scholarly journals The structure of Ezra-Nehemiah as a literary unit

2021 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hans-Georg Wuench
Keyword(s):  
Literary Criticism ◽  
Actual Structure ◽  
Literary Structure ◽  
Biblical Narratives ◽  
The Common ◽  
Biblical Texts

The OT books, Ezra and Nehemiah, are to be considered as one book. This is more or less the common conviction of most OT scholars today. However, their redaction process raises many questions. What is their relation to the book of Chronicles, and how is their actual structure to be understood? Why do we find two almost identical lists of returnees from exile in Ezra 2 and Nehemiah 7? What about the differences between these lists? This article understands the structure of Ezra-Nehemiah as a consciously created literary unit, where the two lists of returnees serve as an important part of the literary structure. The author works on the assumption of the so-called new literary criticism, understanding the narrative in the book on a synchronic basis. He shows that the book of Ezra-Nehemiah can indeed be understood as one literary unit, and that the two lists of returnees function as a literary means to structure the book. There is therefore no need to ‘re-organise’ the narrated events in Ezra-Nehemiah according to an alleged different chronological order.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: The study argued for a canonical and synchronic approach to biblical narratives. The biblical texts should be understood as consciously created narratives, where the apparent discrepancies are important aspects of the narrative fixture.

scholarly journals QUEER CRITICISM AS A POST-MODERNIST APPROACH

2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 132
Author(s):  
Hamdi Hameed Yousif
Keyword(s):  
Literary Criticism ◽  
Literary Work ◽  
First Century ◽  
Critical Approach ◽  
The Social ◽  
Late Twentieth ◽  
The Common ◽  
Characteristic Features ◽  
The One ◽  
Late Twentieth Century

One of the post-modernist approaches to literary criticism is the queer criticism which has not been evaluated properly. Queer criticism can refer to any piece of literary criticism that interprets a text from a non-straight perspective. Therefore, it includes both lesbian and gay criticism. The aim of this paper, therefore, is to trace the social and political reasons behind the emergence of Queer criticism in the late twentieth century till it acquired momentum in the twenty-first century. After trying to define the terms related to the Queer criticism, the paper tries to examine the poetics of queer (gay and lesbian) literary works and to point out the main characteristic features of this critical approach by identifying the criteria and the textual evidence by which a literary work is labeled queer. It, also tries to shed light on the common features between queer criticism and feminism, on the one hand, and queer criticism and the deconstructuralist approach on the other hand. The final section of the study is a critique which points out the negative aspects of this approach.

scholarly journals N.V. Gogol’s Works and Censorship

Literary Fact ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 238-256
Author(s):  
Igor A. Vinogradov
Keyword(s):  
Literary Criticism ◽  
Good Reason ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Previous Period ◽  
Analytical Review ◽  
Negative Role ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Government ◽  
First Time

For the first time, an analytical review of all, without exception, censorship stories of N.V. Gogol’s works is presented. An objective picture of Gogol's relationship with the censorship is being recreated. The findings of the study allow, with good reason, to judge about the interference of censors in the writer's works in a fundamentally different way, in comparison with the ideas offered by literary criticism of the previous period without solid evidence. Based on a thorough analysis, involving numerous archival sources, the common, stereotypical opinions about the extremely negative role of censorship in Gogol’s fate are being revised. The most significant negative result among all censorship interventions in Gogol's works was the activity of the censor of Westernizing views, opposed to the government, a professor at St. Petersburg University, A.V. Nikitenko. It is the numerous reductions of Nikitenko, И.А. Виноградов. Произведения Н .В. Гоголя и цензура 255 a friend of V.G. Belinsky, in Gogol's religious and patriotic book “Selected Passages from Correspondence with Friends” that the writer called “censorship murder”. No less significant was the intervention of the liberal censor in the texts of “Dead Souls”, “Theatrical Travel after the Presentation of a New Comedy” and other works of the writer. It is concluded that, with the exception of this “intrigue” against Gogol by the censor Nikitenko, on the whole Gogol's texts encountered relatively insignificant difficulties in censorship.

scholarly journals “Fiat Lux.” Navigating chaos through Sensing Leadership

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Johan Van der Merwe
Keyword(s):  
Change Management ◽  
Interpersonal Relationships ◽  
Leadership Style ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Sense Making ◽  
Leadership Attributes ◽  
Complex Interactions ◽  
Biblical Narratives ◽  
The Common ◽  
Response To Change

This article provides an overview of change management strategies described in business science. From the distinctions made, it becomes clear that change is all-pervasive and the result of complex interactions within and between the internal and external environments of organizations and communities. Complexity theory is subsequently considered as a better vantage point from where a response to change may be informed. The leadership style to correspond to this new reading of change needs to be that of “transcending leadership” where sensing and sense-making skills are honed to sense emerging meaning in organizations, in interpersonal relationships and through intrapersonal reflection. Instead of “making” change happen, the new leadership “lets” things happen, sensing the connections between emerging events in the context and creating a level of readiness to find the potential meaning in what may usually have been perceived as mere chaos. The creation narrative and a new reading of chaos as possibility provide Judeo-Christian sources of spirituality in this regard. Other Biblical narratives are cited to show in which way different change management frameworks can be applied to the respective narratives, but also how sensing and sense-making remain the common leadership attributes in successfully navigated change.

Violence and Cruelty

Shadow Sophia ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 84-109
Author(s):  
Celia E. Deane-Drummond
Keyword(s):  
Aggressive Behaviour ◽  
Animal Sacrifice ◽  
Organized Violence ◽  
The Common ◽  
Biblical Texts ◽  
Close Relatives ◽  
Animal Societies ◽  
Common Perception ◽  
As If

Our close relatives, chimpanzees, are known at times to be violent and aggressive. This chapter acknowledges the presence of violence, but challenges the common perception that killing is somehow ‘natural’ to our species. The chapter discusses the capacity for violence and aggression in chimpanzees as it relates to specific types of human violence. How far and to what extent did the first humans begin to show an inordinate capacity for organized violence and cruelty? How should biblical accounts of violence, animal sacrifice, and cruelty be interpreted in the light of this evidence? Treating humans as if they were animals is a way of degrading them and denying their humanity in biblical texts. Humans have the capacity to identify with their species and use misappropriated language towards other, often domesticated, species in a way that is deliberately cruel. The chapter will argue that the capacity for warfare and cruelty in humans does not simply build on aggressive behaviour found in other animal societies or towards other animals, but involves instead a deliberative and cooperative capacity that is highly distinctive for our lineage. Such insights need to be qualified in the light of capacities for reconciliation and, with the onset of warfare, strategic peacefare.

Levi's Elevation to the Priesthood in Second Temple Writings

1993 ◽  
Vol 86 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Kugel
Keyword(s):  
Special Functions ◽  
Second Temple ◽  
Natural Consequence ◽  
Golden Calf ◽  
Biblical Narratives ◽  
Ancient Israel ◽  
Biblical Texts ◽  
Selection Of

In ancient Israel, the tribe of Levi was deemed to have a special connection with the service of God. Numerous biblical texts speak of the Levites asthepriestly tribe or attribute to them certain special functions connected with cultic worship. But why exactly had the Levites been selected for such honors, and how did their selection come about? Several biblical narratives appear to have been designed in order to answer this question. Thus, the selection of the Levites is at one point connected with their zealousness following the Golden Calf incident (Exod 32:25–29), while elsewhere God's choice of the Levites seems to follow as a natural consequence after the death of the Levite Aaron (see Deut 10:8) or, possibly, to be the result of Moses' words in his final blessing of this tribe before his death (Deut 33:8– 10).

Loitering with Intent: Biblical Texts in Public Places

2003 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 566-578 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keyword(s):  
Print Media ◽  
Natural Habitat ◽  
Law And Order ◽  
Public Places ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Natural Place ◽  
The Common ◽  
Biblical Texts

AbstractThis essay is about the effect of the Bible in the public arena. It explores the fate of biblical texts as they find themselves in the popular press. Secular newspapers are not the natural place to look for biblical citations but now and then they make appearances either to support or subvert issues ranging from asylumseekers to the use of corporal punishment for children. At a time when biblical allusions and imagery have all but evaporated from the Western consciousness, the intermittent showing up of sacred texts in the secular print media is a sign that the scriptures still have some hermeneutical hold. The essay looks at four areas—international conflict, sexual orientation, law and order and bringing-up children—where biblical texts are being summoned either to endorse or to repudiate. The essay raises hermeneutical issues such as how biblical texts are used in print media, the nature of the texts employed, the interface between popular and professional reading, the role of the common reader as a biblical commentator, and concludes with an examination of the standing and sway of the Bible as it moves outside its own natural habitat.

scholarly journals Bibelteologi som skrift?

2009 ◽  
Vol 72 (2) ◽  
pp. 140-145
Author(s):  
Kåre Berge
Keyword(s):  
Literary Criticism ◽  
Biblical Theology ◽  
Social Conditions ◽  
Cultural Representations ◽  
Cultural Artifacts ◽  
Copenhagen School ◽  
Biblical Texts

This article reviews two books of N. P. Lemche (also published in USA). Lemche discusses how to make biblical theology “after the collapse of history” in the sense of the Copenhagen school. Biblical theology should be based on the texts and narratives not on history. This does not, however, mean a return to literary criticism or structuralism. Biblical texts, in Lemche’s view, should be regarded as arbitrary cultural artifacts, which have to be studied as cultural representations of social conditions in the pre-Christian centuries.

scholarly journals TANTANGAN DAN STRATEGI PELAYANAN ANAK DI ERA PASCAMODERN

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 41-69
Author(s):  
Marhaenita Zendrato
Keyword(s):  
Spiritual Formation ◽  
Open Approach ◽  
Keywords Children ◽  
Personal Lives ◽  
Generation Z ◽  
Biblical Narratives ◽  
The Face ◽  
Current Context ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Church

Abstract: Children ministry nowadays faces challenges both from inside and outside church. This article focuses on the external challenges, namely the postmodern influence on the paradigm of the generation Z and what the church can do to respond. Some challenges in as well as opportunities for the ministry of the generation Z include the center on technology and media, the rising of new morality that set asides the value of an absolute truth, the emphasis on experience and not only on fact, and lastly, the rejection of authority or figures with authority and the appreciation for personality that is real, authentic, and trustworthy. In the face of these challenges, this article proposes several thoughts to be considered by the church for its children ministry in current context, namely: first, including children in the common worship, together with the adult congregations, as a means of nurturing the children’s’ faith. Secondly, in preaching, the children minister needs to exercise open approach Bible study, not close one, where children are led to ponder and discover from the biblical narratives truths and values for their personal lives. Lastly, to encourage and equip both parents to regain roles that God has designed for them, to actively participate in the spiritual formation of their children.   Keywords: children ministry, worldview, generation Z.     Abstrak: Pelayanan anak dewasa ini mendapatkan tantangan baik dari dalam maupun dari luar gereja. Artikel ini secara khusus menyoroti tantangan dari luar, yaitu pengaruh pascamodernisme terhadap paradigma generasi Z dan apa yang dapat gereja lakukan dalam meresponinya. Beberapa tantangan yang sekaligus dapat menjadi peluang bagi pelayanan kepada generasi Z adalah: adanya pemusatan pada teknologi dan media, munculnya moralitas baru yang menggeser nilai kebenaran absolut, penekanan pada pengalaman dan bukan hanya fakta, dan terakhir adalah penolakan pada otoritas atau figur otoritatif dan apresiasi pada pribadi yang real, otentik, dan dapat dipercaya. Berhadapan dengan tantangan demikian, beberapa hal yang perlu dipertimbangkan oleh gereja dalam melakukan pelayanan anak dalam konteks kekinian yang diusulkan dalam artikel ini antara lain: pertama, melibatkan anak-anak dalam ibadah bersama dengan jemaat dewasa sebagai salah satu bentuk pengasuhan iman anak. Kedua, dalam hal pemberitaan firman, pelayan anak perlu menerapkan sistem studi Alkitab yang terbuka bukan yang tertutup, di mana anak dituntun untuk memikirkan dan menemukan kebenaran serta nilai-nilai pribadi mereka sendiri dari kisah-kisah Alkitab. Terakhir, mendorong serta memperlengkapi orang tua, yaitu ayah dan ibu untuk kembali kepada peran yang Allah rancang bagi para orang tua untuk berperan aktif dalam pembentukan spiritual anak-anaknya.   Kata-kata kunci: pelayanan anak, pandangan dunia (worldview), generasi Z.   

scholarly journals Irony As “Ferment Of Philosophical And Aesthetic Speculation” (By Friedrich Schlegel And Thomas Mann)

wisdom ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 88-97
Author(s):  
Yelena ETARYAN
Keyword(s):  
Literary Criticism ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
Thomas Mann ◽  
Scientific Article ◽  
Mental Attitude ◽  
Romantic Period ◽  
Romantic Irony ◽  
Philosophy Of Life ◽  
The Common ◽  
Reflective Narrative

The focus of our scientific contribution is German Romanticism with its early romantic concept of self-referentiality or romantic irony. In the article, according to Safransky (Safranski, 2007, p. 12), romanticism is considered not only as a literary era, but also as a ”mental attitude“ that can be imprinted in any era. Using the work of Thomas Mann as an example, we illustrate it by looking at the epoch of modernity. In the Romantic period irony became a philosophy of life and art. It is also a central concept for Thomas Mann. The goal of this scientific article is to demonstrate the consequent realization of the concept of (early) romantic irony of a self-reflective narrative in the work by Thomas Mann. In the article, as a conclusion, the thesis is put forward that Thomas Mann seeks to synthesize the spheres of knowledge and aesthetics, but this “synthesis” has a slightly different meaning than that of the early romantics. . The common ground of their concept of irony is mediating between opposites, but at the same time, these opposite sides are to be preserved in their specificity and can only be unified selectively. Another similarity that needs to be identified is the functionalization of art as criticism, in other words, of “literary criticism”.

scholarly journals Ethical Anguish, Ethical Conflict and Ethical Choice: An Exploration of Futon from the Perspective of Ethical Literary Criticism

2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 82-88
Author(s):  
Yang Jian
Keyword(s):  
Literary Criticism ◽  
Social Care ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Social Ethics ◽  
Ethical Awareness ◽  
Bottom Line ◽  
Ethical Implications ◽  
Ethical Choices ◽  
The Common ◽  
Violent Conflicts

The transcendence of society and ethical dimension are often embodied in the Japanese I-Novel. The writers of the I-Novel are not outside society, actually their social care permeates their literary works in which the characters possess a strong ethical awareness within a deep, dignified, and sentimental ethical narrative wri ting strategy. Futon, an I-Novel masterpiece, contains many ethical implications from the perspective of Ethical Literary Criticism, such as the ethical anguish in love affairs which is caused by their ethical environment in the late Meiji. With violent conflicts between individual desire and social ethics, the common Japanese faced the crisis of emotion and belief and felt confused on ethical issues during that period. The ethical choices made by the hero and heroine in this novel had touched the moral bottom line of human being.

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