The Five Scrolls: Texts @ Contexts

Description

In this collection, scholars from diverse geographical locations revisit a cluster of five biblical texts: Ruth, Song of Songs, Qoheleth (Ecclesiastes), Lamentations and Esther. The volume presents various viewpoints and contexts-geographical, communal, religious, social, economical and ethical. Matching scholarship with social awareness, the contributors keep asking themselves and their readers a dual-faced question: how does our life context influence our scholarly and non-scholarly readings of the Bible, and how does reading the Bible critically influence our life? To answer this question and to show it at work the contributors employ a range of contextual lenses. Geography is a major factor of the contributors' contexts - with contributors from South Africa, Argentina, Israel, the Pacific Islands - but not the only one to influence their readings. Issues of society, culture and community are at the foreground for all contributors and their reading agendas with specific focus on the AIDs crisis in Africa, issues of migration and asylum, and feminist approaches to biblical texts.

Athalya Brenner-Idan is Professor Emerita of the HB\OT Chair at the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands; and currently Professor in Biblical Studies at Tel Aviv University, Israel, and Extraordinary Professor at Stellenbosch University, South Africa. Gale A. Yee is Nancy W. King Professor of Biblical Studies at Episcopal Divinity School, USA. Archie C.C. Lee is Professor in the Religion Department at Chung Chi College, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, China.

Overall, the essays in this volume present insightful readings of these five books. The perspectives provided in the monograph also broaden the interpretive range and scope for readers. * Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology * [This book] demonstrates admirably that biblical reception is alive and well - empowering people from different continents to enrich their specific social contexts with scholarly readings of the Bible. * Church Times * Well worth searching for in a library. * Theology Journal *