Wom(b)an: A Cultural-Narrative Reading of the Hebrew Bible Barrenness Narratives
Wom(b)an: A Cultural-Narrative Reading of the Hebrew Bible Barrenness Narratives

Author: Janice P. De-Whyte

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2018-06-12

Total Pages: 332

ISBN-13: 900436630X

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In Wom(b)an: A Cultural-Narrative Reading of the Hebrew Bible Barrenness Narratives Janice Pearl Ewurama De-Whyte offers a reading of the Hebrew Bible barrenness narratives. The original word “wom(b)an” visually underscores the centrality of a productive womb to female identity in the ANE and Hebrew contexts. Conversely, barrenness was the ultimate tragedy and shame of a woman. Utilizing Akan cultural custom as a lens through which to read the Hebrew barrenness tradition, De-Whyte uncovers another kind of barrenness within these narratives. Her term “social barrenness” depicts the various situations of childlessness that are generally unrecognized in western cultures due to the western biomedical definitions of infertility. Whether biological or social, barrenness was perceived to be the greatest threat to a woman’s identity and security as well as the continuity of the lineage. Wom(b)an examines these narratives in light of the cultural meanings of barrenness within traditional cultures, ancient and present.

Sex, Love, and Families
Sex, Love, and Families

Author: Jason King

Publisher: Liturgical Press

Published: 2020-04-15

Total Pages: 328

ISBN-13: 0814687954

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2021 Association of Catholic Publishers first place award in theology 2021 Catholic Media Association Award first place award in marriage and family living Six years into the papacy of Pope Francis, Catholics are still figuring out how to respond to his image of the church as a field hospital —a church that goes into the streets rather than remaining locked up behind closed doors. Marriage and family are primary sites of the field hospital, called to meet people's need for healing and accompaniment with compassion and love. The authors of this collection —all lay, a mix of single and married, traditional and progressive Catholics —take up this work. They offer practical wisdom from and critical engagement with the Catholic tradition but avoid rehashing decades-old theological debates. Instead, their essays engage with and respond to realities shaping contemporary family life, like religious pluralism, technology, migration, racism, sex and gender, incarceration, consumerism, and the call to holiness. The result is a collection that envisions ways that families can be places of healing and love in and for the world. List of contributors: Jennifer BesteMegan K. McCabeElizabeth AntusKathryn Lilla CoxKent LasnoskiHoon ChoiCristina L. H. TrainaCraig A. Ford Jr.Bridget Burke RavizzaJulie Donovan MasseyEmily Reimer-BarryRichard GaillardetzTimothy O'MalleySandra Sullivan-DunbarKathryn Getek-SolisKari-Shane Davis ZimmermanJana Marguerite BennettVictor CarmonaGemma Tulud CruzDaniel OlsenThomas BeaudoinChristine Firer HinzeDavid CloutierMarcus MescherSue MuldoonTimothy MuldoonMary M. Doyle-RocheJason KingJulie Rubio

Sexual Politics in the Biblical Narrative
Sexual Politics in the Biblical Narrative

Author: Esther Fuchs

Publisher: A&C Black

Published: 2003-04-01

Total Pages: 246

ISBN-13: 0567042871

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This book is for anyone interested in religious studies and women's studies, as well as for biblical scholars. It offers a feminist oppositional reading of the biblical text. The main argument is that the Bible constructs a fictional universe in which women are shown to be intent on promoting male interests, and, for the most part, appear as secondary characters whose voice and point of view are often suppressed. In their limited roles as mothers, wives, daughters and sisters, women are constructed as male-dependent pawns intent on securing the status of their male counterparts. The Biblical narrative highlights the contribution of women as reproductive agents and protectors of sons. In this challenging collection of essays, Fuchs focuses on type-scenes as a way of demonstrating the mechanisms by which the texts validates male power and superiority. She also deconstructs the Biblical sexual politics by asking whose interest is being served by the 'good' women of the Bible.Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement series, Volume 310.

She Brought the Art of Women
She Brought the Art of Women

Author: Janet Tyson

Publisher: Pirištu Books

Published: 2023-04-10

Total Pages: 301

ISBN-13: 1739315448

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What would happen if the interpretation of Song of Solomon were to move beyond the layered traditions of rabbinic Judaism, the theological concerns of Christian communities, or even the Enlightenment ideals of a rigorously objective secular hermeneutic? This new reading by Janet Tyson provides a fascinating answer to that question. –Timothy Paul Erdel, Bethel University The Song of Solomon is an intimate, eyewitness account of the stormy marriage between the last King of Babylon, Nabonidus, and the Egyptian princess Nitocris II. It details the couple’s seven-year stay in Tayma, Arabia, during which time the king formulated his plan to reinstate a long-defunct female priesthood at Ur, in honour of the lunar deity, Sîn. The Song was written by a female scribe, during the exodus from Babylon in c.538 BCE; she is potentially recorded elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible. Her ‘song of praise’ tells of magic, blood rites, jealousy and rivalry, contraception, miscarriage, lies and curses. It bears all the signs of an act of vengeance, for it preserves the bitter resentment of a woman who lived in the shadow of the king’s most exotic wife. Topics of interest include: * A consistent pattern of applied Ishtar/Hathor mythology * Potential insight into the function of the God’s Hand * The use of Jewish gematria * Clear allusions to the esoteric rite known today as the Elixir Rubeus * Internal chronology that mirrors the reign of Nabonidus, including a lunar eclipse * Profound parallels between Nabonidus and King Solomon * Strong connections between Herodotus and the Song’s narrative * Potential identification of the Song’s author and date of composition * Other ancient legends revealing this same interpretation

Adoption in the Hebrew Bible
Adoption in the Hebrew Bible

Author: Ekaterina Kozlova

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2024-11-14

Total Pages: 249

ISBN-13: 0567705366

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To remedy a scholarly lacuna on the study of adoption in the Hebrew Bible, chapters in this volume examine this topic from a variety of perspectives, including trauma, transfers of children, motives for adoption, the performance of parenthood, and studies of metaphor and practice. Divided into three sections, part one highlights the absence of specific adoption terminology and demonstrates the need for deeper considerations of methodological approaches and the categories we-as modern readers-bring to the texts. Part two considers the practices and language that we do see around ancient adoptions, and focuses on the actions and implications of transferring children or parentage. Finally, part three focuses on divine adoption and metaphors and motifs that speak to the dual themes of loss and gain that are entwined in adoption. As a whole, Adoption in the Hebrew Bible highlights the prevalence of adoptive practices and draws attention to the fluidity underlying constructions of 'family' in the Hebrew Bible and also the wider ancient Near East. The theme of adoption centres both parents and children, thereby complicating scholarly constructions of families in ancient societies and reminding readers of the fragility, strength, and importance of belonging in a family.

Texts after Terror
Texts after Terror

Author: Rhiannon Graybill

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2021-04-23

Total Pages: 251

ISBN-13: 019008233X

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Texts after Terror offers an important new theory of rape and sexual violence in the Hebrew Bible. While the Bible is filled with stories of rape, scholarly approaches to sexual violence in the scriptures remain exhausted, dated, and in some cases even un-feminist, lagging far behind contemporary discourse about sexual violence and rape culture. Graybill responds to this disconnect by engaging contemporary conversations about rape culture, sexual violence, and #MeToo, arguing that rape and sexual violence - both in the Bible and in contemporary culture - are frequently fuzzy, messy, and icky, and that we need to take these features seriously. Texts after Terror offers a new framework informed by contemporary conversations about sexual violence, writings by victims and survivors, and feminist, queer, and affect theory. In addition, Graybill offers significant new readings of biblical rape stories, including Dinah (Gen. 34), Tamar (2 Sam. 13), Bathsheba (2 Sam. 11), Hagar (Gen. 16), Daughter Zion (Lam. 1-2), and the unnamed woman known as the Levite's concubine (Judges 19). Texts after Terror urges feminist biblical scholars and readers of all sorts to take seriously sexual violence and rape, while also holding space for new ways of reading these texts that go beyond terror, considering what might come after.

Many Believed Because of Her Testimony
Many Believed Because of Her Testimony

Author: Robert A. Derrenbacker

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2023-08-22

Total Pages: 325

ISBN-13: 1666738743

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The Reverend Professor Dorothy A. Lee FAHA is well-known as a New Testament scholar not only in Australia but around the world. An Anglican priest, her ministry, particularly as a preacher and retreat director, is highly regarded and highly sought after, not only in her home city of Melbourne, but in many parts of the country. This Festschrift volume honors her contributions and ministry on the occasion of her seventieth birthday. An interdisciplinary collection of twenty-one essays, it offers two biographical contributions, several essays on New Testament themes, essays on women, feminism, and the church, and cross-disciplinary essays focused on the biblical text. Contributors to the volume come from Australian theological education centers and Australian churches.

Beyond Male and Female?
Beyond Male and Female?

Author: Sam Ashton

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2023-09-21

Total Pages: 289

ISBN-13: 0567713156

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In this incisive work, Sam Ashton provides a compelling, consistent and erudite argument for a foundational approach to the matter of sexual difference, drawing on biblical and doctrinal material and using resources in their original languages. He tracks and traces the sexed body as it moves from creation, through the fall, to redemption “now,” and final consummation “not yet.” In doing so, Ashton presents what is perhaps the strongest case that can be made for 'male and female He created them'. Each chapter privileges biblical exegesis, drawing upon figures in church history (notably Augustine and Aquinas) as and when they illumine Scripture. By doing so, the book considers the difficulty presented to sexual dimorphism by the phenomenon of intersex. Ashton seeks to develop an understanding that is generous, inclusive and affirming, so he works carefully through the writings of Thatcher, Song and Cornwall in a way that invites engagement and dialogue. With the complete divine drama in view, the book offers synthetic judgments about what remains essential for the “structure” of the sexed body as it travels through history and what may be accidental to the sexed body's “direction” within a particular theo-dramatic act. Ashton concludes by considering ways to transition from dogmatic judgments about intersexuality to the moral-pastoral care of concrete intersex individuals, briefly thinking about the complex matter of marriage.

Missed Conceptions
Missed Conceptions

Author: Karen Stollznow

Publisher: Augsburg Fortress Publishers

Published: 2023-04-25

Total Pages: 258

ISBN-13: 150648526X

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Blending personal narrative, historical research, and pop culture, Karen Stollznow's Missed Conceptions gives voice to an experience that has been taboo for too long but is all too common. For the one in six couples who face fertility challenges when they attempt to get pregnant, this book is a welcome and hopeful companion.

Ethics in the Hebrew Bible and Beyond
Ethics in the Hebrew Bible and Beyond

Author: Niditch

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2023-09-26

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 0197671977

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In Ethics in the Hebrew Bible and Beyond, Susan Niditch takes soundings among those who have recently approached ethics in the Hebrew Scriptures, their methodological interests, their goals, and their definitions of "ethics" itself. By means of close exegesis of specific passages from the Hebrew Bible and a discussion of the interpretation and application of these ancient texts by post-biblical Jewish writers and other creative contributors from outside the Jewish tradition, this volume explores topics in religious ethics, social justice, political ethics, economic ethics, issues in ecology, gender and sexuality, killing and dying, and reproductive ethics. Certain goals inform all chapters: interest in tracing recurring themes concerning the definition of the good, and the various ways in which Jewish thinkers rely on the more ancient material, interpret, and appropriate it; the links between areas in ethics, for example, between gender and reproductive ethics or war-views and attitudes to political ethics and environmental ethics. Niditch carves out specific biblical texts and themes in order to explore them in depth with special interest in the meanings and messages that emerge from ancient Israelite writers' varied treatments of issues in ethics. Ethics in the Hebrew Bible and Beyond provides a thoughtful discussion of biblical composers' treatment of ethical issues and an engaging overview of the ways in which these texts have been appropriated, in particular by Jewish contributors. This volume serves to challenge readers' own assumptions about biblical ethics, the applicability and the various meanings and messages that might be derived from engagement with key biblical texts.