The Children of Israel: Reading the Bible for the Sake of Our Children

by Fewell, Danna Nolan

• ISBN13: 9780687084142
• ISBN10: 0687084148
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-09-01
• Publisher: Abingdon Pr

Summary

In The Children of Israel , Danna Nolan Fewell explores how imaginative readings of selected scriptural texts might raise adult consciousness and responsibility toward children. Through stories, quotes, vignettes, and notes, Fewell provides different kinds of reading experiences, with different levels of coherence and disjunction, depending on how much the reader decides to delve into the critical apparatus or the framing dialogues. This work is designed to unsettle, to plant suggestions and questions, and to create space for reflection and conversation. It is an experiment to see if a postmodern reading of the Bible can provide a credible ethical vision that can inspire us to do a better job of caring for our children."The ways in which Fewell addresses the theme is inspiring. The text is imaginatively crafted and skillfully written." --Leslie J. Francis, from The Expository Times , volume 116, Number 8, May 2005

Author Biography

Danna Nolan Fewell is Professor of Hebrew Bible, Drew Theological School.

Table of Contents

Foreword	9	(4)
Acknowledgments	13	(6)
PART I: CHILDREN BETWEEN THE LINES AND ON THE MARGINS
Reading the Bible for the Sake of Our Children	19	(24)
Chapter One: The Other Woman and the Other Child (Genesis 16 and 21)	43	(12)
Chapter Two: Other Women and Other Children Revisited (Ezra 9-10; Nehemiah 13:23-31; Genesis 12-34)	55	(12)
Chapter Three: The Children from the Other Side of the River (Judges 10-11)	67	(18)
Chapter Four: The Gift (2 Kings 4:8-37)	85	(20)
PART II: HEROES OF THEIR OWN LIVES, REDEEMERS OF THEIR OWN WORLDS
Children of the Book	105	(12)
Chapter Five: Resisting Daniel (Daniel 1; the Book of Lamentations)	117	(16)
Chapter Six: Nice Girls Do (The Book of Esther)	133	(64)
Chapter Seven: Hannah's Song (Judges 19-21;1 Samuel 1-3)	197	(30)
A Prayer (In the Spirit of Isaiah 11)	227	(2)
Bibliography	229	(8)
Index	237