The First World War And The Mobilization Of Biblical Scholarship

This fascinating collection of essays charts, for the first time, the range of responses by scholars on both sides of the conflict to the outbreak of war in August 1914. The volume examines how biblical scholars, like their compatriots from every walk of life, responded to the great crisis they faced, and, with relatively few exceptions, were keen to contribute to the war effort. Some joined up as soldiers. More commonly, however, biblical scholars and theologians put pen to paper as part of the torrent of patriotic publication that arose both in the United Kingdom and in Germany. The contributors reveal that, in many cases, scholars were repeating or refining common arguments about the responsibility for the war. In Germany and Britain, where the Bible was still central to a Protestant national culture, we also find numerous more specialized works, where biblical scholars brought their own disciplinary expertise to bear on the matter of war in general, and this war in particular. The volume's contributors thus offer new insights into the place of both the Bible and biblical scholarship in early 20th-century culture.

The annual Review of Biblical Literature presents a selection of reviews of the most recent books in biblical studies and related fields, including topical monographs, multi-author volumes, reference works, commentaries, and dictionaries. RBL reviews German, French, Italian, and English books and offers reviews in those languages. Features: Reviews of new books written by top scholars Topical divisions make research easy Indexes of authors and editors, reviewers, and publishers

Spirit possession is more commonly associated with late Second Temple Jewish literature and the New Testament than it is with the Hebrew Bible. In Unfamiliar Selves in the Hebrew Bible, however, Reed Carlson argues that possession is also depicted in this earlier literature, though rarely according to the typical western paradigm. This new approach utilizes theoretical models developed by cultural anthropologists and ethnographers of contemporary possession-practicing communities in the global south and its diasporas. Carlson demonstrates how possession in the Bible is a corporate and cultivated practice that can function as social commentary and as a means to model the moral self. The author treats a variety of spirit phenomena in the Hebrew Bible, including spirit language in the Psalms and Job, spirit empowerment in Judges and Samuel, and communal possession in the prophets. Carlson also surveys apotropaic texts and spirit myths in early Jewish literature—including the Dead Sea Scrolls. In this volume, two recent scholarly trends in biblical studies converge: investigations into notions of evil and of the self. The result is a synthesizing project, useful to biblical scholars and those of early Judaism and Christianity alike.

In Apostles of Revolution? Marxism and Biblical Studies, Christina Petterson introduces central topics of Marxist historical analysis, and connects it with the broad history of Marxism as a political movement. Through this lens, she examines biblical scholarship and its engagement with Marxist categories of analysis.

The Oxford Handbook of Postcolonial Biblical Criticism is a comprehensive treatment of a relatively new form of scholarship-one of the most compelling and contested theories to emerge in recent times, and a topic that actively seeks to expand the ways in which the Bible can be studied, interpreted, and applied. Generally speaking, postcolonialism aims to critique and dismantle hegemonic worldviews and power structures, while giving voice to previously marginalized peoples and systems of thought. This approach, often varied in form, has inevitably engaged with the text and reception of the Bible, a scripture that Western colonizers introduced to-and often imposed upon-their colonial subjects. With a globally diverse list of contributors, the Handbook aims to cover the perspective and context of the authors of the Bible, as well as the modern experiences of imperialism, resistance, decolonization, and nationalism. Moreover, the volume includes both a theoretical overview and an exploration of how the field intersects with related areas, such as gender studies, race, postmodernism, and liberation theology.

In A World At War, 1911-1949, scholars of the cultural history of warfare, inspired by the work of Professor John Horne, break down the traditional barriers between the historiographies of the First and Second World Wars.

Leo Baeck (1873–1956) was a famous Jewish thinker and the leader of German Jewry during the Holocaust. This book offers the first interpretation of his religious thought as political, showing how Baeck, along with German-Jewish thought more broadly, cannot be properly understood without the imperial context.

This book examines how the practice of episcopacy in the Church of England and the EKD affects the claim that the 'historic episcopate' is a necessary condition for 'the full interchangeability of ministers'. It addresses four questions relating to the practice of oversight: How have different forms of oversight sought to maintain the apostolic 'historic' faith in history and today? How does the exercise of authority within contemporary societies relate to the pre-modern ideas expressed in the idea of historic episcopate? How has the practice of oversight changed in the light of demographic changes and declining levels of church membership? What are the implications of synodical government and shared oversight for the concept of 'historic episcopate'? The book's goal is to explore whether an interdisciplinary analysis of episcopacy can assist the churches in establishing a new understanding of the "historic episcopate". With papers by Mark Chapman, Jonathan Gibbs, Matthias Grebe, Miriam Haar, Alex Hughes, Frances Knight, Morwenna Ludlow, Ralf Meister, Friederike Nüssel, Bernd Oberdorfer and Peter Scherle.