scholarly journals Tafsir Alegoris, Konstruksi Teologis, dan Unsur Erotis dalam Kitab Kidung Agung

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 237-256
Author(s):  
Agetta Putri Wijaya
Keyword(s):  
Human Sexuality ◽  
Song Of Songs ◽  
Constructive Theology ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Erotic

Song of Songs is afforded relatively rare attention in church, where an allegorical mode of reading often continues to serve as the default interpretative strategy for examining this particular book of the Bible. And this remains the case, despite the development of numerous other approaches that can better account for elements of eroticism as contained in that book. In this essay, discursive problematics arising from the interpretation of Song of Songs are considered in detail, in order to ascertain the reason for the church's aversion toward using some such exegetical method that would be more attuned to the erotic elements within Song of Songs. One's own willingness to be open to such erotic elements in Song of Songs may even assist in bringing the church to realize the riches to be found therein. Such riches may then also serve as basis for a more progressive constructive theology concerning human sexuality. As such, the church may thus regard Song of Songs as its biblical warrant for constructing a theology that regards sexuality in a more positive manner.

scholarly journals Learning to Take Scripture Seriously

ANVIL ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-40
Author(s):  
Evan D. Garner
Keyword(s):  
Human Sexuality ◽  
Bible Study ◽  
Cultural Backgrounds ◽  
Christian Community ◽  
International Conference ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Diverse Backgrounds ◽  
The Church ◽  
Different Parts

Abstract This paper is mainly the product of an international conference on sexuality and scripture that was held in Limuru, Kenya, during the summer of 2013. For almost two-thousand years, Christians have held different views on the role and authority of scripture in the Church. Those differences were made manifest by the participants in this conference. Largely because of their diverse cultural backgrounds, leaders from different parts of the global Christian community continue to use the Bible in the debates over human sexuality in remarkably different ways. This paper identifies the Contextual Bible Study method as a promising hermeneutical tool for finding agreement in the interpretation of scripture among individuals from such diverse backgrounds and from competing theological positions. After reviewing the Contextual Bible Study method and its applicability to the issue of human sexuality, the paper suggests the benefits of leaving behind familiar arguments over those passages of scripture most often cited in these debates in favour of a robust discussion of yet largely unexplored theological arguments.

Sex, Spirituality, and Pre-Modern Readings of the Song of Songs

Horizons ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-104 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas F. Ryan
Keyword(s):  
Song Of Songs ◽  
Course Content ◽  
Erotic Poetry ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Biblical Texts ◽  
Christian Thought ◽  
The Last Two Millennia ◽  
The Erotic

ABSTRACTWhile unfamiliar to many today, the Song of Songs was once one of the most frequently interpreted books of the Bible. This article seeks to counter the current lack of familiarity by highlighting the significance for the classroom of pre-modern exegesis of the Song. As course content, it provides a starting point from which to examine Christian thought and practice over the last two millennia. In particular, it supplies evidence that Christians (and Jews) have expressed some of their most profound insights into spirituality in terms of the erotic poetry of the Song. This essay concludes with an examination of method. How can pre-modern exegesis contribute to contemporary debates about interpretation, particularly of biblical texts?

Sacred Trees and Enclosed Gardens

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lincoln Taiz ◽  
Lee Taiz
Keyword(s):  
Food Chain ◽  
Song Of Songs ◽  
Love Poetry ◽  
Date Palms ◽  
Erotic Poetry ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Artificial Pollination ◽  
Second Millennium Bce ◽  
Agricultural Food ◽  
The Erotic

“Sacred Trees and Enclosed gardens” discusses myths, poetry and art in ancient Babylonia, Egypt and the Levant as they relate to sex in plants. By the second millennium BCE, Babylonians had recognized dioecism in date palms and had established laws governing the practice of artificial pollination, but this recognition was never extended to plants in general. Instead, agricultural abundance came to be identified with the sexuality of powerful goddesses. Date symbolism suggesting the method of artificial pollination is evident in the jewelry of Queen Puabi of Ur. The Warka Vase, illustrating the agricultural food chain, culminates with representations of Inanna and the king whose sacred marriage ritual insures the prosperity of the kingdom. Egyptian tree goddesses were widely represented. The erotic poetry of Mesopotamian agricultural rituals persists in Egyptian love poetry, and continues in the Biblical “Song of Songs”. In the Bible, the vegetation goddess Asherah is mentioned forty times.

scholarly journals Song of Songs and the charism of Mother Theresa of Calcutta (Cant 1:5-2:17)

2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 106-122
Author(s):  
Krzysztof Bardski
Keyword(s):  
Spiritual Formation ◽  
Biblical Interpretation ◽  
Song Of Songs ◽  
Biblical Text ◽  
Modern Times ◽  
Critical Editions ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Living Tradition ◽  
Allegorical Interpretation ◽  
The Church

The ancient Christian tradition considered the allegorical interpretation of the Bible as an important mean of spiritual formation in the life of the Church. This approach to the Biblical text has been neglected in modern times due to the use of historical-critical methods in the Biblical exegesis. However, it seems that the intuitions of the Fathers of the Church may still be inspiring, especially for certain spiritual actualizations of the Scripture. In some contexts of the life of the Church, e.g. spiritual retreats, the symbolical and allegorical reading of the Bible can be still fruitful, especially in connection with new spiritualties emerging in modern times. Even more, the access to critical editions of patristic works and the semiotic approach to the Biblical text make possible new understandings that may enrich the living tradition of Biblical interpretation.

Rembrandt Reads the Gospels: Form, Context and Theological Responsibility in New Testament Interpretation

1997 ◽  
Vol 50 (4) ◽  
pp. 399-413 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clive Marsh
Keyword(s):  
Biblical Interpretation ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
Christian Doctrine ◽  
Constructive Theology ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
Biblical Scholar ◽  
Road Story ◽  
The Church

Art is part of the history of the church, and relates to spirituality and to the practical expression of Christian faith. It illustrates theological loci and biblical themes. Often, the art which fulfils this function does so with the conscious intent of the artist; sometimes not. Attempts have been made, however, to argue that art not only illustrates theology, but also contributes to it. Even so, systematic theologians and biblical scholars — when they do talk to each other — still converse on the basis of largely word-centred approaches to their tasks. I am neither systematic theologian nor biblical scholar, precisely because I attempt to keep a foot in both camps. I am even less of an art critic. Yet it is clear that in the world of art there is a whole area of exploration yet to be ventured into not only historically (have we really sufficiently explored how biblical interpretation and doctrinal theology have been influenced by art?) but also from the perspective of constructive theology (what contribution can art past and present make to the very reformulation and expansion of Christian doctrine?). This paper offers a brief reading of three paintings by Rembrandt, of the Emmaus Road story in Luke 24.13–35. The theological significance of the changing interpretations of the passage is drawn out and the implications of the use of the paintings, in terms of the creative use of the Bible in Christian theology.

The Bible in the spiritual culture of Kievan Rus

1998 ◽  
pp. 46-52
Author(s):  
S. V. Rabotkina
Keyword(s):  
Full Text ◽  
Spiritual Life ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Spiritual Culture ◽  
Slavonic Language ◽  
Long Time ◽  
The Church

A huge place in the spiritual life of medieval Rusich was occupied by the Bible, although for a long time Kievan Rus did not know it fully. The full text of the Holy Scriptures appears in the Church Slavonic language not earlier than 1499.

The Church on the World's Turf

2000 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul A. Bramadat
Keyword(s):  
Alcohol Consumption ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Sexual Ethics ◽  
Institutional Settings ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Conservative Protestant ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Christian Fellowship ◽  
The University ◽  
The Church

Is it possible for conservative Protestant groups to survive in secular institutional settings? Here, Bramadat offers an ethnographic study of the Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship (IVCF) at McMaster University, a group that espouses fundamentalist interpretations of the Bible, women's roles, the age of the earth, alcohol consumption, and sexual ethics. In examining this group, Bramadat demonstrates how this tiny minority thrives within the overwhelmingly secular context of the University.

Inspiration and Textual Preservation: A Catholic Essay on the Bible

Pro Ecclesia ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 106385122199391
Author(s):  
James B. Prothro
Keyword(s):  
Textual Criticism ◽  
Multiple Forms ◽  
Theological Interpretation ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Single Text ◽  
Biblical Texts ◽  
The Church

The doctrine of inspiration grounds Christian use and interpretation of Scripture, making this doctrine at once theoretical and practical. Many theoretical accounts, however, restrict the “inspired” status of biblical texts to a single text-form, which introduces problems for the practical use of Scripture in view of the texts’ historical multiformity. This article argues that such restrictions of inspiration are theologically problematic and unnecessary. Contextualizing inspiration within the divine revelatory economy, this article argues that the Spirit’s same goals and varied activities in the texts’ composition obtain also in their preservation, so that we can consider multiple forms of a text to be inspired while acknowledging that not all forms are inspired to equal ends in the history and life of the church. The article concludes with hermeneutical reflections affirming that we, today, can read the “word of the Lord” while also affirming the place of textual criticism in theological interpretation.

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