Kategoria BISAC: Religion >> Biblical Criticism & Interpretation - General

How can reading the Bible in its appropriate Mediterranean cultural context shed light on concerns of believers who live in Western or other cultures? In Cultural Tools for Interpreting the Good News, John J. Pilch presents a basic introduction to the ancient Middle Eastern culture in which the Bible originated. A brief review of the life of Jesus from birth to death and resurrection guides the selection of biblical text segments to illustrate key cultural concepts so that believers may appropriate the Bible for personal or community life.

Chapter one examines the core Middle...

When we first pick it up and open it, the Bible can seem confusing and perhaps even frightening. Here is this bulky book, made up of seventy-three sections with unfamiliar titles such as Deuteronomy, Ecclesiastes, Colossians, and Corinthians, with numbers in front of almost every sentence, rarely any pictures, and perhaps a few maps of ancient areas such as Mesopotamia, Assyria, and Judah. Since the Bible looks like a book, we may start to read it as we would any other book, hoping to move from cover to cover. Then we begin to wonder, Who wrote this? When was it written? What kind of...

For millions of believers, Jerusalem is one of the world's holiest cities. Pilgrims from three major religions - Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, each of which is heir to Old Testament theological tradition - flock to Jerusalem where many of their most sacred memories are centered. This study of ancient Israel's sacred literature on the topic of Jerusalem is not a speculative exercise. It is a subject of immediate relevance to both the religious and political realities of present-day Jerusalem.

The Scriptures inspired by ancient Israel's priests, prophets, and sages provide the...

Escaping Eden brings together feminist biblical scholars to explore how aspects of social location such as gender, ethnicity, class, and religious background affect biblical interpretation.

The volume combines feminist reading strategies with sustained methodological inquiry. Writing in a range of modes including historical and literary criticism, cultural studies, satirical fiction, and the personal essay, the contributors challenge the presumed objectivity of conventional biblical scholarship.

Interrogating biblical authority, que(e)rying Jeremiah, exploring...

Escaping Eden brings together feminist biblical scholars to explore how aspects of social location such as gender, ethnicity, class, and religious background affect biblical interpretation.

The volume combines feminist reading strategies with sustained methodological inquiry. Writing in a range of modes including historical and literary criticism, cultural studies, satirical fiction, and the personal essay, the contributors challenge the presumed objectivity of conventional biblical scholarship.

Interrogating biblical authority, que(e)rying Jeremiah, exploring...

Although the Ten Commandments has been the center of much recent controversy in American politics, scripture contains many laws about which Christians are perplexed. If the Bible contains laws, shouldn't those laws be followed? What does the law that prohibits reaping a harvest to the very edges of your field mean in modern times? Or, what about God's prohibition, in Leviticus, not to round off the hair on your temples or to mar the edges of your beard? The Decalogue and the Holiness Code in Leviticus contain guidelines to ethical behavior that originally helped to shape a covenant...