[PDF] The Bible And The Benevolent Empire eBook

Author : Richard A. Horsley
Publisher : Westminster John Knox Press
Page : 210 pages
File Size : 47,46 MB
Release : 2008-01-01
Category : Religion
ISBN : 0664232329

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The Bible tells the stories of many empires, and many are still considered some of the largest of the ancient and classical world: the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks, and finally the Romans. In this provocative book, nine experts bring a critical analysis of these world empires in the background of the Old and New Testaments. As they explain, the Bible developedagainstthe context of these empires, providing concrete meaning to the countercultural claims of Jews and Christians that their God was the true King, the real Emperor. Each chapter describes how to read the Bible as a reaction to empire and points to how to respond to the biblical message to resist imperial powers in every age.

Author : Alfred Wagner
Publisher : Aspect Books
Page : 142 pages
File Size : 14,26 MB
Release : 2015-09-30
Category : Religion
ISBN : 1479605867

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What periods of history does the Bible cover? What impact did the Roman Empire have on the world? What people group named the days of the week and the months? How did people communicate in ancient times? How did the worship of ancient gods affect world culture and religion? The history and culture of humanity has been integrated with religion since the beginning of time. The Bible Around and Beyond provides a condensed look at world history, especially the impact of the Roman Empire and the Roman Catholic Church on Christianity and the world we live in today. Read about important biblical and historical characters, locations, and terms; learn about important Bible topics; and examine the history of early civilizations.

Author : C.L. Crouch
Publisher : BRILL
Page : 199 pages
File Size : 38,16 MB
Release : 2013-11-29
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9004259120

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In In the Name of God biblical scholars and historians begin the exciting work of deconstructing British and Spanish imperial usage of the Bible as well as the use of the Bible to counteract imperialism. Six essays explore the intersections of political movements and biblical exegesis. Individual contributions examine English political theorists' use of the Bible in the context of secularisation, analyse the theological discussion of discoveries in the New World in a context of fraught Jewish-Christian relations in Europe and dissect millennarian preaching in the lead up to the Crimean War. Others investigate the anti-imperialist use of the Bible in southern Africa, compare Spanish and British biblicisation techniques and trace the effects of biblically-rooted articulations of nationalism on the development of Hinduism's relationship to the Vedas. Contributors include: Yvonne Sherwood, Ana Valdez, Mark Somos, Andrew Mein, Hendrik Bosman and Hugh Pyper.

Author : Paul C. Gutjahr
Publisher : Stanford University Press
Page : 292 pages
File Size : 36,93 MB
Release : 1999
Category : History
ISBN : 9780804743396

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"An American Bible is an extremely compelling piece of cultural history that succeeds in making rich rather than schematic sense of the major dramas that lay behind the production of over 1,700 different American editions of the Bible in the century after the American Revolution. Gutjahr's book is especially powerful in demonstrating how nineteenth-century efforts to purge the Bible of textual and translational impurities in search of an 'authentic' text led ironically to the emergence of entirely new gospels like the Book of Mormon and the massive fictionalized literature dealing with the life of Christ." --Jay Fliegelman, Stanford University During the first three-quarters of the nineteenth century, American publishing experienced unprecedented, exponential growth. An emerging market economy, widespread religious revival, educational reforms, and innovations in print technology worked together to create a culture increasingly formed and framed by the power of print. At the center of this new culture was the Bible, the book that has been called "the best seller" in American publishing history. Yet it is important to realize that the Bible in America was not a simple, uniform entity. First printed in the United States during the American Revolution, the Bible underwent many revisions, translations, and changes in format as different editors and publishers appropriated it to meet a wide range of changing ideological and economic demands. This book examines how many different constituencies (both secular and religious) fought to keep the Bible the preeminent text in the United States as the country's print marketplace experienced explosive growth. The author shows how these heated battles had profound consequences for many American cultural practices and forms of printed material. By exploring how publishers, clergymen, politicians, educators, and lay persons met the threat that new printed material posed to the dominance of the Bible by changing both its form and its contents, the author reveals the causes and consequences of mutating God's supposedly immutable Word.

Author : Berry Friesen
Publisher : WWW.Bible-And-Empire.Net
Page : 354 pages
File Size : 17,33 MB
Release : 2014-12
Category : Bible
ISBN : 9780692344781

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In this thoughtful and systematic exploration, Friesen and Stoner understand the Bible to be an extended argument about life, love and power. In the various biblical texts, this argument presents two versions of the Hebrew god, one who aligns with kings and the religious establishment, the other who makes a fool of kings and aligns with everyday people. Through discussion of each biblical text, the authors highlight how this argument plays out in the history of the Israelites, the prophetic attempts to articulate an alternative to the nation-state, the life and teachings of Jesus, and the multi-ethnic community that emerged after Jesus' death. Written in a popular style, the book serves as a concise and sometimes irreverent introduction to the entire Bible while demonstrating its immediate relevance to the problems of violence, insecurity and injustice. Through frequent quotations of scripture, the reader is encouraged to recognize the imperial worldview as the source of what most threatens Earth's future and to imagine an alternative to top-down rule by powerful elites. Although written primarily for readers who view the Bible as literature, the book reflects the authors' faith and provides a fresh reading for people who regard the Bible to be much more than literature. This attempt to respect both approaches is facilitated by a discussion of seven assumptions held by biblical writers, but likely not held by modern readers. With these assumptions in mind, the reader is better prepared to make sense of texts that are not only very old, but also highly relevant to decisions we must make about whether we will continue to place our faith in the empire's answers.

Author : R. S. Sugirtharajah
Publisher :
Page : 255 pages
File Size : 23,27 MB
Release : 2005-09
Category : History
ISBN : 0511123809

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Sugirtharajah explores the complex relationship between the Bible and the colonial enterprise.

Author : David N. Gellman
Publisher : Cornell University Press
Page : 542 pages
File Size : 21,56 MB
Release : 2022-04-15
Category : History
ISBN : 1501715860

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In Liberty's Chain, David N. Gellman shows how the Jay family, abolitionists and slaveholders alike, embodied the contradictions of the revolutionary age. The Jays of New York were a preeminent founding family. John Jay, diplomat, Supreme Court justice, and coauthor of the Federalist Papers, and his children and grandchildren helped chart the course of the Early American Republic. Liberty's Chain forges a new path for thinking about slavery and the nation's founding. John Jay served as the inaugural president of a pioneering antislavery society. His descendants, especially his son William Jay and his grandson John Jay II, embraced radical abolitionism in the nineteenth century, the cause most likely to rend the nation. The scorn of their elite peers—and racist mobs—did not deter their commitment to end southern slavery and to combat northern injustice. John Jay's personal dealings with African Americans ranged from callousness to caring. Across the generations, even as prominent Jays decried human servitude, enslaved people and formerly enslaved people served in Jay households. Abbe, Clarinda, Caesar Valentine, Zilpah Montgomery, and others lived difficult, often isolated, lives that tested their courage and the Jay family's principles. The personal and the political intersect in this saga, as Gellman charts American values transmitted and transformed from the colonial and revolutionary eras to the Civil War, Reconstruction, and beyond. The Jays, as well as those who served them, demonstrated the elusiveness and the vitality of liberty's legacy. This remarkable family story forces us to grapple with what we mean by patriotism, conservatism, and radicalism. Their story speaks directly to our own divided times.

Author : John Dominic Crossan
Publisher : Harper Collins
Page : 276 pages
File Size : 16,29 MB
Release : 2009-03-17
Category : Religion
ISBN : 006174428X

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The bestselling author and prominent New Testament scholar draws parallels between 1st–century Roman Empire and 21st–century United States, showing how the radical messages of Jesus and Paul can lead us to peace today Using the tools of expert biblical scholarship and a keen eye for current events, bestselling author John Dominic Crossan deftly presents the tensions exhibited in the Bible between political power and God’s justice. Through the revolutionary messages of Jesus and Paul, Crossan reveals what the Bible has to say about land and economy, violence and retribution, justice and peace, and ultimately, redemption. He examines the meaning of “kingdom of God” prophesized by Jesus, and the equality recommended to Paul by his churches, contrasting these messages of peace against the misinterpreted apocalyptic vision from the book of Revelations, that has been co-opted by modern right-wing theologians and televangelists to justify the United State’s military actions in the Middle East.

Author : Wes Howard-Brook
Publisher : Orbis Books
Page : 545 pages
File Size : 34,34 MB
Release : 2010
Category : Religion
ISBN : 1608331547

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A compelling view of two competing religious visions---one of "creation" and the other of "empire"---that run throughout the Bible. "A remarkable offering for those who care about the interface of power and faith with all the threats and seductions that go with it. . . As I read, I felt overwhelmed, both by the mass of data and by the cunning of interpretation. I could not put it down, and expect to continue to be instructed by it.---Walter Brueggemann "Howard-Brook undertakes what few dare anymore: an introductory primer for the whole Bible...This book invites disciples to `connect the dots', in order to recover our ancient, anti-imperial identity, and to embrace a radical faith and practice that are personal and politica."---Ched Myers "Howard-Brook illuminates how ancient empires exercised control and manipulation of people not simply by political and military means, but also through the religion of empire. Throughout he makes clear that the core message of the God of creation is to call people out of empire, to refuse to cooperate with the forces of destruction and domination today."---Richard Horsley "Will become a classic for communities that seek first to receive the gracious gift of God's alternative future to Empire."---Jarrod McKenna "If we who sojourn in America are to be a community that can both name and resist the lure of Empire, we need a story more powerful than the story called America. Wes Howard-Brook knows than the Bible tells such a story. May its story be ours as we're set free from our imperial imaginations to dream with our Creator of a new world here and now."---Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove