Wilderness: Essays in Honour of Frances Young

Description

This celebratory volume in honour of Frances Young draws on and develops the multifarious hermeneutical interests evident in the body of her work. Its overall thematic motif, to highlight concerns which impacted on her work, is the symbolic use of 'wilderness.' This multi-disciplinary volume begins with an in-depth analysis of her work by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams. The first part of the volume has biblical and early Christian literature as the focus, and deals with, among other topics, Jesus' encounter with people of impairment, biblical figures such as Miriam, gospel portrayals of mountains, experience of wilderness in the lives of Maori and Jewish people, the temptation of Jesus as interpreted at different times, and the redefinition of asceticism in Syrian Christianity. The second part of the volume addresses theological concerns, with essays which advocate wisdom as a potential mode for doing theology, engage with the radical Christian writings of 17th and 18th centuries, revisit the problem of sin, highlight the latent Christological motifs in the novels of Tolkien, and draw attention to the significance of the Quranic Jesus.

R. S. Sugirtharajah is Professor of Biblical Hermeneutics, University of Birmingham. Recent publications include: The Bible and Empire: Postcolonial Explorations (Cambridge, 2005), Postcolonial Criticism and Bibical Interpretation (Oxford, 2002), Postcolonial Reconfigurations: An alternative way of reading the Bible and doing Theology, SCM Press, London, 2003.

"It is a book that is worthy of the person it honours. It is also one that should sit on the shelves of every minister who wants to see how the academe can shape his or her ministry, and on those of an academic who needs reminding that the wilderness is a place worth ecxploring, worth learning from." ANVIL vol.24 no.4 2007 -- Kevin Ellis 'This is an exceptional Festschrift...It is rare for such a collection of essays to focus on a theme, and even rarer for an editor to succeed...in uniting contributors behind such a theme.' Dr John M Court Church Times, 17/11/2006 -- Dr John M Court * Church Times *