Elizabeth E Shively - Böcker

This volume offers a foundational resource for understanding, practicing, and teaching interdisciplinarity in biblical studies, fostering informed, reflective, and critically responsible engagement across disciplinary boundaries.Part I explores the conceptual, ethical, and pedagogical dimensions of interdisciplinarity, providing readers with conceptual tools for assessing how interdisciplinary approaches are articulated, justified, and implemented within biblical scholarship, while also attending to questions of academic formation, institutional practices, and even ethical standards. Part II provides introductory overviews of major disciplinary intersections with biblical studies. Each chapter introduces a specific field—ranging from Papyrology and Literary Studies to Cognitive Science and Digital Humanities—and includes a worked example that demonstrates how that discipline can be applied to the biblical corpus. Taken together, the contributions to this Handbook offer a panoramic view of the contemporary interdisciplinary landscape in biblical studies.The Routledge Handbook of Interdisciplinary Approaches to Biblical Studies is a comprehensive reference work suitable for students and scholars working in all areas of biblical studies, particularly those who are unfamiliar with interdisciplinarity or who wish to explore new avenues in their research.

This book examines how Christian teachings on love and enmity shape group identity and conflict, with scripture and theology used both to justify violence and call for reconciliation. It explores interdisciplinary perspectives that combine socio-scientific approaches with biblical criticism.By exploring historical, biblical, and contemporary examples, this volume illuminates how religious identity influences the construction of enemies and offers tools for critically engaging with faith-based conflict. Drawing on Social Identity Theory, theological analysis, and interdisciplinary research, the book provides a framework for rethinking community engagement across difference. The contributors examine how Christianity metabolizes neighbor–enemy distinctions, addressing the contemporary re-emergence of sharp divisions despite increased global engagement. The chapters leverage insights from psychology, sociology, anthropology, literary criticism, historical analysis, reception history, and classical studies to understand how group self-identification generates both external conflict and internal conformity. This comprehensive approach helps readers understand the seeming intractability of religious enmity while offering pathways toward reconciliation and constructive dialogue in diverse religious contexts.Biblical and Socio-Scientific Approaches to Religious Enmity is ideal for scholars, students, clergy, and readers in theology, biblical studies, religious ethics, and political theology who seek to understand the intersection of faith, social identity, and enmity. It serves academics exploring socio-cognitive approaches to religious conflict as well as practitioners working to address religious polarization in contemporary communities and interfaith contexts.

2026 Christian Book Award® Finalist (Bible Reference Works)Southwestern Journal of Theology 2024 Book Award (Biblical Reference / Biblical Backgrounds)This authoritative volume brings together a team of world-class scholars to cover the full range of New Testament backgrounds in a concise, up-to-date, and comprehensive manner.Drawing on the expertise of specialists in the areas of archaeological, historical, and biblical studies, this book provides concise treatments of a wide breadth of topics related to the world of the early Christ followers. The book offers compact overviews of key historical issues, facilitating enriched understandings of the significance and force of the texts of the New Testament in their original contexts.Meant to be used alongside traditional surveys, this one-stop introduction to New Testament backgrounds fills a gap in typical introduction to the Bible courses and is ideal for undergraduate or seminary classes. It is beautifully designed and includes photographs, line drawings, maps, charts, and tables, which will facilitate its use in the classroom.