feminist, postcolonial, liberal, and fundamentalist readings. There is a full discussion of the changes in understandings of and approaches to the Bible in various faith communities. The dissemination of the Bible throughout the globe has also produced a host of new interpretations, and this volume provides a comprehensive geographical survey of its reception. In the final chapters, the authors offer a thematic overview of the Bible in relation to literature, art, film, science, and other disciplines. They demonstrate that, in spite of challenges to the Bible's authority in western Europe, it remains highly relevant and influential, not least in the Americas, Africa, and Asia.

Asian Biblical Hermeneutics and Postcolonialism

Asian Biblical Hermeneutics and Postcolonialism
Author: R. S. Sugirtharajah
Publisher: A&C Black
Total Pages: 164
Release: 1999-02-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9781850759737

The volume contributes a postcolonial perspective to such topics as textual production, commentarial writings and translations in colonial times, and then moves on to inspect Eurocentric notions embedded in current western biblical interpretation especially in projects such as "Jesus Research." It also contains an overview of and introduction to one of the most challenging and controversial theories of our time, postcolonialism--a theory that gives mediation and representation to Third World people. Though long established in cultural studies, postcolonial theory has not previously been seriously applied to Asian biblical interpretation.