|
Showing 1 - 6 of
6 matches in All Departments
This book examines the tales of three remarkable figures of the
biblical world: the tragic prophet Jeremiah, and the two atypical
prophets Jonah and Balaam. Jeremiah was cursed from birth and
condemned to a lifelong losing battle against national disaster.
Jonah was notorious for his connection with a whale, whereas Balaam
was best known as the owner of a talking donkey. Yet these prophets
(servants of their deity) are portrayed as rebels against their
god. This book contends that these tales, beyond their intrinsic
appeal as stories, were written to serve as metaphors. Although set
in ancient times and in the exotic Near East, the issues that
underlie these gripping tales are not unfamiliar to modern times
and Western lives. These prophets represent "everyman" and these
unusual dramas explore the phenomenon of revolt against restrictive
conditions and against authority.
This is a book about a book: it is an in-depth yet reader friendly
analysis of the Book of Judges, one of the most dramatic books of
the Bible. Against the commonly-held view that this remarkable work
is no more than a collection of hero tales stemming from Israel's
earliest days in its land-its "Heroic Age," so to speak-this study
makes the case that the Book of Judges is a unified composition
with a single focused message: that it is the values held by a
people and not its politics that determine its fate. Further,
Judges contends that there is a direct connection between the kind
of values people internalize and the level of violence that racks
their society, both inflicted from without and generated from
within. And not least, that the presence of violence is a symptom
that a society has abandoned the moral values of monotheism for the
Machiavellian politics of a pagan worldview that worships power as
the ultimate reality. The larger-than-life heroes and heroines-Ehud
and Jael, Deborah and Gideon, Jephthah and Samson-who people the
pages of Judges serve by their example to illustrate the way this
thesis works out in the world.
The Invention of Monotheist Ethics, Volume II presents a
comprehensive analysis of the Biblical Book of Samuel. Usually
taken to be a socio-political history of ancient Israel during a
turbulent century of change, The Invention of Monotheist Ethics
contends that beneath this surface level the true focus of Samuel
is a profound appraisal of power, its seductive appeal and its
drastic limitations. Thus Samuel emerges as a radical critique of
our power-based world, and the way we, its inhabitants, order our
lives. Taken together with the contention that the Book of Samuel
was written by a woman, the Biblical book emerges as a woman's
critique of a man's world. This assessment concludes by proposing
an alternative to the world we know: a world based on care and
concern. Relying on recent sociological studies, this work explores
the ramifications of an ethic based on care rather than justice.
The Invention of Monotheist Ethics, Volume I presents a
comprehensive analysis of the Biblical Book of Samuel. Usually
taken to be a socio-political history of ancient Israel during a
turbulent century of change, The Invention of Monotheist Ethics
contends that beneath this surface level the true focus of Samuel
is a profound appraisal of power, its seductive appeal and its
drastic limitations. Thus Samuel emerges as a radical critique of
our power-based world, and the way we, its inhabitants, order our
lives. Taken together with the contention that the Book of Samuel
was written by a woman, the Biblical book emerges as a woman's
critique of a man's world. This assessment concludes by proposing
an alternative to the world we know: a world based on care and
concern. Relying on recent sociological studies, this work explores
the ramifications of an ethic based on care rather than justice.
This work examines the lives of four female characters in the
Bible: Naomi, Ruth, Tamar and Esther. Their stories differ
significantly from those of most female Biblical characters in that
each woman is depicted without a dominant male companion and each
is featured in the Bible's more secular texts. The author evaluates
each character's role as a female protagonist, and demonstrates how
each story represents an innovative view of religion and a
revisionist evaluation of women's roles. Finally, the author
proposes that these narratives may have been authored by women.
Appendices provide additional information about Boaz, Judah and
Tamar, Greek versions of the ""Book of Esther"", Mordecai's decree,
and literacy in ancient Israel. It includes a glossary and
timeline.
An analysis of the intertwining tales of Elijah and Ahab -
mercurial prophet and Machiavellian king - this book is an
accessible and reader-friendly treatment of some of the most
dramatic and well-known episodes in the Bible. In contrast to the
popular image of Elijah as a courageous wonder-worker who calls
down fire from heaven and ascends to heaven in a fiery chariot,
this book contends that the prophet was a deeply conflicted man,
torn between a burning idealism and a deep disillusionment over his
failure to achieve his ideals. Despite his profound sense of
failure, Elijah's struggle against the paganizing regime of King
Ahab and his queen, Jezebel, managed to save monotheism from
eclipse, and in so doing alter the course of human history. This
work further proposes that the tale presented by the Bible is more
than an account of an ancient battle between two historic figures:
it is a paradigm of the struggle between the ideals of human
dignity and justice, and the alternative of expediency in the
pursuit of power, a conflict that pervades human life to this very
day.
|
You may like...
Top Five
Rosario Dawson, Cedric The Entertainer, …
Blu-ray disc
R40
Discovery Miles 400
|