Built Women in Men’s Paradises: A Critical Analysis of the Garden of Eden Narrative and Alex Garland’s Ex Machina

Bringing the biblical story of the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2-3) into conversation with Alex Garland’s 2014 film Ex Machina, this paper examines and compares the male-scribed nature of paradise stories that describe the “building” of woman-creatures. From ancient Judean scribes to modern film-makers and computer coders, male-guarded forms of literacy enabled and continue to enable storytelling and world-building. A comparison of the accounts of the creation of Eve of the Garden with Ava of Ex Machina highlights that male control over literacy more generally and creation accounts more specifically yields diminished woman-creatures designed to serve the specific needs of men in male-imagined paradise settings. Although separated by millennia, ancient Judean scribes and modern computer programmers have imagined and built woman-creatures with a limited set of functions and programmed routines that include providing help, serving as a companion, and heterosexual receptivity.

Revelation and the Veridicality of Narratives

On Christian doctrine, God is love; and the love of God is most manifest in Christ’s passion. The passion of Christ thus matters to philosophical theology’s examination of the divine attribute of love. But the passion of Christ is presented in a biblical story, and there are serious methodological questions about the way in which a biblical story can be used as evidence in philosophical theology. And these questions in turn raise deeper epistemological questions. How does any narrative transmit knowledge? And what counts as veridicality in a narrative? This paper deals with some of the questions for philosophical theology and then concentrates on the more general epistemological questions about narratively transmitted knowledge.

Accuracy and Reception: On Theological and Aesthetic Novelty in Two Novels by Teodora Dimova

Accuracy and Reception: On Theological and Aesthetic Novelty in Two Novels by Teodora DimovaThis article raises the question of functioning of the Biblical narrative in modern literature in the context of the local/individual experience of faith and the epistemological and existential question of truth. The focus is on two novels by the Bulgarian writer Teodora Dimova (born in 1960): Марма Мариам [Marma, Mariam, 2010] and Първият рожден ден [The First Birthday, 2016]. This case is particularly interesting because the Biblical story about Jesus has not been used here in order to create a parody or blasphemy, which could be expected as far as the postmodern de-contextualisation and re-evaluation of tradition are concerned, but to offer both an aesthetically original and theologically orthodox vision of the Christian God. So how to paraphrase the Biblical story and remain orthodox? How to actualize the existential potential of the Bible and achieve novelty? The analysis is conducted in the perspective of Paul Ricoeur’s existential hermeneutics and phenomenology of memory, especially his concepts of testimony and mimesis, with regard to the question of the reception of Biblical paraphrases in (Bulgarian) modern culture.Zgodność i recepcja. O teologicznej i estetycznej nowości w dwóch powieściach Teodory DimowejW artykule została poruszona kwestia funkcjonowania narracji biblijnej w literaturze nowoczesnej w kontekście lokalnego i indywidualnego doświadczenia wiary oraz epistemologicznego i egzystencjalnego pytania o prawdę. Autorka koncentruje się na dwóch powieściach bułgarskiej pisarki Teodory Dimowej (ur. 1960): Марма Мариам [Marma, Mariam, 2010] i Първият рожден ден [Pierwsze urodziny, 2016]. Przypadek ten jest szczególnie interesujący, ponieważ biblijna opowieść o Jezusie nie została tu wykorzystana w celu stworzenia parodii lub bluźnierstwa, czego można by oczekiwać w kontekście ponowoczesnych dekontekstualizacji i przewartościowań, ale aby zaproponować wizję chrześcijańskiego Boga, która jest zarówno estetycznie oryginalna, jak i teologicznie prawowierna. Jak więc sparafrazować historię biblijną i pozostać ortodoksyjnym? Jak urzeczywistnić egzystencjalny potencjał Biblii i stworzyć oryginalne dzieło? W analizie autorka odwołuje się do hermeneutyki egzystencjalnej i fenomenologii pamięci Paula Ricoeura, zwłaszcza jego koncepcjiświadectwa oraz mimesis, w odniesieniu do kwestii recepcji parafraz biblijnych w (bułgarskiej) kulturze nowoczesnej.

Relacions hipertextuals en Judit (1929), de Josep Maria de Sagarra

This article is a monograph focusing on an analysis of the play Judit by Josep M. de Sagarra. The author’s only tragedy, and unique among his works, was first performed in Barcelona in 1929. It is a little-studied work, doubtless due to its lack of success with theatre audiences, although Sagarra himself had a high opinion of it. To carry out our analysis, we will make use of the analytic tools introduced by Gérard Genette in his Palimpsestes (1982) around hypertextuality and, more specifically, we will consider this work as a transformation of the biblical story, paying special attention to the new material Segarra brought to this text.

“Reminisces of a Dead World”: Neoclassical Impulses in Stockhausen’s Gesang der Jünglinge

In the years following World War II, integral serialist composers declared their intent to defy all previous musical conventions and eradicate all “rem-inisces of a dead world” from their music. Karlheinz Stockhausen was no exception, asserting his desire “to avoid everything which is familiar, generally known or reminiscent of music already composed.” However, Stockhausen’s Gesang der Jünglinge, de-spite its reputation for technical innovation, bears a strong connection to prior musical traditions. In this regard, Stockhausen resembled the neoclassical school of composers that sought to accommodate antiquated musical materials within a modern con-text.To demonstrate these similarities, I apply to Gesang a model of neoclassicism developed by Martha M. Hyde, a scholar on twentieth-century mu-sic. Hyde identifies two modes by which a neoclassi-cal piece “accommodates antiquity”: metamorphic anachronism and allegory. I argue both are present in Gesang. First, Stockhausen adopts elements of the sacred vocal tradition—including a child’s voice and antiphonal writing—and morphs them into something modern. Second, Stockhausen uses the Biblical story on which Gesang is based as an alle-gory for his own conflicted relationship with the mu-sical past. This analysis reframes Gesang’s signifi-cance and connects Stockhausen’s work to seem-ingly unrelated trends in twentieth-century musical thought.

Older Persons in Biblical Texts: Using Modern Gerontological Theories to Cast Light and Raise Questions on Four Older Persons in Luke 2

In the ancient world, the average life expectancy was far lower than that in the western world today. There are some biblical characters, however, even in the New Testament, who lived into their 80s and beyond. In this article, modern theories of gerontology are examined to indicate questions to ask, and insights to gain, in seeking to understand four such persons of mature years who are briefly mentioned in Luke’s Gospel but who play critical roles in the biblical story. The wisdom available to them on coping with the latter years (as seen in the “aging poem” in Ecclesiastes 12:1–7) is reviewed to assess whether those values are apparent in these four characters, and to compare it with modern ideas.

Noah’s Ark as Conservation? An Ecological Reading of Genesis 6–9

In a world where loss of biodiversity is a major challenge, this article explores a dialogue between modern conservation theory and an ancient biblical text. Through the construction of an ecological hermeneutics based on conservation biology and conservation anthropology, and with references to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the article analyses the story of Noah’s ark in Genesis 6–9 as a conservation project. Two questions are in focus. First, how does a conservation perspective contribute to the reading of the biblical text? Second, is the biblical story of Noah’s ark a good paradigm for conservation efforts today? The answer to the first question highlights aspects of the text that often do not receive sufficient attention. The second answer shows some of the complexities of applying this biblical story as an inspiration for modern conservation projects.

Talking Back as an Accented Speaker?

In this essay, I offer an analysis of the biblical story of the shibboleth incident and Amy Tan’s essay “Mother Tongue” (1996), both of which illustrate how accented speech is manipulated and construed as an act that prefigures violence and mistreatment. I interpret such violence as showcasing Judith Butler’s observation that language is able to act and even act against the speaker. However, whereas Butler understands the wounding power of language as a result of us being constituted in language, which may inflict on any linguistic being, I argue that we are not invariably vulnerable in different languages. I conclude by observing that accented speech, as a case of linguistic survivability, not only challenges Butler’s generalized account of linguistic vulnerability, but also raises the question of how to respond to the kind of violence that exploits precisely the incongruity between body and speech.

Joseph: lessons on scarcity for the pending climate change

The biblical story of Joseph is a narrative that offers several notable ethics. Of interest in this essay is Joseph’s response to the scarcity created by a regional famine consuming Egypt and Canaan in which Joseph makes slaves of the Egyptians while enriching himself and Pharaoh. The narrative underscores an uncomfortable truth: in the presence of scarcity, horrific acts are likely even among godly characters. The essay offers lessons on how we, as individuals, governments, and religious bodies, can respond to the scarcity that will likely accompany climate change while avoiding actions that either oppress or sanction the oppression of the masses. In addition, the essay delves into how democracy can be an asset in combating scarcity and oppression, insomuch as democracy is a vehicle for a population that is resourced and informed by truth.

Reconnecting Language and Materiality in Christian Reading: A Comparative Analysis of Two Groups of Protestant Women

What do Christians do when they read? How can Christian reading be understood anthropologically? Anthropologists of Christianity have offered many ethnographic descriptions of the interplay among people, words, and material objects across Christian groups, but descriptions of Christian reading have often posited an androgynous reader. In response to this we begin from the observation that while reading cannot be done without words, it also cannot be done without a body. We propose that an analytic approach of placing language and materiality (including bodies) together will help clarify that reading texts is an embodied practice, while not undermining the importance of working with words. We draw inspiration from the recent interest in bringing linguistic anthropology and materiality studies together into the same analytic frame of “language materiality.” We explore a language-materiality approach to reading by comparing how the biblical story of Mary and Martha was read by Protestant women in two historical situations: 1920s Norway and the 1950s United States. We argue that in these cases the readers’ gendered, raced, and classed bodies were central to the activity of reading texts, including their bodies’ material engagements with the world, such as carrying out women's work. We suggest that paying attention to embodied reading—that is, readers’ social entanglements with both language and materiality—yields a fuller analysis of what reading is in particular historical situations, and ultimately questions the notion of a singular Protestant semiotic ideology that works consistently toward purification.