From a public thief to benefactor: Using the fusion of horizons to read Luke 19:1-10 in Malawi

Reviewed by: Seek Justice That You May Live: Reflections and Resources on the Bible and Social Justice by John R. Donahue Alisha Pomazon john r. donahue, Seek Justice That You May Live: Reflections and Resources on the Bible and Social Justice (New York: Paulist, 2014). Pp. 310 + xvii. $29.95. In Seek Justice That You May Live, John R. Donahue presents readers with his collective findings of nearly forty years of study on social justice and the biblical text. D. highlights Catholic social teaching, Vatican II’s mandate for a more biblically and theologically based social ethic (p. 2), and the idea that the “biblical material does not give direct precepts, but is necessary to inform the Christian imagination and moral dispositions” (p. 3). This combination of social ethics, moral imagination, and textual studies allows D. to offer his own reflections on the connections between social justice and the biblical text. More specifically, throughout the chapters, D. shows the process by which the concept of social justice is established in the biblical text and then later informs Catholic social teaching and action in the world. As he states, his hope is to help those who are concerned with social justice issues, and he hopes that his book will help them to “find material in the biblical texts and bibliographies to appropriate and integrate the Scripture into their own vital commitments” (p. 9). There are two types of chapters in the book. The first type looks at the broader themes of justice, covenant and law, creation and exodus. The second type examines these broader themes in specific biblical books, including the prophetic books, wisdom literature, the Gospels, as well as Pauline and Johannine writings. The final chapter “From Text to Life” offers methods of reading the biblical text. Each chapter contains a comprehensive section on further resources for use. Throughout, D. examines the themes of relationship, poverty, and the structures of power as a way of further investigating the establishment of social justice in the biblical text. Since D. is a NT specialist, it is no surprise that the chapter on social justice in Luke-Acts is the best of the book. Here, D.’s arguments concerning the various types of relationships in the biblical text (human–divine, human–human, human–world), poverty, and the structures of power coalesce into a gripping analysis of how Luke-Acts breaks down barriers that obstruct justice in the early church and in the world today. Specifically, the section on the barriers of religious hatred and division, which delves into the Samaritan stories, not only speaks to current social justice concerns and the need for memory and alternative stories but also provides concrete suggestions for how to enact social justice values in the political, social, and religious spheres. [End Page 709] Clearly D. is passionate about his subject matter, and his knowledge is apparent on every page. As a result, readers of this book are able to follow his lines of reasoning and will be engaged by his writing style. Often, books on social justice and biblical hermeneutics are overwhelming in scope. Although combining the two topics would seem to make the work even more overwhelming, D. deftly navigates between the two topics and illustrates how connecting social justice and biblical hermeneutics helps us to understand both topics separately and together. Moreover, D. avoids the pitfalls of “proof-texting” that are normal in treatments of social justice in the biblical narratives. That is, instead of trying to find a biblical verse that fits a social justice cause, D. shows how the biblical text itself generates, understands, and tries to both mitigate and eliminate that concern. There are, however, a few confusing features in the book. While D. is aware of the limitations in scope, as he chooses to reference some methodologies instead of others, he often uses texts that could be enhanced by the methodologies that are left out. For instance, he chooses to concentrate on liberation theology and leaves out feminist methodologies even when discussing women in the texts. Further, there is a shift in tone and style in the discussion of the OT texts vs. the NT texts. Whereas the tone and style...

Reviewed by: Melville's Wisdom: Religion, Skepticism, and Literature in Nineteenth-Century America by Damien B. Schlarb Ariel Silver Damien B. Schlarb Melville's Wisdom: Religion, Skepticism, and Literature in Nineteenth-Century America Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021. xiv + 252 pp. In his reading of the Book of Genesis in The Beginning of Wisdom (2003), Leon Kass is guided by philosophia, the love and pursuit of wisdom. He quickly acknowledges that scripture is not often read in this manner, especially by scholars of the Bible, whose training in higher criticism has led them to focus more on textual sources and the "sensibilities and prejudices of an ancient people" (2). These source critics read the Bible much as do literary critics—as literature more than as an aid to wisdom. Melville was neither a biblical scholar nor a literary critic, but in his elegant new book, Melville's Wisdom, Damien Schlarb contends that Melville seeks to demonstrate through his literary work that the Hebrew Bible can be read in a "reflective and philosophic spirit" (Kass, Leon R. The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003, p. 2) and that this manner of reading is modeled on the wisdom literature found within the biblical text. In his effort to recover the language and ethics of biblical wisdom, Schlarb asserts that Melville charts a course between the "Scylla of epistemological deadlock and the Charybdis of moral relativism" (20), leading him to theological as well as cultural insight. Literature begins to function as a new form of exegesis, which Melville deploys to try to deeply understand both the biblical text and the religious culture emerging in the midst of modern life. This spirit of philosophia animates Melville, and leads him, through the wisdom literature of the Bible, to what Schlarb calls the "hermeneutics of contemplation" (19). Like Ahab circling the leviathan, drawing ever closer, numerous scholars have sought to apprehend the acute nature of Melville's relationship to the Bible. This search began in earnest after World War II with the publication of Melville's Use of the Bible (Nathalia Wright, 1949) and Melville's Quarrel with God (Lawrance Thompson, 1952), works devoted to the ways in which Melville read biblical prose and poetry. Later works attended more to the religious, political, and cultural milieu informing Melville's biblical interpretations. The [End Page 108] more recent religious turn in literary studies has deepened this search and made it both more incisive and more expansive. In Melville's Bibles (2008), Ilana Pardes seeks to bring together these two previous strains of scholarship on Melville and the Bible: his reading of biblical texts and his reading of cultural contexts through his literary oeuvre. Melville's Bibles focuses principally on Moby-Dick, as does Jonathan A. Cook's Inscrutable Malice (2012). Where Pardes sets biblical texts and characters in Moby-Dick in conversation with multiple modes of biblical exegesis in antebellum America, Cook focuses more on the moral and religious questions which animate Melville's engagement with biblical sources. Melville's interrogation of theodicy—the attempt to reconcile divine justice with the presence of evil—leads him directly to Job. The omnipresence of Job in Moby-Dick points to Melville's interest in biblical wisdom, a genre that informs not only Job, but also Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. In Melville's Wisdom, Schlarb expands beyond Job and Moby-Dick to uncover the ways in which Melville works out his epistemology of skeptical devotion through the body of wisdom literature. At a time when the emerging modern world sought to both affirm and displace religious culture and the language of scripture, Melville discovered in the wisdom texts of the Hebrew Bible a contemplative approach that could lead to syncretic knowledge apart from either the dogma of religion or science. Having discovered that both superstition and empiricism are irredeemable, Melville looks instead for an approach that can respond to his inexhaustible call for inquiry and introspection. Wisdom, grounded in experience and reflection, transcends explanatory systems to arrive at its own moral vector: ambiguity and multiplicity. As Schlarb explains in his discussion on the Book of Job: "What remains in the wake of religious and scientific fervor...

This guide accompanies the following article(s): Mark Sneed, Social Scientific Approach to the Hebrew Bible, Religion Compass 2/3 (2008) pp. 287–300, 10.1111/j.1749‐8171.2008.00072.x Author’s Introduction The social science approach to the Hebrew Bible has steadily gained in popularity in recent years. It is heir to the older and formerly dominant historical critical approach to the Bible but focuses on society as whole instead of just kings, high priests, and the elite. And it goes beyond the also popular social history approach by incorporating social theory into its interpretation of texts and Israelite society. It transforms the two dimensional portrayal of biblical characters in Scripture into three dimensional flesh and blood figures whose lives are motivated and shaped by larger societal forces. The social science approach also aids in foregrounding the ‘Otherness’ of the biblical text, demonstrating how the biblical text reflects a culture that is unfamiliar to our modern Western world. It also serves as a check against the currently popular literary critical approach to the Bible that has a tendency to blunt that strangeness of the ancient text and read modern cultural assumptions and notions back into the same text. But the social science approach has also become more postmodern, and its adherents are not naïve about how their own social locations influence the way they interpret Scripture and the choices they make regarding what models they apply to the biblical text. Biblical sociologists have also become more skeptical about the reliability of ancient texts for reconstructing socio‐historical reality because of their inherently biased character and have proposed ways to separate the wheat from the chaff. And finally, the social science approach has become more self‐conscious of the speculative nature of applying theoretical models to ancient texts and the danger of making the text fit the model. However, in spite of this, biblical sociologists believe it is worth the risk and that their approach makes an important contribution to biblical criticism and that it makes biblical studies exciting and relevant. Online Materials 1. http://www.kchanson.com/ A fascinating site from a New Testament sociologist. It contains tremendous amounts of information including archaeological photos, bibliographies (e.g. ‘The Old Testament: Social Sciences &amp; Social Description’), and numerous links to other related sites like Ancient World on the Web (with over 250 www‐sites) and to electronic journals. 2. http://virtualreligion.net/vri/ Its Biblical Studies: Social World of the Bible provides links to electronic journals and other related sites, some with photos. 3. http://sites.google.com/site/biblicalstudiesresources/ This site has a Hebrew Bible Resources category that includes electronic journals and the homepages of three Hebrew Bible sociologists: Don Benjamin, David J. A. Clines, and Philip Davies, with some of their articles. 4. http://courses.missouristate.edu/VictorMatthews/ Homepage of a preeminent Hebrew Bible anthropologist and Ancient Near Eastern expert that contains bibliographies and numerous links to other related sites and to electronic journals. 5. http://www.socioweb.com/ The Socio Web has links to great sites that often have articles on various sociological topics and social theorists. 6. http://www.trinity.edu/mkearl/index.html A Sociological Tour Through Cyberspace is an amazing site that is colourful and filled with articles about and guides to various aspects of sociology and links to numerous related sites. 7. http://socserv2.mcmaster.ca/w3virtsoclib/index.html WWW Virtual Library: Sociology: Theories has wonderful articles on the primary theorists in sociology and related resources. 8. http://www.denverseminary.edu/dj/articles2005/0100/0101.php#trans The Denver Journal has various related resources, and its Annotated Old Testament Bibliography: Sociological and Anthropological Studies is helpful. Annotated Reading List 1. Weber, Max. Ancient Judaism. Translated by Hans H. Gerth and Don Martindale. New York: Free, 1952 So fortuitous for biblical sociologists, one of the fathers of sociology theorizes on the development of the Israelite religion from a comparative religion standpoint; a classic. It is not the easiest read, so it should be reserved for graduate students. 2. Gottwald, Norman K. The Tribes of Yahweh: A Sociology of the Religion of Liberated Israel, 1250–1050 bce. Paperback ed. The Biblical Seminar. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1999 The father of modern Hebrew Bible sociology draws on Durkheim, Weber, and especially Marx to trace the development of the early Israelite faith that sprang from a confederation of recently liberated peasants; another classic. Compare the following reviews: Bernhard W. Anderson ( Theology Today 38 [1981]: 107–8 – mainly critical); Robert R. Wilson ( Interpretation 38 [1982]: 71–4 – generally positive); Carol Meyers ( Catholic Biblical Quarterly 43 [1981]: 104–9 – somewhat positive). 3. Gottwald, Norman K. The Hebrew Bible: A Brief Socio‐Literary Introduction. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2009 This abridged version of the 1985 classic introduces the student broadly to biblical sociology and then applies it book by book to the Hebrew Bible. Compare the following reviews of the unabridged version: J. J. M. Roberts ( Theology Today 43 [1987]: 580–1 – generally negative); Robert Gnuse ( Currents in Theology and Mission 13 [1986]: 174–5 – generally positive). </jats:

Praises among the amaXhosa today are not only performed at traditional gatherings. These praises are also performed in many places such as schools, churches and funerals. The question is whether the praises performed in other places rather than traditional gatherings still possess the characteristics of traditional praises. In many praises Xhosa poets draw terminology from Biblical texts. This strategy can be seen as an attempt to break the boundaries between Christianity and Xhosa poetry. Having said that, the aim of this article is to uncover the interplay between Xhosa traditional poems and Christianity. To do that, this article discusses the interplay between Christianity, elegy, health and social issues. It also discusses new trends of intertextuality in Xhosa poetry. The intertextual theory insists that a text cannot exist as a hermetic or self-sufficient whole and does not function as a closed system. Still and Worton (1991:1) believe that the writer is a reader of the text before she/he is a creator of texts and therefore the work of art is inevitably alive with references, quotations and influences of every kind.

This groundbreaking book breaks with established canons and resists some of the stereotypes of feminist biblical studies. A wide range of contributors—from the Netherlands, Germany, Norway, East Africa, South Africa, Argentina, Israel, Hong Kong, the US, the UK, and Iran—showcase new methodological and theoretical movements such as feminist materialisms; intersectionality; postidentitarian ?nomadic? politics; gender archaeology; lived religion; and theories of the human and the posthuman. They engage a range of social and political issues, including migration and xenophobia; divorce and family law; abortion; ?pinkwashing?; the neoliberal university; the second amendment; AIDS and sexual trafficking; Tianamen Square and 9/11; and the politics of ?the veil?. Foundational figures in feminist biblical studies work alongside new voices and contributors from a range of disciplines in conversations with the Bible that go well beyond the expected canon-within-the-canon assumed to be of interest to feminist biblical scholars. Moving beyond the limits of a text-orientated model of reading, they look at how biblical texts were actualized in the lives of religious revolutionaries, such as Joanna Southcott and Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz. In important interventions—made all the more urgent in the context of the Trump presidency and Brexit—they make biblical traditions speak to gun legislation, immigration, the politics of abortion, and Roe v. Wade.

Biblical texts provide a prime focus for the symbolic and ritual activity of the different ‘Orange’ secret societies found in Northern Ireland. Concentrating upon the symbolism of one of these bodies, the Royal Black Institution, this article argues that the continuing popularity of this association is in part due to the perceived relevance of these specific texts to social, political and religious issues in modern Ulster. The texts provide a set of metaphors which allow Ulster Protestants in general, and members of the Black Institution in particular, to see themselves as similar in certain respects to the Israelites and Jews as described in the Bible.

This paper aims to portray the overall picture of poverty in the world and mentions the key solution to overcome poverty from a critical perspective. The data and figures were quoted from a number of researchers and organizations in the field of poverty around the world. Simultaneously, the information strengthens the correlations among poverty and lack of education. Only appropriate philosophies of education can improve the country’s socio-economic conditions and contribute to effective solutions to worldwide poverty. In the 21st century, despite the rapid development of science and technology with a series of inventions brought into the world to make life more comfortable, human poverty remains a global problem, especially in developing countries. Poverty, according to Lister (2004), is reflected by the state of “low living standards and/or inability to participate fully in society because of lack of material resources” (p.7). The impact and serious consequences of poverty on multiple aspects of human life have been realized by different organizations and researchers from different contexts (Fraser, 2000; Lister, 2004; Lipman, 2004; Lister, 2008). This paper will indicate some of the concepts and research results on poverty. Figures and causes of poverty, and some solutions from education as a key breaker to poverty will also be discussed. Creating a universal definition of poverty is not simple (Nyasulu, 2010). There are conflicts among different groups of people defining poverty, based on different views and fields. Some writers, according to Nyasulu, tend to connect poverty with social problems, while others focus on political or other causes. However, the reality of poverty needs to be considered from different sides and ways; for that reason, the diversity of definitions assigned to poverty can help form the basis on which interventions are drawn (Ife and Tesoriero, 2006). For instance, in dealing with poverty issues, it is essential to intervene politically; economic intervention is very necessary to any definition of this matter. A political definition necessitates political interventions in dealing with poverty, and economic definitions inevitably lead to economic interventions. Similarly, Księżopolski (1999) uses several models to show the perspectives on poverty as marginal, motivation and socialist. These models look at poverty and solutions from different angles. Socialists, for example, emphasize the responsibilities of social organization. The state manages the micro levels and distributes the shares of national gross resources, at the same time fighting to maintain the narrow gap among classes. In his book, Księżopolski (1999) also emphasizes the changes and new values of charity funds or financial aid from churches or organizations recognized by the Poor Law. Speaking specifically, in the new stages poverty has been recognized differently, and support is also delivered in limited categories related to more specific and visible objectives, with the aim of helping the poor change their own status for sustainable improvement. Three ways of categorizing the poor and locating them in the appropriate places are (1) the powerless, (2) who is willing to work and (3) who is dodging work. Basically, poverty is determined not to belong to any specific cultures or politics; otherwise, it refers to the situation in which people’s earnings cannot support their minimum living standard (Rowntree, 1910). Human living standard is defined in Alfredsson &amp; Eide’s work (1999) as follows: “Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.” (p. 524). In addition, poverty is measured by Global Hunger Index (GHI), which is calculated by the International Food Policy Institute (IFPRI) every year. The GHI measures hunger not only globally, but also by country and region. To have the figures multi-dimensionally, the GHI is based on three indicators: 1. Undernourishment: the proportion of the undernourished as a percentage of the population (reflecting the share of the population with insufficient calorie intake). 2. Child underweight: the proportion of children under age 5 who are underweight (low weight for their age, reflecting wasting, stunted growth or both), which is one indicator of child under-nutrition. 3. Child mortality: the mortality rate of children under 5 (partially reflecting the fatal synergy of inadequate dietary intake and unhealthy environments). Apart from the individual aspects and the above measurement based on nutrition, which help partly imagine poverty, poverty is more complicated, not just being closely related to human physical life but badly affecting spiritual life. According to Jones and Novak (1999 cited in Lister, 2008), poverty not only characterizes the precarious financial situation but also makes people self-deprecating. Poverty turns itself into the roots of shame, guilt, humiliation and resistance. It leads the poor to the end of the road, and they will never call for help except in the worst situations. Education can help people escape poverty or make it worse. In fact, inequality in education has stolen opportunity for fighting poverty from people in many places around the world, in both developed and developing countries (Lipman, 2004). Lipman confirms: “Students need an education that instills a sense of hope and possibility that they can make a difference in their own family, school, and community and in the broader national and global community while it prepare them for multiple life choices.” (p.181) Bradshaw (2005) synthesizes five main causes of poverty: (1) individual deficiencies, (2) cultural belief systems that support subcultures of poverty, (3) economic, political and social distortions or discrimination, (4) geographical disparities and (5) cumulative and cyclical interdependencies. The researcher suggests the most appropriate solution corresponding with each cause. This reflects the diverse causes of poverty; otherwise, poverty easily happens because of social and political issues. From the literature review, it can be said that poverty comes from complex causes and reasons, and is not a problem of any single individual or country. Poverty has brought about serious consequences and needs to be dealt with by many methods and collective effort of many countries and organizations. This paper will focus on representing some alarming figures on poverty, problems of poverty and then the education as a key breaker to poverty. According to a statistics in 2012 on poverty from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), nearly half the world's population lives below the poverty line, of which is less than $1.25 a day . In a statistics in 2015, of every 1,000 children, 93 do not live to age 5 , and about 448 million babies are stillborn each year . Poverty in the world is happening alarmingly. According to a World Bank study, the risk of poverty continues to increase on a global scale and, of the 2009 slowdown in economic growth, which led to higher prices for fuel and food, further pushed 53 million people into poverty in addition to almost 155 million in 2008. From 1990 to 2009, the average GHI in the world decreased by nearly one-fifth. Many countries had success in solving the problem of child nutrition; however, the mortality rate of children under 5 and the proportion of undernourished people are still high. From 2011 to 2013, the number of hungry people in the world was estimated at 842 million, down 17 percent compared with the period 1990 to 1992, according to a report released by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) titled “The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2013” . Although poverty in some African countries had been improved in this stage, sub-Saharan Africa still maintained an area with high the highest percentage of hungry people in the world. The consequences and big problems resulting from poverty are terrible in the extreme. The following will illustrate the overall picture under the issues of health, unemployment, education and society and politics ➢ Health issues: According a report by Manos Unidas, a non- government organization (NGO) in Spain , poverty kills more than 30,000 children under age 5 worldwide every day, and 11 million children die each year because of poverty. Currently, 42 million people are living with HIV, 39 million of them in developing countries. The Manos Unidas report also shows that 15 million children globally have been orphaned because of AIDS. Scientists predict that by 2020 a number of African countries will have lost a quarter of their population to this disease. Simultaneously, chronic drought and lack of clean water have not only hindered economic development but also caused disastrous consequences of serious diseases across Africa. In fact, only 58 percent of Africans have access to clean water; as a result, the average life expectancy in Africa is the lowest in the world, just 45 years old (Bui, 2010). ➢ Unemployment issues: According to the United Nations, the youth unemployment rate in Africa is the highest in the world: 25.6 percent in the Middle East and North Africa. Unemployment with growth rates of 10 percent a year is one of the key issues causing poverty in African and negatively affecting programs and development plans. Total African debt amounts to $425 billion (Bui, 2010). In addition, joblessness caused by the global economic downturn pushed more than 140 million people in Asia into extreme poverty in 2009, the International Labor Organization (ILO) warned in a report titled The Fallout in Asia, prepared for the High-Level Regional Forum on Responding to the Eco

The Heythrop JournalVolume 55, Issue 1 p. 139-139 BOOK REVIEW Normativity of the Future: Reading Biblical and Other Authoritative Texts in an Eschatological Perspective. By Reimund Bieringer, Mary Elsbernd et al. Pp. x, 402, Leuven/Paris/Walpole MA, Peeters, 2010. Hugo Meynell, Hugo Meynell Calgary, CanadaSearch for more papers by this author Hugo Meynell, Hugo Meynell Calgary, CanadaSearch for more papers by this author First published: 29 November 2013 https://doi.org/10.1111/heyj.12064_18Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Volume55, Issue1January 2014Pages 139-139 RelatedInformation

This essay examines two fourth-grade students’ task-based read-aloud interviews on the biblical text of Numbers 13. Taking up the New London Group’s call for a pedagogy of multiliteracies this article examines how educators and adults might sensitize themselves to the interpretive identities children bring to their reading of biblical texts. This work is intricately tied to child development, as we move religious education from a deficit model and perspective towards the child to a more welcoming asset model and perspective.

Promote research, education and training in the environmental sciences. romote the systematic application of all relevant scientific disciplines to the evaluation of chemical hazards. articipate in the scientific interpretation of issues concerned with hazard assessment and risk analysis. upport forums (meetings and publications) for communication among professionals in government, business, and academia and other segments of society involved in the use, protection, and management of our environment. SETAC's success reflects not only the foresight and soundness of the original concept, but also the priorities and changes in society at large during the last several decades. Society's awareness of environmental problems and issues grew tremendously from the mid-1970s through the 1990s. A more informed public demanded that environmental hazards be addressed and that corporations accept responsibility for environmental impacts caused by action or negligence. As government and industry responded to the public's demand for prevention and better environmental solutions, SETAC was uniquely positioned to contribute. The Society provided a venue for presenting data, discussing scientific questions, and working on practical solutions to complex problems, with participants able to transcend affiliations with industry, government, or academia. As the science and technology for addressing and solving environmental problems grew more sophisticated, so did SETAC, and this was reflected in its journal Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, at annual meetings, and by the increasing number and complexity of problems considered at workshops. As developments in information technology and global travel occurred, the Society kept pace, increasing the number, quality, and frequency of publications; communicating more rapidly and effectively to more individuals, institutions, and organizations; and improving member services overall. As SETAC matures, the focus, aspect, and breadth of vision of the Society continue to evolve. SETAC's membership is increasingly international. Much of the international growth of SETAC reflects the response of scientists worldwide to a winning model for furthering environmental science and solving environmental problems. Members have different priorities, needs, and contributions, largely dependent on their cultural, economic, geographical, and political context. Additionally, the scale and pace of environmental issues are changing worldwide. Many environmental management decisions must be made on a spatially large scale or a temporally significant one. Research is needed at all levels of complexity, from the subcellular level to that of the global ecosystem, to support these decision needs. Although the spatial scale creates difficulties in problem formulation, data collection, and interpretation, it increases the likelihood that studies are designed and data collected to answer the large-scale and/or long-term questions key to protecting and managing ecological and natural resources. The internationalization of SETAC and the need to address environmental problems on a large-scale, prospective basis present the Society with challenges and exciting opportunities as it enters its 20th year. The challenges and opportunities involve growing in a manner that continues to further environmental science and contributes to informed environmental management—and is also satisfying to individual members during the journey. onducting efficiently the Society's business around the world and equitably allocating costs. nsuring that the Society speaks with a consistent voice in keeping with its mission, when so many different cultural, political, geographical, and technical backgrounds represent it. ransferring the SETAC culture of balanced representation across disciplines and sectors in membership, scientific events, and leadership. aintaining the continental/regional autonomies that have worked so well while growing as a united, single Society with worldwide membership. etaining the quality and relevance of our publications while responding to the needs of members in countries at various stages of economic development. eeting the demand to review and publish original, fast-breaking science promptly, given the increasing volume and changing breadth of environmental science. Based on these considerations and many others, changes in how the Society is managed and administrated may occur. Decisions for specific changes will require affirmative responses to the following: Does the change better serve members? Is this the best way to achieve the Society's long-term goals of furthering science and promoting informed environmental management? Under most definitions, sustainable development provides an umbrella under which many of the difficult environmental, economic, and social issues that must be faced by society in the coming years can be addressed. The world population is expected to double by 2050, with 90% of the increase in developing countries. To simply maintain the current standard of living in those countries will require economic growth. The challenge will be to deliver an acceptable standard of living for many more people while ensuring that the ecological foundations upon which society depends are protected and are themselves sustainable. Successfully integrating economic growth, social enhancement, and environmental improvement on a local scale while understanding the broader consequences of decisions on a national or regional scale will be required. The most exciting opportunities for the foreseeable future of the Society stem from participating and contributing to progress toward sustainable development. The priorities for SETAC involvement and action identified by the long-range planning activities of the SETAC Board and Long-Range Planning Committee during 1997 and 1998 are directly related or relevant to this topic. Sustainable development encompasses much more than the science or technologies that are the traditional purview of SETAC and that fit the expertise of most SETAC members. It involves integration of social, ethical, political, economic, and environmental issues. Environmental toxicology and chemistry are relevant for only a subset of sustainable development discussions. They are, however, relevant to the environmental component of sustainability. The culture, history, and scientific focus of SETAC position it to contribute meaningfully. A larger international membership and more global perspective bring additional value to the Society's traditional strengths. Solving the most complex (and often most important) environmental problems facing society and the planet today demand the multi-and interdisciplinary and multisectoral approaches that are the strength of SETAC. The scale and linkages required will stretch even SETAC. Two areas of SETAC's strength with particular relevance for contributing to sustainability are the experience of working effectively across boundaries of expertise and affiliation to solve environmental problems and the development and use of science-based methodologies to aid decision makers. SETAC has been crossing boundaries and building bridges since its inception. The scientific questions and management decisions required for sustainable development are ones that will require multidisciplinary, multistakeholder input. Boundaries between scientific disciplines, between scientists and managers, between scientists and policy makers, and between people (specifically scientists) of different languages and cultures need to be crossed to achieve sustainability. Partnerships between ecologists versed in the complex questions of how ecological communities function, as well as closer partnerships with soil scientists, microbiologists, biochemists, and geochemists, need to be cultivated with SETAC's toxicologists and chemists. Issues to be addressed include ecosystem management, ecosystem restoration and rehabilitation, resource valuation and management, assimilation capacity, and biodiversity. In ecosystems on every continent, species exist that have not yet been discovered, much less studied to understand their functions within their ecological community or potential values to humans. There are gaps in knowledge with regard to understanding the sources, mechanisms of action, and means for mitigating the effects of ecosystem stressors (biological, chemical, and physical). The toxicological effects of the chemical synergy or antagonism are not well defined for many combinations of chemicals in the laboratory, and much less well defined in the environment, where, to name a few, the influences of temperature, moisture, soil type, shelter, and species interactions are present. Significant challenges exist in elucidating the spatial and temporal extent of environmental contamination on a large scale. Physical alterations, such as loss of habitat, can be more important to species survival and ecosystem sustainability than chemical contamination and yet are rarely considered when assessing ecological risk. It must be acknowledged that human beings are part of, not separate from, the environment. The assumption of interconnections between human health and ecosystem function is a given; it is intuitive and significant [1]. While this may be so, recognition by many SETAC members that our Society has a role to play in the assessment of risk to human health has been slow. Equally slow has been recognition by mammalian toxicologists and human/public health experts that surrounding (natural) environments must be considered when assessing risk to people. Bridges are already being built in this area, with SETAC members actively engaged in making scientific contributions in both toxicology and ecotoxicology as well as to ecological and human risk assessments. SETAC has formally begun enhancing its relationships with professional societies on both sides of our traditional boundaries, including the Ecological Society of America and the Society of Toxicology. The theme of the 1998 annual meeting, The Natural Connection: Environmental Integrity and Human Health, clearly demonstrates the commitment to expanding activities and collaborations in this area. In addition to communication and cross-fertilization between scientific communities, more interaction and mutual learning experiences are needed between environmental specialists and environmental managers in both business and government. Better and deeper understanding of science needs to be inserted into environmental management and decision making. Every day people in governments and multinational corporations use readily available knowledge and experience acquired over the years to make decisions that have long-lasting, and in some cases permanent, impacts on the environment. Not only does basic science need to be conducted, results and interpretations must also be communicated in a meaningful way to policymakers, regulatory experts, and business leaders to ensure that state-of-the-art science plays an appropriate role in decision making. Transcending boundaries, even those between scientific disciplines, has not been without controversy within SETAC. Even more controversial is moving into the realm of policy. Out of the comfort zone of our laboratories, study sites, and offices, we are in a world that in large part lacks environmental literacy [2]. SETAC has already moved in the last five years toward being much more engaged in communicating “good or sound” science and crossing the boundary between scientists and policymakers. Examples include the Science Fellow Program and Technical Issue Papers. Another recent initiative is the Peer Review Program, where SETAC will facilitate balanced, objective peer reviews of environmental programs or documents for governmental or other organizations. In all cases thus far, when SETAC has moved towards bridging gaps, the results have been beneficial for the Society and the issues have been better served by the diversity of environmental expertise and outlook. SETAC members have been instrumental in developing and bringing into common usage methodologies for evaluating different aspects of human-initiated impacts on the environment: ecological risk and life-cycle assessment (LCA). Ecological risk assessment provides a systematic method for estimating the nature and likelihood of adverse effects on the environment. It provides a structure for interaction and cooperation and makes it more likely that management decisions will be science-based, transparent, objective, and ecologically relevant. Although many criticisms can be made of ecological risk assessment, it is the best tool available now. Improvements continue to sharpen the inputs for both exposure and effects. LCA is a tool for evaluating the potential impacts resulting from the use of resources and the potential environmental impacts associated with a product or process. Practitioners of LCA recognize its limitations (implementation and interpretation of results can be difficult), but it is a structured methodology already accepted as a tool for furthering sustainable development. Life-cycle considerations are included in the basic principles of a framework for eco-efficiency indicators [3] and are being used in some industries to evaluate process inefficiencies and in others to provide information for product design and specification. These tools will continue to be refined to provide better (more precise, more accurate, more relevant) answers for environmental management questions. Additional tools are needed to be able to evaluate and compare global environmental performance by measuring appropriate environmental indicators within and across industries. Better tools are needed for translating ecological knowledge to models that will give reliable predictions of the consequences and potential for recovery to environmental changes. Despite the sophistication that exists, better models for predicting the fate and transport of chemicals through and across media, across geopolitical boundaries, and on a long-term temporal scale are needed. Tools are also needed to help understand and manage some of the broadest and most complex environmental issues facing society today. These issues, including climate change, drought, famine, ozone layer depletion, uncontrolled population growth, transboundary pollution, natural resource exploitation, water quality and availability, and waste transport and disposal transcend the boundaries of any scientific discipline, professional organization, or governmental body. Although we are continuing to support and nurture the science that is the foundation of the Society, we are now poised to contribute more directly to the creation of environmental policy used in environmental management. Every opportunity for participation will require serious and cautious evaluation to ensure that we never compromise the integrity of our science or the reputation of the Society. The need for engagement is real and in some cases, the time frame for intervention is short. Although very few management or policy decisions are based on science alone, science should inflluence the decision, and to do that its representatives must be present at the table. This is equally true whether the debates are within industries or governments or between them. Many of these decisions will affect the long-term viability of the natural environment (managed or pristine) and should not be based solely on political expediency, economic priorities, or emotional responses to perceptions of risk. Many specific examples can be given of large-scale or complex environmental problems that will need considerable technical and political skill to resolve. Although many of these problems appear to fall outside of the traditional purview of SETAC, many are squarely in our court. There are others to which we can make considerable contributions, in conjunction with scientists of different expertise. While few simple solutions exist, the paths forward are discernible. The leadership of SETAC over the next several years will make decisions regarding the commitments of the Society toward many of these issues. I hope we continue moving toward policies of engagement and education, taking advantage of opportunities to advance environmental science and the informed management of our environment.

This article is a plea for a non-biblical approach to biblical texts, the so called “Rezeptionsästhetik” (aesthetics of reception). Important points of this approach are reading biblical texts as fictional (poetic) texts and the reader’s role in decoding the texts according to his “encyclopaedia”. Using aesthetics of reception in interpreting Bible texts can contribute to the better acceptance of different points of view on the same scripture passage and to more respect and understanding between the different religious traditions concerning biblical interpretation.

This article investigates the current state of the memory debate in biblical studies from a Roman-Catholic point of view. It differentiates four areas: hermeneutical questions about the memory approach and its relationship to history, methodological questions of how memory theory can be applied to reading biblical texts, special questions about the interpretation of particular biblical texts, and meta-reflexive questions about the impact of cultural studies. It argues for a step towards a kulturwissenschaftliche Exegese, in order to embrace social memory theory as a hermeneutics and methodology for reading biblical text on the microscopic (pericope), mesoscopic (book), and macroscopic (canon) level.

LITERARY AND RHETORICAL CRITICISM: A BRIEF HISTORY Since ancient times, interpreters have recognized the Bible's capacity as literature to delight, disturb, challenge, teach, move, or transform readers and hearers. The various methods under the broad umbrella of literary and rhetorical criticism seek to analyze in detail the cluster of words, literary forms, styles, tropes, and strategies embedded within biblical texts that work together to provoke such a wide range of reactions in audiences. Literary methods involve close readings of biblical texts with careful attention to their literary contours and textures. The questions that arise in literary approaches range widely from detailed attention to the meaning of individual words and sentences to the significance and shape of successively larger literary contexts in which the given text is situated. What is the effect of the Bible's use of one word rather than another in a given text? In what way is the word order of a sentence significant for its meaning? What role does a specific metaphor or motif play within a biblical text? What is the overall plot of a biblical narrative, and how does a particular scene or episode fit within it? From whose perspective is the story told? How do allusions or echoes from other texts shape interpretation? How are characters developed and to what end? Should an interpreter fill the gaps in a story or leave them open?

Research into the early history of the vocalization of the Biblical text is a much neglected field; although there are some published studies dealing with the vocalization underlying the Septuagint and with the vocalization transmitted in the Samaritan reading of the Torah. Examinations of the compositions of the Rewritten Bible are required as it appears these compositions can illuminate the difficult field of Biblical vocalization on the one hand, while the study of the vocalization of the consonantal framework may shed light on the emergence of Rewritten Bible compositions on the other. The author makes use of the Book of Jubilees as a test-case for a reading-oriented perspective on the texts of the Rewritten Bible genre. Thus, compositions of the Rewritten Bible genre may help to reconstruct the development of reading Biblical texts in this early Second Temple period. Keywords: Biblical text; Biblical vocalization; rewritten Bible; second temple period; Septuagint

Using the concept of “social ecology” developed by Murray Bookchin as a starting point, this article explores the reception of this idea in Latin America before elaborating some key principles derived from this concept for a hermeneutical strategy to approach biblical texts. In particular, the article argues that Bookchin's understanding of the seriousness of the ecological crisis and of its causes, his views on the issues around exploitation, hierarchy and domination, gender and age oppression, and his criticism of the prevailing economic and political dimension could provide a hermeneutical framework that is relevant for an ecologically sound and justice‐centred reading of biblical texts.