Liberating Biblical Study is a unique collaboration of pioneering biblical scholars, social-change activists, and movement-based artists. Well known and unknown, veterans and newcomers, these diverse practitioners of justice engage in a lively and critical conversation at the intersection of seminary, sanctuary, and street. The book is divided into eight sections; in each, a scholar, activist, and artist explore the justice issues related to a biblical text or idea, such as exodus, creation, jubilee, and sanctuary. Beyond the emerging themes (e.g., empire, resistance movements, identity, race, gender, and economics), the book raises essential questions at another level: What is the role of art in social-change movements? How can scholars be accountable beyond the academy, and activists encouraged to study? How are resistance movements nurtured and sustained? This volume is an accessible invitation to action that will appeal to all who love and strive for justice--whatever their discipline, and whatever their familiarity with the Bible, scholarship, art, and activist communities.

This important book provides a sampling of liberation theology's use of biblical texts, relating it to the "standard" methods of interpretation in Europe and America. Divided into four sections, the book sets out contemporary readings of the parable of Jesus influenced by a liberationist perspective; identifies the biblical and theoretical foundations of liberation theology, comparing them with the dominant exegetical paradigm in the first world; explores the way in which liberation exegesis affects reading the canonical accounts of Jesus; and argues that liberation theology cannot be seen solely as a third-world phenomenon.

Liberating Biblical Study is a unique collaboration of pioneering biblical scholars, social-change activists, and movement-based artists. Well known and unknown, veterans and newcomers, these diverse practitioners of justice engage in a lively and critical conversation at the intersection of seminary, sanctuary, and street. The book is divided into eight sections; in each, a scholar, activist, and artist explore the justice issues related to a biblical text or idea, such as exodus, creation, jubilee, and sanctuary. Beyond the emerging themes (e.g., empire, resistance movements, identity, race, gender, and economics), the book raises essential questions at another level: What is the role of art in social-change movements? How can scholars be accountable beyond the academy, and activists encouraged to study? How are resistance movements nurtured and sustained? This volume is an accessible invitation to action that will appeal to all who love and strive for justice--whatever their discipline, and whatever their familiarity with the Bible, scholarship, art, and activist communities.

When the beliefs of Barack Obama's former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, assumed the spotlight during the 2008 presidential campaign, the influence of black liberation theology became hotly debated not just within theological circles but across cultural lines. How many of today's African-American congregations-and how many Americans in general-have been shaped by its view of blacks as perpetual victims of white oppression? In this interdisciplinary, biblical critique of the black experience in America, Anthony Bradley introduces audiences to black liberation theology and its spiritual and social impact. He starts with James Cone's proposition that the "victim" mind-set is inherent within black consciousness. Bradley then explores how such biblical misinterpretation has historically hindered black churches in addressing the diverse issues of their communities and prevented adherents from experiencing the freedoms of the gospel. Yet Liberating Black Theology does more than consider the ramifications of this belief system; it suggests an alternate approach to the black experience that can truly liberate all Christ-followers.

What do the New Testament writers actually teach about (1) the poor, (2) women, and (3) sexual minorities? Why do traditional commentaries and introductions so often ignore or treat superficially such burning questions churches grapple with today? Must we seek out specialized monographs to get adequate information and satisfactory answers in each area? At last, in a single volume Tom Hanks brings together the fruit of decades of study, examining each New Testament book in each of these three crucial areas, which often overlap in human experience (Latin American male liberation theologians often forget that the option for the poor may involve solidarity with a lesbian of color who wants to be ordained!). Building on his pioneering study on oppression and poverty in Biblical theology (Orbis 1984; Wipf 2000) and his Anchor Bible Dictionary article on Poverty in the New Testament (which the New York Times review commended for its balance), Hanks analyzes the teaching of each New Testament book regarding the main cause of poverty (oppression) and the variety of liberating Christian responses. Feminist and womanist studies are mined to highlight the presence/absence and role/leadership of women in each New Testament book. The remarkable absence of modern notions of family and family values in the New Testament books is emphasized, along with the prominence of sexual minorities as authors and subjects of the New Testament books. L. William Countryman comments regarding the poor, women and sexual minorities: Tom Hanks has brought these issues to the exegesis of the New Testament in a sustained and orderly fashion. He demonstrates beyond question that most of the New Testament authors were not interested in maintaining the household structures of the ancient Mediterranean and that, indeed, most of the individuals presented in the New Testament documents would not have seemed to be models of 'family values' either in their time or todayÉ.The works of Hanks and [Theodore W.] Jennings, with their detailed and careful argumentation, show that excellent work is being done in this vein. However surprising their conclusions may be to casual readers (or offensive to readers protecting what they conceive as orthodoxy), they are, in fact, deeply grounded in attentive scholarly work (Dirt, Greed & Sex, Minneapolis: Fortress, 2007, p. 251-252).

Kristina LaCelle-Peterson seeks both to affirm the central place of Scripture in the Christian life and to highlight the liberating nature of the gospel for both men and women. To do this the author considers the biblical ideal for human beings and then proceeds to offer a biblical foundation for each of the topics under discussion--identity, body image, personal relationships, marriage, church life, and language for God. Along the way she examines the cultural nature of gender roles and the ways in which they have become entangled with ecclesial expectations. This book will help women better appreciate themselves as women, gain a better understanding of their value in God's eyes, and recognize their potential for meaningful engagement in a variety of relationships and vocational callings.

Offers a deeply informed take on a key Christian doctrine and its interpretation and relevance today.

Roberta Grimes spent decades studying nearly 200 years of afterlife evidence and forming a detailed picture of what happens at and after death. She then discovered that two thousand years ago Jesus told us things about God, reality, death, the afterlife, human nature, and the nature of reality that perfectly match the afterlife evidence in even small details. She outlines many of these correspondences in appendices to her books The Fun of Dying (2010, 2014) and The Fun of Staying in Touch (2014). In Liberating Jesus Roberta offers compelling evidence that the earliest Christians misunderstood the meaning and the message of Jesus. She demonstrates that all the correspondences between the Gospels and the afterlife evidence amount to nothing less than a new revelation from God. And she shows us that once we put aside the magic-thinking notion that the whole Christian Bible must be the Inspired Word of God just because the earliest Christians said it was, we at last free Jesus to bring to humankind the messages directly from God that long ago were His true life's purpose. His promise remains as fresh today as it was two thousand years ago, and now it is confirmed by the afterlife evidence: if we will live according to the teachings of Jesus, we can create the Kingdom of God on earth.

As a Chinese woman, a feminist theologian, and a biblical scholar, Pui-lan Kwok brings a new perspective and voice to the task of hermeneutics. Her multidimensional reading of the Bible draws on a tradition much older than that of the West while it simultaneously incorporates the insights of contemporary feminist and Third World theologies. Seeing herself as "wanderer" between the worlds of East and West, Pui-lan Kwok draws on the work of contemporary biblical scholars, as well as the millennia-old commentaries on the Book of Change, the Dao de Jing, and the Bhagavad Gita. Her creativity and imagination come into play as she gradually, inseparably links reader, text, and context. The first three chapters locate the context from which she approaches the Bible as an Asian woman. Pui-lan considers Asian traditions as well as the social biography of Asian peoples and discusses the complex issues of using the Bible in feminist theology. Chapters Four and Five approach the unique Asian context with its long traditions of orality and exegesis of ancient scriptures. Chapter Six analyzes the challenges of Asian critics to western interpretations of scripture and raises sharp issues of colonial oppression. Finally, Discovering the Bible in the Non-Biblical World shows how the multiple oppressions of women provide a context for rediscovering the Bible's liberating message. "Must reading for anyone engaged in biblical studies, cross-cultural education and feminist theology. I highly recommend this richly instructive and powerful book."ùElisabeth Schassler Fiorenza Harvard Divinity School "An important addition to the fast-growing literature on Asian biblical discourse."ùR.S. Sugirtharajah University of Birmingham "A significant contribution to the hermeneutical conversation arising from the global context of reading of the Bible."ùSharon H. Hinge Wesley Theological Seminary