The meaningful juxtaposition of academics (“experts”) with the day-to-day lives of nonacademics (“nonexperts”) has animated Gerald O. West’s work from the beginning. Seeking to bridge this chasm, West’s approach of reading the Bible with the “ordinary people” (typically marginalized communities) became a core practice not only of his church work but of his scholarship. West has been a strong proponent of taking seriously the “ordinary reader” as a viable and legitimate contributor to our understanding of biblical interpretation. Not only does this undo the “ivory tower” elitism that tends to pervade academic halls of learning, but it also reflects a form of scholarly humility that has been a mainstay of West’s and should be perpetuated more broadly in biblical scholarship.

In this book, Stephen Lim offers a contextual way of reading biblical texts that reconceptualises context as an epistemic space caught between the modern/colonial world system and local networks of knowledge production. In this light, he proposes a multicentric dialogical approach that takes into account the privilege of specialist readers in relation to nonspecialist readers. At the same time, he rethinks what dialogue with the Other means in a particular context, which then decides the conversation partners brought in from the margins. This is applied to his context in Singapore through a reading of Daniel where perspectives from western biblical scholarship, Asian traditions and Singaporean cultural products are brought together to dialogue on issues of transformative praxis and identity formation.

Biblical interpretation is not simply study of the Bible's meaning. This volume focuses on signal moments in the histories of scriptural interpretation of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam from the ancient period to the early modern, and shows how deeply intertwined these religions have always been.

Charismatic Chaos thoughtfully and carefully shines the light of Scripture on teaching that is not only gaining massive and loyal television followin, but also leading to disunity on a worlwide scale and promising to fuel controversy for years to come.

The Bible is of central importance within Caribbean life but is rarely used as an agent for social change. Caribbean biblical hermeneutics focus more on the meaning of biblical texts for today and less on the context in which the texts themselves were written. 'Biblical Resistance Hermeneutics within a Caribbean Context' offers a biblical hermeneutic that acknowledges the importance of the socio-ideological interests, theological agendas, and social practices that produced the biblical texts, as well as the socio-cultural context of the contemporary reader. The book examines the social context of post-independence Caribbean and outlines the difficulties of biblical interpretation within Christian communities that descend from a history of slavery. Current hermeneutical practices in the Caribbean are critiqued and a biblical resistant reading offered that enables the Bible to be used as a cultural weapon of resistance.

The Global Bible Commentary invites its users to expand their horizon by reading the Bible with scholars from all over the world and from different religious persuasions. These scholars have approaches and concerns that often are poles apart. Yet they share two basic convictions: biblical interpretation always matters; and reading the Bible “with others” is highly rewarding. Each of the short commentaries of the Global Bible Commentary is a readily accessible guide for reading a biblical book. Written for undergraduate and seminary students and their teachers, as well as for pastors, priests, and Adult Sunday School classes, it introduces the users to the main features of the biblical book and its content. Yet each short commentary does more. It also brings us a precious gift, namely the opportunity of reading this biblical book as if for the first time. By making explicit the specific context and the concerns from which she/he reads the Bible, the scholar points out to us the significance of aspects of the biblical text that we simply took for granted or overlooked. Need more info? Download Global Bible Commentary Marketing Brochure PDF Free Adobe Acrobat Reader! If any book demonstrates the value of cultural criticism and the importance of particularity in interpretation, this is it! Scholars from diverse social locations in every continent bring their distinctive context to bear on the act of interpreting. In so doing, they shed eye-opening light on the biblical texts. The resulting critical dialogue with the Bible exposes the oppressive as well as the liberating dynamics of the texts while at the same time showing how the Bible might address the social, political, cultural, and economic dynamics of our world today. This collection can change the way you read the Bible—scholars and students, clergy and laity alike. -David Rhoads, Professor of New Testament, Lutheran School of Theology, Chicago, IL Contributors: Daniel Patte, Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA. A French Huguenot (Église Réformée de France), he taught two years in Congo-Brazzaville, and “read the Bible with” people in France, Switzerland, South Africa, Botswana, the Philippines, as well as in the USA. His publications include books on hermeneutics and semiotics (such as Early Jewish Hermeneutics, 1975; The Religious Dimensions of Biblical Texts, 1990); on Paul and Matthew (such as Paul's Faith and the Power of the Gospel, 1983; The Gospel according to Matthew: A Structural Commentary on Matthew's Faith, 1987), as well as, most directly related to the GBC, Ethics of Biblical Interpretation (1995), The Challenge of Discipleship (1999), Reading Israel in Romans: Legitimacy and Plausibility of Divergent Interpretations (ed. with Cristina Grenholm, 2000), The Gospel of Matthew: A Contextual Introduction (with Monya Stubbs, Justin Ukpong, and Revelation Velunta, 2003). José Severino Croatto,. Professor of Exegesis, Hebrew, and Religious Studies, at Instituto Superior Evangélico de Estudios Teológicos (ISEDET). A contributor to Revista de Interpretación Bíblica Latinoamericana (= RIBLA) and the Movement of Popular Reading of the Bible, he published 22 books, including three volumes on hermeneutics, Exodus, A Hermeneutics of Freedom (1981); Biblical Hermeneutics. Toward a Theory of Reading as the Production of Meaning (1987); Hermenéutica Práctica. Los principios de la hermenéutica bíblica en ejemplos (2002); three volumes on Génesis 1-11 (1974; 1986; 1997), the last one, Exilio y sobrevivencia. Tradiciones contraculturales en el Pentateuco; three volumes on the book of Isaiah (1988; 1994; 2001), the last one, Imaginar el futuro. Estructura retórica y querigma del Tercer Isaías (Isaías 56-66); two volumes on Religious Studies (1994; 2002), the last one, Experiencia de lo sagrado y tradiciones religiosas. Estudio de fenomenología de la religión (2002). Rev. Dr. Nicole Wilkinson Duran, after teaching New Testament in the USA, South Africa (Zululand), in Turkey, is currently teaching part-time at Rosemont College and Villanova University, and with her husband raising twin sons in the suburbs of Philadelphia, PA. She has published articles on topics ranging from gender and race in Esther, to the unread Bible in Toni Morrison’s novels, to body symbolism in the story of John the Baptist’s execution, and edited (with G. Phillips) Reading Communities Reading Scripture (2002). She is an ordained Presbyterian minister and does occasional preaching and adult Christian education. Teresa Okure, SHCJ, a graduate from the University of Ibadan, La Sorbonne, École Biblique of Jerusalem, and Fordham University (Ph.D.), is Professor of New Testament and Gender Hermeneutics at the Catholic Institute of West Africa, Port Harcourt, Nigeria. She is or has been a member of the executive committees of several associations, including EATWOT (Ecumenical Association of Third World Theologians, as Executive Secretary), the International Association for Mission Studies (IAMS), and the Society for New Testament Studies (SNTS). She published more than 100 articles and six books including The Johannine Approach to Mission: a Contextual Study of John 4:1-42 (1988), ed. Evaluating the Inculturation of Christianity in Africa (1990) and ed. To Cast Fire upon the Earth: Bible and Mission. Collaborating in Today’s Multicultural Global Context (2000). Archie Chi_Chung Lee, Professor of Hebrew Bible, Department of Cultural and Religious Studies, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. A specialist of cross-textual hermeneutics, especially Chinese text and the post-exilic biblical tradition. He is the author of several books including A Commentary on the Book of Koheleth, (in Chinese 1990), Doing Theology with Asian Resources: Ten Years in the Formation of Living Theology in Asia (1993, ed.) and Interpretation of the Megilloth (in Chinese 2003) and numerous articles including "Genesis One and the Plagues Tradition in Ps. 105," Vetus Testamentum, 40, (1990): 257-263, "Biblical Interpretation in Asian Perspective," Asia Journal of Theology, 7, (1993): 35-39, "The Chinese Creation Myth of Nu Kua and the Biblical Narrative in Genesis 1-11," Biblical Interpretation 2 (1994): 312-324, "Cross-Textual Hermeneutics on Gospel and Culture". Asia Journal of Theology 10 (1996): 38-48 and "Biblical Interpretation of the Return in the Postcolonial Hong Kong," Biblical Interpretation, 9 (1999): 164-173.

This book presents proponents of five approaches to biblical hermeneutics and allows them to respond to each other. The five approaches are the historical-critical/grammatical (Craig Blomberg), redemptive-historical (Richard Gaffin), literary/postmodern (Scott Spencer), canonical (Robert Wall) and philosophical/theological (Merold Westphal) views.

In this new paperback version, Graeme Goldsworthy examines the foundations and presuppositions of evangelical belief as it applies to the interpretation of the Bible. He then proposes an evangelical hermeneutic rightly centered in the gospel.

In Quest of a Vital Protestant Center probes the relationship between Scripture and culture in twentieth-century US theology and biblical studies. It points to the necessity of turning to what Karl Barth has referred to as "the strange new world within the Bible" for any revitalization of mainline Protestantism in the tradition of the Protestant Reformers in critical dialogue with serious evangelical theology. The study includes a historical overview underlying what Demetrion refers to as the "fundamentalist/modernist great divide," which continues to resonate powerfully in contemporary US Protestant thought and culture. Demetrion offers an in-depth exploration of four representative twentieth-century Protestant theologians and biblical scholars, spanning from the conservative evangelical theology of J. I. Packer to the postliberal dialectical theology of Walter Brueggemann. The book includes a chapter on the neo-orthodox legacy as a mediating resource in bringing evangelical and postliberal theology into dialogue with the core issues of theology, biblical hermeneutics, and religious culture. Demetrion concludes with a critically empathetic review of the postliberal dialectical theology of Douglas J. Hall and the evangelical narrative theology of Richard Lints. In linking evangelical, postliberal, and neo-orthodox theology to a common search for a vital Protestant center, this book will facilitate fruitful dialogue among divergent schools of Protestant thought and culture.

In this volume, authors explore the interconnected issues of public health and public policy as they relate to queer issues in the Deep South. The book begins with a sustained examination of public health, health disparities, and mental health for LGBTQ people in the South. Next, the issues of public policy and public advocacy, including law enforcement, community advocacy and activism, and public life in the Deep South are taken up. Through the chapters in this text, the peculiarities of public health and public policy for LGBTQ people in the Deep South are explored. However, this volume also points to trends, themes, and dynamics at work in the Deep South that are also implicated in the queer experience in other parts of the U.S. The authors of this text push readers to think deeply about these issues. They clearly highlight the systemic nature of oppression of queer people in the South through institutions of medicine, mental health discourses, the criminal justice system, and public life including Pride and Mardi Gras. Taken together, the authors in this volume call for reform, liberation, and conscientization and queerly envision the future of health and policy in the Deep South.