Biblical Characters Research Articles

Church, State and an Operatic Outlaw: Jules Massenet'sHérodiade

AbstractWhen Jules Massenet began work onHérodiadein the late 1870s, he likely expected to see his work premiered at the Paris Opéra. But the coveted Parisian premiere was not to be. Based on a liberal reworking of the infamous tale of Herod, Salome and John the Baptist,Hérodiadeundoubtedly challenges traditional Catholic doctrine. Yet Massenet's opera was not as ‘secular’ as it may seem. I argue here that it draws instead on a Republican-friendly brand of Catholicism that encouraged individual religiosity as an anticlerical strategy. Herein, I argue, lay the reasons whyHérodiadewas outlawed. It was not so much the libretto's liberal transformations of biblical characters as what those transformations represented both to the Catholic Church and to the French state: in the end the representation of a simultaneously Republican and Catholic Christ presented a dangerous analogue to the country's strained political situation.

SEMANTICS OF EPONYMS IN MODERN ENGLISH AND UKRAINIAN LANGUAGES: LINGUOCULTURAL PERSPECTIVE


 
 
 
 The purpose of the current study is to analyze common and distinctive features in the culturally marked meaning of modern English and Ukrainian eponyms. Culturally loaded background knowledge of eponyms gives access to the motivation of the eponymous semantic context. The eponyms of contemporary English and Ukrainian languages reflect internationally, nationally, socially linked information relevant to the cultural background. Eponymous terms have proved to represent the significant linguocultural potential as they verbalize definite quality, character feature, way of living or historic events from common or specific heritage of English and Ukrainian cultures. Appealing to people whose names or derivatives transmit certain cultural associations English and Ukrainian eponyms store background motivating information about real people, Biblical characters, gods in Greek and Roman mythology, literary and movie personages, toys etc.
 
 
 

MOUNTED SHOCK COMBAT WITH COUCHED LANCE IN 13TH CENTURY AS DEPICTED IN MINIATURES FROM PIERPONT MORGAN OLD TESTAMENT

У статті розглядається зображення взірцевого рицарського тактичного прийому – таранного бою кушованим списом у одній з найвідоміших візуальних пам’яток рицарської культури середини ХІІІ ст. – манускрипті № MS M.638, відомого як Старий Заповіт Моргана або Біблія Мацейовського, що перебуває зараз на збереженні в бібліотеці Пірпонта Моргана в Нью Йорку. Іконографічна програма пам’ятки містить розбудовану візуальну нарацію біблійних битв, де персонажі Старого Завіту представлені як середньовічні рицарі, екіпіровані та озброєні відповідно технологічного рівня та воєнної моди що панували на Середньовічному Заході в середині ХІІІ ст. В даній роботі проаналізовано кількість, способи та вірогідність зображення таранного бою на рукописних мініатюрах манускрипту MS M.638. Автор приходить до таких висновків. З 32 двох батальних сюжетів манускрипту лише 8 містять зображення таранного бою, що підтверджує ексклюзивність прийому. Всі 8 мініатюр подають зображення індивідуальної, а не колективної таранної атаку що підтверджує висновок Джона Френса про ефективність цього прийому передусім персональних зіткненнях. Програма візуальної нарації мініатюр до дрібних деталей співпадає з батальними повідомленнями текстових нараційних джерел ХІІІ ст. написаних народними мовами і цитованих вище. Таким чином проблема вірогідності Заповіту Моргана як історичного джерела до мілітарних реконструкцій є тісно пов’язаною з вірогідністю усього корпусу таких текстових джерел і не може розглядатися сепаратно. Автентичність цитованих вище текстів, компетентність їх авторів та адресатів у військовій справі не підлягає сумніву, а отже і за мініатюрами Біблії Моргана можна визнати представлення таранного бою адекватне мілітарним реаліям на Середньовічному Заході в ХІІІ ст.

ЛИК МАРИЈЕ МАГДАЛЕНЕ У СПЕВУ ИГЊАТА ЂУРЂЕВИЋА

Марија Магдалена је на културолошком плану један од најпознатијих библијских ликова. Недостатак чињеница о њеном животу омогућио је различите интерпретације њеног значаја и функције у јеванђеоским причама. Једно тумачење лика Марије Магдалене понудио је и Игњат Ђурђевић ускладивши га са временом у ком је живео и са потребама друштва које је настојао да поучи. У раду ћемо покушати да упоредимо представу Мандалијене покорнице са новозаветном и апокрифном представом ове личности.

The Ghost of Windrush Past: Intertextuality in Sam Selvon’s The Lonely Londoners (1956)

The relationships between the literary texts have recently occupied the center of debate and discovery in the literary sphere. With a so ancient a practice as intertextuality; influence, allusion and quotation seem to smolder the old assumptions about originality and creativity. Therefore, this paper attempts to explore the utilization of intertextuality in the novel entitled The Lonely Londoners (1956) by the Trinidadian postcolonial writer Sam Selvon (1923-1994). To do so, a survey on the provenance of intertextuality is displayed, with reference to its pioneers who claimed that the text is a heterogeneous combination of texts, namely Kristeva and Bakhtin. Additionally, the article introduces several models of the concept that are relevant to the analysis of the aforementioned novel along with a brief overview on the cultural and social parameters leading to its creation. This inquiry shows that The Lonely Londoners textually intertwines with a few works of the literary canon, biblical characters and eminent legal cases via some names of its characters, in addition to other direct quotations. As this paper submits, the audience should reach a rational stance on the use of intertextuality in the postcolonial novel to relate to universally shared images about racial prejudice and alienation.

ANTROPONYMIKON IN THE POETRY OF YE. MALANYUK’S: SEMANTIC AND STYLISTIC ASPECTS

Functional and stylistic peculiarities of the anthroponyms of Ye. Malaniuk’s poetry are investigated, their role in expressing the basic idea, in particular the specificity of anthroponyms usage in Ye. Malaniuk’s poetry is described, their contextual and functional text-forming essence is established, and functional and stylistic features are revealed, the situations of application of models against the background of the era and genre are analyzed. The influence of onims on the perception of images by the reader is investigated, the peculiarities of the poet's idiolect through the prism of proper names are determined. The use of anthroponyms has been found to create associative connections that extend the space of poetry, help the writer to express himself more fully and to connect with the reader. The anthroponymic material describes individual author’s features of name creation and use, describing their role in expressing the main idea. Anthroponyms, which are constituent elements of artistic text, represent the specificity of a work of verbal art as a system. Ye. Malaniuk’s works are a valuable treasure of Ukrainian culture in which onims are its integral parts. It is revealed that anthroponyms form and represent in a complex their own onim space in literary and artistic work and in all creative achievements of the artist. The state historiophysical concept defined the organization of Ye. Malaniuk’s texts at all studied levels. The anthroponymicon used by the writer is organized into the following thematic groups: artists, historical figures, mythological and biblical characters, literary characters, contemporaries, and the author's anthroponyms. The studied units represent significant national and cultural components and at the same time fulfil an artistic and evaluative function in the vast majority of its texts. Literary anthroponyms, along with other means, generate intellectualism as one of the specific feature of individual author’s handwriting. A systematic analysis of onim Ye. Malanyuk’s poetics and understanding of the language as an integral science is a contribution to extensive works on the literary onomastics.

СТИЛІСТИЧНА МЕТАФОРА-ПАРЕМІЯ В УКРАЇНСЬКІЙ МОВ

Introduction . The syntactics of proverbs implies their connection with other signs in the speech stream. Proverbs as signs that are reproduced in a stable form and transmitted from generation to generation form their separate, but their final meaning can only be established on the basis of implementation in the context. The phraseological stock of a language refers to the part of the lexicon that reflects lingvo-cultural peculiarities of the native speakers, and it is a mirror in which the nation finds its national identity and worldview. So proverbs and sayings are the source that can be studied in terms of lingvo-cultural information. Purpose. The purpose of the article is to analyze in the complex the metaphor- proverb as one of the main structural-semantic stylistic figures. Methods. The method of linguistic-stylistic analysis is used - to detect and characterize proverbs as figurative means, stylistic figures. The method of linguistic description and observation was used to systematize and classify the material of investigation; the analysis of dictionary definitions was used to describe the semantics of linguistic units. Results . We believe that a metaphor proverb units primarily reflects the typical situation established in the Ukrainian consciousness, formed on the basis of experience, as their foundation is shaped motivation clear to all members of the linguistic community. The symbolism of fauna names becomes the key factor to the determination of the metaphoric meaning of a number of proverb units. National-cultural elements of the semantics of a proverb may be expressed through images of reinterpretation, metaphorization, semantic shift of a fauna lexeme. Originality. The functional-semantic and genre-style features of the investigated group of phraseological units are outlined. Proverbs well-established ones often create a special emotional tone of the fragments of the novel, they act as bright linguistic identifiers of the psychological image. Words-images as key units of paremic complexes reflect the conception of the world inherent to a people, national coloring connected with humor, irony, sometimes grotesque. The imagery of proverbs is achieved by expressive means. Images in Ukrainian proverbs are created by the names of money, biblical characters, religious phenomena and concepts, food, people’s professions, work, precious materials, time, human body parts, family, animals and travelling. Proverbs imagery conveys information through verbal images created by special figures of speech (tropes) - metaphor, metonymy. Stylistic devices of different levels are used to intensify the images: phonetic (alliteration, assonance, rhyme), morphological (using the invariant meaning of objectivity), lexical (archaic and popular language forms, poetic words) as well as syntactic (parallelism). Conclusion. First of all metaphor-paramia pragmatically marks the author's attitude towards the depicted, contributes to the saving of linguistic means, emotionally enriches the text, aesthetically influences the reader. It is a productive stylistic figure that encodes deep meaning, activates it, promotes compression, expressiveness of text material.

A Treasury of Faith: Lectionary Hymn Texts Old Testament Series A, B, and C by Gracia Grindal

Reviewed by: A Treasury of Faith: Lectionary Hymn Texts Old Testament Series A, B, and C by Gracia Grindal David L. Mennicke A Treasury of Faith: Lectionary Hymn Texts Old Testament Series A, B, and C. By Gracia Grindal. Colfax, NC: Wayne Leupold Editions, Inc., 2012. 293 pp. This volume is part of a series of hymn texts that Grindal, Professor Emerita of Rhetoric at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, has written for all pericopes of the Revised Common Lectionary (RCL). This 2012 edition provides hymn commentaries on the Old Testament Lessons for the three-year RCL. It lives up to its title: a treasure for both worship planning and personal devotions. The hymns are winsome and well-crafted. Grindal is adept at mining theological insights out of the appointed biblical text and then sharing those insights in language that is fresh and applicable to the current world. At times she nearly quotes the Old Testament lesson. For example, “The Evening’s Dying Embers” (10–11), references Ecclesiastes 3: “For everything a season,/for everything an end,/for everything a reason,/I do not understand.” Other hymns [End Page 474] make direct connections to modern life, such as “All Who Are Homeless on a Wintry Night” (16). Grindal is superb at connecting the Old Testament reading to its Gospel pairing, particularly in communicating the centrality of Christ’s redemptive salvation. One example is “The Fruit of Knowledge Waited Eve,” (26) which describes the Fall of Adam and Eve in the first two stanzas, then concludes with a Christological narrative: Out in the barren wildernessour Savior faced the tempter’s test.He wept within Gethsemaneand died upon a cruel tree.This knowledge is too much for us:to see him hanging on the cross,to heal the rift we caused by sin,and bring us back to life again. Grindal excels at hymns that outline the story of specific biblical characters. She brings the narratives to life, for example: the Tower of Babel in “We Dreamed of Reaching Heaven (215); Jacob in “I Wakened in the Darkness” (248); Ruth in “The Yellow Fields of Food” (161); Namaan in “Brave Namaan Was an Army Man” (101); Elijah/Elisha in “A Bright Golden Chariot and Voices of Fire” (105); Job in “When Darkness Falls and Covers Everything” (253); Jonah in “As Jonah in the Whale” (65) and “When Jonah Heard the Lord Was Calling” (98); Mary and Elizabeth in “Somewhere I Hear the Church Bells Ringing” (219); Saul/Paul in “The Light, the Water, and the Word” (123); and Paul and Silas in “We Plant the Seeds in Springtime” (213). Nearly all the hymns include a suggestion for a hymn tune. Some, however, were written with no tune in mind and need a newly composed melody. Grindal purposely pursued that method in some hymns, saying in her preface, “I have found over the years with this project that traditional meters produce traditional texts. Breaking the mold on occasion freshens up my rhetoric and poetry” (viii). Occasionally in the non-festival parts of the church year, the hymn text connection to the assigned Old Testament reading is weak or [End Page 475] non-existent, but this is a minor issue. An overwhelming number of texts have a direct or close relation to the associated lectionary for the day. The book ends with an excellent set of indices, including Topical, Biblical Source, Metrical, and First Line which make it a valuable tool for worship planning. On their own, the delight and depth of the poetry provide the individual reader with a rich source for devotional study. Combined with her other hymn text series on the Gospels and Epistles, Grindal has given the church a wonderful gift to use and enjoy for years to come. David L. Mennicke Concordia University Saint Paul, Minnesota Copyright © 2019 Johns Hopkins University Press and Lutheran Quarterly, Inc

Bible and Bedlam: Madness, Sanism, and New Testament Interpretation by Louise Joy Lawrence

Reviewed by: Bible and Bedlam: Madness, Sanism, and New Testament Interpretation by Louise Joy Lawrence Henry Ansgar Kelly louise joy lawrence, Bible and Bedlam: Madness, Sanism, and New Testament Interpretation (LNTS 594; London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2018). Pp. vii + 188. £85. A clear purpose of this book is to introduce biblical scholars to "Mad Studies," and to alert them to the dangers, in themselves and others, of "sanism," defined as prejudice against persons who are judged to be mentally ill. Sanist attitudes routinely fail to appreciate positive qualities in non-normal persons. Lawrence maintains that mental as opposed to physical problems have been neglected even in the field of disability studies. In chap. 1, "Ivory Towers and the Banishment of Bedlam: Reason, Right Minds, and Sane Privilege in Biblical Studies," L. seeks to expose sanist attitudes "within the identity and discourse of Western biblical scholarship" (p. 15), showing the use of damaging psychiatric stereotypes against scholars or biblical characters viewed negatively. The chief example is a recent (2007) critique by a nonbiblical scholar of Morton Smith's Secret Gospel: The Discovery and Interpretation of the Secret Gospel according to Mark (New York: Harper & Row, 1973), in which the author psychologizes Smith. In chap. 2, "The Curious Incident of a Jew in the Night-time: Autistry and an Encounter with Nicodemus," L. concentrates on analyses of Nicodemus's approach to Jesus by night and his literalist question about reentering the womb, which "could at least in part have fed (albeit largely unintentionally) into wider cultural 'diagnoses' of this character as autistic in various popular cultural forums and church resources" (p. 51). In chap. 3, "'Ex-centric' Women: Intersecting Marginalities and the Madness Narratives of Bessie Head, a Canaanite Woman, and Pythian Slave Girl," L. correlates the main character in a semi-autobiographical African novel with the "sanist psychopathological labeling" of the Syro-Phoenician woman of Matt 15:21-28 as a "hysterical woman of Canaan" (recorded only once in a 2015 article, but said to be frequently cited [p. 83]). Also considered is the girl with the Pythonic spirit (therefore identified as "Pythian" here) of Acts 16:16-19. L. says that she is frequently called "the demented slave girl," but gives only one citation (p. 87). In chap. 4, "Gatekeeping the Madness of Jesus and Paul: Negotiating Mythologies of Madness in an Age of Neoliberalism," L. deals with the ideological selectivity of details (that is, acting like a typical "gatekeeper" in, say, managing press releases) in either denying or asserting madness in Jesus and Paul. L. agrees that Albert Schweitzer (The Psychiatric Study of Jesus [German original, 1913]) "effectively halted the use of psy-discourses in relation to Jesus's identity" for the better part of a century (p. 104), but she adduces recent presentations of Jesus as "fatherless" that diagnose him not as mad but rather as "a 'normate' [End Page 546] neoliberal subject with regard to his mental disposition" (p. 108). L. also covers psychological studies of Paul, some of which might seem to be non-sanist, aligned with "the mad genius type/creativity mystique increasingly being featured within leadership studies" (p. 128). But L. cites warnings against psychologizing mere rhetoric, or treating the collective authorship of the Pauline epistles as the product of one mind (p. 128). In chap. 5, "Madness, the Affect Alien, and the Gospel of Mark: Critically Probing a Happiness Turn in Biblical Studies," first discusses recent general emphases on happiness as the goal of human life, appropriately associated with Martin Seligman and "positive psychology," a new science of human strengths detailed in an article published in the year 2000 (p. 134). Those "who do not follow the culturally affective script of happiness" are considered deviant; for instance, "the feminist killjoy," the "unhappy queer," the "melancholy migrant," are termed collectively "mad affect aliens." These concepts are first considered in connection with unschooled spontaneous responses to the Gospels, including those of an anti-psychiatric group organized by L. herself ("Hearing Voices Network"). She then treats the Gospel of Mark itself briefly as, equivalently, an affect alien (pp. 145-59). This book does not live up to its implicit charge that biblical scholarship is widely...

A Bayesian Blessing: A Biblical Decision Explained by Game Theory

This paper revisits one of the most debated tales from the Old Testament, Jacob’s deception of his father Isaac, and models it in the framework of a Bayesian game. Solving for the equilibrium that occurs in the Torah reveals what conditions must hold for biblical characters to be willing to make the decisions that they make. The paper also examines how the protagonists’ decisions would have changed if they had held different values. The analysis sheds light on which interpretations of the biblical story hold the most weight when its characters maintain consistent beliefs and act upon them in a sequentially rational manner.

THE THEOLOGY OF THE CANONS OF DORT: A REASSESSMENT AFTER FOUR HUNDRED YEARS

This article reassesses the value of the Canons of Dort, drafted at the Synod of Dort (1618–19). A picture with diverse shades emerges. After four hundred years, the Canons of Dort stand out when compared to the Remonstrant position for their pastoral tone, Reformed catholicity, emphasis on the efficacity of divine grace, an infralapsarian stance on the decrees of God, and their biblical character. In retrospect, however, the Canons also show theological limitations such as allowing the dominance of the Arminian agenda, the potentially problematic nature of complex, causal logic, the deficiency of certain important biblical notions, and a deficiency as to the centrality of Christ. Christ as the mirror of election in particular deserves a more central place in the doctrine of election.

Literature and Reading

This article examines anthropological approaches to fiction reading. It asks why the field of literary anthropology remains largely disinvested of ethnographic work on literary cultures and how that field might approach the study of literature and reading ethnographically. The issue of the creative agency of fiction readers is explored in the context of what it means to ask anthropological questions of literature, which includes the challenge of speaking back to dominant approaches grounded in forms of critical analysis. Finally, the article looks to recent work in the anthropology of Christianity on Bible reading and engagements with biblical characters to open up new questions about the relationship between fiction reading and temporal regimes.

Contemporary Insights from Biblical Combat Veterans through the Lenses of Moral Injury and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

This psychological exegesis reconsiders biblical characters through recent theories on moral injury and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The purposes of this article are to shed new light on these characters and to engage in conversations of what the findings may mean for pastoral care and their connections to theology. The findings include the proposal of four categorical types of combat veterans that illustrate the development of PTSD, resilience, moral injury, and unfaltering abidance to the warrior ethics.

O kafkiano elogio de Abraão

Neste artigo abordamos uma carta de Franz Kafka escrita em 1921, na qual ele apresenta a seu amigo Robert Klopstock sua interpretação do personagem bíblico Abraão. Nosso objetivo é ressaltar o humor presente nessa interpretação kafkiana como uma das marcas pouco analisadas no judeu de Praga. Para tanto apresentaremos primeiramente o Elogio de Abraão proposto por Kierkegaard em seu Temor e Tremor, afim de observar a possível influência do filósofo dinamarquês sobre as conclusões propostas pelo próprio Kafka. Na sequência serão apresentadas as três principais figuras criadas por Kafka, a do Abraão incapaz de realizar sua função, mas que permanece sempre em prontidão; a do Abraão trapaceiro, que não termina suas funções na casa para não ter que realizar o que Deus lhe pede; e a do Abraão inseguro, que ouve o chamado, mas que não acredita que este lhe diga respeito. Ressaltamos nas três figuras kafkianas a intenção primordial dele em produzir uma outra forma de elogio, uma que se adequa melhor à sua sensibilidade permeada pelo humor judaico, que aquela da serenidade cristã proposta por Kierkegaard.

Jonasz jako świadek diaspory asyryjskiej

The exegetes have not been successful so far in determining the precise date of the creation of the Book of Jonah. The arguments presented in this academic debate are pure speculations and still arise many doubts. However, the problem of the date is crucial as without establishing the time from which the text comes it is not possible to interpret it correctly. Relying on the current research on the Book of Jonah it is difficult to answer positively the question whether Jonah was linked with Nineveh and with enslaved Israelites living in Assyria. As the current research on the date of the creation of the Book of Jonah has failed, it is necessary to look at the text from a different perspective. The analyses should concentrate on the reality described in the Book of Jonah which must be confronted with the historical data of biblical Israel and antiquity as such. Such an approach to the text allows us to draw a conclusion that the events described in the narrative best reflect the events from the Persian epoch and, to be more precise, from the time of religious reforms by the biblical characters, such as Nehemiah and Ezra. Against the background of these events the main themes from the Book of Jonah are best visible, for example the discussion on the role of pagans in the new community of Israel created after the Babylonian captivity and the timeliness of the idea of salvific universalism which is also present in other texts created after the exile.

ФУНКЦІОНУВАННЯ АЛЮЗІЙНИХ ІМЕН В ХУДОЖНЬОМУ ТЕКСТІ

This paper is devoted to the study of specifics of allusive names functioning in literary discourse. They are considered within the framework of metaphoric antonomasia and are treated as cases of allusion actualization in literary discourse. Allusive names are subdivided into names of real persons and names of literary, biblical characters. They are analyzed as means of secondary nomination of the addressee. This process takes place on the basis of common semantic feature of subjects of primary and secondary nomination. The semantic feature that is in the focus of metaphoric antonomasia may take both central and peripheral place in the semantic structure of original name. The given names are also distinguished according to the familiarity of their denotata to the readers. Many names have become symbols of certain human qualities. The denotata of such names are models of a certain kind, i.e. they impersonate the highest degree of some quality. In their figurative use the weakening in quality intensity is observed for the occasional referent. Besides symbolic names, allusive names based on secondary occasional nomination are studied. The choice of certain common semantic features and neutralization of different oppositions add expressivity to such names. The role of context during the actualization of such names is established, and examples of acquiring by them positive or negative connotations are discussed. Types of motivation of secondary nominations usage as address forms are revealed and characterized in this paper: objective, subjective and speech ones. Besides that, variants of explication of motivation for the choice of this or that semantic feature for renaming are defined. They include direct speech or remarks of the characters (both the speaker and addressee), author’s text or remarks.

Treća životna dob kao subjekt pastoralnoga djelovanja – mogućnosti i perspektive

Given that the population in Europe and Croatia is increasingly getting older, and the pastoral work of people in the third age is a relatively new term, the article firstly analyzes the question why people of this age group are partially put (left) aside by pastoralists and pastoral workers in pastoral discourse in Croatia. The nature and characteristics of the third age in life presented in the first part show that the third age pastoral care includes the pastoral work with the most mature middle-aged people struggling with many life difficulties and stresses: separation from their children, the need for making personal and lifestyle adjustments, especially after retirement, after children moving out or after the loss of a life partner, as well as experiencing fast and progressive weakening of biological, psychological and mental health dimensions, a drop in life energy, strength, and general decline in vital and all other functions. Old age as a gift and possibility is depicted through several biblical characters as an evangelizing and pastoral possibility, opportunity and call to a God filled and more meaningful life. The second part presents the third age in the world and in the mentality of the society and the Church. By looking at the contemporary life context, we can state that words like old age, dying and death have become foreign in everyday discourse and that is just one of the many reasons why the third age people are often left to the side, and forsaken by their own families, society, friends and relatives, and partially forgotten also by the Church. In the world of the dictatorship of relativism, materialism, secularization, anarchism, atheism, subjectivism, individualism, and the selfie-culture, it is extremely difficult and demanding to accomplish the pastoral of the third age people. The Church, especially in Croatia, doesn't have a sufficiently designed, thought out, planned out and programmed systematic pastoral care which would include third age people. The new concept of pastoral discourse regarding the pastoral of the third age should develop in two basic directions: the first direction should consider to what extent can the third age be a subject of pastoral activity, and the second direction, based on pastoral sociology and demographic trends, should strive to recognize the third age as an object of pastoral activity. Besides the object, the third age can also be the subject of pastoral activity at different levels, areas and dimensions, especially at the parish level, the deanery level in some ways, at the regional level and (arch)diocesan level, in areas of apostolate, parish pastoral councils, charitable activities, liturgy, families, religious associations and movements, and work with Christians that have distanced themselves.

Historical Books

Historical Books Rhiannon Graybill and Christopher T. Begg 2062. [Judges 16] Caroline Blyth, Reimagining Delilah’s Afterlives as Femme Fatale: The Lost Seduction (LHB/OTS 652; London/Oxford/New York/New Delhi/Sydney: Bloomsbury, 2017). Pp. x + 198. $114. ISBN 978-0-567-6-7312-1. B. offers a comprehensive exploration of Delilah vis-à-vis the figure of the femme fatale. First, B. introduces the femme fatale as a cultural trope and traces iterations in art, literature, and film in the nineteenth century Fin de Siècle, the hardboiled noir of the 1920s–1950s, and late twentieth century neo-noir. Next, B. provides an overview of biblical scholarship on Delilah, with particular emphasis on sex and death, as well as the story’s “gaps” that interpreters fill. Her account of the scholarly “afterlives” of the biblical character is followed by a study of her cultural “afterlives” in art, film, and literature. B. also explores in detail the relationship between Samson and Delilah and two modern femme fatale stories: Raymond Chandler’s novel Farewell my Lovely (1940) and an episode from the BBC series Sherlock entitled “A Scandal in Belgravia” (2012).—R.G. [End Page 721] 2063. [Ruth] Stephanie Day Powell, Narrative Desire and the Book of Ruth (LHBOTS 662; London/Oxford/New York/New Delhi/Sydney: Bloomsbury, 2018). Pp. xii + 201 + illus. $118, £85. ISBN 978-0-5676-7875-1. P. presents a reading of the Book of Ruth that explores the workings of “narrative desire” (a phrase used by her to describe the desire of both readers and writers. She focuses in particular on “woman-identified” desire, a category roughly akin to “lesbian.” After introducing theoretical work on narrative desire drawn from psychoanalysis, literary criticism, and feminist criticism, P. offers a close reading of the Ruth story that draws out its many productive ambiguities. She then reads the biblical story with and against three modern works with lesbian themes: Fannie Flagg’s novel Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Cafe (and the film version, Fried Green Tomatoes), Jeanette Winterson’s novel Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, and Amos Gitaï’s film Golem, The Spirit of Exile. Deryn Guest’s work on lesbian biblical hermeneutics (e.g., When Deborah Met Jael: Lesbian Biblical Hermeneutics [London: SCM, 2005]) is also a major influence.—R.G. 2064. [2 Samuel 22] Magdalena Lass, … zum Kampf mit Kraft umgürtet: Untersuchungen zu 2 Sam 22 unter gewalthermeneutischen Perspektiven (BBB 185; Göttingen: V & R Unipress/Bonn University Press, 2018). Pp. 410. €55. ISBN 978-3-8471-0816-0. This monograph on 2 Samuel 22 originated as L.’s 2015 dissertation at the “Private University” in Linz, Austria (Susanne Gillmayr-Bucher, director). The text that is its focus, a celebratory poem attributed to David that has a largely verbatim parallel in Psalm 18, features divine and human violence to a disturbingly marked degree. Accordingly, L. concentrates on this aspect of the passage in her treatment of this. In so doing, she devotes three initial chapters to a consideration, respectively, of violence in the Bible overall, the range of hermeneutical strategies for dealing with this phenomenon, and perspectives on violence in the social sciences. On this basis, she then turns to the textual analysis of 2 Samuel 22 itself, here paying particular attention to how it represents, in its terminology and thematic unfolding, the violence of both the divine and human protagonists as this is brought to bear on their common “enemies.” A brief summation of L.’s findings and reflections on these concludes the work. Overall, L. advocates a differentiated approach to a text like 2 Samuel 22 in which the passage is not simply excluded from the prayer life of the church and of individual Christians, but is rather allowed to function as a source of reflection on our image of God and the reality of violence around and inside all of us, even as it needs to be clearly recognized that the violence literarily portrayed in the text is not meant for “real world” emulation/imitation by any of its hearers or readers.—C.T.B. 2065. [1 Kings 16–2 Kings 10] Paulo...

Christian Scriptural Perspectives on Refugees

Christian Scriptural Perspectives on Refugees Peter A. Pettit This exploration must begin with the recollection that my childhood was shaped in part by the very real presence of immigrants—economic refugees. In the late 1950s, my grandparents stepped up as members of a Lutheran congregation that wanted to sponsor a Lutheran refugee family from Germany. A specific family was needed to be the sponsors, and my grandparents volunteered to be that family. Was it because my maternal great‐grandfather had come to America in the late nineteenth century, saying—as my grandmother once told me—“he wouldn't fight in the Kaiser's stupid wars?” I never thought to ask about their motivation. At some point in my preschool years, though, we welcomed a German war veteran and his wife into our extended family. The veteran had been captured on both the Eastern and Western fronts and had spent time in Soviet and American POW camps. Struggling in the difficult post‐war German economy, he and his wife as a young couple chose to seek their future in the United States. Very soon they had a child, adding one more to our extended family. The veteran is now retired from a distinguished career as a professor of German language and culture at a number of colleges up and down the East Coast; his wife died some years ago. But at my grandparents’ dining room table, at Thanksgiving or just on a random Sunday afternoon, they were very much like cousins to us. The idea of kindness and support for the alien first came to me not only as mother's milk in my family; it came also as gospel truth from our church. Grounding that truth in scripture can take a number of different turns. My research has taken me into the literature of the refugee advocacy community and the official documents of the Protestant and Roman Catholic churches as well as my own searching of Christian scripture for relevant themes. There is not a lot of variation among the denominations or the advocacy groups; many of the same materials turn up time and time again. With regard to scriptural sources that address our relationship with refugees, I would suggest that three broad clusters can be identified. These are distinguished from one another by the character of each of the three parties involved in a divinely guided encounter between oneself and a refugee: Our relationship with refugees can be grounded in who we are; it can be grounded in who the other is; and it can be grounded in who God is. Beyond the question of the direct encounter with refugees, we also can explore the scriptural sources relating to the conditions which drive refugees from their homes and create the conditions that they face. We will begin with the direct encounter and its three points of grounding. Encountering refugees on the basis of our identity The first cluster of sources speaks to our character as people of God and the way in which it defines our relationship to those who have been dislocated from their homes. Within this first cluster, we can further discern three sets of sources that characterize the people of God in somewhat different dimensions. For some, we are a people descended from refugees. The International Association for Refugees has compiled a list of nearly thirty biblical characters, plus the collective people Israel, who are in some sense refugees. Many of these come easily to mind from familiar biblical stories, even if the label “refugee” is not one we might choose first to identify the characters: Adam and Eve, Cain, Jacob and his eleven sons, Naomi, and Ruth. Less obvious figures like David and Jeremiah are included. Within the New Testament, Philip and Peter and Aquila and Priscilla are all also identified as refugees at some point, fleeing persecution. Even if it seems a bit of a stretch to include Noah fleeing the flood or Jonah fleeing God's word or the midrashically driven account of the infant Jesus fleeing Herod, there is ample evidence that Christians can be considered, spiritually if not genetically, the descendants of people who needed refuge. A second dimension of this...

“When Noah built the ark…”

Abstract This article investigates the use of biblical stories and text in the preaching of Joshua Feuerstein, a popular Facebook evangelist, and focuses on how biblical stories are used to position the viewer in comparison to biblical characters and texts. Taking a discourse dynamics approach (Cameron & Maslen, 2010), a corpus of 8 short videos (17 minutes 34 seconds) and their comments (2,295) taken from the Facebook are analysed first, for the presence of metaphorical language and stories taken from the Bible. Second, they are analysed for the role of metaphor in the narrative positioning (Bamberg, 1997) of the viewer, particularly as it relates to Gibbs’s notion of ‘allegorises’, or the ‘allegoric impulse’ (Gibbs, 2011). The corresponding text comments from the videos are then also analysed for the presence of the same biblical metaphor, focusing on how commenters interact with the metaphor and Feuerstein’s positioning of them. Findings show that biblical metaphorical language is used to position viewers and their struggles in the context of larger storylines that compare everyday experiences to biblical texts. This comparison can happen both in explicit narrative positioning of viewers with explicit reference to the Bible, and implicit positioning, through the use of unmarked biblical language. Analysis of viewer comments shows that use of metaphorical language is successful in building a sense of camaraderie and shared belief among the viewer and Feuerstein, as well as viewers with one another.