Search Results

This chapter studies David Darshan's Shir HaMa'alot L'David and Ktaw Hitnazzelut L'Darshanim (1984). This book contains the original Hebrew text in facsimile of two small books by David the Preacher; an English translation with notes; and an Introduction in English in which David is seen against his background in 16th-century Poland. David was an associate of the giants of that period, Moses Isserles and Solomon Luria, and was himself no mean Talmudist. David was the first itinerant Jewish preacher whose sermons were published; an amulet writer; and an artist. The chapter then considers several problems connected with the translation of these difficult texts and it cannot be said that all of them have been successfully overcome.

This chapter looks at the sermon of Søren Kierkegaard's pseudonym, the Jutland Pastor. The central meditation of this subversive supplement to the multivoiced Either/Or is that “The upbuilding lies in the thought that in relation to God we are always in the wrong”. For an audience of discerning listeners, this might serve as a good indication to stop listening or abruptly exit. Such an admonition may lead the listener to one of two conclusions: that the speaker's insights will inevitably lead to failure or, perhaps, that it is a smokescreen for a great deception. That is, perhaps, by declaring an unending condition of “being in the wrong”, the Preacher has undertaken a mystification par excellence, gaining what he has claimed to deny by finding an unmovable point in which his own discourse stands in the right above all others. The contemporary reader quite likely understands the duplicitous possibilities that accompany the pretenses of piety.

Chapter Five demonstrates how the Book of Mormon prophets delivered their sermons using the same patterns and techniques as nineteenth-century evangelical preachers. Two of the prophets, Nephi and Jacob, explicitly refer to the modern technique of "laying down heads" when Jacob relates that his brother, Nephi, admonished him to record the "heads" of sermons and prophecies on the gold plates and to "touch upon them" as much as possible (Jacob 1:4). Jacob further delivers his sermons using the "doctrine and use" sermon pattern that specifically arose from the sermo modernus of medieval scholasticism. The chapter further addresses the topics, techniques, and language styles in Book of Mormon sermons, including nineteenth-century gospel controversies, common subject matter for new preachers, the use of biblical language, and the presence of nineteenth-century revival language. A detailed analysis of the Book of Mormon reveals that over forty percent of the entire text, or approximately 108,099 words, consists of sermons, orations, scriptural commentaries, and exhortations. Such semi-extemporaneous oral productions would require little or no advanced preparation.

The Vertigo series Preacher subverts gender norms regarding constructions of heroism and criticizes patriarchal expectations surrounding women’s labor. As a revisionist Western comic following in the tradition of revisionist Western films, Preacher continually questions certain boundaries and conventions of its genre while adhering strongly to others. This tension is best embodied in the character of Tulip O’Hare, the series’ female lead. In Tulip we see the traits of the typically male classic Western hero and superhero; a repudiation of the gendering of recreational pursuits; and the obligation of ongoing labor placed upon women in a male-dominated society, which in her case plays out against a staunchly working-class socioeconomic background.

This chapter analyses Clint Eastwood's films in the 1980s. Pale Rider (1985) follows a gunfighter known only as the Preacher as he rides into a California mining camp besieged by an avaricious landowner, who has enlisted a corrupt sheriff in his campaign to seize the miners' claims. Heartbreak Ridge (1986) is the second war movie directed by Eastwood. Although its story is set in the present day, its title comes from the Battle of Heartbreak Ridge, a month-long clash in the Korean War that produced notably high casualties among American, French, Chinese, and North Korean troops. Bird (1988) is a biopic about Charlie Parker, the legendary alto-sax player known as Yardbird or just Bird to his contemporaneous fans.

From 1995 to 2000, DC Comics, through its Vertigo imprint, ran a violent, provocative, and profane series called Preacher. A collaboration between Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon, Preacher represents the South as a mythic place saturated with popular culture, equating it with a mode of identity, with a way of seeing the world. This chapter examines the South as a “way of seeing the world” in Preacher and how it reaffirms the power of the plantation owners and southern aristocracy, as well as the power of the stereotypes themselves in popular culture. It also looks at how the L’Angelle plantation in the story is presented from the perspective of two apparently incompatible codes: plantation mythology and meat fiction.

Of all the Jewish literature of the Second Temple period, only one work, the book of Daniel, reaches us because Jews chose to transmit it. The other Second Temple texts we know were transmitted to us by Christians or were not transmitted at all but found among the Dead Sea Scrolls. Yet later Jewish literature provides evidence that medieval Jews had access to a variety of texts and traditions from the Second Temple period beyond Daniel. No single mode of transmission can account for all of the examples of later knowledge of Second Temple texts. In some instances, there is a compelling case for ongoing Jewish transmission, whereas in others borrowing back from Christians is the best explanation.

In the 1960s, Dusty Springfield’s voice earned her frequent comparisons to African American vocalists. This chapter argues that Springfield’s vocal sound reveals how racialized listening processes operate. It shows how the historical reception of Black singers in Britain, assumptions about how white women sounded, and a pop music scene that cultivated excitement through engagement with racial otherness moved listeners to hear her voice in racialized terms. The chapter begins with discussion of how Springfield’s story of vocal transformation has been told by her biographers. Then, it consider two key collaborations between Springfield and Black artists: the “Sound of Motown,” a special episode of the TV program Ready Steady Go!, and her 1969 album, Dusty in Memphis. Although separated only by five years, the two performances in question construct Springfield’s relationship to race and identity much differently, responding, in part, to political, cultural, and musical changes that occurred during the intervening years.

Within the production culture for fantastic series, religion is acknowledged but contained. The fantastic genre context allows for distancing content from traditional religious narratives and distancing characters’ beliefs from specific religious creed, labeling religion as spirituality. The quality fantastic shows Battlestar Galactica (SciFi, 2003–2009), Lost (ABC, 2004–2011), The Leftovers (HBO, 2014–2017) and Preacher (AMC, 2016–2019) do not represent religion as traditional religion within our familiar culture, but rather they present recognizably Christian elements in the functioning of belief systems with deep meaning for characters. But because of their quality framing and the genre containment, religious content in these fantastic series—albeit as abstracted spirituality—is acknowledged in their production cultures.