Reading the Bible in Context: an Indonesian and a Mexican Commentary on Ecclesiastes: Contextual Interpretations

Exchange ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 120-133
Author(s):  
Barend Drewes
Keyword(s):  
Main Question ◽  
Local Churches ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Objective Factor ◽  
Biblical Scholar ◽  
Liberation Theologian

AbstractThis article discusses first of all a theological commentary on Ecclesiastes, written by the Indonesian biblical scholar E.G. Singgih. The main question thereby is: what is the role of the context in this commentary? Besides the international exegetical discourse, the relationships of power and the situation of the local churches appear to be of influence in his exegesis. God is presented as 'the boss', who rules in an incomprehensible way. All people 'live under the shadow of death' (cf. the title of the commentary). This interpretation is then compared with a commentary of the liberation theologian, Elsa Tamez. She places Ecclesiastes — and herself — in the context of the market and its oppressive capitalism, hoping that finally God shall replace this time of 'vanity' by better times. This article shows that 'context' is not an objective factor, but that, consciously or unconsciously, authors choose a certain context — and this influences their reading of texts.

scholarly journals Making sense of the COVID-19 pandemic from the Bible – Some perspectives

2021 ◽  
Vol 77 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Francois Tolmie ◽  
Rian Venter
Keyword(s):  
Sense Making ◽  
Social Location ◽  
Critical Importance ◽  
New Normal ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
Crisis Discourse ◽  
Walter Brueggemann ◽  
Biblical Scholar

In this article, a brief survey of some of the ways in which biblical scholars try to make sense of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is offered. The views of the following scholars are discussed: Walter Brueggemann, Ying Zhang, John Goldingay and Kathleen Scott Goldingay, N.T. Wright, Philemon M. Chamburuka and Ishanesu S. Gusha, and Peter Lampe. This is followed by the reflections of a biblical scholar and a systematic theologian. From the perspective of a biblical scholar, the following issues are raised: the richness of biblical traditions, the influence of social location on the interpretation of the pandemic in the light of the Bible, the importance of the emphasis on lament, the reluctance to interpret the pandemic as a punishment from God, the importance of the interpreter’s view of God and the emphasis on the way in which the ‘new normal’ should be approached. From the perspective of a systematic theologian the following issues are discussed: The nature of doing theology, the role of the symbol of the Divine, performativity of sense-making, the Trinitarian confession, an emerging new self and the importance of an ethic of responsibility.Contribution: The article is a response to the COVID-19 pandemic and emphasises the critical importance of engaging the Christian scripture. The role accorded to hermeneutics and to an explicit interdisciplinary conversation makes a particular contribution to the emerging crisis discourse.

scholarly journals The role of urban religion in seeking peace beyond the mere absence of community conflict: A reading of Ephesians 2:11–22, with the homeless in the City of Tshwane

2015 ◽  
Vol 71 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Reginald W. Nel
Keyword(s):  
Bible Study ◽  
Religious Communities ◽  
Urban Religion ◽  
Faith Based ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Community Conflict ◽  
The Common ◽  
Biblical Scholar ◽  
The City

Urban religion, often visible in the work of faith-based organisations which consciously aim at unshackling the debilitating realities of urban marginalised communities, needs to be consciously inclusive in all its endeavours. In particular, this is crucial for actions such as those of the Tshwane Leadership Foundation that consciously seeks the peace of the city beyond the mere absence of conflict. This inclusivity requires a sensitive, creative, but also mutually transformative dialogue. This article aims at bringing into dialogue what biblical scholar Gerald West, in his proposal for contextual Bible Study, calls ‘trained’ readers of the Bible with what he calls ‘ordinary’ readers, who are homeless in the City of Tshwane. This methodology leads to a mutually transformative encounter in the common search for peace but also to appreciating the calling of urban religious communities in South Africa. It aims to make a contribution towards an inclusive and mutually transformative dialogue in order to contribute to the quest of urban religious communities to unshackle the marginalisation, whether it be in their consciousness or their environment.

The Quranic Jesus: Prophet and Scapegoat

2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 183-220
Author(s):  
John Ranieri
Keyword(s):  
Major Theme ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Christian Understanding ◽  
The Way

A major theme in René Girard’s work involves the role of the Bible in exposing the scapegoating practices at the basis of culture. The God of the Bible is understood to be a God who takes the side of victims. The God of the Qur’an is also a defender of victims, an idea that recurs throughout the text in the stories of messengers and prophets. In a number of ways, Jesus is unique among the prophets mentioned in the Qur’an. It is argued here that while the Quranic Jesus is distinctly Islamic, and not a Christian derivative, he functions in the Qur’an in a way analogous to the role Jesus plays in the gospels. In its depiction of Jesus, the Qur’an is acutely aware of mimetic rivalry, scapegoating, and the God who comes to the aid of the persecuted. Despite the significant differences between the Christian understanding of Jesus as savior and the way he is understood in the Qur’an, a Girardian interpretation of the Qur’anic Jesus will suggest ways in which Jesus can be a bridge rather than an obstacle in Christian/Muslim dialogue.

Scripturalizing and the Second Amendment

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosamond C. Rodman
Keyword(s):  
White Women ◽  
White Children ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Second Amendment ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Status ◽  
Us Constitution ◽  
Half Decade

Expanding beyond the text of the Bible, this chapter explores instead a piece of political scripture, namely the Second Amendment of the US Constitution. Over the last half-decade, the Second Amendment has come to enjoy the status of a kind of scripture-within-scripture. Vaulted to a much more prominent status than it had held in the first 150 years or so of its existence, and having undergone a remarkable shift in what most Americans think it means, the Second Amendment provides an opportunity to examine the linguistic, racial, and gendered modes by which these changes were effected, paying particular attention to the ways in which white children and white women were conscripted into the role of the masculine, frontier-defending US citizen.

Witches and Forgers

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott Mandelbrote
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Old Testament ◽  
Republic Of Letters ◽  
The Bible ◽  
God's Word ◽  
1 Samuel ◽  
The Witch

Scepticism and loyalty represent the poles of van Dale’s career. Two contexts have been mentioned as relevant here: the seventeenth-century attack on magic and superstition, and the circles of friendship that created a contemporary Republic of Letters. This chapter evaluates both contexts, as well as others that may throw light on his relatively neglected attitude to the text of the Bible. It brings into focus two important intellectual episodes: his treatment of the account of the Witch of Endor (1 Samuel 28:3–25), and his engagement with Hellenistic sources relating to the text of the Old Testament, especially to the miraculous composition of the Septuagint. These issues brought van Dale to ask questions about God’s Word. The chapter explores the limits of his scepticism, the extent of his scholarship, and the role of friendship and isolation in his development. Finally, it draws attention to his place in contemporary Mennonite debates.

The Power of the Cross and Cruciform Devices in the Carolingian World

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ildar Garipzanov
Keyword(s):  
Final Section ◽  
Ninth Century ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Manuscript Culture ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The Cross ◽  
Early Byzantine

This chapter shows the unquestionable role of the sign of the cross as the primary sign of divine authority in Carolingian material and manuscript culture, a role partly achieved at the expense of the diminishing symbolic importance of the late antique christograms. It also analyses the appearance of new cruciform devices in the ninth century as well as the adaptation of the early Byzantine tradition of cruciform invocational monograms in Carolingian manuscript culture, as exemplified in the Bible of San Paolo fuori le mura and several other religious manuscripts. The final section examines some Carolingian carmina figurata and, most importantly, Hrabanus Maurus’ In honorem sanctae crucis, as a window into Carolingian graphicacy and the paramount importance of the sign of the cross as its ultimate organizing principle.

Humanism, the Bible, and Erasmus’s Moral World Order

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xavier Tubau
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Just War ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Just War Theory ◽  
World Order ◽  
Moral Order ◽  
Moral Formation ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Moral World

This chapter sets Erasmus’s ideas on morality and the responsibility of rulers with regard to war in their historical context, showing their coherence and consistency with the rest of his philosophy. First, there is an analysis of Erasmus’s criticisms of the moral and legal justifications of war at the time, which were based on the just war theory elaborated by canon lawyers. This is followed by an examination of his ideas about the moral order in which the ruler should be educated and political power be exercised, with the role of arbitration as the way to resolve conflicts between rulers. As these two closely related questions are developed, the chapter shows that the moral formation of rulers, grounded in Christ’s message and the virtue politics of fifteenth-century Italian humanism, is the keystone of the moral world order that Erasmus proposes for his contemporaries.

“In the Bible Belt:” The role of religion in HIV care and prevention for transgender people in the United States South

2021 ◽  
Vol 70 ◽  
pp. 102613
Author(s):  
Darius Scott ◽  
Nastacia M. Pereira ◽  
Sayward E. Harrison ◽  
Meagan Zarwell ◽  
Kamla Sanasi-Bhola ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Hiv Care ◽  
Bible Belt ◽  
Transgender People ◽  
United States South ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Role Of Religion

scholarly journals History and theory of Scripture translations

2008 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean-Claude Loba-Mkole
Keyword(s):  
Frames Of Reference ◽  
Functional Equivalence ◽  
Historical Overview ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Christian Communities ◽  
Bible Translation ◽  
Bible Translations ◽  
The Bible ◽  
History And Theory

This article argues for the importance of Bible translations through its historical achievements and theoretical frames of reference. The missionary expansion of Christianity owes its very being to translations. The early Christian communities knew the Bible through the LXX translations while churches today still continue to use various translations. Translations shape Scripture interpretations, especially when a given interpretation depends on a particular translation. A particular interpretation can also influence a given translation. The article shows how translation theories have been developed to clarify and how the transaction source-target is culturally handled. The articles discuss some of these “theoretical frames”, namely the functional equivalence, relevance, literary functional equivalence and intercultural mediation. By means of a historical overview and a reflection on Bible translation theories the article aims to focus on the role of Africa in translation history.

To Network or Not to Network

2021 ◽  
Vol 101 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 376-398
Author(s):  
Nigel Smith
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Word Of God ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Literal Truth ◽  
Literary Art ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract This article contrasts hostility toward visual and literary art in English radical Puritanism before the late seventeenth century with the central role of art for Dutch Mennonites, many involved in the commercial prosperity of Amsterdam. Both 1620s Mennonites and 1650s–1660s Quakers debated the relationship between literal truth of the Bible and claims for the power of a personally felt Holy Spirit. This was the intra-Mennonite “Two-Word Dispute,” and for Quakers an opportunity to attack Puritans who argued that the Bible was literally the Word of God, not the “light within.” Mennonites like Jan Theunisz and Quakers like Samuel Fisher made extensive use of learning, festive subversion and poetry. Texts from the earlier dispute were republished in order to traduce the Quakers when they came to Amsterdam in the 1650s and discovered openness to conversation but not conversion.

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