Wrestling the Word

by Sharp, Carolyn J.

• ISBN13: 9780664230678
• ISBN10: 0664230679
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-11-17
• Publisher: Westminster John Knox Pr

Summary

This book for introductory Old Testament classes offers an appealing illustration of how faith and academic study can work together, motivating and equipping Christian believers to turn to the Old Testament as a profound resource for their daily negotiations of faith, identity, and culture. Throughout, Sharp focuses on the basic fundamentals that are a necessary part of every student's education.

Author Biography

Carolyn J. Sharp is Associate Professor of Hebrew Scriptures at Yale Divinity School in New Haven, Connecticut. She is the author of Old Testament Prophets for Today.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. ix
Introduction	p. xi
Wrestling the Word	p. xiv
Diverse Experiences and Goals of Reading	p. xv
Rereading the Story of Jael and Sisera	p. xvi
What's at Stake in Different Ways of Reading	p. 1
How and Why Do We Read?	p. 2
Every Interpretation Is Shaped by Context	p. 4
Arguing over the Author and History	p. 6
Prior Assumptions and Intuitions	p. 10
The Role of Tradition	p. 12
Historical Inquiry	p. 17
Literary Criticism	p. 22
Reconfiguring Our Notions of History, Text, and Author	p. 29
Julia Kristeva: Intertextuality and Foreignness	p. 31
Emmanuel Lévinas: The Face of the Other and the Interruption of Discourse	p. 37
One Truth or Many Voices? Literary Sources and the Integrity of the Text	p. 45
The Yahwist Doesn't Have Many Friends on Facebook	p. 46
Why Source Criticism?	p. 48
Weaknesses of the Method	p. 50
Around and Around We Go	p. 52
The Elohist's Last Dance	p. 56
Thinking Anew about Multiple Sources	p. 58
Honoring Diverse Witnesses	p. 59
Gratitude for Fruitful Tensions	p. 60
The Ethics of Attending to Different Voices	p. 63
Walter Brueggemann: Testimony and Countertestimony	p. 64
Mikhail Bakhtin: Dialogical Reading	p. 68
Foundational Narratives, History, and Voices from the Margins	p. 77
Bias in Representation	p. 79
The Mystery of Biblical History	p. 81
Influences from Other Ancient Near Eastern Cultures	p. 84
The Potential of Incarnational Theology	p. 88
Diverse Cultural Expressions as Divine Gift	p. 89
Debates about the Historicity of Exodus and Conquest Traditions	p. 90
Dimensions of Truth	p. 96
Redeemed for Obedience	p. 97
Conflicting Assessments of David	p. 100
History with Jael and Sisera	p. 104
Insiders and Outsiders: Boundaries and the Theological Imagination	p. 109
Acknowledging Our Situatedness	p. 111
Liberation and Politics	p. 113
Troubling Scripture Texts	p. 115
Feminist and Womanist Readings	p. 116
African and African American Biblical Hermeneutics	p. 122
Queer Readings	p. 124
Postcolonial Criticism	p. 126
Jael and Sisera: Transgendered and Colonized	p. 129
Wrestling the Word	p. 135
Collaborative Diaspora Theology	p. 135
Constructing and Reconstructing Your Own Reading Strategies	p. 138
Bibliography	p. 141
Scripture Index	p. 149
Subject Index	p. 151
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