The Torah And The Stoics On Humankind And Nature

The environmental problematique is intimately bound up with deep-seated human attitudes regarding our relationship with nature. Here in the west those attitudes have been shaped to no small degree by the canonical texts of the Bible and the classical philosophers. In this book the author re-examines some of these seminal texts, arguing that what we today know as 'Christian cosmology' is in fact a grafting of classical Greek philosophy onto ancient Israelite thought, with certain valuable traditions being all but lost in the process. The dietary laws of Leviticus and Deuteronomy, in particular, still prove surprisingly relevant today. Often misread on this point, the creation narratives of Genesis can likewise serve as a rich point of departure for examining our attitudes towards the natural world. A reappraisal of these sources is necessary and feasible. There is no need for an appeal to cosmologies alien to our own culture, nor for recourse to 'New Age' beliefs in all their variety.

Too long restricted to children's storybooks and cinematic extravaganzas, the Torah -- comprising the first five books of the Bible -- is an underappreciated mother lode of divine instruction, vitally important for Christians and the church. Convinced that both those who take the Torah too literally and those who neglect it are guilty of a naïve simplicity, Johanna van Wijk-Bos presents guidelines to help ordinary Christians recover this treasure in their faith and practice. Having lived in the Netherlands during the Nazi occupation, van Wijk-Bos recognizes that after the attempted annihilation of the Jews from Christian Europe, it cannot be business as usual for Christianity. In light of the Holocaust, Christians must commit themselves to the restoration of just relations between Christians and Jews. This commitment to address all that fractures human relations undergirds van Wijk-Bos's call for Christians to reengage the Torah. Making Wise the Simple points out how God's care for and engagement with the whole world in the Torah set the tone for the entire biblical story. The book pays special attention to how our treatment of strangers lies at the heart of the Torah's teaching. Without attempting a purely Jewish reading of the Torah, van Wijk-Bos reclaims the Torah as a vibrant word for the Christian community in covenant with God. Written in a personal style conversant with current scholarship but sprinkled with anecdotes, this book is for everyone who has a hunger and enthusiasm for what the biblical text may convey, the courage to ask disturbing questions of the text, and an openness to old words that may bring forth new things, perhaps even making one wise.

This book addresses common doubts and concerns Christians have concerning God and the Bible, including: claims from the 'New Atheism'; disputes over Bible archaeology; questions about the historical accuracy of the Bible; questions about the original texts of the Old and New Testament; questions about what the Bible really teaches concerning topics such as baptism, heaven and hell, satan and demons; questions about the value and relevance of the Bible's moral and ethical teachings.

The last two decades have seen the emergence of a new field of academic study that examines the interaction between religion and ecology. Theologians from every religious tradition have confronted world religions past attitudes towards nature and acknowledged their own faiths complicity in the environmental crisis. Out of this confrontation have been born vital new theologies based in the recovery of marginalized elements of tradition, profound criticisms of the past, and ecologically oriented visions of God, the Sacred, the Earth, and human beings. The proposed handbook will serve as the definitive overview of these exciting new developments. Divided into three main sections, the books essays will reflect the three dominant dimensions of the field. Part one will explore traditional religious concepts of and attitudes towards nature and how these have been changed by the environmental crisis. Part II looks at larger conceptual issues that transcend individual traditions. Part III will examine religious participation in environmental politics.

Kabbalah and Ecology resets the conversation about ecology and the Abrahamic traditions. David Mevorach Seidenberg challenges the anthropocentric reading of the Torah, showing that a radically different orientation to the more-than-human world of nature leads to a more accurate interpretation of scripture, rabbinic texts, Maimonides, and Kabbalah.

Leading scholars reflect critically on the kinds of appeal to the Bible that have been made in environmental ethics and ecotheoloogy and engage with biblical texts with a view towards exploring their contribution to an ecological ethics. The essays explore the kind of hermeneutic necessary for such engagement to be fruitful for contemporary theology and ethics. Crucial to such broad reflection is the bringing together of a range of perspectives: biblical studies, historical theology, hermeneutics, and theological ethics. The thematic coherence of the book is provided by the running focus on the ways in which biblical texts have been, or might be, read. This volume is not about ecotheology, but is instead about ecological hermeneutics. Indeed, some essays show where biblical texts, or particular approaches in the history of interpretation, represent anthropocentric or even anti-ecological moves. One of the overall aims of the book is to suggest how, and why, an ecological hermeneutic might be developed, and the kinds of intepretive choices that are required in such a development.

God created woman and man so that they would be consubstantial and coequal and that they would manifest perfectly counterbalanced complementarity. The relationship of the two halves of humanity was to be one of love, mutuality, and fulfillment. By recovering the Hebraic understanding of God's blueprint for them, both women and men can finally experience the relationship that God designed to be heaven on earth; The God-Designed Two-in-One, Coequal, Counterbalanced Partnership; Designer-Fashioned Woman; Gender Self-Identity and Self-Fulfillment; Spare Ribs and Afterthoughts?' Marriage as Heaven on Earth. \Whatever your race, ethnicity, gender, faith, or social status, this book and the other volumes in this series will literally set you free from misconceptions that have long perverted relationships between women and men. As you reconnect with the Hebraic foundations of your faith, you will rediscover God's original design for humanity, and you will come to understand, respect, and honor the different God-designed distinctives, preferences, and roles for women and men that counterbalance and complement each other in mutuality and love.

Diese Festschrift ehrt den Alttestamentler James Alfred Loader, der, von der Universität von Pretoria und der UNISA herkommend, seit 1997 an der Universität Wien lehrt. Weisheit und Schöpfung markieren zwei wichtige Kristallisationspunkte seiner Forschungen und der Alttestamentlichen Wissenschaft insgesamt. Der internationale Sammelband enthält sechs deutsche und acht englische Beiträge von alttestamentlichen Forscherinnen und Forschern aus Europa (Deutschland, England, Finnland, Niederlande, Österreich, Schottland, Schweiz), den USA und Südafrika. Sie untersuchen das Spannungsfeld von Weisheit und Schöpfung anhand ausgewählter Textbeispiele aus Genesis 1, einzelnen Psalmen, Hiob, Kohelet, Proverbien und Sapientia Salomonis. Sie gehen Fragen der Metaphorik und der Rezeption von Weisheit und Schöpfung nach, sei es in der Umwelt Israels, im Neuen Testament oder in der späteren jüdischen und christlichen Auslegungsgeschichte, und thematisieren Bezüge zu Anthropologie und Ökologie.