scholarly journals Do Justice and Peace Really Kiss Each Other?

2017 ◽  
Vol 67 (3) ◽  
pp. 387-402
Author(s):  
Sigrid Eder

While Lady Wisdom, Zion and Jerusalem, for example, are well-known and frequently analyzed personifications in the Old Testament, the study of personifications in the book of psalms is a research desideratum. After presenting the theoretical background of the term personification with special focus on the function of the verb, I will present the results of verb personifications in the psalter followed by a textual analysis of the personified virtues of steadfast love, truth, justice and peace in Ps 85:11. One example of the encounter between justice and peace in the form of a kiss, from Christian reception history, forms the last part of the article. The paper aims to contribute to the broad and intense discussion of metaphor analysis in psalms research on the three levels of theory, of textual analysis of the whole book of psalms and of Ps 85,11 and the reception history of metaphors.

Author(s):  
Brian Doak

The book of Job is the longest and most thematically and linguistically challenging of the “wisdom books” in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. In the book’s prologue (Job 1–2) the narrator introduces readers to a man named Job (Hebrew ‘iyyōb; etymology unclear). Job’s prosperity extends into all areas of his life, and seems at least potentially linked to his moral status as completely righteous and blameless before God. The earthly scene then gives way to a heavenly setting, where a figure called “the accuser” (literally “the satan”; haśśātān) appears before God. God boasts about Job’s righteousness, but the accuser counters, suggesting that Job’s moral achievement has been merely the byproduct of God’s protection. The accuser and God enter into a bet: Job’s children will be killed, Job’s possessions stripped, and Job’s body afflicted with a painful disease—all to see whether Job will curse God. Job initially responds to the distress with pious statements, affirming God’s authority over his life. In a state of intense suffering, Job is joined by three friends—Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, and then eventually a fourth, Elihu—who offer rounds of speeches debating the reasons for Job’s situation (Job 3–37). Job responds to the friends in turn, alternately lamenting his situation and pleading for a chance to address God directly and argue his case as an innocent man. The friends accuse Job of committing some great sin to deserve his fate; they urge repentance, and defend God as a just ruler. God enters the dispute in a forceful whirlwind (Job 38), and proceeds for several chapters (Job 38–41) to overwhelm Job with resounding statements on creation (38:1–38), animal life (38:39–40:14), and visions of two powerful creatures, Behemoth (40:15–24) and Leviathan (41:1–11). The book ends with Job acknowledging to God the fact that he is overmatched in the face of divine power. God condemns the friends for not speaking “what is right, as my servant Job has” (42:7), and then restores Job’s lost possessions and children (42:10–17). Job has enjoyed a rich reception history in Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and, perhaps more than any other book in the Bible except Genesis, as a world literary classic in its own right. Within the Bible, it is the most bracing statement on the problem of suffering, as it presents a situation wherein a clearly righteous person suffers immensely—putting it at odds with more straightforward descriptions of why people suffer in Proverbs, Deuteronomy, and other texts. Scholarly research on Job has focused on the book’s place among other ancient Near Eastern wisdom materials, on questions of language (given the large amount of difficult Hebrew terms in the book), on historical-critical concerns about authorship and the way the book may have come together in its present form, and on the history of the translation of the text into Greek and other ancient languages. In the 21st century, interpreters have increasingly taken up readings of Job that situate it among concerns related to economics, disability, gender, and the history of its reception in many different eras and communities.


2003 ◽  
Vol 59 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip J. Nel

The Bible: Text and subversionThis article explores both the subversive dimension of the biblical text, in particular the Old Testament, as the ramifications thereof for the concept of a religious text. It argues that interpretation has been historically and fundamentally part and parcel of the genesis and reception history of the biblical text. The texts of Job and Jonah have been chosen for their explicit subversive strategies. The article shows that if the biblical text exploits strategies of subversion, it also contravenes the traditional opinion subscribing to a referential meaning of texts. A subversive text cannot simultaneously deny and confirm a constant (fixed) and an immutable reality. The article argues that biblical scholars should reconsider other perceptions of the religious text to avoid the destructive criticism of referential meaning in postmodern studies. One option to be considered is the view of a text as performative communication.


2011 ◽  
Vol 74 (3) ◽  
pp. 217-231
Author(s):  
Mogens Müller

The understanding of the role of the old Greek translation of the Old Testament, the Septuagint, has undergone great changes in the last decennia. From looking upon the Hebrew text as the original and the Greek text as only a translation, it has now been common to view the Greek version as a chapter in a reception history of biblical traditions. By being used by New Testament authors and in the Early Church the Septuagint gained canonical status – alongside the Hebrew Bible. Thus the Old Testament of the Church in reality consists of both versions. The article argues for this also pointing to some of the theological consequences of viewing the connection between the two parts of the Christian Bible from the perspective of reception history.


2012 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Pieter H.J. Labuschagne ◽  
Jurie H. Le Roux

In the last few decades in South Africa, much emphasis has been placed on unhistorical, synchronistic interpretations of the text of the Old Testament. Very little effort has been made to look into the long historical development of the text from the sources to the present form. Sometimes the advocates of these synchronistic approaches even responded with hostility towards any approach that would, in their words, deny the authority of the text. Their search was for absolute truth, which they believed could be secured by their methods. The uncertainties of historical research were not attractive to them. In this article, we briefly look at Gerhard Von Rad�s Traditionsgeschichte [History of Traditions] and Hans-Georg Gadamer�s Wirkungsgeschichte [Reception History] and point out that mankind is rooted in history. We thus come to understanding through a process that is tied to our historical horisons. Furthermore, it will become clear that theology and philosophy can help one another in defining the process of understanding.


Author(s):  
Dominik Markl

The Hebrew Bible/Old Testament (HB/OT) is like a prism through which ancient Near Eastern traditions were transformed and transmitted to Jewish and Christian cultures. Through the Jewish diaspora and the Christian missions, it became a nomadic text that spread to all continents. It was received and transformed in diverse genres of literature, music, art, theatre, law, and politics. Interest in processes of reception has intensified since World War I, but reception history became a major field within biblical studies only at the turn of the millennium. Analyzing the history of reception of the HB/OT poses a variety of challenges: what hermeneutical expectations, attitudes, interests, and methods were applied to its texts? How were they involved in diverse fields of culture, and how did different modes of reception influence each other? What historical developments occasioned changes in interpretation? In analyzing textual reception, three basic aspects should be considered: the texts with their respective genres and themes, the hermeneutics applied to them, and the social contexts in which the reception takes place. Each of these aspects is characterized by great variation: biblical genres are as diverse as curse and love poetry, law and lament; hermeneutical approaches involve extremely different interests and results in, for example, allegorical, kabballistic and historical critical interpretation; social contexts of reception include family education, monastic lectio divina, public reading and preaching, and academic teaching. Investigating this history of reception means looking at cultural history through the lens of the HB/OT. Rather than defining itself as a field of research separate from interpretation, reception history should be seen as a constituent of the hermeneutical endeavor.


2013 ◽  
Vol 28 (69) ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Glaz Serup

Herefter følger Martin Glaz Serups artikel “Konceptuel litteratur”, der præsenterer en kortlægning af de sidste 10 års konceptuelle litteratur med særlig vægt på dansk poesi. Parallelt med at samtidslyrikken i sin bevægelse i feltet mellem billedkunst og musik nedtoner betydningen af digteren med stort D, er den konceptuelle poesi – og herunder også postproduktionen – med til at flytte opmærksomheden fra kunstens æstetiske niveau til dens idémæssige og materielle forudsætninger.Martin Glaz Serup: “Conceptual literature”This article presents the last ten years of conceptual literature through a series of intertwining movements with a special focus on Danish conceptual literature and how it is embedded in and closely connected to the Nordic and North American scenes. The article gives a brief history of the theoretical background of conceptualism, within both visual art and literature. A discussion of what is (not) conceptual literature unfolds alongside the distinctions made among the related concepts of conceptual literature, poetic documents, post-production and uncreative writing. Furthermore, the article provides both an overview of the most important recent international monographs, anthologies and debates on conceptual literature as well as an attempt to compile a complete list of the full books of conceptual poetry that have been published in Denmark in the last ten years.


This is the first book in English dedicated to the actress and director Tanaka Kinuyo. Praised as amongst the greatest actors in the history of Japanese cinema, Tanaka’s career spanned the industrial development of cinema - from silent to sound, monochrome to colour. Alongside featuring in films by Ozu, Mizoguchi, Naruse and Kurosawa, Tanaka was also the only Japanese woman filmmaker between 1953 and 1962, and her films tackled distinctly feminine topics such as prostitution and breast cancer. Because her career overlaps with a transformative period in Japan, especially for women, this close analysis of her fascinating life and work offers new perspectives into the Japanese history of women and classical era of national cinema. The first half of the book focuses on Tanaka as actress and analyses the elements and meanings associated with her star image, and her powerful embodiment of diverse, at times contradictory, ideological discourses. The second half is dedicated to Tanaka as director and explores her public image as filmmaker and her depiction of gender and sexuality against the national history in order to reflect on her role and style as author. With a special focus on the melodrama genre and on the sociopolitical and economic contexts of film production, the book offers a revision of theories of stardom, authorship, and women’s cinema. In examining Tanaka’s iconic reification of femininities in relation to politics, national identity, and memory, the chapters shed light on the cultural construction of female subjectivity and sexuality in Japanese popular culture.


2019 ◽  
Vol 72 (3) ◽  
pp. 719-779
Author(s):  
David Gutkin

H. Lawrence Freeman's “Negro Jazz Grand Opera,” Voodoo, was premiered in 1928 in Manhattan's Broadway district. Its reception bespoke competing, racially charged values that underpinned the idea of the “modern” in the 1920s. The white press critiqued the opera for its allegedly anxiety-ridden indebtedness to nineteenth-century European conventions, while the black press hailed it as the pathbreaking work of a “pioneer composer.” Taking the reception history of Voodoo as a starting point, this article shows how Freeman's lifelong project, the creation of what he would call “Negro Grand Opera,” mediated between disparate and sometimes apparently irreconcilable figurations of the modern that spanned the late nineteenth century through the interwar years: Wagnerism, uplift ideology, primitivism, and popular music (including, but not limited to, jazz). I focus on Freeman's inheritance of a worldview that could be called progressivist, evolutionist, or, to borrow a term from Wilson Moses, civilizationist. I then trace the complex relationship between this mode of imagining modernity and subsequent versions of modernism that Freeman engaged with during the first decades of the twentieth century. Through readings of Freeman's aesthetic manifestos and his stylistically syncretic musical corpus I show how ideas about race inflected the process by which the qualitatively modern slips out of joint with temporal modernity. The most substantial musical analysis examines leitmotivic transformations that play out across Freeman's jazz opera American Romance (1924–29): lions become subways; Mississippi becomes New York; and jazz, like modernity itself, keeps metamorphosing. A concluding section considers a broader set of questions concerning the historiography of modernism and modernity.


2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 13-26
Author(s):  
Brandon W. Hawk

Literature written in England between about 500 and 1100 CE attests to a wide range of traditions, although it is clear that Christian sources were the most influential. Biblical apocrypha feature prominently across this corpus of literature, as early English authors clearly relied on a range of extra-biblical texts and traditions related to works under the umbrella of what have been called “Old Testament Pseudepigrapha” and “New Testament/Christian Apocrypha." While scholars of pseudepigrapha and apocrypha have long trained their eyes upon literature from the first few centuries of early Judaism and early Christianity, the medieval period has much to offer. This article presents a survey of significant developments and key threads in the history of scholarship on apocrypha in early medieval England. My purpose is not to offer a comprehensive bibliography, but to highlight major studies that have focused on the transmission of specific apocrypha, contributed to knowledge about medieval uses of apocrypha, and shaped the field from the nineteenth century up to the present. Bringing together major publications on the subject presents a striking picture of the state of the field as well as future directions.


2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Takatso Mofokeng

Worthy of celebration is the contribution made by Itumeleng Mosala (hereafter Mosala) to the Black Methodist Consultation, the theological community in Southern Africa, and the Black Consciousness Movement. This article attempts to give theology its world, feet and hands in the person of Mosala. The article departs from the narration of the history of Mosala. It locates Mosala within township life and Old Testament scholarship. Furthermore, the article searches for suitable and effective weapons of intellectual struggle in light of Mosala’s life. The aim of this article is to celebrate the indelible footprints that Mosala made as he communed with black people.


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