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Vanessa Ochs retells well known stories of Biblical women in terms that will inspire women today. Beginning with Eve, she adds a reflection on the lesson each story has to offer, then offers a ritual for each.
The elderly Sarah laughs in delight when she overhears three strangers tell her husband Abraham that he will soon become a father, so when a son is born to her a year later, she names him Isaac, which means "laughter." Simultaneous.
Sarah’s Laughter provides a reflection on suffering that is deeply personal and both theologically and philosophically astute. Vinoth Ramachandra draws on his distinctive positioning as a Sri Lankan Christian theologian – one who has lived and ministered in contexts shaped by the destruction of natural disasters and the violence of human evil – to confront the intellectual, moral, and political challenges posed to faith in the increasingly broken world of the twenty-first century. Yet far from being an abstract discussion of theodicy, this book is intimate and vulnerable, embracing the biblical practice of lament and inviting an authentic response to grief – one that makes space for serious doubt and profound questioning. Sharing his own ongoing journey with suffering and a questing faith, Ramachandra reminds us that lament and joy, faith and protest, clarity and ambiguity, belong together in faithful Christian discipleship. It is not in bypassing the darkness of the world, but in embracing it – in imitation of the incarnate God – that we may glimpse the new creation.
What is the secret to fruitfulness? Jesus made it clear that He is the Vine and we as branches can only experience fruitfulness through abiding in Christ. This book will help you understand, as Hannah did, that Gods path to spiritual fruitfulness is preceded by discovering our own spiritual barrenness and weakness. Come walk with Hannah through eight test of faith that many believers grow through in their journey to true spiritual fruitfulness.
For readers of Bruce Feiler’s Walking the Bible and Kathleen Norris’s The Cloister Walk comes a powerful exploration of the Bible in translation. Aviya Kushner grew up in a Hebrew-speaking family, reading the Bible in the original Hebrew and debating its meaning over the dinner table. She knew much of it by heart—and was therefore surprised when, while getting her MFA at the University of Iowa, she took the novelist Marilynne Robinson’s class on the Old Testament and discovered she barely recognized the text she thought she knew so well. From differences in the Ten Commandments to a less ambiguous reading of the creation story to a new emphasis on the topic of slavery, the English translation often felt like another book entirely from the one she had grown up with. Kushner began discussing the experience with Robinson, who became a mentor, and her interest in the differences between the ancient language and the modern one gradually became an obsession. She began what became a ten-year project of reading different versions of the Hebrew Bible in English and traveling the world in the footsteps of the great biblical translators, trying to understand what compelled them to take on a lifetime project that was often considered heretical and in some cases resulted in their deaths. In this eye-opening chronicle, Kushner tells the story of her vibrant relationship to the Bible, and along the way illustrates how the differences in translation affect our understanding of our culture’s most important written work. A fascinating look at language and the beliefs we hold most dear, The Grammar of God is also a moving tale about leaving home and returning to it, both literally and through reading. Praise for The Grammar of God “The highest praise for a book, perhaps, is tucking it into a slot on your bookshelf where you’ll always be able to effortlessly slide it out, lay it across your lap and soak it up for a minute or a long afternoon’s absorption. The Grammar of God: A Journey into the Words and Worlds of the Bible, Aviya Kushner’s poetic and powerful plumbing of both the Hebrew and English translations of the Bible, now rests in just such an easy-to-grab spot in my library. In a word, it’s brilliant. And beautiful.”—Barbara Mahany, Chicago Tribune “Aviya Kushner has written a passionate, illuminating essay about meaning itself. The Grammar of God is also a unique personal narrative, a family story with the Bible and its languages as central characters.”—Robert Pinsky “Kushner is principally interested in the meanings and translations of key Biblical passages, and she pursues this interest with a fierce passion. . . . A paean, in a way, to the rigors and frustrations—and ultimate joys—of trying to comprehend the unfathomable.”—Kirkus Reviews “A remarkable and passionately original book of meditation, exegesis, and memoir. In Kushner’s redemptive vision, the Bible in its many translations is a Noah’s ark, and her book, too, does a work of saving. When I put it down, I wept.”—Rosanna Warren, author of Stained Glass “What a glorious book! From Sarah’s laughter to the idea of Jewish law being a dialogue and not a rigid set of rules, this is a book not only to learn from but to savor.”—Peter Orner, author of Love and Shame and Love “In this splendid book, each page is a wonder.”—Willis Barnstone, author of The Restored New Testament
Praying with Body and Soul involves the whole person: our senses, our bodies at rest or in motion, our imaginations, as well as our minds and emotions. By paying prayerful attention to the body people will not only recognize the ways in which they already pray, but will learn how to deepen their relationship with God. Each chapter includes questions for reflection, and practical exercises, such as drawing, walking meditation, fasting, making music, dancing, and praying in sickness and disability. This guide to prayer can be used by individuals, prayer partners, and small groups.
A hermeneutics of cispicion challenges cisnormative presuppositions that shape and, at times, occlude the variations in gender and sex exhibited by key characters in the ancestral narrative of Genesis 12–50. It charts the progression from Paul Ricoeur's hermeneutics of suspicion, through liberation, feminist and queer approaches. Focusing on Deryn Guest's queer and trans hermeneutics, Henderson-Merrygold then offers a new strategy for reading against fixed, binary gender assumptions, where a character's sex always matches that assigned at birth. The initial case study addresses Sarah, who is the proto-matriarch of the ancestral narratives in Genesis. Masculinities contrast with femininities, and Sarah's own agency makes the picture of a consistent gender hard to identify. By closely reading the text, different facets of Sarah's story emerge to emphasise how much the narrative directs the reader towards a cisnormative reading. However, Henderson-Merrygold shows it is not only the images of Sarah as feminine woman and mother that remain visible. The subject of the second case study, Esau, is regularly judged to be a hypermasculine character due to his bodily appearance, but repeatedly fails to fulfil the expectations related to that appearance. Though often condemned as a poor example of (hyper)masculinity, a cispicious reading identifies a richer and more nuanced figure. Attending to Esau's actions, his rejection of the gendered expectations appears intentional, allowing him to settle more comfortably into his own identity. This project advocates for, and demonstrates the value of, creative, interpretations of biblical texts that challenge both malestream and feminist gender assumptions.
The Qur’an and the Bible have been called "intertwined scriptures" due to the Qur’an’s frequent invocation of biblical narratives and figures. But what is the history of Muslims’ exegetical engagement with the biblical text? Through a comprehensive survey of more than 170 Qur’an commentaries, Samuel Ross traces the longitudinal history of the Bible in tafsῑr. Offering detailed case studies and rich in historical context, Ross’s narrative culminates in the remarkable late-nineteenth and early-twentieth-century biblical turn. Global in scope, this development has not only generated new Muslim views of the Bible but even new interpretations of the Qur’an itself. This monograph has been awarded the annual BRAIS – De Gruyter Prize in the Study of Islam and the Muslim World.
The Bible can be hard to understand. To many of us, it often does seem like a crazy book. But, according to the authors of Crazy Book, the crazy book we call the Bible actually teaches us the sanity that we need. The sanity that lets us know who God is, who we are in light of God's love, and where God's love can be found and experienced. Very similar in tone and organization to Crazy Talk, the authors of Crazy BookÊunleash their passion, faith, and humor. This time they have their sights on the Bible and biblical terms, and they don't hold back. Here, they've elected to focus on major people, events, places, books, and types of literature in the Bible, communicating the life-giving truth of the Bible via often knock-em-dead humor. The volume's savvy and sassy overtones are bound to leave an impression. This is an accessible book almost devoid of scholarly jargon but filled with scholarly insight. The revised and expanded addition includes new and expanded entries and all new images.