Kategoria BISAC: Religion >> Reference

Javier Teixidor has found evidence that belief in a supreme god developed during the first millennium B.C. The Phoenician and Aramaic inscriptions he discusses indicate a trend toward monotheism that facilitated the spread of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The author concludes that the traditional characteristics of the popular religions were preserved during this period and that the Hellenistic culture and the mystery cults did not have a significant effect on popular piety. Here, then, is a major reinterpretation of the religious life of the Near East in the Greco-Roman period based...

The Rich Meaning Behind the Hebrew and Greek Words of the Bible Whether you're a pastor, a student, or simply a lover of the Bible, this book helps you get more out of God's Word by revealing the original meanings of key biblical words. The reader-friendly, narrative style makes it easy to explore the Hebrew and Greek words that lie behind the English words. You'll discover significant shades of meaning and nuances that bring depth to your understanding of Scripture. This highly accessible reference tool surpasses the well-known Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words in a...

Material religion is a rapidly growing field, and this volume offers an accessible, critical entry into these new areas of research. Each "key term" uses case studies and is accompanied by a color image - an object, practice, space, or site. The entries cut across geographies, histories, and traditions, offering a versatile and engaging text for the classroom.

Key topics covered include:

- Icon, ritual, magic, gender, race
- Sacred, spirit, technology,
- Space, belief, body, brain
- Taste, touch, smell, sound, vision

Each entry demonstrates in clear and...

In the biblical narratives, women are usually minor characters in the stories of men. Fragments of women's stories must be gleaned from the more cohesive stories of their fathers, husbands and sons. Fragmented Women begins with the premise that, to recover shards of women's stories from androcentric texts like the Bible, it is necessary to step outside the ideology of the text, subverting the patriarchal perspective that has focused attention on the male characters.

In this classic work, J. Cheryl Exum draws on feminist literary theory to critique the dominant male voice of...

"The episodes in 1 and 2 Samuel are striking in their depiction of human characters--priests, soldiers, kings, prophets, and royal advisers--but also significant in how they narrate the central character of this history, the God of Israel. History, in these books, is not simply an accounting of royal intrigue, military battles, and socio-economic struggle but the stage upon which God reveals God's very self. First and Second Samuel relay some of the most memorable vignettes in all Scripture--the call of Samuel, David's battle with Goliath, and David's seizure of Bathsheeba as his wife--and...

An Introduction to Womanist Biblical Interpretation provides a much-needed introduction to womanist approaches to biblical interpretation. It argues that womanist biblical interpretation is not simply a byproduct of feminist biblical interpretation but part of a distinctive tradition of African American women's engagement with biblical texts. While womanist biblical interpretation is relatively new in the development of academic biblical studies, African American women are not newcomers to biblical interpretation.

Written in an accessible style, this volume highlights the...

Exegeting a text--burrowing deep into its history, language, and literary structure--is an indispensable skill for any serious student of the Bible. Given their theological richness and poetic power, the prophetic texts of the Hebrew Bible would seem to be prime candidates for exegetical examination, but they often pose difficulty. In this book, James Nogalski offers solid, practical guidance on how to read and exegete a prophetic text in its literary, historical, and conceptual contexts. Assuming no prior knowledge of Hebrew, Nogalski devises an exegetical method that focuses on the...