Ethics And Biblical Narrative

S. Min Chun discusses how to read Old Testament narrative from an ethical perspective. He employs a linguistic and literary approach to Biblical interpretation, using close study of the narrative of Josiah in the book of Kings, and argues that such an approach makes the most of the genre-characteristics of Old Testament narrative.

S. Min Chun discusses how to read Old Testament narrative from an ethical perspective. He employs a linguistic and literary approach to Biblical interpretation, using close study of the narrative of Josiah in the book of Kings, and argues that such an approach makes the most of the genre-characteristics of Old Testament narrative.

How can the stories of the Hebrew Bible be read for their ethical value? Eryl W. Davies uses the narratives of King David in order to explore this, basing his argument on Martha Nussbaum's notion that a sensitive and informed commentary can unpack the complexity of fictional accounts. Davies discusses David and Michal in 1 Sam. 19:11-17; David and Jonathan in 1 Sam. 20; David and Bathsheba in 2 Sam. 11; Nathan's parable in 2 Sam. 12; and the rape of Tamar in 2 Sam. 13. By examining these narratives, Davies shows that a fruitful and constructive dialogue is possible between biblical ethics and modern philosophy. He also emphasizes the ethical accountability of biblical scholars and their responsibility to evaluate the moral teaching that the biblical narratives have to offer.

Christian use of the Old Testament has tended to focus on law and wisdom literature and to marginalize narrative materials. This book restores story to its rightful place in Old Testament ethics and aims to set out parameters within which Christian ethical reappropriations of Old Testament narratives can take place. The argument begins by examining recent philosophical studies of the role of story in the ethical life. Special attention is paid to the work of Paul Ricoer, Martha Nussbaum and Robert C. Roberts. Then the theological foundations are laid by demonstrating the importance of narrative for Old Testament ethics and of the biblical metanarrative for Christian interpretation. Genesis 34 is examined as a detailed case study to exemplify the fruits of the method for Christian readers. The study considers reception history, feminist interpretation, discourse analysis and canonical context to shed new light on the terrible story of the rape of Dinah.

This book proposes a methodological framework for an ethical reading of Old Testament narrative and demonstrates its benefits and validity by providing an exemplary reading of the story of Josiah in Kings. Part One delineates the meaning of "ethical reading" practised in the work. The theoretical framework is critically adopted from Martha Nussbaum. This approach to ethics does not extract general rules out of story, rather it allows the reader to appreciate the world of the story itself, which is analogous with real life. Part Two expounds "synchronic literary criticism anchored in discourse analysis" and elucidates its use for ethical reading of Old Testament narrative. Part Three offers exemplary ethical readings and shows how discourse analysis can help the literary issues such as plot delimitation and characterisation. Through the ethical commentary of the story of Josiah, the theme of contingency in life can be noticed to prevail in the story. When contingency in life is accepted as a real part of the human moral life, understanding of ethics should be enlarged so that it may be coped with properly. Here ethics is understood in terms of practical wisdom that can be used for ethical improvisation for ever-changing situations. The particularities in Old Testament narrative are useful features that make the reader perceptive to the complexity of life and thus train practical wisdom; and the literary and discourse-analytical approach makes the most of the genre-characteristics of Old Testament narrative, which realistically reflects the complexity of moral life.

It is no surprise that the Bible is filled with stories of violence, having come into being through the crucible of trauma, cultural conflict, and warfare. But the more obvious acts of physical or sexual violence in the Hebrew Bible often overshadow its subtler forms throughout Scripture and belie the variety of perspectives on violence embedded in biblical narratives. This hinders readers' ability to recognize the full spectrum of human engagement with violence, both in texts and in their lived experiences. Uncovering Violence: Reading Biblical Narratives as an Ethical Project seeks to provide a theoretical vocabulary for the various forms that violence can take—including textual violence, interpretive violence, moral injury, and slow violence—and to offer a fresh ethical reading of violence in the biblical text. Focusing on four narratives from the Hebrew Bible, Cottrill uses the approach of narrative ethics to lay out the many ways that stories can make moral claims on readers, not by delivering a discrete "lesson" or takeaway but by making transformative contact with readers and involving them in a more embodied dialogue with the text. Exploring the narratives of Jael’s killing of Sisera, the toxic masculinity of Samson, environmental devastation and failures of legal systems in Ruth, and Abigail’s mediation with King David, Uncovering Violence presents strategies for reading that allow for this close encounter. In doing so, it helps prepare readers to better recognize, interpret, and even respond to violence and its many effects within and beyond the text.

Biblical Morality explores a selection of Old Testament narratives, drawing out their views on morality to offer a unique perspective on the meaning of the term 'biblical morality'. When Old Testament stories are read by a number of different readers, diverse cultural meanings emerge; this book argues that any exploration of biblical morality must take into account plurality of meaning and not expect to settle for a single unified reading which produces a one-dimensional personal behavioural ethic.Presenting a study of biblical morality which allows Old Testament stories to stand in their own right as relevant sources, this book allows for the relevance of 'moral boundaries' without drawing these simplistically or narrowly, and offers an accessible examination of biblical morality to all those exploring biblical texts, narrative criticism and morality and ethics more widely.Biblical Studies/Theology/Literary Criticism