Hope for the Future of New Testament Theology

This paper presents the author’s hope for changes in New Testament (NT) theology particularly as currently experienced in American Christian culture. Those changes are based on exegetical work that seeks to place the NT texts into their Jewish first-century thought world. The first part of the paper presents examples of theological concepts that have crept into NT exegesis, translations, and Christian thinking, concepts that appear to be foreign to or contrary to that original-audience thought world. The second part of the article seeks to present a reading of Rom 3:21–26 that better represents Paul’s thinking than what is found in some English translations that read the text through the lenses of some of the foreign concepts mentioned in Part 1. The resulting vision for the future of NT theology is twofold: for NT theologies to self-critically rid themselves of the infiltration of foreign concepts, and for the field to better ground its work in exegesis and translations that better respect the Jewish thought world of the texts.

The Social Setting of Wisdom Literature

The question of the social setting of the biblical Wisdom Literature is an interesting one in that this type of literature seeks to exclude its social background as much as possible. Wisdom Literature, by its very nature, ostensibly portrays itself as universal in its appeal. The social setting of the biblical Wisdom Literature is introduced in this chapter, in order to provide insight into how a range of social facets impinge on their interpretation. Attention focuses on the Israelite scribal context for this literature and the location of its authors/original audience in the retainer social class. Other social variables treated are power, age, gender, and status of both the intended audience and its authors.

Wahyu Alkitabiah dalam Tinjauan Hermeneutika Ricoeur

<p><em>This article attempts to explain the idea of revelation in the Scripture according to Paul Ricoeur's hermeneutic philosophy. This paper consists of two parts. The first part describes the theory of text in Ricoeur's hermeneutics. Ricoeur's most important contributions to this section are his description of threefold semantic autonomy: semantic autonomy with respect to the author's subjective intention outside the text, semantic autonomy with respect to the original cultural context in which the text was written, and semantic autonomy with respect to the original audience or addressee. An important consequence of semantic autonomy is that interpretation of a text is never reproductive but productive. The second part explains that the language of Scripture is much more like poetic language than scientific language. Poetic language is the language of disclosure, which expresses a deeper dimension of reality. The next five literary genres in the Scriptures are discussed, through which divine revelation is expressed: namely, narrative, prophetic, prescriptive, wisdom and hymnic genre. With that Ricoeur shows the richness of biblical revelation in its various dimensions, which together form “a polysemic and polyphonic concept of revelation”.</em></p><strong>Keywords</strong>:<em> text, discourse, literary genre, semantic autonomy, revelation, narrative, hymn</em>

Rescripting Sinai

This chapter interprets the Golden Calf narrative in the Qur’an as a profound, subtle, and intentional engagement with the version of the story known from the book of Exodus, reshaped according to exegetical predispositions anticipated by older late antique Jewish and Christian approaches to the story. It discusses the findings of the previous chapter in the context of both the Qur’an’s relationship to its literary precursors and the Calf narrative’s particular points of resonance with other themes and topoi in the qur’anic corpus. Though the term is a problematic one, the Qur’an’s novel treatment of the Calf story will be considered as an example of “rewritten Bible” here—a reshaping of an older scriptural story that is not only a reimagining but in some ways a re-revelation of a narrative with a considerably freighted history in previous scriptural tradition. This chapter also considers a possible context for the qur’anic presentation of the Calf narrative, particularly its subordination of Aaron as priest to Moses as prophet, in the conflict that traditional Muslim sources describe between Muḥammad and the Jews of Medina after the hijrah. At the same time, the chapter also takes into account the significance of central themes of the story such as transgression, repentance, and authority for the Qur’an’s original audience at a transformative moment in their history.

3. Material clues

‘Material clues’ considers the archaeological evidence for when the Iliad and Odyssey were composed, including Heinrich Schliemann’s quest to find Troy on the basis of clues in the texts. The Iliad and the Odyssey refer to material circumstances not found before the later eighth or early seventh century BCE. They describe a distant, mythical past, but are set in a real and recognisable landscape. No interpretation leads to a single original audience, historical context, or specific political agenda, but earliest quotations from, and references to, Homer in other poets’ work prove that by the late sixth century BCE, the poems were well known throughout the Greek world.

James Clifford’s ‘Indigenous Articulations’ as Travelling Theory? The Search for Sustainability in Theorising Taiwan’s Indigenous and Han Populations

In 2000, the noted scholar James Clifford delivered an address entitled ‘Indigenous Articulations’ in which he challenged dichotomies of authenticity/inauthenticity that plague theories of indigeneity in the Pacific region. Today, ‘Indigenous Articulations’ has travelled far beyond its original audience, and some Taiwanese scholars who analyse the literature/culture of Taiwan’s indigenous peoples have adopted this work. Yet, in contrast to Clifford, these scholars have used ‘Indigenous Articulations’ to simultaneously explain indigenous and Han Taiwanese populations, positing Han-indigenous creolisation as preferable to indigenous self-determination. In this paper, I adopt travelling theory to examine ‘Indigenous Articulations’ and its movement to Taiwan studies. I then consider the works of Kuei-fen Chiu and Hueichu Chu to show how they use ‘Indigenous Articulations’ to support a creolised existence for Han and indigenous populations on Taiwan. Finally, I explore tensions between theoretical and ethical sustainability in Taiwan studies and possibilities for recognising indigenous rights in this field.

Envisioning a Tibetan Luminary

The book examines the religious biography of Shardza Tashi Gyaltsen (1859–1934), the most significant modern figure representing the Tibetan Bön religion, a vital minority tradition underrepresented in Tibetan studies. The work is based on periods of fieldwork conducted in eastern Tibet and in the Bön community in India, where traditional Tibetan scholars collaborated closely on the project. Utilizing close readings of two versions of Shardza’s life-story, along with oral history collected in Bön communities, the book presents and interprets the biographical image of this major figure, culminating in the first English translation of his remarkable life-story. The book contends that the disciple-biographer’s literary portrait not only enacts and shapes religious ideals to foster faith among its readership, but also attempts to quell tensions that had developed among segments of its original audience. For while Shardza Tashi Gyaltsen has come to be unequivocally revered among the Bön community today for an impressive textual legacy and a saintly death, during his lifetime he faced a number of prominent critics within his own lineage who went so far as to issue polemical attacks against him. The biographical texts that inform us about Shardza’s life are thus best understood when read on multiple registers, with attention given to the ways in which the religious ideals on display reflect the broader literary, cultural, and historical contexts within which they were envisioned and articulated.

“Then I Could Have a Real Papa and Mama like Other Kids”

Chapter One spotlights a fundamental, but under-examined, aspect of Harold Gray's popular newspaper strip: Little Orphan Annie as an orphan girl story.When Gray's eleven-year-old moppet made her debut in 1924, many of the most popular novels, poems, and films in the United States featured orphan girls as their protagonists.Given this situation, the comic's original audience would have immediately recognized Annie as participating in this phenomenon.Accordingly, this chapter demonstrates that, far from an incidental detail about the original historical context for Little Orphan Annie, the formula for orphan girl stories serves as both a creative starting point for the comic and its critical end point.Placing Little Orphan Annie back in the context of the orphan girl story-and tracing the way in which this phenomenon operates in Gray's strip-yields new insights about the strip's connection with popular culture, the factors fueling its success, and its primary artistic kinships.