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Joe MacDonald

Queer Theory - 34 views

Sterling, I really appreciate your point of view and am grateful you are challenging us to examine these texts. You are not being adversarial at all; please continue to challenge our thinking. Mary

queer theory

suesaldin

WHEN THE TEXT IS THE PROBLEM: A POSTCOLONIAL APPROACH TO BIBLICAL PEDAGOGY - 0 views

  • Postcolonial biblical critics use a multilayered biblical hermeneutic, one that emphasizes "the demythologization of the biblical authority, the demystification of the use of the Bible, and the construction of new models of interpretation of the Bible" (Kwok 1995, 30). Fernando Segovia, a postcolonial New Testament scholar, for example, argues that there are three different and equally important worlds that readers of the Bible should investigate and analyze: the world of the text, the world of modernity, and the world of today (Segovia 2002, 119-132).
  • Questions about culture, ideology, and power are sine qua non (quibus, really) for understanding the text.
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    Examines postcolonial Biblical criticism as it applies to teaching the Bible. Provides a succinct overview of this approach to reading the Bible. Includes an analysis of the story of Hagar and Sarah that examines the sociopolitical context of the writer, traditional modern interpretations and concludes that Hagar and Sarah are examples of courageous, marginalized women in a patriarchal society who are able to maintain their dignity. Contrasts this reading with a feminist interpretation.
Michael Hemenway

Cultural Memory and the Bible - 17 views

Sterling, you are absolutely right. cultural memory theory is indebted to oral tradition studies and this is how cultural memory initially came to be applied to the biblical text as a means of und...

memory cultural bible summary

Joe MacDonald

What is Historical Criticism? « Messianic Jewish Musings - 1 views

  • Alan Cooper spoke basically to say that for Jewish readers it is not difficult to uphold historical critical views of the text at the same time as upholding Torah as sacred authority.
  • Peter Machinist defined historical criticism as reading the Bible from its human side and seeing it as rooted in historical realities.
  • Francis Watson
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • Francis Watson of Durham University gave a provocative lecture. He said we should abandon the term historical criticism altogether for the following reasons: (1) Biblical scholars are not historians and should not imply that we are. (2) Historical criticism is not a neutral characterization. In its origin the term referred to textual criticism, which is about restoring texts. Historical criticism, by contrast, has been about doubting them. The historical critical movement has had an agenda to criticize, in the harsh sense, other views of the Bible. (3) Historical criticism has claimed that its methods are objective, neutral, and not about dogma. This has been shown to be a farce. (4) The real issue has been modernity and rationalism versus tradition. (5) Historical approaches to a text are far from the totality of the work we do. Much Biblical scholarship is not historical but interpretive. (6) The distance historical critics claim to put between themselves and the text is illusory. (7) Therefore, we should talk about biblical studies or scholarship and make the term historical criticism defunct.
  • Historical criticism, simply put, is the idea of studying the Biblical texts scientifically, which has led to dissecting the Bible into many alleged source texts.
  • First, it is important to know that historical criticism has fallen on increasing disfavor. The whole project is so rationalist and assumes the possibility of so much knowledge and the superiority of the modern over pre-modern cultures, that in this post-modern age, the enterprise is looking more and more imperialistic.
  • Legaspi traced the history of historical criticism and its move from seeing the Bible as scripture to seeing the Bible as simply a text.
  • One step in this journey was the Reformation, in which there arose a question for the first time about which version of the Bible and which selection of Bible books was valid.
  • The death of scripture in the West was solidified in 18th century German universities.
  • H-C was successful for a time, quite a long time in fact. My point was simply that it is no longer in a position to function as it once did. I don’t believe it is in an epistemological position inferior to that of confessional modes, i.e. regarding objectivity or tradition. But I believe that the discourse that it has framed is not a promising one for actual religious communities functioning now, in a post-Christian–not simply post-confessional–society.
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    This is a very nice summary of several SBL papers addressing the issue of historical criticism. Several different views are expressed in a very well framed and concise manner.
suesaldin

Postcolonial Feminist Interpretation of the Bible: Musa W. Dube - 0 views

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    Presents an alternative approach to reading the Bible that addresses the issues and needs of women in the "two-thirds world." Extended examination of Matthew that "shows us how to read the Bible as decolonizing rather than imperialist literature."
Michael Hemenway

Cultural memory - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - 3 views

  • Crucial in understanding cultural memory as a phenomenon is the distinction between memory and history. This distinction was put forward by Pierre Nora, who pinpointed a niche in-between history and memory. Simply put, memories are the events that actually happened, while histories are subjective representations of what historians believe is crucial to remember. This dichotomy, it should be noted, emerged at a particular moment in history: it implies that there used to be a time when memories could exist as such — without being representational.
    • Michael Hemenway
       
      This is am important discussion. Though I may not agree with Nora here, this is a common depiction of the relationship between history and memory, with memory being the raw material for histories.
  • Either in visualized or abstracted form, one of the largest complications of memorializing our past is the inevitable fact that it is absent. Every memory we try to reproduce becomes – as Terdiman states – a 'present past'. It is this impractical desire for recalling what is gone forever that brings to surface a feeling of nostalgia, noticeable in many aspects of daily life but most specifically in cultural products.
  • German Egyptologists Jan Assmann in his book "Das kulturelle Gedächtnis",
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    Nice, generic introduction to the field of cultural memory studies. Nothing particularly related to Bible, except the mentions of Jan Assmann, who writes extensively on history, memory and the bible (Moses the Egyptian).
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    Unlike most other theory and method, it would seem that this one has been pioneered by scholars in the field (Bible and ancient text-study)
suesaldin

Sugirtharajah: Postcolonial Criticism and Biblical Interpretat - Oxford University Press - 0 views

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    "In this stimulating study, R. S. Sugirtharajah explores the implications of postcolonial criticism for biblical studies. He provides a comprehensive overview of the origins, definitions, and procedures of postcolonial criticism, followed by a discussion of the significance of postcolonial criticism in biblical interpretation. He reveals how postcolonial criticism can offer an alternative perspective to our understanding of the Bible, and how, when the Bible has been deployed as a Western cultural icon, it has come to be questioned in new ways. " This book provides an overview of postcolonial Biblical criticism from a leading scholar - may be heavy going but is recommended for interested lay readers.
Brenda Goodman

Amazon.com: The Woman's Bible: A Classic Feminist Perspective (9780486424910): Elizabet... - 2 views

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    Ahhh, the woman's Bible!
Carlene Hill

Canonical Criticism - 31 views

I agree, Steve, which is why I asked the question about our understanding having a limit. I, too, believe we continue to learn through human-God interactions today. Martin Luther King Jr. is an exa...

canonical criticism

Michael Hemenway

More than One way to Read a Book - 8 views

Sterling, are there a few biblical scholars you found that apply this approach well?

Deconstruction Derrida Critique

Angie Steinhauer

Book on biblical Sources - 0 views

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    "Friedman carefully describes the history of textual criticism of the Bible" To understand the connections of the books of the Bible, including the links between historical source, this book explores "Who wrote the Bible?".
suesaldin

Asian Biblical Hermeneutics and Postcolonialism: Contesting the Interpretations (Bible ... - 0 views

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    Examines three ways the Bible has been interpreted in Asia historically: "Orientalist," "Anglicist" and "Nativist." The table of contents indicates that the author advocates "textual cleansing" and a "postcolonial translation strategy" for the multifaith culture of Asia.
suesaldin

Customer Reviews: Voices from the Margin: Interpreting the Bible in the Third World - 0 views

  • Western colonial governments and missionary movements over centuries brought the gospel of Jesus Christ to many parts of the world. At the turn of this new century, with most African, Asian, and South American countries having gained independence from their former colonists, Third World Christians struggle with a heritage of Western theology, expectations, and abuses. New generations in a maturing church are questioning the need for Christ's message to be filtered through, and approved by, Western scholarship. With some sense of hurt and resentment, yet with a desire to effectively bring the gospel to their own peoples, Third World theologians support creative biblical hermeneutics that fit their cultures. This book is a collection of thirty-four writings by authors from twenty-two countries.
  • Many writers want to interpret Christ in ways that honor ancient, rich cultures that may have been crushed by colonization or rejected as evil by early missionaries. Others simply want the message of the Bible to be embraced by needy people of their country: the overwhelming theme of the book is that our God notices, loves, and defends the marginalized - that is, poor, oppressed, and powerless people.
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    This review reflects in straightforward language the need for and goal of postcolonial criticism. It seems that the writer's faith is renewed and enlarged by this approach to reading the text.
Micah Hemenway

Memory in the Bible and antiquity ... - Google Books - 3 views

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    Collection of essays from a conference.
Schawn Kellogg

The Literary guide to the Bible - Google Books - 0 views

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    appears to be a good reference in entering the discussion of how narrative criticism fits into the broader heading of literary criticism.
Michael Hemenway

The memoirs of God: history, memory ... - Google Books - 1 views

    • Michael Hemenway
       
      Halbwachs summary (pp. 127ff.) is very useful. Three main contributions: "the opposition between memory and history; the role of physical location in collective memory; and the importance of social power in cultural memory" (127). I agree with Smith and others (Yerushalmi, Assmann), that history and memory do not operate in an oppositional binary as Halbwachs seems to suggest. The relationship between the past, history and memory is more complex than this.
    • Michael Hemenway
       
      His summary 138 is very useful. He speaks about the relationship between remembering the past and affecting the present.
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    The last chapter of this book offers a nice summary of some of the important early theoretical work in cultural memory studies, particularly by French scholars. Smith also offers some examples of how the Sinai event is remembered differently in the Bible.
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    I'd really like to read this book - it's going on my list.
Michael Hemenway

Remembering Abraham: culture, memory ... - Google Books - 1 views

    • Michael Hemenway
       
      p. 6 offers a nice short description of Hendel's view of history in the Hebrew Bible - "more a midrash on the times than the times themselves" (6)
    • Michael Hemenway
       
      "shared memory of a collective past" (8) - remembering the Exodus story became a central site of cultural memory and identity for the people of Israel and remains so today.
    • Michael Hemenway
       
      genealogies are often sites of cultural memory that are loaded with identity markers. If we read genealogies in light of cultural memory, we might get a better sense of the selectivity of the list and the agenda at work in composing it.
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    • Michael Hemenway
       
      p. 100 has a nice discussion of Hendel's understanding of cultural/collective memory and its relationship to myth and history.
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    Another good resource for exploring the role of memory in biblical history.
suesaldin

Bibliobloggers and Postcolonial Criticism? « The Golden Rule - 0 views

  • So what do you think of postcolonial criticism, given that the Bible is the product of people living under different imperial regimes (Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, Greek or Roman)?  Has Christendom, often alligned with imperialism and colonial expansion, missed the critique of Empire found in the Bible in the Exodus, the call to justice in the prophets, the message of the kingdom of God or the confession that Jesus (not Caesar) is Lord and Savior?
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    A blog that seems quite informative! Particularly interesting is the distinction between liberation theology and postcolonial Biblical criticism. I was intrigued with the highlighted questions.
suesaldin

Voices from the Margin: Interpreting the Bible in the Third World: R. S. Sugirtharajah:... - 0 views

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    "Professional scholars and ordinary people contribute to this book, which is written from the perspective of those in the Third World. Writing from an experience of injustice and oppression, hunger and exploitation, they explore issues of racism and sexism, class struggle and religious triumphalism." Although not explicitly focused on postcolonial criticism, I think the voices of lay people might bring some issues that postcolonial criticism addresses into sharper focus and provide a sense of what this approach to reading the text means in real lives. I have included a review of this book in the bibliography.
Mary Price

Redaction Criticism - 22 views

Brenda, I like your words "we come away with a greater understanding of the text's message and an invitation to find our connection to it". I have not really thought about reading scripture this wa...

redaction

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