Scottish Fiction as Gospel Exegesis: Four Case Studies
Published: Apr 2010
£45.00
The relationship between the Bible and literature continues to fascinate many scholars working in both fields. In this book, as the Gospels and the work of four Scottish writers are read together, their correspondences become manifest. The four writers, James Hogg, Robert Louis Stevenson, Mrs Oliphant and Lewis Grassic Gibbon, offer distinctive and accessible readings of the Gospels. Bringing the biblical texts and the work of these writers into conversation with one another highlights the changing ways the Bible influenced the fiction of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Alison Jack shows that these novels function as exegeses of Gospel texts and ideas. What is offered here is not a simple noting of biblical allusions, but a narrative exploration of Gospel themes, ideas and stories, such as the Parable of the Prodigal Son, as they are woven through the content and form of the novels discussed, among them Hogg's Confessions of a Justified Sinner and Stevenson's The Master of Ballantrae. This weaving is never untouched by the influence of Calvinism on the imagination of these Scottish writers; but the influence, informed by the polymorphism of gospel discourse, is often surprising and certainly not static.
This book offers an insight into a shifting literary world that will be of interest to biblical critics working on the reception history of the Gospels and to scholars of nineteenth- and twentieth-century Scottish literature, as well as to general readers who want to explore the hermeneutical issues raised by reading the Bible and literature together.
Scottish Fiction as Gospel Exegesis: Four Case Studies
£45.00
The relationship between the Bible and literature continues to fascinate many scholars working in both fields. In this book, as the Gospels and the work of four Scottish writers are read together, their correspondences become manifest. The four writers, James Hogg, Robert Louis Stevenson, Mrs Oliphant and Lewis Grassic Gibbon, offer distinctive and accessible readings of the Gospels. Bringing the biblical texts and the work of these writers into conversation with one another highlights the changing ways the Bible influenced the fiction of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Alison Jack shows that these novels function as exegeses of Gospel texts and ideas. What is offered here is not a simple noting of biblical allusions, but a narrative exploration of Gospel themes, ideas and stories, such as the Parable of the Prodigal Son, as they are woven through the content and form of the novels discussed, among them Hogg's Confessions of a Justified Sinner and Stevenson's The Master of Ballantrae. This weaving is never untouched by the influence of Calvinism on the imagination of these Scottish writers; but the influence, informed by the polymorphism of gospel discourse, is often surprising and certainly not static.
This book offers an insight into a shifting literary world that will be of interest to biblical critics working on the reception history of the Gospels and to scholars of nineteenth- and twentieth-century Scottish literature, as well as to general readers who want to explore the hermeneutical issues raised by reading the Bible and literature together.
Mark, Women and Empire: A Korean Postcolonial Perspective
Published: Mar 2010
£45.00
As Mark's Gospel moves toward its climax, four stories of women challenge Jesus in his mission to establish the empire of God against the backdrop of the Roman Empire: those of the poor widow (12.41-44), the anointing woman (14.1-11), the women at the cross and the burial (15.40-41, 47), and the women at the empty tomb (16.1-8). They are stories that would seem to demand both a feminist and a postcolonial perspective on the part of their readers —yet Kim's is the first reading of the Gospel that has taken an explicitly postcolonial feminist stance.
In addition to the feminist and the postcolonial themes, the third strand in Seong Hee Kim's approach arises from her Korean context, which provides her with the concept of Salim interpretation, that is, 'making things alive'. Starting from the reader's context, she develops a Salim hermeneutics for each of the four stories by engaging in a dialogue between the biblical story and the reader's use of her or his own imagination. The goal of her interpretation is such a making things alive, a mending of broken things, and an opening up of meaning —in contrast to the tendency of historical criticism, which has striven to identify a single, correct meaning in the biblical text.
Mark, Women and Empire: A Korean Postcolonial Perspective
£45.00
As Mark's Gospel moves toward its climax, four stories of women challenge Jesus in his mission to establish the empire of God against the backdrop of the Roman Empire: those of the poor widow (12.41-44), the anointing woman (14.1-11), the women at the cross and the burial (15.40-41, 47), and the women at the empty tomb (16.1-8). They are stories that would seem to demand both a feminist and a postcolonial perspective on the part of their readers —yet Kim's is the first reading of the Gospel that has taken an explicitly postcolonial feminist stance.
In addition to the feminist and the postcolonial themes, the third strand in Seong Hee Kim's approach arises from her Korean context, which provides her with the concept of Salim interpretation, that is, 'making things alive'. Starting from the reader's context, she develops a Salim hermeneutics for each of the four stories by engaging in a dialogue between the biblical story and the reader's use of her or his own imagination. The goal of her interpretation is such a making things alive, a mending of broken things, and an opening up of meaning —in contrast to the tendency of historical criticism, which has striven to identify a single, correct meaning in the biblical text.
Painting the Text: The Artist as Biblical Interpreter
Published: Dec 2009
£18.50 – £45.00
In this masterly work, Martin O'Kane shows artists at work as readers of the Bible and not simply as illustrators of biblical scenes. The painter's eye commonly sees nuances and subtleties of plot and characterization in the biblical text that traditional biblical criticism has overlooked.
Focussing in fine detail on some well-known biblical themes--the deception of Isaac, the depiction of Isaiah's suffering servant, the visit of the Magi and the flight into Egypt, among others--O'Kane argues that modern readers need the artist's exegetical insight and engagement to fully appreciate the text.
Ranging widely over mediaeval, Renaissance and modern art, the author situates his work within the hermeneutical aesthetics of Hans-Georg Gadamer, Mieke Bal and Paolo Bernini. Some 30 images are reproduced in the text.
Painting the Text: The Artist as Biblical Interpreter
£18.50 – £45.00
In this masterly work, Martin O'Kane shows artists at work as readers of the Bible and not simply as illustrators of biblical scenes. The painter's eye commonly sees nuances and subtleties of plot and characterization in the biblical text that traditional biblical criticism has overlooked.
Focussing in fine detail on some well-known biblical themes--the deception of Isaac, the depiction of Isaiah's suffering servant, the visit of the Magi and the flight into Egypt, among others--O'Kane argues that modern readers need the artist's exegetical insight and engagement to fully appreciate the text.
Ranging widely over mediaeval, Renaissance and modern art, the author situates his work within the hermeneutical aesthetics of Hans-Georg Gadamer, Mieke Bal and Paolo Bernini. Some 30 images are reproduced in the text.
Troublesome Texts: The Bible in Colonial and Contemporary Culture
Published: May 2008
£35.00
The nine substantial essays in this volume deal with three wide-ranging though interconnected issues: the perceived status and standing of the Bible today; aspects of the current state of biblical studies, especially the uneasy tension between the increasingly esoteric agenda of mainstream scholarship and the hermeneutical concerns of those occupied with marginal readings; the significance of postcolonial scholarship and pointers for its future at a time when empire has once again become a reality and a global subject of debate.
Among the essays here are an examination of Victorian reconstructions of the life of Jesus and of the Buddha, and how these discourses were moulded and motivated by orientalism, colonialism, race and issues of British national identity; the complexities of the use of the Bible in Sri Lanka, war-torn and beset with communal strife, when the Bible itself is rife with vengeance and punishment; the political and hermeneutical ramifications of the Asian tsunami, and the use of natural disasters for decolonization and recolonization; imperial intentions and a postcolonial sub-text evident in the Johannine letters; the fortunes of the English Bible as its promoters struggle to uphold its credibility in a market-driven culture; suicide-bombing and asylum-seeking. All of these are issues of global significance and concern, but they are hardly ever addressed by biblical scholars.
The essays contain both theoretical discussion and practical questions as to the usefulness of the Bible at a time when its contested role has been complicated by its tainted association with oppressive causes.
Troublesome Texts: The Bible in Colonial and Contemporary Culture
£35.00
The nine substantial essays in this volume deal with three wide-ranging though interconnected issues: the perceived status and standing of the Bible today; aspects of the current state of biblical studies, especially the uneasy tension between the increasingly esoteric agenda of mainstream scholarship and the hermeneutical concerns of those occupied with marginal readings; the significance of postcolonial scholarship and pointers for its future at a time when empire has once again become a reality and a global subject of debate.
Among the essays here are an examination of Victorian reconstructions of the life of Jesus and of the Buddha, and how these discourses were moulded and motivated by orientalism, colonialism, race and issues of British national identity; the complexities of the use of the Bible in Sri Lanka, war-torn and beset with communal strife, when the Bible itself is rife with vengeance and punishment; the political and hermeneutical ramifications of the Asian tsunami, and the use of natural disasters for decolonization and recolonization; imperial intentions and a postcolonial sub-text evident in the Johannine letters; the fortunes of the English Bible as its promoters struggle to uphold its credibility in a market-driven culture; suicide-bombing and asylum-seeking. All of these are issues of global significance and concern, but they are hardly ever addressed by biblical scholars.
The essays contain both theoretical discussion and practical questions as to the usefulness of the Bible at a time when its contested role has been complicated by its tainted association with oppressive causes.
Text and Community, Vol 2: Essays in Memory of Bruce M. Metzger
Published: Oct 2007
£50.00
Bruce Manning Metzger, New Testament professor emeritus at Princeton Theological Seminary, died in February 2007 at the age of 93. This volume in his honour was already in preparation, and has become of necessity a memorial volume rather than the Festschrift that was intended.
Metzger has been called the greatest American New Testament critic and biblical translator of the twentieth century. Among his writings most commonly cited are his classic studies The Text of the New Testament, its Transmission, Corruption and Restoration (1964) and The Early Versions of the New Testament, their Origin, Transmission, and Limitations (1977). He was also Chair of the Committee of Translators for the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible (published 1990).
The first of these two wide-ranging and often innovative volumes created in his honour, subtitled Interpretation of the Text for the Community, falls into two parts: The Nature of the Bible: Manuscripts, Texts, and Translation (e.g. an ancient papyrus biblical fragment, biblical exegesis in the third world), and Understanding the Bible: Hermeneutics (e.g. biblical interpretation in Paul in its cultural context).
The second volume, on Implementation of the Text in the Community, has as its two parts, The Church and the Bible: Pulpit and Parish (e.g. pastoral care and the Bible) and The Academy, Science, Culture, Society, and the Bible (e.g. psychological method and the historical Jesus, Jungian and Freudian perspectives on gender in the Gospel of John).
Text and Community, Vol 2: Essays in Memory of Bruce M. Metzger
£50.00
Bruce Manning Metzger, New Testament professor emeritus at Princeton Theological Seminary, died in February 2007 at the age of 93. This volume in his honour was already in preparation, and has become of necessity a memorial volume rather than the Festschrift that was intended.
Metzger has been called the greatest American New Testament critic and biblical translator of the twentieth century. Among his writings most commonly cited are his classic studies The Text of the New Testament, its Transmission, Corruption and Restoration (1964) and The Early Versions of the New Testament, their Origin, Transmission, and Limitations (1977). He was also Chair of the Committee of Translators for the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible (published 1990).
The first of these two wide-ranging and often innovative volumes created in his honour, subtitled Interpretation of the Text for the Community, falls into two parts: The Nature of the Bible: Manuscripts, Texts, and Translation (e.g. an ancient papyrus biblical fragment, biblical exegesis in the third world), and Understanding the Bible: Hermeneutics (e.g. biblical interpretation in Paul in its cultural context).
The second volume, on Implementation of the Text in the Community, has as its two parts, The Church and the Bible: Pulpit and Parish (e.g. pastoral care and the Bible) and The Academy, Science, Culture, Society, and the Bible (e.g. psychological method and the historical Jesus, Jungian and Freudian perspectives on gender in the Gospel of John).
Text and Community, Vol. 1: Essays in Memory of Bruce M. Metzger
Published: Jan 2007
£50.00
Bruce Manning Metzger, New Testament professor emeritus at Princeton Theological Seminary, died in February 2007 at the age of 93. This volume in his honour was already in preparation, and has become of necessity a memorial volume rather than the Festschrift that was intended.
Metzger has been called the greatest American New Testament critic and biblical translator of the twentieth century. Among his writings most commonly cited are his classic studies The Text of the New Testament, its Transmission, Corruption and Restoration (1964) and The Early Versions of the New Testament, their Origin, Transmission, and Limitations (1977). He was also Chair of the Committee of Translators for the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible (published 1990).
The first of these two wide-ranging and often innovative volumes created in his honour, subtitled Interpretation of the Text for the Community, falls into two parts: The Nature of the Bible: Manuscripts, Texts, and Translation (e.g. an ancient papyrus biblical fragment, biblical exegesis in the third world), and Understanding the Bible: Hermeneutics (e.g. biblical interpretation in Paul in its cultural context).
The second volume, on Implementation of the Text in the Community, has as its two parts, The Church and the Bible: Pulpit and Parish (e.g. pastoral care and the Bible) and The Academy, Science, Culture, Society, and the Bible (e.g. psychological method and the historical Jesus, Jungian and Freudian perspectives on gender in the Gospel of John).
Text and Community, Vol. 1: Essays in Memory of Bruce M. Metzger
£50.00
Bruce Manning Metzger, New Testament professor emeritus at Princeton Theological Seminary, died in February 2007 at the age of 93. This volume in his honour was already in preparation, and has become of necessity a memorial volume rather than the Festschrift that was intended.
Metzger has been called the greatest American New Testament critic and biblical translator of the twentieth century. Among his writings most commonly cited are his classic studies The Text of the New Testament, its Transmission, Corruption and Restoration (1964) and The Early Versions of the New Testament, their Origin, Transmission, and Limitations (1977). He was also Chair of the Committee of Translators for the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible (published 1990).
The first of these two wide-ranging and often innovative volumes created in his honour, subtitled Interpretation of the Text for the Community, falls into two parts: The Nature of the Bible: Manuscripts, Texts, and Translation (e.g. an ancient papyrus biblical fragment, biblical exegesis in the third world), and Understanding the Bible: Hermeneutics (e.g. biblical interpretation in Paul in its cultural context).
The second volume, on Implementation of the Text in the Community, has as its two parts, The Church and the Bible: Pulpit and Parish (e.g. pastoral care and the Bible) and The Academy, Science, Culture, Society, and the Bible (e.g. psychological method and the historical Jesus, Jungian and Freudian perspectives on gender in the Gospel of John).
Studies in Hermeneutics, Christology and Discipleship
Published: Jun 2006
£65.00
These eleven lucid, fresh, and thought-provoking essays from a master-craftsman among New Testament scholars reflect his conviction that these three topics —hermeneutics, Christology and discipleship —must always be considered together.
In the first set of essays, Longenecker sets out his distinctive take on the nature of an evangelical hermeneutics.
In the second set, he focusses on what he calls the 'foundational conviction of New Testament Christology', the obedience / faithfulness / sonship of Christ, and brings back into discussion often forgotten dimensions of Christology. Here he explores a range of christological materials and motifs within the early Christian communities, with special studies on the concept of the virgin birth and on the curious case of the Melchizedek Christology in Hebrews.
The third set, both practical and exegetical, are, as he says, 'where the rubber meets the road', and concern the implications of the 'Son of Man' imagery for discipleship and the theme of discipleship in Luke —Acts.
Studies in Hermeneutics, Christology and Discipleship
£65.00
These eleven lucid, fresh, and thought-provoking essays from a master-craftsman among New Testament scholars reflect his conviction that these three topics —hermeneutics, Christology and discipleship —must always be considered together.
In the first set of essays, Longenecker sets out his distinctive take on the nature of an evangelical hermeneutics.
In the second set, he focusses on what he calls the 'foundational conviction of New Testament Christology', the obedience / faithfulness / sonship of Christ, and brings back into discussion often forgotten dimensions of Christology. Here he explores a range of christological materials and motifs within the early Christian communities, with special studies on the concept of the virgin birth and on the curious case of the Melchizedek Christology in Hebrews.
The third set, both practical and exegetical, are, as he says, 'where the rubber meets the road', and concern the implications of the 'Son of Man' imagery for discipleship and the theme of discipleship in Luke —Acts.