Paradigmenwechsel ‐ welches Paradigma? : Die Pentateuchkrise als Krise der Literarkritik

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 123-151
Author(s):  
Siegbert Riecker
Keyword(s):  
Historical Background ◽  
Current Crisis ◽  
Source Criticism ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Social ◽  
Empirical Perspective ◽  
Biblical Texts ◽  
Eighteenth And Nineteenth Centuries

Summary It would be too simple to attribute the current crisis in research on the Pentateuch to the demise of the Wellhausen paradigm (the documentary hypothesis) and the resulting diversity of methods. Rather, these are merely symptoms of a fundamental crisis in the source critical paradigm as a whole. The difficulties with the nature of sources, their literary scope and the criteria for their division are only part of the wider problem. The introduction of non-verifiable ‘redactors’ and ‘Fortschreibung’ (updating) to cope with anomalies of a hypothesis seems methodologically just as questionable as the reconstruction of the social-historical background of individual literary strata (‘pseudo historicism’). The increasingly complex diachronic overall models are lacking plausibility and credibility, especially since the reconstruction of several stages in the development of the text is practically impossible from an empirical perspective. The alternative to the classic paradigm of source criticism is a literary paradigm that returns to the starting point of the testimony of the biblical texts themselves. Of course, literary tensions and sources must not be ignored. However, systems of interpretation to explain inconsistencies should not be based on methods developed in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries but on the ancient literary conventions of the Bible and its environment.

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?

The Origins of the Noahide Laws

2011 ◽  
pp. 11-35
Author(s):  
David Novak
Keyword(s):  
First Century ◽  
Moral Standard ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
Social Demographic

This chapter traces the origins of the Noahide laws in the history of Judaism. Earlier scholars located its origins variously: in the Bible, among Hittite legal scholars, and during the Maccabean era. The chapter maintains, contrary to prior scholarship, that the concept of the Noahide is absent until the first century CE; that is, it is a rabbinic creation. While theology can discover the beginnings of the Noahide laws in the Torah, their historical starting point can only be established following the social, demographic, and religious dislocations of the Second Temple's destruction in 70 CE. For the rabbis, these laws originated prior to the Sinaitic revelation; they were the moral standard for the entire gentile world, and that world of course included the ancestors of those who would later accept the covenant at Sinai. Israelites before Sinai, then, were Noahides. The Noahide laws were also considered obligatory for all time, and would be the measure by which gentiles would be judged.

The social power of the Bible in culture and politics

Theology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 124 (2) ◽  
pp. 108-116
Author(s):  
Peter Gent
Keyword(s):  
Social Power ◽  
Bruno Latour ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The Social ◽  
Biblical Texts

Biblical texts hold social power, acting in and through the religious traditions that hold the Bible authoritative, with far-reaching impact on culture and politics. Work by Bruno Latour and others on the agency and action of artefacts provides a set of concepts that make possible analysis of how social power is delegated to the Bible and how the Bible in turn holds power over its readers and broader society. Tracing the action of the Bible in this way enables reflection on the performative impact of how the Bible is read and interpreted.

scholarly journals Sobre la dimensión política del resentimiento

2020 ◽  
pp. 5-23
Author(s):  
Gustavo Robles
Keyword(s):  
Social Experiences ◽  
Social Dimension ◽  
The Political ◽  
Far Right ◽  
Current Crisis ◽  
Social Transformations ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Social ◽  
Shed Light

El presente trabajo propone una reflexión sobre la dimensión política y social del resentimiento que permita una mejor comprensión del surgimiento de las extrema-derechas y la crisis contemporánea de las democracias. El punto de partida es considerar al resentimiento como una emoción que da cuenta de experiencias sociales y sensibilidades políticas que están en la base de los nuevos autoritarismos globales. Intentaré abordar esta cuestión recurriendo a un conjunto de reflexiones filosóficas sobre el resentimiento, a una consideración de las transformaciones sociales de las últimas décadas y a un análisis de su articulación en las nuevas políticas identitarias. Confío en que esto contribuirá a ampliar nuestra comprensión de lo que podríamos denominar “política del resentimiento” y de la actual crisis de la democracia. ---- The aim of this paper is to reflect on the political and social dimension of resentment to allow a better understanding of the emergence of far-right tendencies and the contemporary crisis of democracies. The starting point is to consider resentment as an emotion that accounts for social experiences and political sensitivities which are at the basis of the new global authoritarianism. I will try to approach this question by resorting to a set of philosophical reflections on resentment, to a consideration of the social transformations of the last decades and to an analysis of their political articulation in the new identity policies. This shall shed light on what we might call the "politics of resentment" and on the current crisis of democracy.

scholarly journals The Impossibility of Queering the Mother: New Sightings of the Virgin Mother in the ‘Secular’ State

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yvonne Sherwood
Keyword(s):  
Family Law ◽  
Social Consequences ◽  
Mothers And Fathers ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The Social ◽  
Ten Commandments ◽  
The Family ◽  
Mother And Child ◽  
Biblical Texts ◽  
Secular State

In this part autobiographical essay, I explore the social consequences of the rise of the so-called ‘tender years’ doctrine coinciding with the rise in divorce. I argue that this has led to increased gender apartheid around the figures of M-for-Mother and F-for-Father, and a new sanctification of the figure of the holy mother-and-child. I look at the inverse and complementary relations between M-for-Male and F-for Female and M-for-Mother and F-for-Father, and I argue (counterintuitively) that origins, mothers, and fathers are queerer in ancient myths and the Bible than they are in contemporary semantics and law. I use strange old biblical texts (Solomon’s judgment; the trial of Abraham) to create unheimlich echoes for the so-called secular state and its strange constructions of the family; and I show how the Ten Commandments continue to influence family law.

Rashi

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Avraham Grossman
Keyword(s):  
Eleventh Century ◽  
World View ◽  
Cultural Background ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Jewish Society ◽  
The Social ◽  
Depth Analysis ◽  
Vast Literature ◽  
Biblical Texts

To this day, the commentaries on the Bible and Talmud written by the eleventh-century scholar known as Rashi remain unsurpassed. His influence on Jewish thinking was, and still is, significant. His commentary on the Pentateuch was the first Hebrew book to be printed, giving rise to hundreds of supercommentaries. Christian scholars, too, have relied heavily on his explanations of biblical texts. This book presents a survey of the social and cultural background to Rashi's work and pulls together the strands of information available on his life, his personality, his reputation during his lifetime, and his influence as a teacher. The book discusses each of his main commentaries in turn, including such aspects as his sources, his interpretative method, his innovations, and his style and language. Attention is also given to his halakhic monographs, responsa, and liturgical poems. Despite Rashi's importance as a scholar and the vast literature published about him, two central questions remain essentially unanswered: what was Rashi's world-view, and was he a conservative or a revolutionary? The book considers these points at length, and an in-depth analysis of Rashi's world-view—particularly his understanding of Jewish uniqueness, Jewish values, and Jewish society—leads to conclusions that are likely to stimulate much debate.

scholarly journals MODELO CONFLITUAL/CONTRADIÇÃO/DIALÉTICO PARA ENTENDER OS DIREITOS HUMANOS/JUSTIÇA NA BÍBLIA (1 Co 12,14-27)

2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 93
Author(s):  
Joel Antonio Ferreira
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Critical Sociology ◽  
Epistemological Foundation ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Conflict Model ◽  
The Social ◽  
Valid Instrument ◽  
Biblical Texts ◽  
The Voice ◽  
Established Order

A leitura sociológica pelo Modelo Conflitual, ajuda o leitor/intérprete, além da “situação vital” em que o texto foi escrito, a conhecer o “lugar social” de toda a narrativa. A leitura conflitual da Bíblia, como fundamento epistemológico, tem a afirmação de que a “sociologia crítica” é um válido instrumento de crítica da ordem estabelecida (funcionalista). Buscando o “lugar social” dos textos bíblicos, ouvindo a voz dos marginalizados e oprimidos, esta leitura é, sempre, uma denúncia à voz dos dominadores. Ela vai, por opção acadêmica, explicitando os personagens, os grupos da “margem”: os que vivem nas periferias, os que não têm voz e nem espaço. Por isso, o leitor/intérprete precisa estar em atitude de “suspeição”: os insignificantes, pela visão assimétrico-dominadora, passam a ter um significado vital. O “lugar social” dos abandonados e esquecidos torna-se um espaço primordial. Desse modo, a Justiça e os Direitos Humanos serão vistos de modo “cristalino”, a partir de 1 Cor 12,14-27. CONFLITUAL/CONTRADICTION/DIALETIC MODEL TO UNDERSTAND HUMAN RIGHTS/JUSTICE IN THE BIBLE (1 Cor 12,14-27) The sociological reading of the Conflict Model helps the reader / interpreter, besides the "vital situation" in which the text was written, to know the "social place" of the whole narrative. The conflictive reading of the Bible as an epistemological foundation has the assertion that "critical sociology" is a valid instrument of criticism of established order (functionalist sociology). Seeking the "social place" of biblical texts, listening to the voice of the marginalized and oppressed, this reading is always a denunciation to the voice of the dominators. She will, by academic option, explaining the characters, the "margin" groups: those who live in the peripheries, those who have no voice or space. Therefore, the reader / interpreter must be in an attitude of "suspicion": the insignificant, by the asymmetric-domineering vision, come to have a vital meaning. The "social place" of the abandoned and forgotten ones becomes a primordial space. In this way, Justice and Human Rights will be seen in a crystalline way, from 1 Cor 12:14-27.

Chapter Summaries

2011 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Matthew Lagrone
Keyword(s):  
First Century ◽  
Moral Standard ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Demographic

This chapter begins with reflections on some previously proposed historical timeframes for the formation of Noahide law. Earlier scholars located its origins variously: in the Bible, among Hittite legal scholars and during the Maccabean era. This chapter maintains, contrary to prior scholarship, that the concept of the Noahide is absent until the first century CE; that is, it is a rabbinic creation. While theology can discover the beginnings of the Noahide laws in the Torah, their historical starting point can only be established following the social, demographic and religious dislocations of the Second Temple’s destruction in 70 CE. For the rabbis, these laws originated prior to the Sinaitic revelation; they were the moral standard for the entire gentile world, and that world of course included the ancestors of those who would later accept the covenant at Sinai. Israelites before Sinai, then, were Noahides....

scholarly journals 1967/1969: The End, or (Just) a Pause of the Catholic Liberal Dream?

Religions ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 623
Author(s):  
Luca Diotallevi
Keyword(s):  
Vatican Ii ◽  
Second Vatican Council ◽  
Current Crisis ◽  
The North ◽  
Italian Case ◽  
Vatican Council ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Relationship

The aim of this paper is to explore the strong connections between the topics of this special volume of Religions: the current crisis of political Catholicism and religious Catholicism; the new questions posed about the relationship between Catholicism and advanced modernization; the relationship between Catholicism and European institutions; and the importance of the North Atlantic relationships within Catholicism. The paper sheds light on these questions through an analysis of a particular but indicative case study, namely, the “Catholic 68” in Italy. Deconstructing the predominant narrative about the relationship between Vatican II and the events of 1968 (or, better, those of the 2-year period 1967–1969) helps to clarify the connections between the topics of this volume in important ways. In fact, the predominant narrative about the “Catholic 68” still pays undue tribute to both an oversimplified reconstruction of the “parties” who fought one another during the Second Vatican Council and an oversimplified reading of the late 1960s. In this perspective, the Italian case is particularly relevant and yields important sociological insight. The starting point of the paper is the abundant literature on the “long 60s”. This scholarship has clarified the presence of an important religious dimension to the social and cultural processes of this period as well as a (generally accepted) link between the Council-issued renewal and “1968”. At the same time that literature has also clarified that the “long 60s” paved the way for a deep social transition which has also marked the first two decades of the 21st century. The nature of this religious renewal and social change has often been described as the triumph of liberal parties over conservative parties. This paper instead proposes a “three parties scheme” (conservative, progressive and liberal) to better understand the confrontation that occurred at the Council and that at the end of the same decade and its consequences for Catholicism and European politics today.

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