“Cursed Be He That Keepeth Back His Sword from Blood”

2021 ◽  
pp. 221-240
Author(s):  
James P. Byrd
Keyword(s):  
Frederick Douglass ◽  
The South ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Loyalty Oath

Americans turned to scripture to address various wartime needs in 1864. In the South, Confederates executed deserters while warning soldiers that the Jesus story was an execution story marked by betrayal. The biblical theme of loyalty came into play in the South as Lincoln tried to entice southerners into signing a loyalty oath in exchange for pardon. Loyalty and morale were not just southern problems, however. In 1864 Grant and Lee faced off in some of the war’s fiercest combat. Americans had seen Shiloh, Antietam, and Gettysburg—surely the worst was over, they had thought. Yet the devastation of 1864 surprised them again with lists of casualties that seemed only to get longer as the months dragged on. Americans grew more war weary than ever, which prompted Frederick Douglass and others to call on the Bible to remind Americans of the war’s sacred meaning.

Thèmes et variations Réflexions stylistiques sur l’itinéraire d’Égérie

2020 ◽  
Vol 59 (1-4) ◽  
pp. 611-621
Author(s):  
Sára Horváthy
Keyword(s):  
Social Changes ◽  
The South ◽  
Hidden Information ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The Social

SummaryEgeria, a 4th century pious woman from the south of present-day Spain, retold, after visiting Palestine with the Bible in hand, her observations to her sisters. If the linguistic aspects of her letters are quite well-known, much less is known about its stylistic value, inappropriately called “simple”.What seems to be boringly the same again and again, is in fact a constantly renewed and perfectly mastered “variation on a theme”, just as in a well-composed piece of music. Her apparent objectivity is indeed a wish to focus on what she considers the most important, namely to tell her community, as closely to reality as possible, what she observed during her pilgrimage. However, Egeria’s latin is also a testimony of the christian lexicon in construction and of the social changes that were in progress by that time.Linguistics and stylistics work together here, the choice of a word or a grammatical formula reveals hidden information about the proper style of an author who, despite her supposed objectivity, had real personal purposes.

Postcolonial Liberation: Decolonizing Biblical Studies in the South African Postcolony

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerald O. West
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Biblical Interpretation ◽  
Biblical Studies ◽  
The South ◽  
Biblical Hermeneutics ◽  
The Bible ◽  
African Black ◽  
History Of ◽  
Land Economics ◽  
The 1960S

Liberation biblical interpretation and postcolonial biblical interpretation have a long history of mutual constitution. This essay analyzes a particular context in which these discourses and their praxis have forged a third conversation partner: decolonial biblical interpretation. African and specifically South African biblical hermeneutics are the focus of reflections in this essay. The South African postcolony is a “special type” of postcolony, as the South African Communist Party argued in the 1960s. The essay charts the characteristics of the South African postcolony and locates decolonial biblical interpretation within the intersections of these features. Race, culture, land, economics, and the Bible are forged in new ways by contemporary social movements, such as #FeesMustFall. South African biblical studies continues to draw deeply on the legacy of South African black theology, thus reimagining African biblical studies as decolonial African biblical studies—a hybrid of African liberation and African postcolonial biblical interpretation.

scholarly journals Reading Practices and Literacy of Boer Combatants in the South African War of 1899–1902

2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 286-307
Author(s):  
Fransjohan Pretorius
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
South African ◽  
Practical Experience ◽  
The State ◽  
Reading Practices ◽  
The South ◽  
Planning Strategy ◽  
The Bible ◽  
South African War ◽  
Reading Matter

In investigating the reading practices of Boer combatants during the South African War, diaries, letters, and reminiscences were consulted. The state of literacy reveals a picture of a small number of highly literate men, a larger group of adequately literate men, a still larger group of semi-literates, and the illiterate. Reading matter included the Bible, newspapers, and books. Issues raised are: Did literacy (or illiteracy) influence military decision-making or troop morale? Were certain works making some impact on the battlefield? Was the practical experience the Boers had gained before the war more successful in planning strategy and tactics than literacy?

scholarly journals A Reforma Luterana e suas relações com a educação

2016 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Martha Regina Maas ◽  
Katilene Willms Labes
Keyword(s):  
Educational System ◽  
German Language ◽  
Open Letter ◽  
The South ◽  
Public Discussion ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Education Change ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
The University ◽  
The Church

Resumo: Em 1517, ao afixar suas teses na porta da igreja do castelo de Witenberg,Lutero não fazia ideia das mudanças no campo da educação, que hojesão constatadas como desencadeadas a partir do movimento da Reforma. Elepróprio passou pela experiência de uma educação severa, marcada por castigosfísicos. A forma de debate estudantil na universidade preparou-o para os embatespolêmicos de sua luta reformadora. Na sua “Carta aberta” sobre a reformada Cristandade, em 1520, ele propôs também a reforma das Universidades.Sua tradução da Bíblia para o alemão fluente foi uma contribuição importante,mesmo decisiva, para as mudanças no sistema educacioal. Seu modelo deeducação incentivou e construiu uma sociedade mais crítica, influindo tambémnas comunidades luteranas imigradas para o sul do Brasil no século XIX.Palavras-chave: Educação. Mudança. Reforma. Debate. Crítica.Abstract: In 1517, when he affixed his theses at the door of the church ofWitenberg castle, Luther had no idea of the changes in the field of educationwhich today are recognized as proceeding from the Reformation movement.Luther himself had the experience of a severe education, marked by physicalpunishments. The method of public discussion in the university prepared him tothe polemical clashes of his reforming struggle. In his “Open Letter” about thereform of Christianity, in 1520, he proposed also the reform of the universities.His translation of the Bible to the German language was a very important, evendecisive, contribution to the changes in the educational system. His model ofeducation encouraged and built a more critical society, having influence also inthe Lutheran communities immigrated to the south of Brasil in the XIX century.Keywords: Education. Change. Reform. Discussion. Critics.

scholarly journals The concept of empire as a stumbling stone: Aspects of an ecumenical discussion on the theme of empire

2009 ◽  
Vol 65 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Martina Wasserloos-Strunk
Keyword(s):  
The South ◽  
The Real ◽  
High Profile ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The North ◽  
Points Of View ◽  
Political Structures ◽  
Common Understanding ◽  
Metaphorical Interpretation

The topic of empire is one of the main disputed points in the discussion following the ‘Accra Declaration’. This article evaluates several points of view from the South and North concerning ‘empire’ and shows how the dynamics of the different contexts have influenced the tense discussions in the churches. A distinction has to be made between the real-political high profile of modern empires and the more metaphorical interpretation of empire as it is expressed in the Bible. The discussion on empire can become a stumbling block if it is not approached with great compassion for the victims of globalisation, a careful sense of the vastly different situations in the South and the North, and an understanding of real-political structures. This article warns against the danger of polarisation and seeks to build a bridge toward a common understanding.

The Bible in the Investiture Contest: The South German Gregorian Circle

1985 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 61-84
Author(s):  
I.S. Robinson
Keyword(s):  
Coming Out ◽  
Eleventh Century ◽  
Biblical Studies ◽  
The South ◽  
The Bible ◽  
History Of ◽  
A Charge

Beryl Smalley has often pointed to the importance of the eleventh-century cathedral schools in the history of biblical studies, but she has also emphasized the difficulties of investigating the study of the sacred page in this century. ‘We have to eke out our knowledge by guesswork …. We are beginning to see a great movement. Though we cannot yet discern the detail, we can trace its outline, at least provisionally’. At first the outlook appears bleak. Abbot Williram of Ebersberg is found complaining c. 1060 that scholars concentrate on grammar and dialectic and neglect the Scriptures: a charge echoed a few years later by Otloh of St. Emmeram in Regensburg. However, the complaints of these monastic polemicists run directly contrary to the information coming out of the cathedral schools. Here the news is of masters abandoning profane learning in favour of sacred studies.

A New Christianity, But What Kind?

2005 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Phan
Keyword(s):  
Third World ◽  
Interreligious Dialogue ◽  
Roman Catholicism ◽  
The South ◽  
Demographic Shift ◽  
Popular Piety ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The North ◽  
Christian Population

AbstractThe article examines Philip Jenkins's popular thesis that "Southern Christianity" represents a conservative return to a pre-Tridentine Christendom. While acknowledging the importance of Jenkins's emphasis on the demographic shift of the Christian population from the "North" to the "South" and its vast implications for the church's mission, the article argues that the form of Christianity that is taking place in the so-called Third World, at least in Asian Roman Catholicism, is anything but a return to the pre-Tridentine Christianity. The various phenomena that Jenkins notes such as healing, prophecy, popular piety, and a literalist reading of the Bible, should be viewed within the new context of the church's commitment to renewal and mission in terms of liberation, interculturation, and interreligious dialogue.

“Trust in Providence and Keep Your Powder Dry”

2021 ◽  
pp. 95-110
Author(s):  
James P. Byrd
Keyword(s):  
The South ◽  
God's Will ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The North ◽  
Biblical Texts ◽  
The Relationship

Both sides finally got what they wanted in July at the First Battle of Bull Run—here was a real battle, giving both sides the chance to face off against the enemy. Here also was the first providential test of the war, the first indication of which side God would take once the fighting started. For many southerners, Bull Run (or Manassas, as southerners called the battle) confirmed their reading of God’s will; for many northerners, Bull Run stirred disillusionment and a call for of the nation to rededicate itself to God. The battle also provoked revaluations of several key biblical texts, including Exodus in the South and Romans 13 in the North, with both sides trying to tease out the relationship between the Bible and Bull Run.

“The Stone Which the Builders Rejected”

2021 ◽  
pp. 41-56
Author(s):  
James P. Byrd
Keyword(s):  
White Supremacy ◽  
The South ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Righteous Indignation ◽  
Secession Crisis ◽  
The Way

This chapter narrates the role of the Bible in the secession crisis that erupted after Abraham Lincoln’s election in 1860. While Benjamin Morgan Palmer and other southerners saw slavery as “a divine trust,” many northerners agreed with Lincoln’s quotation of scripture—“A House Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand,” meaning the nation could not endure if it remained divided over slavery. In response, southerners scoured the scriptures for arguments to support white supremacy, fearing that many non-slaveholding whites in the South would refuse to support secession. In all, the Bible contributed to the righteous indignation on both sides, helping to pave the way for war.

A Holy Baptism of Fire and Blood

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
James P. Byrd
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
White Supremacy ◽  
Abraham Lincoln ◽  
Frederick Douglass ◽  
The Other ◽  
Inaugural Address ◽  
The Bible ◽  
State Authority ◽  
Biblical Texts ◽  
North And South

In his Second Inaugural Address, Abraham Lincoln said both North and South “read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other.” Lincoln quoted several biblical texts in this address—which, according to Frederick Douglass, “sounded more like a sermon than a state paper.” The Bible, as Lincoln’s famous speech illustrated, saturated the Civil War. This book offers the most thorough analysis yet of how Americans enlisted scripture to fight the Civil War. As this insightful narrative reveals, no book was more important to the Civil War than the Bible. From Massachusetts to Mississippi and beyond, the Bible was the nation’s most read and most respected book. It brought to mind sacred history and sacrifice. It presented a drama of salvation and damnation, of providence and judgment. It was also a book of war. Americans cited the Bible in addressing many wartime issues, including slavery, secession, patriotism, federal versus state authority, white supremacy, and violence. In scripture, both Union and Confederate soldiers found inspiration for dying and killing like never before in the nation’s history. With approximately 750,000 fatalities, the Civil War was the deadliest of the nation’s wars. Americans fought the Civil War with Bibles in hand, with both sides calling the war just and sacred. This is a book about how Americans enlisted the Bible in the nation’s most bloody, and arguably most biblically saturated war.

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