Transformative Readings Of Sacred Scriptures

The interpretation of sacred scriptures engenders vivid debates in religious communities, both at the scholarly and grass-roots levels. Issues of debate are the hermeneutical assumptions, the methods of interpretation, and the constructive and harmful implications of certain readings. For Christian and Muslim communities, themes related to God's grace, violence, gender relations and ecology, are topical. As scholars from different contexts and faith backgrounds together interpret sacred texts they gain fresh insights into their meaning and their transformative dynamics. Essays by authors with expertise in scriptural interpretation, religious studies, pastoral care, philosophical theology, gender studies and pedagogy explore Christian and Muslim perspectives on scriptural interpretation, and discuss how to understand how God communicates with the world today. [Heilige Schriften heute verstehen. Christen und Muslime im Dialog] Die Interpretation heiliger Schriften löst lebhafte Debatten innerhalb der Religionsgemeinschaften aus, sowohl unter Gelehrten wie an der Basis. Diskutiert werden die hermeneutischen Grundannahmen, die Methoden der Interpretation und die konstruktiven und destruktiven Wirkungen bestimmter Lesarten. Für Christen und Muslime sind Themen wie Gottes Gnade, Gewalt, Geschlechterverhältnisse und Ökologie aktuell geworden. Indem die Gelehrten aus verschiedenen Kontexten und mit unterschiedlicher Religionszugehörigkeit gemeinsam die Interpretation heiliger Texte diskutieren, gewinnen sie neue Einsichten in ihre Bedeutung und ihre transformative Dynamik. Die Autorinnen und Autoren mit ihrem jeweiligen Fachwissen in Exegese, Religionswissenschaft, Seelsorge, philosophischer Theologie, Gender Studies und Pädagogik erforschen christliche und muslimische Perspektiven auf Schriftinterpretation und erörtern, wie Gottes Kommunikation mit der Welt heute verstanden werden kann.

The interpretation of sacred scriptures engenders vivid debates in religious communities, both at the scholarly and grass-roots levels. Issues of debate are the hermeneutical assumptions, the methods of interpretation, and the constructive and harmful implications of certain readings. For Christian and Muslim communities, themes related to God's grace, violence, gender relations and ecology, are topical. As scholars from different contexts and faith backgrounds together interpret sacred texts they gain fresh insights into their meaning and their transformative dynamics. Essays by authors with expertise in scriptural interpretation, religious studies, pastoral care, philosophical theology, gender studies and pedagogy explore Christian and Muslim perspectives on scriptural interpretation, and discuss how to understand how God communicates with the world today.

As Christians, we believe that Jesus has invited us into a new kind of life with him—one that is full, free, and for others. And yet many of us don’t actually experience this promised life. We continue to act out of fear, withhold grace, refuse forgiveness, drown in worry, return to old habits, tolerate distraction, and harbor a desire to be right. While inspirational stories abound in our world and fill the devotional books on our shelves and apps on our phones, inspiration does not equal transformation. Transformation only happens when we open ourselves in God’s presence and align with His work in us and the world. But many of us just don’t know how to do this or where to begin. This book provides a way. Sacred Questions invites readers into a daily personal practice of reading Scripture and responding to questions arising from the text about God, themselves, and others. Guiding readers over a yearlong journey into an open posture and daily heart examination and reflection, the book helps them see themselves more clearly, understand more about who God is, break patterns of sin, and grow in forgiveness and love. One day at a time, readers learn how to partner with God in their transformation into Christlikeness and live the full, free, and others-centered life Jesus offers.

"On behalf of The Lutheran World Federation-a communion of churches."

In many places in the Western world, churchgoing is in decline and it cannot be assumed that people have a good grasp of the Bible's content. In this evolving situation, how would "the person on the street" read the Bible? Reading the Bible Outside the Church begins to answer this question. David Ford spent ten months at a chemical industrial plant providing non-churchgoing men with the opportunity to read and respond to five different biblical texts. Using an in-depth qualitative methodology, he charts how their prior experiences of religion, sense of (non)religious identity, attitudes towards the Bible, and beliefs about the Bible all shaped the readings that occurred.

Engage the delightful and inspiring, sometimes rough and rocky road to inclusive and transformative Bible reading This book offers the results of research within a new area of discipline—empirical hermeneutics in intercultural perspective. The book includes interpretations from the homeless in Amsterdam, to Indonesia, from African Xhosa readers to Norway, to Madagascar, American youths, Germany, Czech Republic, Colombia, and Haitian refugees in the Dominican Republic. Features: Interpretations from ordinary readers in more than twenty-five countries Background introduction with history of the text Discussion of intertextual connections with Greco-Roman authors

Transforming Scriptures is the first sustained treatment of African American women writers' intellectual, even theological, engagements with the book Northrop Frye referred to as the “great code” of Western civilization. Katherine Clay Bassard discusses how such texts respond as a collective “literary witness” to the use of the Bible for purposes of social domination.

An investigation in to where, how and why Luke interacts with Isaiah; focusing on the importance of the servant motif for Luke, in supplying the job description for Jesus' messianic mission and that of his followers.