Tragedy and Biblical Narrative

Tragedy and Biblical Narrative
Author: J. Cheryl Exum
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 228
Release: 1996-05-16
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9780521565066

Using insights about ancient and modern tragedy, this study offers challenging and provocative new readings of selected Biblical narratives: the story of Israel's first king, Saul, rejected for his disobedience to God and driven to madness; the story of Jephthah's sacrifice of his daughter in fulfillment of his vow to offer God a sacrifice in return for military victory; and the story of Israel's most famous king, David, whose tragedy lies in the burden of divine judgement that falls on his house as a consequence of his sins. The book discusses how these narratives handle such perennial tragic issues as guilt, suffering and evil.

Literary Interpretations of Biblical Narratives

Literary Interpretations of Biblical Narratives
Author: Kenneth R. R. Gros Louis
Publisher: Abingdon Press
Total Pages: 368
Release: 1974
Genre: Religion
ISBN:

The trend toward elective courses in public schools and mounting interest in the Bible as an academic study prompted this collection of literary analyses. Literary Interpretations of Biblical Narratives is the only book of its kind written specifically for use by teachers and is the first of a series of teaching resources called The Bible in Literature Courses. This series is specifically designed to meet the needs of teachers and students of both secondary school literature and undergraduate college literature. - Back cover.

Pen of Iron

Pen of Iron
Author: Robert Alter
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 208
Release: 2010-02-28
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0691128812

Examines the way that the King James version of the Bible--especially the Old Testament--has influenced literary style in the works of Melville, Hemingway, Faulkner, Bellow, Marilynne Robinson, and Cormac McCarthy.

Texts of Terror

Texts of Terror
Author: Phyllis Trible
Publisher:
Total Pages: 128
Release: 2002
Genre: Bible
ISBN: 9780334029007

In this book, Phyllis Trible examines four Old Testament narratives of suffering in ancient Israel: Hagar, Tamar, an unnamed concubine and the daughter of Jephthah. These stories are for Trible the "substance of life", which may imspire new beginnings and by interpreting these stories of outrage and suffering on behalf of their female victims, the author recalls a past that is all to embodied in the present, and prays that these terrors shall not come to pass again. "Texts of Terror" is perhaps Trible's most readable book, that brings biblical scholarship within the grasp of the non-specialist. These "sad stories" about women in the Old Testament prompt much refelction on contemporary misuse of the Bible, and therefore have considerable relevance today.

Telling God's Story

Telling God's Story
Author: John W. Wright
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Total Pages: 167
Release: 2007-04-16
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0830827404

John W. Wright presents a new model of preaching that aims to connect the biblical text with a congregation so that they are formed into a true Christian community.

Christ the Tragedy of God

Christ the Tragedy of God
Author: Kevin Taylor
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 278
Release: 2018-09-21
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1351607839

Tragedy is a genre for exploring loss and suffering, and this book traces the vital areas where tragedy has shaped and been a resource for Christian theology. There is a history to the relationship of theology and tragedy; tragic literature has explored areas of theological interest, and is present in the Bible and ongoing theological concerns. Christian theology has a long history of using what is at hand, and the genre of tragedy is no different. What are the merits and challenges of placing the central narrative of the passion, death and resurrection of Christ in tragic terms? This study examines important and shared concerns of theology and tragedy: sacrifice and war, rationality and order, historical contingency, blindness, guilt, and self-awareness. Theologians such as Reinhold Niebuhr, Hans Urs von Balthasar, Martin Luther King Jr., Simone Weil, and Boethius have explored tragedy as a theological resource. The historical relationship of theology and tragedy reveals that neither is monolithic, and both remain diverse and unstable areas of human thought. This fascinating book will be of keen interest to theologians, as well as scholars in the fields of literary studies and tragic theory.

Art as Biblical Commentary

Art as Biblical Commentary
Author: J. Cheryl Exum
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 289
Release: 2019-05-23
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0567687856

Art as Biblical Commentary is not just about biblical art but, more importantly, about biblical exegesis and the contributions visual criticism as an exegetical tool can make to biblical exegesis and commentary. Using a range of texts and numerous images, J. Cheryl Exum asks what works of art can teach us about the biblical text. 'Visual criticism' is her term for an approach that addresses this question by focusing on the narrativity of images-reading them as if, like texts, they have a story to tell-and asking what light an image's 'story' can shed on the biblical narrator's story. In Part I, Exum elaborates on her approach and offers a personal testimony to the value of visual criticism. Part 2 examines in detail the story of Hagar in Genesis 16 and 21. Part 3 contains chapters on erotic looking and voyeuristic gazing in the stories of Bathsheba, Susanna, Joseph and Potiphar's wife and the Song of Songs; on the distribution of renown among Jael, Deborah and Barak; on the Bible's notorious women, Eve and Delilah; and on the sacrificed female body in the stories of the Levite's wife (Judges 19) and Mary the mother of Jesus.

How to Read the Bible as Literature

How to Read the Bible as Literature
Author: Leland Ryken
Publisher: Zondervan Academic
Total Pages: 209
Release: 2016-11-22
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0310536332

Why the Good Book Is a Great Read If you want to rightly understand the Bible, you must begin by recognizing what it is: a composite of literary styles. It is meant to be read, not just interpreted. The Bible’s truths are embedded like jewels in the rich strata of story and poetry, metaphor and proverb, parable and letter, satire and symbolism. Paying attention to the literary form of a passage will help you understand the meaning and truth of that passage. How to Read the Bible as Literature takes you through the various literary forms used by the biblical authors. This book will help you read the Bible with renewed appreciation and excitement and gain a more profound grasp of its truths. Designed for maximum clarity and usefulness, How to Read the Bible as Literature includes * sidebar captions to enhance organization * wide margins ideal for note taking * suggestions for further reading * appendix: "The Allegorical Nature of the Parables" * indexes of persons and subjects

Beyond the Biblical Horizon

Beyond the Biblical Horizon
Author: J.Cheryl Exum
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 187
Release: 2023-12-28
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9004664432

Recent years have witnessed an upsurge of interest in relating the Bible to the worlds of literature and the visual arts. How is the Bible portrayed in the arts and how do the arts affect what we know, or think we know, about the Bible? In this provocative and wide-ranging collection, the eight contributors engage in a lively and fruitful conversation with the work of novelists, artists, filmmakers, and critics. Topics treated in this collection include the Bible and film, from Frank Capra movies of the 30s and 40s to such Hollywood epics as The Robe and The Ten Commandments; the Bible and literature, focusing particularly on the story of David and Bathsheba in recent fiction; and the Bible and painting, with specific studies of Rembrandt as painter and etcher and the twentieth-century German artist Lovis Corinth and more generalized discussion of paintings of King David throughout the centuries and the representation of the sexuality of Jesus in Renaissance art. Contributors include Joel Rosenberg, Erica Sheen, Martin O'Kane, Ilse Müllner, Johannes Taschner, Clive Marsh, J. Cheryl Exum, and David Jasper.

God Is Not a Story

God Is Not a Story
Author: Francesca Aran Murphy
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Total Pages: 366
Release: 2007-07-19
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0191607681

A challenging critique of narrative theologies, including the works of George Lindbeck, Robert Jenson, and Herbert McCabe. Francesca Aran Murphy argues that the use of the concept of story or narrative in theology is circular and self-referential, and that the widespread notion that the role of the theologian is to 'tell God's story' has not helped theology to advance the reality of its doctrines. Murphy contends that the scriptural revelation on which Christian theology depends is not a story or a plot but a dramatic encounter between mysterious, free, and unpredictable persons. She offers her own alternative approach, making use of cinema and film theory, and engaging in particular in a dialogue with the work of Hans Urs von Balthasar.