Steven Heine
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195326772
- eISBN:
- 9780199870363
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195326772.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Buddhism
This book provides analyses of the many ways Japanese Zen Buddhism can be interpreted as either a cure‐all for the world's problems as stated by the Traditional Zen Narrative (TZN) view or whether ...
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This book provides analyses of the many ways Japanese Zen Buddhism can be interpreted as either a cure‐all for the world's problems as stated by the Traditional Zen Narrative (TZN) view or whether Zen is a contradictory, self‐serving entity as offered by the Historical and Cultural Criticism (HCC) view. Through the concepts of Zen “writes, rites, and rights,” the book examines the character of Zen. “Zen writes” describes the contradiction that although Zen is traditionally considered to be an esoteric religion based on personal transmissions between monks, it has created an extraordinary amount of written literature. The chapter considers whether the voluminous literature is a strength or a weak point for Zen. In the debate of “Zen rites,” the critical view (HCC) points out the history of religious syncretism in Japan as a compromise by Zen to appeal to the general public by incorporating folk gods and rituals into monastic rites, while the traditional view maintains that there is a separation between the syncretic and the monastic sides of Zen. And finally, “Zen rights” deals with both the ethical benefits that Zen can provide in addition to the moral atrocities that Zen has committed in the past. Zen can be a powerful tool in environmental preservation and world peace, but has also been used to justify discrimination and extreme nationalism in Japan through the 20th century. The final chapter seeks to rectify the two views of TZN and HCC through an acknowledgment of both sides and a balanced recommendation for the future of Zen.Less
This book provides analyses of the many ways Japanese Zen Buddhism can be interpreted as either a cure‐all for the world's problems as stated by the Traditional Zen Narrative (TZN) view or whether Zen is a contradictory, self‐serving entity as offered by the Historical and Cultural Criticism (HCC) view. Through the concepts of Zen “writes, rites, and rights,” the book examines the character of Zen. “Zen writes” describes the contradiction that although Zen is traditionally considered to be an esoteric religion based on personal transmissions between monks, it has created an extraordinary amount of written literature. The chapter considers whether the voluminous literature is a strength or a weak point for Zen. In the debate of “Zen rites,” the critical view (HCC) points out the history of religious syncretism in Japan as a compromise by Zen to appeal to the general public by incorporating folk gods and rituals into monastic rites, while the traditional view maintains that there is a separation between the syncretic and the monastic sides of Zen. And finally, “Zen rights” deals with both the ethical benefits that Zen can provide in addition to the moral atrocities that Zen has committed in the past. Zen can be a powerful tool in environmental preservation and world peace, but has also been used to justify discrimination and extreme nationalism in Japan through the 20th century. The final chapter seeks to rectify the two views of TZN and HCC through an acknowledgment of both sides and a balanced recommendation for the future of Zen.
Tania Oldenhage
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195150520
- eISBN:
- 9780199834549
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/019515052X.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies
Over the centuries, New Testament texts have often been read in ways that reflect and encourage anti‐Judaism. Since the Holocaust, Christian scholars have increasingly recognized this inheritance. ...
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Over the centuries, New Testament texts have often been read in ways that reflect and encourage anti‐Judaism. Since the Holocaust, Christian scholars have increasingly recognized this inheritance. New Testament scholars have not directly confronted the horror of Nazi crimes, Odlenhage argues, but their work has nonetheless been deeply affected by the events of the Holocaust. By placing twentieth‐century biblical scholarship within its specific historical and cultural contexts, she is able to trace the process by which the Holocaust gradually moved into the collective consciousness of New Testament scholars, both in Germany and in the U.S.. Her focus is on the interpretation of the parables of Jesus by scholars, including Joachim Jeremias, Wolfgang Harnisch, Paul Ricoeur and John Dominic Crossan. In conclusion, Oldenhage offers her own reading of the parable of the wicked husbandmen, demonstrating how the turn from historical criticism to literary theory opens up the text to interpretation in light of the Holocaust. Thereby, she seeks to fashion a biblical hermeneutics that consciously works with memories of the Holocaust. If the parables are to be meaningful in our time, Oldenhage contends, we must take account of the troubling resonance between these ancient Christian stories and the atrocities of Auschwitz.Less
Over the centuries, New Testament texts have often been read in ways that reflect and encourage anti‐Judaism. Since the Holocaust, Christian scholars have increasingly recognized this inheritance. New Testament scholars have not directly confronted the horror of Nazi crimes, Odlenhage argues, but their work has nonetheless been deeply affected by the events of the Holocaust. By placing twentieth‐century biblical scholarship within its specific historical and cultural contexts, she is able to trace the process by which the Holocaust gradually moved into the collective consciousness of New Testament scholars, both in Germany and in the U.S.. Her focus is on the interpretation of the parables of Jesus by scholars, including Joachim Jeremias, Wolfgang Harnisch, Paul Ricoeur and John Dominic Crossan. In conclusion, Oldenhage offers her own reading of the parable of the wicked husbandmen, demonstrating how the turn from historical criticism to literary theory opens up the text to interpretation in light of the Holocaust. Thereby, she seeks to fashion a biblical hermeneutics that consciously works with memories of the Holocaust. If the parables are to be meaningful in our time, Oldenhage contends, we must take account of the troubling resonance between these ancient Christian stories and the atrocities of Auschwitz.
James Barr
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198269878
- eISBN:
- 9780191600401
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198269870.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies
Is the Bible historically true? Or are its narratives the expression of the ideologies of partisan groups far removed in time from the events depicted? The questions are not new, but are now being ...
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Is the Bible historically true? Or are its narratives the expression of the ideologies of partisan groups far removed in time from the events depicted? The questions are not new, but are now being posed in a different terminology and outlook, often characterized as postmodernism. The book goes back to redefine the term ‘biblical criticism’ and concentrates on some examples from the history of Israel. An attempt is made to clarify the possible meanings of ‘ideology’ and some relations between postmodernism and theology are examined. Tradition and continuity are to be prized in contrast to the feverish grasp at novelty.Less
Is the Bible historically true? Or are its narratives the expression of the ideologies of partisan groups far removed in time from the events depicted? The questions are not new, but are now being posed in a different terminology and outlook, often characterized as postmodernism. The book goes back to redefine the term ‘biblical criticism’ and concentrates on some examples from the history of Israel. An attempt is made to clarify the possible meanings of ‘ideology’ and some relations between postmodernism and theology are examined. Tradition and continuity are to be prized in contrast to the feverish grasp at novelty.
Michael C. Legaspi
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195394351
- eISBN:
- 9780199777211
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195394351.003.0007
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
This conclusion discusses the fate of Michaelis’s classical project, its reception among figures like Johann Gottfried Eichhorn, Johann Gottfried Herder, and Johann Georg Hamann. It also evaluates ...
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This conclusion discusses the fate of Michaelis’s classical project, its reception among figures like Johann Gottfried Eichhorn, Johann Gottfried Herder, and Johann Georg Hamann. It also evaluates Michaelis’s legacy, arguing that a clear understanding of it has important implications for the study of the Bible today. It also revisits the notions of the scriptural and academic Bibles. Too often the relation between them has been seen as an expression of stale antitheses between reason and faith, history and revelation, historical criticism and theology, the secular and the sacred. The history of modern biblical criticism shows that the fundamental antitheses were not intellectual or theological, but rather social, moral, and political. Academic critics did not dispense with the authority of a Bible resonant with religion; they redeployed it. This point is essential to any discussion of the relation between modern biblical criticism and those who read the Bible principally as scripture.Less
This conclusion discusses the fate of Michaelis’s classical project, its reception among figures like Johann Gottfried Eichhorn, Johann Gottfried Herder, and Johann Georg Hamann. It also evaluates Michaelis’s legacy, arguing that a clear understanding of it has important implications for the study of the Bible today. It also revisits the notions of the scriptural and academic Bibles. Too often the relation between them has been seen as an expression of stale antitheses between reason and faith, history and revelation, historical criticism and theology, the secular and the sacred. The history of modern biblical criticism shows that the fundamental antitheses were not intellectual or theological, but rather social, moral, and political. Academic critics did not dispense with the authority of a Bible resonant with religion; they redeployed it. This point is essential to any discussion of the relation between modern biblical criticism and those who read the Bible principally as scripture.
John Reumann
- Published in print:
- 1991
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198262015
- eISBN:
- 9780191682285
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198262015.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies
The blend of variety and unity apparent in the thought of the New Testament has been a subject for theological debate through the ages. Certain themes, teachings, and characterizations are clearly ...
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The blend of variety and unity apparent in the thought of the New Testament has been a subject for theological debate through the ages. Certain themes, teachings, and characterizations are clearly consistent, but others are perplexing in their diversity. This distinction was acknowledged by the New Testament writers themselves. For example, the author of 2 Peter looking back at the letters of ‘our beloved brother Paul’ confesses that they contain ‘some things hard to understand’. This book explores in detail the different aspects of variety and unity in the entire New Testament. The book gives special attention to the sixteen books which fall outside the central Gospels and Pauline epistles and which offer the greatest challenge to the defence of unity. These include such important writings as Revelation, 1 Peter, Hebrews, and James. The discussion shows that, despite contemporary emphasis on the pluralism of the writings, there remains a central unifying focus: faith in Jesus as the Christ. Emphases on social setting, rhetoric, and narrative are shown to enrich traditional historical criticism and to open up the New Testament for readers today.Less
The blend of variety and unity apparent in the thought of the New Testament has been a subject for theological debate through the ages. Certain themes, teachings, and characterizations are clearly consistent, but others are perplexing in their diversity. This distinction was acknowledged by the New Testament writers themselves. For example, the author of 2 Peter looking back at the letters of ‘our beloved brother Paul’ confesses that they contain ‘some things hard to understand’. This book explores in detail the different aspects of variety and unity in the entire New Testament. The book gives special attention to the sixteen books which fall outside the central Gospels and Pauline epistles and which offer the greatest challenge to the defence of unity. These include such important writings as Revelation, 1 Peter, Hebrews, and James. The discussion shows that, despite contemporary emphasis on the pluralism of the writings, there remains a central unifying focus: faith in Jesus as the Christ. Emphases on social setting, rhetoric, and narrative are shown to enrich traditional historical criticism and to open up the New Testament for readers today.
Nathan MacDonald
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199546527
- eISBN:
- 9780191720215
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199546527.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies
In the present methodological ferment in biblical studies it is necessary to articulate a methodological approach to the study of food in the Old Testament. The methodology outlined is fully ...
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In the present methodological ferment in biblical studies it is necessary to articulate a methodological approach to the study of food in the Old Testament. The methodology outlined is fully responsive to research on the anthropology of food, the literary form of the biblical text and historical-critical biblical scholarship. The necessity of all these aspects is demonstrated through an analysis of work on the Israelite dietary laws in Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14. For this classical interpretative puzzle Mary Douglas's work, Purity and Danger, has been a decisive turning point. Her analysis has stimulated many biblical scholars, but this has required her own views to be re-articulated in light of closer readings of the text and the work of historical-critical scholarship. The conversation not only shows the need for well informed use of anthropological research, literary analysis and historical-critical scholarship, but also the necessity of moving beyond tired debates between materialists and structuralists, or, in the usual terms of biblical scholarship, diachronic, and synchronic.Less
In the present methodological ferment in biblical studies it is necessary to articulate a methodological approach to the study of food in the Old Testament. The methodology outlined is fully responsive to research on the anthropology of food, the literary form of the biblical text and historical-critical biblical scholarship. The necessity of all these aspects is demonstrated through an analysis of work on the Israelite dietary laws in Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14. For this classical interpretative puzzle Mary Douglas's work, Purity and Danger, has been a decisive turning point. Her analysis has stimulated many biblical scholars, but this has required her own views to be re-articulated in light of closer readings of the text and the work of historical-critical scholarship. The conversation not only shows the need for well informed use of anthropological research, literary analysis and historical-critical scholarship, but also the necessity of moving beyond tired debates between materialists and structuralists, or, in the usual terms of biblical scholarship, diachronic, and synchronic.
Alvin Plantinga
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195131932
- eISBN:
- 9780199867486
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195131932.003.0012
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion
Continuing an examination of proposed defeaters for Christian belief, I turn in this chapter to some of the issues raised by contemporary historical biblical criticism, arguing that contemporary ...
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Continuing an examination of proposed defeaters for Christian belief, I turn in this chapter to some of the issues raised by contemporary historical biblical criticism, arguing that contemporary historical biblical criticism does not serve as a defeater for Christian belief. After a brief discussion of the divine inspiration of Scripture, I distinguish and examine two different kinds of Scripture scholarship: (1) traditional biblical commentary and (2) historical biblical criticism (also called “higher criticism,” “historical criticism,” “biblical criticism,” and “historical critical scholarship”). Historical biblical criticism (HBC) is an effort to look at and understand the biblical books from a standpoint that relies on reason alone (not faith), i.e., it is an effort to determine from the standpoint of reason alone what the scriptural teachings are and whether they are true. I discuss three different types of HBC and briefly point out some of the tensions between HBC and traditional Christianity: as Van Harvey remarks, “So far as the biblical historian is concerned. . .there is scarcely a popularly held traditional belief about Jesus that is not regarded with considerable skepticism.” I then argue that none of the varieties of HBC provides a defeater for Christian belief, either because (a) they begin with unsupported assumptions that are contrary to Christian belief, or because (b) they ignore sources of warranted belief that Christians believe they have (like faith and the interior instigation of the Holy Spirit) and fail to give good arguments that Christians do not have such sources of warranted belief.Less
Continuing an examination of proposed defeaters for Christian belief, I turn in this chapter to some of the issues raised by contemporary historical biblical criticism, arguing that contemporary historical biblical criticism does not serve as a defeater for Christian belief. After a brief discussion of the divine inspiration of Scripture, I distinguish and examine two different kinds of Scripture scholarship: (1) traditional biblical commentary and (2) historical biblical criticism (also called “higher criticism,” “historical criticism,” “biblical criticism,” and “historical critical scholarship”). Historical biblical criticism (HBC) is an effort to look at and understand the biblical books from a standpoint that relies on reason alone (not faith), i.e., it is an effort to determine from the standpoint of reason alone what the scriptural teachings are and whether they are true. I discuss three different types of HBC and briefly point out some of the tensions between HBC and traditional Christianity: as Van Harvey remarks, “So far as the biblical historian is concerned. . .there is scarcely a popularly held traditional belief about Jesus that is not regarded with considerable skepticism.” I then argue that none of the varieties of HBC provides a defeater for Christian belief, either because (a) they begin with unsupported assumptions that are contrary to Christian belief, or because (b) they ignore sources of warranted belief that Christians believe they have (like faith and the interior instigation of the Holy Spirit) and fail to give good arguments that Christians do not have such sources of warranted belief.
Tania Oldenhage
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195150520
- eISBN:
- 9780199834549
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/019515052X.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies
Introduces Joachim Jeremias's book The Parables of Jesus, which was first published in 1947 and strongly shaped the postwar scholarly discourse on New Testament parables. Oldenhage clarifies how the ...
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Introduces Joachim Jeremias's book The Parables of Jesus, which was first published in 1947 and strongly shaped the postwar scholarly discourse on New Testament parables. Oldenhage clarifies how the assumptions of historical criticism led to Jeremias's search for the parables’ first historical setting. In the second part of the chapter, Oldenhage discusses recent critical responses to the anti‐Judaism that is a part of the Jeremias's scholarly rhetoric. New research on the historical Jesus seeks to integrate Jesus within his Jewish context and seeks to understand Jesus’ parables as part of the tradition of Judaism.Less
Introduces Joachim Jeremias's book The Parables of Jesus, which was first published in 1947 and strongly shaped the postwar scholarly discourse on New Testament parables. Oldenhage clarifies how the assumptions of historical criticism led to Jeremias's search for the parables’ first historical setting. In the second part of the chapter, Oldenhage discusses recent critical responses to the anti‐Judaism that is a part of the Jeremias's scholarly rhetoric. New research on the historical Jesus seeks to integrate Jesus within his Jewish context and seeks to understand Jesus’ parables as part of the tradition of Judaism.
Tania Oldenhage
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195150520
- eISBN:
- 9780199834549
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/019515052X.003.0007
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies
Moving to the U.S. in the 1970s, Oldenhage discusses the ways in which biblical scholars in America challenged the assumptions of historical criticism and proposed a literary turn in biblical ...
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Moving to the U.S. in the 1970s, Oldenhage discusses the ways in which biblical scholars in America challenged the assumptions of historical criticism and proposed a literary turn in biblical studies. Informed by literary criticism, these scholars started to take seriously the form and language of the parables and turned them from ancient artifacts into artful literature. The focus of the chapter lies on the work of John Dominic Crossan, who in the 1970s was arguably the most influential proponent of a literary approach to the parables. Oldenhage outlines Crossan's hermeneutics by emphasizing his creative engagements with postmodernism as well as his continuing interest in the first historical context of the parables of Jesus.Less
Moving to the U.S. in the 1970s, Oldenhage discusses the ways in which biblical scholars in America challenged the assumptions of historical criticism and proposed a literary turn in biblical studies. Informed by literary criticism, these scholars started to take seriously the form and language of the parables and turned them from ancient artifacts into artful literature. The focus of the chapter lies on the work of John Dominic Crossan, who in the 1970s was arguably the most influential proponent of a literary approach to the parables. Oldenhage outlines Crossan's hermeneutics by emphasizing his creative engagements with postmodernism as well as his continuing interest in the first historical context of the parables of Jesus.
Molly Oshatz
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199751686
- eISBN:
- 9780199918799
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199751686.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
Beginning in the late 1870s, liberal Protestants including Washington Gladden, Lyman Abbott, Theodore Munger, Newman Smyth, and Charles Briggs endeavoured to construct a form of Christian orthodoxy ...
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Beginning in the late 1870s, liberal Protestants including Washington Gladden, Lyman Abbott, Theodore Munger, Newman Smyth, and Charles Briggs endeavoured to construct a form of Christian orthodoxy that could make its peace with evolution and historical criticism while expressing the religious and moral experience of modern Christians. The final chapter traces the impact of antislavery, the Civil War, and emancipation on the New Theology of the postwar decades, including the liberal Protestant acceptance of evolution and historical criticism and the early development of the Social Gospel. This chapter also traces the dual postwar trajectory of abolitionist theology in both “free religion” and budding fundamentalism.Less
Beginning in the late 1870s, liberal Protestants including Washington Gladden, Lyman Abbott, Theodore Munger, Newman Smyth, and Charles Briggs endeavoured to construct a form of Christian orthodoxy that could make its peace with evolution and historical criticism while expressing the religious and moral experience of modern Christians. The final chapter traces the impact of antislavery, the Civil War, and emancipation on the New Theology of the postwar decades, including the liberal Protestant acceptance of evolution and historical criticism and the early development of the Social Gospel. This chapter also traces the dual postwar trajectory of abolitionist theology in both “free religion” and budding fundamentalism.
Tania Oldenhage
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195150520
- eISBN:
- 9780199834549
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/019515052X.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies
Discusses the implications of understanding Joachim Jeremias's anti‐Jewish rhetoric as a post‐Holocaust phenomenon. With a special focus on interpretations of the parable of the wicked husbandmen, ...
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Discusses the implications of understanding Joachim Jeremias's anti‐Jewish rhetoric as a post‐Holocaust phenomenon. With a special focus on interpretations of the parable of the wicked husbandmen, Oldenhage discusses recent revisions of Jeremias's work on the parables of Jesus that reject anti‐Jewish interpretive patterns while still operating within the framework of historical criticism. By reducing the challenge of the Holocaust for biblical scholarship to the problem of anti‐Judaism, Oldenhage argues, historical critics fail to deal with important questions of Holocaust remembrance that Jeremias's scholarship poses.Less
Discusses the implications of understanding Joachim Jeremias's anti‐Jewish rhetoric as a post‐Holocaust phenomenon. With a special focus on interpretations of the parable of the wicked husbandmen, Oldenhage discusses recent revisions of Jeremias's work on the parables of Jesus that reject anti‐Jewish interpretive patterns while still operating within the framework of historical criticism. By reducing the challenge of the Holocaust for biblical scholarship to the problem of anti‐Judaism, Oldenhage argues, historical critics fail to deal with important questions of Holocaust remembrance that Jeremias's scholarship poses.
John Ashton
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198269793
- eISBN:
- 9780191683817
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198269793.003.0009
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies
This chapter explains the book's title and provides a defence of the aims and methods of what is generally known as historical criticism. It discusses that most biblical narratives and the gospels ...
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This chapter explains the book's title and provides a defence of the aims and methods of what is generally known as historical criticism. It discusses that most biblical narratives and the gospels build upon already existing traditions and sources that limit as well as stimulate the freedom of their authors. The chapter reflects that these limitations are seldom if ever acknowledged by narrative criticism. It argues that the best practitioners of the historical critical method, Bultmann, Dodd, and Hans Windich, showed a keen sense of the literary qualities of the Fourth Gospel. It proposes that the contributions of narrative criticism have been minor and are unlikely to survive that long.Less
This chapter explains the book's title and provides a defence of the aims and methods of what is generally known as historical criticism. It discusses that most biblical narratives and the gospels build upon already existing traditions and sources that limit as well as stimulate the freedom of their authors. The chapter reflects that these limitations are seldom if ever acknowledged by narrative criticism. It argues that the best practitioners of the historical critical method, Bultmann, Dodd, and Hans Windich, showed a keen sense of the literary qualities of the Fourth Gospel. It proposes that the contributions of narrative criticism have been minor and are unlikely to survive that long.
Jerome J. McGann
- Published in print:
- 1988
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198117506
- eISBN:
- 9780191670961
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198117506.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
According to the classic formulation of Roman Jakobson, poetics may be regarded as an integral part of linguistics. This idea of the poem as verbal object is so commonplace in modern criticism that ...
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According to the classic formulation of Roman Jakobson, poetics may be regarded as an integral part of linguistics. This idea of the poem as verbal object is so commonplace in modern criticism that one may seem perverse to question it. Still one must do so, for the ‘problem of historical method’ — whether ones approach it from an ‘intrinsic’ or an ‘extrinsic’ point of view — will never be opened to solutions until one sees one of the signal failures of modern criticism: its inability to distinguish clearly between a concept of the poem and a concept of the text. If the poetic work is understood either as a cultural experience or a cultural event, its special structures of uniqueness must be consciously graphed, at some level, in socio-historical terms.Less
According to the classic formulation of Roman Jakobson, poetics may be regarded as an integral part of linguistics. This idea of the poem as verbal object is so commonplace in modern criticism that one may seem perverse to question it. Still one must do so, for the ‘problem of historical method’ — whether ones approach it from an ‘intrinsic’ or an ‘extrinsic’ point of view — will never be opened to solutions until one sees one of the signal failures of modern criticism: its inability to distinguish clearly between a concept of the poem and a concept of the text. If the poetic work is understood either as a cultural experience or a cultural event, its special structures of uniqueness must be consciously graphed, at some level, in socio-historical terms.
Melanie J. Wright
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195152265
- eISBN:
- 9780199834884
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195152263.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies
This chapter discusses muckraking journalist Lincoln Steffens's 1926 book Moses in Red in relation to developments in historical criticism, and social gospel Christianity. It also looks at Steffens's ...
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This chapter discusses muckraking journalist Lincoln Steffens's 1926 book Moses in Red in relation to developments in historical criticism, and social gospel Christianity. It also looks at Steffens's identification of Moses with Lenin, and the Promised Land with Soviet Russia. It discusses the difficulties surrounding the publication and promotion of the book, particularly in relation to similar, yet popular competitors such as Bruce Barton's The Man Nobody Knows, and argues that Moses in Red (from its author's standpoint) unexpectedly failed because it breached the cultural agreement about the meanings of the Exodus story in 1920s America.Less
This chapter discusses muckraking journalist Lincoln Steffens's 1926 book Moses in Red in relation to developments in historical criticism, and social gospel Christianity. It also looks at Steffens's identification of Moses with Lenin, and the Promised Land with Soviet Russia. It discusses the difficulties surrounding the publication and promotion of the book, particularly in relation to similar, yet popular competitors such as Bruce Barton's The Man Nobody Knows, and argues that Moses in Red (from its author's standpoint) unexpectedly failed because it breached the cultural agreement about the meanings of the Exodus story in 1920s America.
Stephen R. Haynes
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195142792
- eISBN:
- 9780199834280
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195142799.003.0010
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies
This chapter explores readings of Genesis 9 that run counter to the orthodox interpretive paradigm. These counterreadings are identified in the commentary of rabbis and church fathers, the tracts of ...
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This chapter explores readings of Genesis 9 that run counter to the orthodox interpretive paradigm. These counterreadings are identified in the commentary of rabbis and church fathers, the tracts of abolitionists, and the work of historical critics of the Bible and authors of fiction and poetry. These Bible readers have challenged Noah's curse by clarifying the historical context of Genesis 9, by denying its putative racial dimensions, by employing logic and the rules of biblical exegesis, and by undermining textual assumptions through creative rereading.Less
This chapter explores readings of Genesis 9 that run counter to the orthodox interpretive paradigm. These counterreadings are identified in the commentary of rabbis and church fathers, the tracts of abolitionists, and the work of historical critics of the Bible and authors of fiction and poetry. These Bible readers have challenged Noah's curse by clarifying the historical context of Genesis 9, by denying its putative racial dimensions, by employing logic and the rules of biblical exegesis, and by undermining textual assumptions through creative rereading.
Tania Oldenhage
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195150520
- eISBN:
- 9780199834549
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/019515052X.003.0010
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies
This chapter turns to Paul Ricoeur's contributions to American New Testament parable studies in the 1970s. In his essay “Biblical Hermeneutics,” Ricoeur argues that structuralism can offer new and ...
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This chapter turns to Paul Ricoeur's contributions to American New Testament parable studies in the 1970s. In his essay “Biblical Hermeneutics,” Ricoeur argues that structuralism can offer new and helpful approaches to the parables but that it needs to be combined with an existential interpretation. He moves on to make metaphor theory fruitful for parable studies and thereby offers a new, interpretive vision of the parables of Jesus. Understood as metaphorical narratives, the parables are said to offer a new vision of reality. Ricoeur argues, moreover, that, as limit‐expressions, the parables refer to limit‐experiences of human life, including death, suffering, guilt, and hatred. Throughout the essay, Ricoeur emphasizes the limitations of historical criticism and calls for a more comprehensive interpretive theory.Less
This chapter turns to Paul Ricoeur's contributions to American New Testament parable studies in the 1970s. In his essay “Biblical Hermeneutics,” Ricoeur argues that structuralism can offer new and helpful approaches to the parables but that it needs to be combined with an existential interpretation. He moves on to make metaphor theory fruitful for parable studies and thereby offers a new, interpretive vision of the parables of Jesus. Understood as metaphorical narratives, the parables are said to offer a new vision of reality. Ricoeur argues, moreover, that, as limit‐expressions, the parables refer to limit‐experiences of human life, including death, suffering, guilt, and hatred. Throughout the essay, Ricoeur emphasizes the limitations of historical criticism and calls for a more comprehensive interpretive theory.
Randall Fuller
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195313925
- eISBN:
- 9780199787753
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195313925.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter examines the way in which Emerson has exerted tremendous imaginative influence over 20th-century literary critics, causing them to place his “American Scholar” at the center of their ...
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This chapter examines the way in which Emerson has exerted tremendous imaginative influence over 20th-century literary critics, causing them to place his “American Scholar” at the center of their intellectual and cultural projects to remake America by redirecting the way it considered its past. Emerson's little-known involvement with the 1834 New York elections reveals how he assimilates political language so as to trope it. This innovative troping resists coercive and conventional modes of thought and discourse, but has also led to critical misreadings as to the social efficacy of Emerson's writing.Less
This chapter examines the way in which Emerson has exerted tremendous imaginative influence over 20th-century literary critics, causing them to place his “American Scholar” at the center of their intellectual and cultural projects to remake America by redirecting the way it considered its past. Emerson's little-known involvement with the 1834 New York elections reveals how he assimilates political language so as to trope it. This innovative troping resists coercive and conventional modes of thought and discourse, but has also led to critical misreadings as to the social efficacy of Emerson's writing.
Jerome J. McGann
- Published in print:
- 1988
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198117506
- eISBN:
- 9780191670961
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198117506.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
As well as exploring the fault-lines marking the various kinds of historical literary studies from the New Criticism to Post-Structuralism, this book develops a fully elaborated socio-historical ...
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As well as exploring the fault-lines marking the various kinds of historical literary studies from the New Criticism to Post-Structuralism, this book develops a fully elaborated socio-historical criticism for literary works. It achieves this by means of four special sets of investigations: into the relation between the so-called ‘autonomous’ poem and its political/historical contexts; into the relation of reception and history to literary interpretation; into the problems of canon and the characterisation of period; and, finally, into the ideological dimensions of both literary works and the criticism of such works. Whilst focusing largely on 19th-century works — among them those of Keats, Byron, Tennyson, and Christina Rossetti — its arguments are applicable to literary studies in general, and its emphasis throughout is theoretical and methodological.Less
As well as exploring the fault-lines marking the various kinds of historical literary studies from the New Criticism to Post-Structuralism, this book develops a fully elaborated socio-historical criticism for literary works. It achieves this by means of four special sets of investigations: into the relation between the so-called ‘autonomous’ poem and its political/historical contexts; into the relation of reception and history to literary interpretation; into the problems of canon and the characterisation of period; and, finally, into the ideological dimensions of both literary works and the criticism of such works. Whilst focusing largely on 19th-century works — among them those of Keats, Byron, Tennyson, and Christina Rossetti — its arguments are applicable to literary studies in general, and its emphasis throughout is theoretical and methodological.
Alvin Plantinga
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199812097
- eISBN:
- 9780199928590
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199812097.003.0005
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion
In the areas of evolutionary psychology and scientific scripture scholarship (also known as historical Biblical criticism) there are claims and assertions incompatible with theistic or Christian ...
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In the areas of evolutionary psychology and scientific scripture scholarship (also known as historical Biblical criticism) there are claims and assertions incompatible with theistic or Christian belief. This chapter argues that even though Christians are committed to a high view of science, and even if these disciplines do constitute science or good science, these developments in evolutionary psychology and historical Biblical criticism do not offer, or even threaten to offer, defeaters for Christian or theistic belief. Hence there is conflict, but it is merely superficial.Less
In the areas of evolutionary psychology and scientific scripture scholarship (also known as historical Biblical criticism) there are claims and assertions incompatible with theistic or Christian belief. This chapter argues that even though Christians are committed to a high view of science, and even if these disciplines do constitute science or good science, these developments in evolutionary psychology and historical Biblical criticism do not offer, or even threaten to offer, defeaters for Christian or theistic belief. Hence there is conflict, but it is merely superficial.
George A. Kennedy
- Published in print:
- 1984
- Published Online:
- July 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780807841204
- eISBN:
- 9781469616261
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/9781469616254_Kennedy
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Archaeology: Classical
This book provides readers of the Bible with an important tool for understanding the Scriptures. Based on the theory and practice of Greek rhetoric in the New Testament, the book's approach ...
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This book provides readers of the Bible with an important tool for understanding the Scriptures. Based on the theory and practice of Greek rhetoric in the New Testament, the book's approach acknowledges that New Testament writers wrote to persuade an audience of the truth of their messages. These writers employed rhetorical conventions that were widely known and imitated in the society of the times. Sometimes confirming but often challenging common interpretations of texts, this is a systematic study of the rhetorical composition of the New Testament. As a complement to form criticism, historical criticism, and other methods of biblical analysis, rhetorical criticism focuses on the text as we have it, and seeks to discover the basis of its powerful appeal and the intent of its authors. The book shows that biblical writers employed both “external” modes of persuasion, such as scriptural authority, the evidence of miracles, and the testimony of witnesses, and “internal” methods, such as ethos (authority and character of the speaker), pathos (emotional appeal to the audience), and logos (deductive and inductive argument in the text). The first chapter presents a survey of how rhetoric was taught in the New Testament period and outlines a rigorous method of rhetorical criticism that involves a series of steps. The book provides in succeeding chapters examples of rhetorical analysis, including close looks at the Sermon on the Mount, the Sermon on the Plain, Jesus's farewell to the disciples in John's Gospel, and the distinctive rhetoric of Jesus.Less
This book provides readers of the Bible with an important tool for understanding the Scriptures. Based on the theory and practice of Greek rhetoric in the New Testament, the book's approach acknowledges that New Testament writers wrote to persuade an audience of the truth of their messages. These writers employed rhetorical conventions that were widely known and imitated in the society of the times. Sometimes confirming but often challenging common interpretations of texts, this is a systematic study of the rhetorical composition of the New Testament. As a complement to form criticism, historical criticism, and other methods of biblical analysis, rhetorical criticism focuses on the text as we have it, and seeks to discover the basis of its powerful appeal and the intent of its authors. The book shows that biblical writers employed both “external” modes of persuasion, such as scriptural authority, the evidence of miracles, and the testimony of witnesses, and “internal” methods, such as ethos (authority and character of the speaker), pathos (emotional appeal to the audience), and logos (deductive and inductive argument in the text). The first chapter presents a survey of how rhetoric was taught in the New Testament period and outlines a rigorous method of rhetorical criticism that involves a series of steps. The book provides in succeeding chapters examples of rhetorical analysis, including close looks at the Sermon on the Mount, the Sermon on the Plain, Jesus's farewell to the disciples in John's Gospel, and the distinctive rhetoric of Jesus.
