Study Of Scripture Research Articles

Broadening Out the Study of Scripture in Latter day Saint Traditions

Broadening Out the Study of Scripture in Latter day Saint Traditions

ANTONY JOHN BAPTIST, THUS SPOKE THE BIBLE: BASICS OF BIBLICAL NARRATIVES

This book was originally published in 2016 and was well-received by the student community, with the initial copies now sold out. It emerged from the author’s four years of scriptural study in Rome, as well as his doctoral research in India on the Hagar episode in Genesis 16. The author now presents a revisedand expanded edition of this work.The author adopts a narratological approachto the Bible, with a particular focus on the Hagar episode in Genesis 16, aiming to create a new manual for students and readers interested in biblical storytelling. He demonstrates how narratology contributes to reading the Bible as Scripture for a community of believers. The author’s goal is to explore reader-response criticism more deeply and to establish a bridge between narratology and the Historical-Critical Method.Ratherthan delving into the differences of opinion among various scholars, the author’s purpose is to introduce and explain the concepts and tools related to narrative criticism, offering a coherent framework for understanding the method. He also seeks to consolidate the ideas of key figures in Narrative Criticism into one accessible volume, using simple terms, examples, and applications, particularly with regard to Genesis 16.

How Do Religious Women Cope with Marital Conflict and Hardship? Article 2

Frequent and unresolved conflict is a significant relationship risk factor for divorce, but it has also been shown that religion strengthens marriages, specifically in ways that give direction and motivation for couples in resolving marital conflict or other marital hardships. Thus, a study of how successful religious couples resolve conflict is pertinent in helping us better understand how to strengthen marriages and families. Our qualitative study of 113 highly religious women of diverse faiths and races found that women’s perceived relationship or connection with God reportedly impacted conflict resolution and coping with marital hardship. Results suggest greater reconciliation and unity with the women’s husbands through couple and relational processes, but more often through personal and psychological processes. We found that religious involvement led women to resources that strengthened their marriage. Resources discussed include (a) prayer, (b) scripture study, and (c) involvement in a faith community. This paper is the second in a two-part series.

How Do Religious Women Cope with Marital Conflict and Hardship?

Frequent conflict is a significant relationship risk factor for divorce, but it has also been shown that religion strengthens marriages, specifically in ways that give direction and motivation for couples in resolving marital conflict or other marital hardships. Thus, a study of how successful religious couples resolve conflict is pertinent in helping us better understand how to strengthen marriages and families. Our qualitative study of 113 highly religious women of diverse faiths and races found that women’s perceived relationship or connection with God reportedly impacted conflict resolution and coping with marital hardship. Results suggest greater reconciliation and unity with the women’s husbands through couple and relational processes, but more often through personal and psychological processes. The main themes that emerged are: (a) God is at the center of the marriage, and (b) God changed our character (internal manifestations) enabling us to be better prepared to navigate conflict and endure hardships in marriage. Part two of this paper will examine how external manifestations of a relationship with God (i.e., prayer, scripture study, and involvement in a faith community) further help women of faith cope with marital conflict and hardship.

Tafsīr and taʾwīl in Post-Classical Sufi Scholarship: The Study of Correspondences (taṭbīq) in Q. 10:90–92

Recent evidence from imperial archives suggests that in the sixteenth century, Ottoman religious scholars were interested in Sufi modes of engagement with scripture along with mainstream/conventional forms of exegesis. This juxtaposition raises questions about the connections between these two very different types of engagement with the divine Word. How might scholars at this time have thought about the relationship between Sufi forms of taʾwīl and mainstream forms of tafsīr? Were they complementary approaches to interpretation that were both necessary for a complete understanding of the divine Word, or conflicting approaches to the study of scripture, of which only one was able to legitimately discuss its meanings? In this article, I present evidence from one tradition of post-classical Sufi scholarship that shows how Sufi commentators worked to overcome old challenges to the legitimacy of taʾwīl, and to reconceptualise tafsīr and taʾwīl as complementary forms of exegesis, both of which were necessary for a complete understanding of the Qur'an. This trajectory is marked out by the Ta⁠ʾwīlāt al-Najmiyya of Najm al-Dīn Kubrā (d. 618/1221) and Najm al-Dīn Dāya Rāzī (d. 654/1256), the Ta⁠ʾwīlāt al-Qurʾān of ʿAbd al-Razzāq al-Kāshānī (d. 730–736/1329–1335) and the Muḥīṭ al-aʿẓam of Sayyid Ḥaydar Āmulī (d. after 787/1385), which constitute a ‘genealogical tradition’ of post-classical Sufi scholarship. I further illustrate how this tradition imagined the complementarity between tafsīr and taʾwīl through a close reading of one Qur'anic episode – the crossing of the sea by Moses and the Israelites and the drowning of Pharaoh and his hosts (Q. 10:90–92) – from tafsīr to taʾwīl. I show specifically that the commentary on this episode instantiates a powerful methodology systematised within this tradition of Sufi scholarship, namely the ‘redirection’ of the findings of tafsīr toward the ‘elaboration of correspondences’ ( taṭbīq), a methodology that preserved the literal sense of scripture as a first foundation, while allowing new meanings to emerge from it.

Deciphering Words on Clothing in Al-Ṣaḥīḥayn for Answering Misconception on Forbidden Colours for Men in “Clothing and Colours in Early Islam” by Hadas Hirsch

The discourse regarding clothing in Islam regularly emphasizes on divine dress code differentiates between the permissible and the forbidden, as enshrined in Islamic scripture. Possibly, a misconception could prevail within attempts by outsiders of the fraternity of scripture studies. For instance, there is a claim in an English paper “Clothing and Colours in Early Islam: Adornment (Aesthetics), Symbolism and Differentiation” by Hadas Hirsch states that Muslim men are forbidden from wearing yellow, red and colourful clothes. To answer the misconception, this study focuses on hadiths in the chapters on clothing in al-Ṣaḥīḥayn. This study employs a qualitative methodology through content analysis on the paper and contextual analysis on the culled chapters. Ultimately, this study identifies the argument presented by Hirsch and then finds narrations on the mentioned colours for men in the culled chapters. Based on the narrations, these colours are allowed for men since they are not performing pilgrimage ritual and their red dress are not of safflower-based dye. Indeed, the false claim lies in dependence on insufficient texts besides the hindrance in construing archaic words in text of hadith. Hereby, this study stresses on the conveying of teaching from hadith into other languages, especially English should be made by its scholarly fraternity in hadith which can reveal sufficient array of narrations for each topic. In addition, the text which has its Arabic language root back to over fourteen centuries is understandable in the hands of scholars in the field of hadith and Islamic scripture.

The Making of a Monk: The Training of Śrāmaṇera (Novice Monks) in Dunhuang with a Focus on Scriptural Study

Monastic life begins with the ordination of novice monks, who start their formal training at this stage. The education of a novice involves both general cultural studies and specialized Buddhist training. However, the focus during the novice stage is predominantly on Buddhist education, which encompasses learning monastic discipline and studying Buddhist scriptures. The Dunhuang manuscripts offer a wealth of information, providing valuable insights into the training and education of novice monks in Dunhuang during the periods of Tibetan Occupation (787–848) and Guiyi Army (851–1036).

Augustine, the Disciplines, and Varro’s Disciplinarum libri

In this article, I challenge Shanzer’s treatment of the relationship between Varro’s Disciplinarum libri and Augustine’s early disciplinary project, in which she argued that «squeamishness» with the personifications that supposedly characterized Varro’s disc. caused Augustine to abandon the disciplines. I consequently outline a more plausible view of the development of Augustine’s thought. He did not abandon the disciplines or become «hostile» to them in his later career, as Shanzer and others have concluded. Instead, he reoriented them towards the study of Scripture, while maintaining the importance of a truly liberal education in pursuit of the knowledge of God.

FAITH AND HEALTH: THE INTRICATE INTERPLAY OF MARITAL QUALITY, RELIGIOSITY, AND DIABETES

Abstract Although chronic illness in later life can negatively affect marital quality and life satisfaction through increased stress and burden, religiosity and spirituality are known robust protective factors in relational and psychological outcomes. Stress theory suggests that religious behaviors can help moderate this negative relationship by providing patients with a sense of meaning in illness, external social support, and healthy coping mechanisms. Using data from the Life and Family Legacies Study, we analyzed cross-sectional data from 1,210 married participants around age 70 in 2016. Using an OLS linear regression model, we found main effects which showed that type 2 diabetes among older adults was predictive of lower positive marital quality and lower life satisfaction. When religious behaviors were included in the model as a moderator, religious behaviors interacted significantly with diabetes such that individuals with type 2 diabetes who reported high religiosity had high positive marital quality, while those with low religiosity reported significantly lower positive marital quality. Findings suggest that when persons with type 2 diabetes participate regularly in church services, prayer, and scripture study they experience more positive marital quality. This indicates that religiosity may be a significant protective factor and coping tool for marital quality when chronic illness is present.

Revisiting scriptures: Unbinding a critical comparative subfield

Abstract“Scriptures” is a term provoking no shortage of anxiety for postmodern scholars. This literature review introduces theorists to a subfield committed to theorizing about that term in critical and comparative terms. Revisiting the contributions of classic and contemporary scholars, readers will learn how the analytical study of scriptures is being unbound from the baggage of the term's Christian provenance while also keeping its history, politics, and mediation in the fore.

Navigating Faith and Science

Navigating Faith and Science

Gender of Purple Manuscripts and the Makeup of Sacred Scriptures

In his letters to Roman aristocratic women about the proper use of scripture, Jerome dismissed purple makeup and any adornment of books with luxurious materials as wasteful distraction from the content of the text. He contrasts makeup and precious clothing with the textual correctness of his scholarly emended manuscripts and with corporal mortification and ascetic practices. Jerome’s dismissal of the materiality and sensuality of books goes hand in hand with a binary gender model that associates the philological work upon the text and the renunciation of its adornment with male scholarship. In order for women to become equal to men through the study of scripture, Jerome extols the performance of a textual asceticism that suppresses the makeup of books and of female bodies alike. His makeup criticism is part of a larger discourse that expresses a persistent fear of a sensual engagement with the materiality of scripture in binary gender stereotypes. A close reading of the purple metaphors employed by Jerome reveals their roots in the rhetorical appraisal of eloquence and poetic language precisely through the materiality of the text.

‘Precept upon precept’: biblical commonplacing in Lucy Hutchinson’s Memoirs

ABSTRACT In the account of her husband, John’s, final days, Lucy Hutchinson depicts him as a Mosaic figure, dedicated to biblical reading and shown the ‘patterne of [God’s] glorious tabernacle’. This article explores Hutchinson’s record of John’s scriptural study: her list of over seven hundred proofs taken from his Bible and noted in the back of the Memoirs manuscript. Offering the first full study of these notes and their relationship to the biographical account of John’s life, I argue for the importance of understanding them as an intrinsic part of the Memoirs project. Furthermore, this article explores how the curation of these notes has transformed them from an inert list of commonplaces – a straightforward record of John’s scriptural reading – into doctrinal ‘precepts’ designed to preserve the Hutchinson family’s theological independence and codify ecclesiastical practices which resist the authority of the Church of England.

鄭玄 『箋』의 禮論 小考

This thesis, through the study of Zheng Xuan's 『Jian』, was ultimately compared with the interpretation of hair poetry in order to trace the way of thinking of scholars of the Han Dynasty reflected in it. Since Zheng Xuan was well versed in rites, he inevitably quoted the three rites a lot in the process of interpreting 『Shijing』 as rites, and reflected the contents of rites in the commentary. Examples of commenting on the interpretation of the Book of Poetry from the perspective of ceremonies were analyzed in Zheng Xuan's 『Jian』. A new way of interpreting poetry, including the achievements of Han Confucian studies on the Book of Poetry, was presented. Zheng Xuan's 『Jian』 is to interpret the sutra with the sutra, which is the way of interpreting the sutras of Confucian scholars, with other sutras, with the exhortation of letters, with the interpretation of the sutras as the Buddhist scriptures, and with concrete events. All methods such as interpreting the sutra were properly used to interpret the sutra. He extensively quoted the Confucian classics and major historical sources, exerting a great influence on the Han Dynasty. Through the process of completing 『Zhuan』 and 『Xu』 in the Han Dynasty as the Confucian family's interpretation system of the scriptures began to be established from the early Qin period, the interpretation system of mother poems through Zheng Xuan's 『Jian』, and through the process of Zheng Xuan completing 『Jian』 It shows the process of gradual materialization. It played an important intermediate stage in the formation of the interpretation system of hair poetry. 『Jian』, which was annotated on 『Shijing』 by Zheng Xuan during the Donghan period, was developed based on the interpretation of 『Xu』 and 『Zhuan』, which are the interpretation systems of mother poetry, and is the most basic and important data in the study of poetry and scripture.

The Law of the Gospel: Shifting Interpretations of a Temple Covenant throughout Latter-day Saint History

The Law of the Gospel: Shifting Interpretations of a Temple Covenant throughout Latter-day Saint History

Place-Based New Testament Instruction

This article gives an account of one introductory New Testament class taught in the fall of 2019; although answering to the historical interests commonplace to biblical studies instruction, it also experimented with a place-based pedagogy for spiritual growth. The article provides intellectual backgrounds, especially drawing from Willie James Jennings’s work, describes the class in terms of its course objectives and guiding epigrams, and details three “discernment projects”: the Forest Kinship Project; the Passion Project; and the Exorcism Project, each of which paired study of Scripture (Mark 1:12–13; Luke 22–23; and Synoptic accounts of exorcisms, respectively) with a place-specific experience.

Last Bible and Crusade Narrative in the Twelfth Century by Katherine Allen Smith

Reviewed by: Last Bible and Crusade Narrative in the Twelfth Century by Katherine Allen Smith Christopher Freeman Last Bible and Crusade Narrative in the Twelfth Century. By Katherine Allen Smith. (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2020. Pp. 306. $24.99. ISBN: 9781783275236). Katherine Allen Smith uses the lens of exegesis to uncover a novel twelfth-century practice of biblical hermeneutics that profoundly shaped early narratives of the First Crusade. Many of Allen Smith’s arguments will be familiar to students of medieval history, but The Bible and Crusade Narrative is anything but redundant. Allen Smith’s work offers new insights into the construction of early crusade narratives and the process whereby the First Crusade passed from memory to written record. Chapter 1, “History and Biblical Exegesis in the Latin West,” argues that medieval narrators saw the First Crusade as a miraculous text that was meant to be glossed. First Crusade writers used their exegetical training to create a new kind of historical narrative that was better suited to record events that seemed to have been ordained in heaven. Allen Smith illustrates that the widespread use of biblical references in early crusade accounts differed from the nearly contemporary accounts of the Norman invasion that predominantly used classical references to record the event. Allen-Smith’s comparative analysis is more comprehensive than previous studies and is able to restore “early crusade historiography to its original context in which the concerns of history and theology were inextricably linked” (p. 47). In Chapter 2, “The Bible in the Chronicles of the First Crusade,” Allen Smith uses quantitative data to “understand the relationship between scriptural study and history, and the ways in which the Bible mediated memory and lived experiences in the medieval Latin West” (p. 91). The author suggests that medieval scriptural study is the key to understanding “the chains of associative thinking that . . . hint at what the twelfth-century writers were thinking as they wrote” (54). Allen [End Page 182] Smith’s analysis of contemporary scriptural practice shows that early crusade accounts were written against “a backdrop of lively . . . debate about the crusade’s historical, allegorical, and eschatological significance” (p. 54). In Chapter 3, “Into the Promised Land,” Allen Smith argues that crusade authors displayed their exegetical training when they used biblical typologies to cast crusaders as Jerusalemites, apostles, and virtuoso performers of Christo-mimesis. Typological practice conditioned the portrayal of Muslims as well. Allen Smith demonstrates that crusade authors made use of the adversos iudeos tradition to cast Muslims according to typologies commonly found in anti-Jewish polemic. Allen Smith’s discussion is enlightening but ignores critical parts of the scholarly tradition. As Pollard and others have shown, medieval anti-Jewish polemic is strongly informed by the Latin tradition of Flavius Josephus, but Allen Smith ignores Josephus almost entirely. This illustrates a problem that results from Allen Smith’s tight focus on biblical allusion: it can create a blindness to other important narratological elements found in these same texts. These elements are important because we can’t fully understand biblical allusion until we consider how the Bible works in conjunction with other traditions that inform crusade accounts. Chapter 4, “Babylon and Jerusalem,” analyzes the impact of Augustinian ideology on early crusade accounts. Allen-Smith suggests that early crusade texts made use of Augustinian dichotomies because “the crusade actualized the conflict between the two cities” (156). Crusade authors applied Augustinian convention when they placed the crusade on the long arc of salvation history: “the crusaders’ literal fulfillment of the Gospel . . . set into motion a new apostolic age” (p. 171). The analysis sheds new light on the use of Augustine in early crusade narratives, but Allen Smith’s tightly focused analysis displaces other important textual considerations. For example, in Allen Smith’s analysis of Augustinian dualism in Baldric of Dol’s Historia, Baldric clearly frames the section of text according to Josephus’s Jewish War and “the deeds of Titus and Vespasian,” rather than Augustine’s City of God, as Allen Smith claims. Overall, The Bible and Crusade Narrative in the Twelfth Century is a much-needed addition to crusade studies and Allen Smith’s work will be a model for analyzing the impact of the...

Changes in Home-Centered Religious Practices and Relational Wellbeing following the Initial Onset of the COVID-19 Pandemic

We explored associations between changes in the frequency of home-centered religious practices and family relational conflict, emotional closeness, and the perceived long-term impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on relationships. The panel survey of 1,510 adult individuals in the United States, was administered during the summer of 2020. Given our interest in understanding changes in religious practices following the COVID-19 related closures of religious institutions, the panel included an intentional oversampling of religious individuals from diverse religious affiliations. We employed a mixed methods approach (integrated quantitative and qualitative measures). Controlling for a large group of demographic variables (e.g., age, gender, race/ethnicity) and other factors (e.g., religiosity, stage of COVID-19 closures), OLS and logistic regressions found some significant associations between retrospectively reported changes in the frequency of religious practices and emotional closeness and perceived lasting impact of the pandemic on family well-being. Qualitative data from a subsample of survey participants (n = 624) suggested that family prayer, scripture study, shared sacred rituals, and home-based worship helped foster positive family interactions.

Saul, Benjamin, and the Emergence of Monarchy in Israel: Biblical and Archaeological Perspectives edited by Joachim J. Krause, Omer Sergi, and Kristin Weingart, [Ancient Israel and Its Literature], SBL Press, Atlanta, 2020, pp. xii + 233, £28.00, pbk

Saul, Benjamin, and the Emergence of Monarchy in Israel: Biblical and Archaeological Perspectives edited by Joachim J. Krause, Omer Sergi, and Kristin Weingart, [Ancient Israel and Its Literature], SBL Press, Atlanta, 2020, pp. xii + 233, £28.00, pbk

INTERNALISASI NILAI-NILAI ASWAJA MELALUI PENGAJIAN KITAB AL-MUQTATHAFAT DI ORGANISASI PAC IPNU-IPPNU DUDUK SAMPEYAN GRESIK

Abstract: A great nation is discernible in the quality or character of the nation (man) itself. Character building is something of temporal and spiritual competence. One of the defining characteristics of future nations is youth. But looking closely at the issues this beloved nation faces on a daily basis, causes concern, where generations of intelligent people lack an awareness of the importance of moral values and civility and essential values in social life. it is very important to breed amaliyah which print muslims that continue to grow in this regard. Faith, obedience to Allah, and glory. Like amaliyah. Amaliyah was done by nahdlatul scholars' citizens who have become a culture in our daily lives. So, through the practice of teaching the book of al-mugtathofat in the ipnu-ippnu organization that became the place of character building on young people who conform to aswaja values. The problem discussed is: 1) how does the ipnu-ippnu pac organization play Sampeyan gresik in imposing aswaja values? 2) how the process of scripture study activities al-muqtathafat in organitation IPNU-IPPNU PAC Duduk Sampeyan Gresik. The study employs a descriptive qualitative approach, with data analysis using data reduction, data presentation and deduction, so that the data obtained will produce naturally descriptive data, as for the data-collecting techniques using observation, interview and documentation and for the validity of the data relating to source, technik and time. Research shows: 1) the implanting of aswaja values Shared by IPNU-IPPNU PAC Duduk Sampeyan gresik is done through activities carried out either religious or public. Using aswaja kmowing and aswaja feeling. 2) the process of scripture muqtathofat in PAC IPNU IPPNU Duduk Sampeyan uses the method of speech and also aims to instill aswaja values to apply to his environment.Keyword: Ahlussunah wal jama’ah, reciting the book (al-Muqtathafat), IPNU-IPPNU