Scriptural Traces - Böcker

The Bible, Gender, and Reception History: The Case of Job's Wife investigates the fleeting appearance in the Bible of Job's wife and its impact on the imaginations of readers throughout history. It begins by presenting key interpretive gaps in the biblical text concerning Job and his wife, explaining the way gender studies offers guiding principles with which the author engages a reception history of their marriage. After analyzing Job and his wife within medieval Christian theology of Eden, the author identifies ways in which Job's wife visually aligns with medieval images of Satan. The volume explores portrayals of Job and his wife in publications on marriage and gender roles in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, moving onto an investigation of William Blake's sharp artistic divergence from the common tradition in his representation of Job's wife as a shrew. In the exploration of societal portrayals of Job and his Wife throughout history, this book discovers how arguments about marriage intertwine with not only gender roles, but also, with political, social, and historical movements.

This book is open access and available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. It is funded by Knowledge Unlatched.Harnessing Chaos: The Bible in English Political Discourse Since 1968 (2014) looked at the shifts in political understandings of the Bible in the aftermath of the social and economic changes of the 1960s. The book examined the decline of the Radical bible (i.e. the Bible roughly equated with socialism) in parliamentary politics and the victory of (a modified form of) Thatcher's re-reading of the Liberal Bible tradition, which equated the Bible with rule of law, democracy and tolerance. This showed how Thatcher's Bible was developed by politicians and the significance of Tony Blair's socially liberal qualifications, as well as the Radical Bible's survival outside Parliament and against the backdrop of emerging Thatcherism.The new, revised edition of Harnessing Chaos includes an additional chapter/postscript on some of the remarkable and unexpected uses of the Bible that happened since 2014. These include David Cameron giving a number of key speeches which intensified Thatcher's Bible, particularly in his justification of his most controversial policy decisions surrounding foodbanks, austerity and ISIS, Ed Miliband engaging with Russell Brand's Radical Bible, and the unpredicted emergence of Jeremy Corbyn, which has seen him and his close allies explicitly use the Radical Bible, in direct disagreement with Thatcher, in his first major speeches. These developments have been, in varying degrees, unpredictable but also vital to understanding the fate of the Bible in contemporary English politics.

How do we begin to carry out such a vast task—the examination of three millennia of diverse uses and influences of the biblical texts? Where can the interested scholar find information on methods and techniques applicable to the many and varied ways in which these have happened?Through a series of examples of reception history practitioners at work and of their reflections this volume sets the agenda for biblical reception, as it begins to chart the near-infinite series of complex interpretive ‘events’ that have been generated by the journey of the biblical texts down through the centuries. The chapters consider aspects as diverse as political and economic factors, cultural location, the discipline of biblical studies, and the impact of scholarly preconceptions, upon reception history. Topics covered include biblical figures and concepts, contemporary music, paintings, children’s Bibles, and interpreters as diverse as Calvin, Lenin, and Nick Cave.

Even when he was a prototype of European identity, Paul transgressed the limits of Europe. It is not clear whether he was conformist or rebellious, orthodox or liberal, sexist, or egalitarian. Instead of pushing the Apostle into the arbitrary categories of modern European identity, Fatima Tofighi takes into account the challenge that Paul brings to normative conceptions of political theology (Rom 13), 'religion' (Gal 2.12-14), and women's veiling (1 Cor 11. 5-16). Alternative interpretations of these passages, with the help of postmodern theory, both solve the major problems of biblical exegesis and offer a critique of the allegedly well-defined European categories.

This volume takes readers on a fascinating journey through the visual arts of Aotearoa New Zealand, Australia and the Pacific Islands, contemplating the multivocal dialogues that occur between these artistic media and the texts and traditions of the Bible. With their distinctively antipodean perspectives, contributors explore the innovative ways that both creators and beholders of Oceanic arts draw upon their contexts and cultures in order to open up creative engagements with the stories, themes and theologies of the biblical traditions. Various motifs weave their way throughout the volume, including antipodean landscapes and ecology, (post)colonialism, philosophy, Oceanic spiritualities and the often contested engagements between western and indigenous cultures. Within this weaving process, each essay invites readers to contemplate these various forms of visual culture through Oceanic eyes, and to appreciate the fresh insights that this process can bring to reading and interpreting the biblical traditions. The result is a rich and interdisciplinary array of conversations that will capture the attention of readers within the fields of biblical reception studies, cultural studies, theology and art history.

Alan Cadwallader explores the intricate tensions and conflicts that infused the work of revision of the Authorised Version of the Bible between 1870 and 1885. The Promethean aspirations of the venture actually generated one of the most bitter instances of the political manoeuvres involved in the translation of a sacred book. Cadwallader reveals how the public avowal of unity and fraternal harmony that accompanied the public release and marketing of the New Testament revision in 1881 and the Old Testament revision in 1885, masks fraught historical realities that threatened the realization of the project from the beginning.Through a thorough examination of private correspondence, notebooks kept by various members of the New Testament Revision Companies in England and the United States, and other previously unstudied primary sources, Cadwallader examines and presents the complexities of the political situation surrounding the translation. He exposes the competing interests of an imperial, sovereign nation and a seriously divided Established Church floundering over its continued relevance; the ambitions and significance of Nonconformity in a nation’s highly contested religious environment; the agonistic conflicts that erupted from assertions of national and international prestige and responsibilities; and the ultimate control exercised by publishing houses that fundamentally flawed the process of revision and the public acceptance of the final product.

A compelling exploration of how Mesopotamian discoveries reshaped biblical scholarship, and why their connection to the Bible made them matter. From the first public reading of the Babylonian flood story in 1872 to the controversies sparked by Delitzsch’s Babel–Bible lectures, Lasine Thelle traces the formative encounters between Assyriology and biblical studies. This book reveals how excavations in Assyria and Babylonia, and the decipherment of Akkadian texts, transformed the study of the Old Testament and redefined core concepts still taken for granted today.Through detailed analysis of major figures, including Wellhausen, Gunkel, and Mowinckel, Thelle shows how scholarly debates over creation myths, chronology, and cultural influence shaped modern biblical research. She also uncovers the reciprocal dynamic: Mesopotamia’s appeal to Western explorers was inseparable from its perceived biblical significance.Rich in historical insight and critical reflection, this study illuminates the intertwined histories of two disciplines and offers a fresh perspective on the intellectual currents that continue to inform contemporary scholarship.

The Bible has always enjoyed notoriety within the genres of crime fiction and drama; numerous authors have explicitly drawn on biblical traditions as thematic foci to explore social anxieties about violence, religion, and the search for justice and truth. The Bible in Crime Fiction and Drama brings together a multi-disciplinary scholarship from the fields of biblical interpretation, literary criticism, criminology, and studies in film and television to discuss international texts and media spanning the beginning of the 20th century to the present day. The volume concludes with an afterword by crime writer and academic, Liam McIvanney. These essays explore both explicit and implicit engagements between biblical texts and crime narratives, analysing the multiple layers of meaning that such engagements can produce – cross-referencing Sherlock Holmes with the murder mystery in the Book of Tobit, observing biblical violence through the eyes of Christian fundamentalists in Henning Mankell’s Before the Frost, catching the thread of homily in the serial murders of Se7en, or analysing biblical sexual violence in light of television crime procedurals. The contributors also raise intriguing questions about the significance of the Bible as a religious and cultural text – its association with the culturally pervasive themes of violence, (im)morality, and redemption, and its relevance as a symbol of the (often fraught) location that religion occupies within contemporary secular culture.

This fascinating collection of essays charts, for the first time, the range of responses by scholars on both sides of the conflict to the outbreak of war in August 1914. The volume examines how biblical scholars, like their compatriots from every walk of life, responded to the great crisis they faced, and, with relatively few exceptions, were keen to contribute to the war effort.Some joined up as soldiers. More commonly, however, biblical scholars and theologians put pen to paper as part of the torrent of patriotic publication that arose both in the United Kingdom and in Germany. The contributors reveal that, in many cases, scholars were repeating or refining common arguments about the responsibility for the war. In Germany and Britain, where the Bible was still central to a Protestant national culture, we also find numerous more specialized works, where biblical scholars brought their own disciplinary expertise to bear on the matter of war in general, and this war in particular. The volume’s contributors thus offer new insights into the place of both the Bible and biblical scholarship in early 20th-century culture.

Even when he was a prototype of European identity, Paul transgressed the limits of Europe. It is not clear whether he was conformist or rebellious, orthodox or liberal, sexist, or egalitarian. Instead of pushing the Apostle into the arbitrary categories of modern European identity, Fatima Tofighi takes into account the challenge that Paul brings to normative conceptions of political theology (Rom 13), 'religion' (Gal 2.12-14), and women's veiling (1 Cor 11. 5-16). Alternative interpretations of these passages, with the help of postmodern theory, both solve the major problems of biblical exegesis and offer a critique of the allegedly well-defined European categories.

Paul Thomas chronicles a multi-level reception study of the Bible at both the Creation Museum and the Ark Encounter in Kentucky, USA. Thomas explores the commercial presentation of biblical narratives and the reception of those narratives by the patrons of each attraction, focusing upon three topics; what do young Creationists believe, how they interpret their beliefs from the Bible, and what is the user experience at the museums?The volume begins by explaining how Answers in Genesis (AiG) use Bible passages to support young-Earth creationist arguments, allowing for the chance to consider the Bible via physical means. Thomas then examines how the Creation Museum and the Ark Encounter visitors receive the Bible (as presented by AiG) and how this presentation informs visitors’ understanding of the text, exploring concepts such as the most prominent displays of the two attractions, the larger context of museums and theme parks and the case studies of the Methuselah display and The Noah Interview. He concludes with the summary of the user experience generated by the attractions, analyzing the degree to which patrons accept, negotiate, or resist the interpretation of the Bible offered by AiG.

This interdisciplinary volume seeks to trace the diverse ways in which stories of biblical women have been reimagined in and as comic books. Feminist biblical scholarship has previously addressed the tradition that relegates female biblical characters to secondary roles, merely enabling the male characters to attain their own goals. Using examples from both secular and religious comic Bibles, and comic Bibles aimed at children and older audiences, Zanne Domoney-Lyttle now fully considers contemporary remediations of biblical narratives to the same degree. Remediating ancient, biblical text into modern, graphical comic books affects the reception of the text in several ways. This book aims to investigate how the production, format, and function of comic Bibles encourages the depiction of biblical characters from a contemporary perspective, while also showing some fidelity to the text. By presenting a focused analysis on women in the Bible, wider issues concerning popular-cultural retellings of the Bible in general begin to surface, including matters concerning reception history, the space between art and literature inhabited by biblical comics, and issues of translation and interpretations within contemporary remediations.

This volume examines the stories of Genesis in music, showing how musical settings can illuminate many of the Bible’s most noted tales. Helen Leneman studies oratorios, operas and songs (as well as their librettos) to shed light on how Genesis has been understood and experienced over time. Examining an extensive range of musical settings of stories from the book of Genesis, Leneman offers an overview of chiefly 19th and 20th century musical engagements with this biblical text.Leneman first discusses how Eve’s inner thoughts are explored by noted French composers Jules Massenet and Gabriel Fauré. The text then enters the deep waters of Noah’s flood in examination of several compositions, including two unusual settings by Igor Stravinsky and Benjamin Britten, as well as more conventional settings by Saint-Saëns and Donizetti. Two major 19th century oratorio settings of Abraham’s story by lesserknown German composers Martin Blumner and Karl Mangold provide fascinating illuminations of the Abraham narratives, whereas parts of Rebecca’s story are found in works by César Franck, Ferdinand Hiller, and most unusually, by a French woman composer, Célanie Carissan. Finally, Leneman shows how Joseph’s story was set in numerous oratorios (including by Handel) but that one of the most important works based on his story is an opera by 18th century French composer Etienne Méhul. In addition to discussing these larger 19th century works, Leneman also examines several interesting atonal 20th century works based on the stories of Eve and the Flood, shedding new light on the history of the interpretation of the Book of Genesis.

This fascinating collection of essays charts, for the first time, the range of responses by scholars on both sides of the conflict to the outbreak of war in August 1914. The volume examines how biblical scholars, like their compatriots from every walk of life, responded to the great crisis they faced, and, with relatively few exceptions, were keen to contribute to the war effort.Some joined up as soldiers. More commonly, however, biblical scholars and theologians put pen to paper as part of the torrent of patriotic publication that arose both in the United Kingdom and in Germany. The contributors reveal that, in many cases, scholars were repeating or refining common arguments about the responsibility for the war. In Germany and Britain, where the Bible was still central to a Protestant national culture, we also find numerous more specialized works, where biblical scholars brought their own disciplinary expertise to bear on the matter of war in general, and this war in particular. The volume’s contributors thus offer new insights into the place of both the Bible and biblical scholarship in early 20th-century culture.

Peter Anthony explores how visionary elements in Luke’s Gospel had a particular influence on early interpretation of the Transfiguration, by examining the rich hermeneutical traditions that emerged — particularly in the Latin West — as the Transfiguration was first depicted visually in art.Anthony begins by comparing the visual and visionary culture of antiquity with that of the present, and their differing interpretations of the Transfiguration. He then examines the Transfiguration texts in the synoptic gospels and their interpretation in modern scholarship, and the reception of the Transfiguration in 2 Peter, the Apocalypse of Peter and the Acts of Peter, Tertullian and Origen. Proceeding to look at interpretations found in the Greek East and the Latin West, Anthony finally discusses the earliest visual depictions of the Transfiguration from the sixth century onward, drawn from a wealth of different art forms. Anthony concludes that early commentators’ and artists’ understanding of how we see and visualise, and therefore, how the Transfiguration was apprehended, is closer to that of the writers of the New Testament than many modern interpreters’ is.

Katerina Koci charts the development of the promised land motif, starting from its biblical roots and examining its reception over the centuries until the present day. As her cornerstone, Koci uses Hans-Georg Gadamer’s claim that there are two complementary paths towards understanding and knowledge: science and art. Thus, to be faithful to the creed of the great hermeneutist, Koci ventures into both topics, arguing that while science sets out historical-critical analysis of the promised land motif in the Hebrew Bible and its later receptions, art enriches the interpretation with its literary illustrations. This volume places particular focus on American contexts, since the concept of the promised land is so deeply intertwined with American religious-political mythologies, and with the art of John Steinbeck and Walter Brueggemann in particular. By discussing artistic interpretation in biblical hermeneutics, the context and reception of Genesis 15.7 and Exodus 3.8 in the Hebrew Bible and New Testament, and the history of the promised land motif and its interpretations, Koci argues that artistic receptions of biblical motifs are crucial for biblical scholarship in opening new hermeneutical and thematical horizons.

This volume offers an examination of Brecht’s largely forgotten theatrical fragments of a life of David, written just after the Great War but prior to Brecht winning the Kleist Prize in 1922 and the acclaim that would launch hisextraordinary career. David J. Shepherd and Nicholas E. Johnson take as their starting point Brecht’s own diaries from the time, which offer a vivid picture of the young Brecht shuttling between Munich and the family home in Augsburg, surrounded by friends, torn between women, desperate for success, and all the while with ‘David on the brain’.The analysis of Brecht’s David, along with his notebooks and diaries, reveals significant connections between the reception of the Biblical David and one of Germany’s most tumultuous cultural periods. Drawing on theatrical experiments conducted with an ensemble from Trinity College Dublin, this volume includes the first ever translation of the David fragments in English, an extensive discussion of the theatrical afterlife of David in the early twentieth century as well as new interdisciplinary insights into the early Brecht: a writer entranced by the biblical David and utterly committed to translating the biblical tradition into his own evolving theatrical idiom.

Sheona Beaumont addresses the untold story of biblical subjects in photography. She argues that stories, characters, and symbols from the Bible are found to pervade photographic practices and ideas, across the worlds of advertising and reportage, the book and the gallery, in theoretical discourse and in the words of photographers themselves. Beaumont engages interpretative tools from biblical reception studies, art history, and visual culture criticism in order to present four terms for describing photography's latent spirituality: the index, the icon, the tableau, and the vision. Throughout her journey she includes lively discussion of selected fine art photography dealing with the Bible in surprising ways, from images by William Henry Fox Talbot in the 19th century to David Mach in the 21st. Far from telling a secular story, photography and the conditions of its representations are exposed in theological depth.; Beaumont skillfully interweaves discussion of the images and theology, arguing for the dynamic and potent voice of the Bible in photography and enriching visual culture criticism with a renewed religious understanding.