ATLAS recommendations for August 8, 2010

Here are some starting places for study at ATLA this week. If you are the graduate of an accredited U.S. theological school, you may have free access to these articles through your school. Check ATLAS access options. You can find full lists of ATLAS recommended articles for this week at The Text This Week.

 

Proper 14C / Ordinary 19C / Pentecost +11

August 8, 2010

Isaiah 1

Landy, Francis, "Torah and Anti-Torah: Isaiah 2:2-4 and 1:10-26," Biblical Interpretation, 2003.
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This is a look at Isaiah 2 through the lens of Isaiah 1:10-26. Abstract: “The Utopian vision of Isaiah 2:1-4 is a new beginning of the book, intimately related to and absolutely distinct from the first beginning in ch. 1. The two beginnings represent the two voices of the book, whose irreconcilability is its major structural problem. At the centre of the Edenic vision of Zion is a female subject and language, Torah, in whose maternal embrace all nations renounce their phallic rivalries. Torah, however, is paired with a male subject, the word of YHWH, and with the divine authority that judges the peoples. The Torah of 2:3 may be compared to the female figures of ch. 1, and to the condemnatory Torah addressed to the people in 1:10. The Torah of 2:3 is presumably equivalent to the Torah in 1:10, and adumbrates the message of that chapter. It is that to which the sons fail to listen in 1:2, and which is addressed to heaven and earth at the beginning of the book. At the same time it is an anti-Torah, since that which is rejected is conventional Torah, the sacrificial and festive system. The maternal space of Zion, which is also that of divine alimentation, has become a scene of disgust, which may be associated with Kristeva's conception of abjection. The climax of these images for Zion is the prostitute in 1:21, which exemplifies marginality. For the heterological critic, however, the prostitute is the paradigmatic marginal figure against whose exploitation the prophet protests. The figure of the prostitute is transformed into that of the widow and hence the pristine daughter of Zion and the bride of God.”

Psalm 50

Gaiser, Frederick J., "The David of Psalm 51: Reading Psalm 51 in Light of Psalm 50," Word & World, 2003.
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Again, a look at another text through the lens of this text. “With clear thematic and literary connections, Ps 50 sets up Ps 51, providing the accusation and call to repentance that produce the confession of David and Israel in Ps 51. Reading Ps 51 in the light ofPs 50 enhances its meaning for us, calling us to task for our failures and our attempts to manipulate God to our advantage while announcing the steadfast love of God that promises genuine renewal.”

Whitekettle, Richard, "Forensic Zoology: Animal Taxonomy and Rhetorical Persuasion in Psalm 50," Vetus Testamentum, 2008.
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Abstract: “Ps. 19-11 and 12 refute the Israelite belief that God needed their sacrificial animals by explaining that God already possessed animals. In Ps. 1 9-11, the bulls and goats the Israelites sacrifice to God (verse 9) are juxtaposed with four types of animals that God possesses (verses 10-11). The juxtaposition of a sacrificial animal with God's extensive zoological wealth made it clear that God did not need a sacrificial animal. In the broader context of Ps. 19-12, these four types of animals are the middle elements in a three-part progression of animals: bulls/goats (verse 9) -* four types of animals (verses 10-11) -» all animals/everything (verse 12). This progression generated a robust grasp and active affirmation of the exhaustive extent of God's zoological wealth, a heightened sense of the inadequacy of a sacrificial animal, and a sense of divine agitation which chastened the Israelites for their misunderstanding of the nature and character of God.”

Hebrews 11

Abraham, Wiliam J., "Faith, Assurance, and Conviction: An Epistemological Commentary on Hebrews 11:1," Ex Auditu, 2003.
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An epistemological look at Hebrews 11:1. “Central to that text is this epistemological insight: faith is grounded in a divine revelation that is worthy of assent, that is discerned by spiritually sensitive faculties, that is authenticated by signs, wonders, miracles, and the work of the Spirit, that is confirmed by cross-generational testimony and by deliverance from sin, and that is nourished and sustained in a community of worship and praise. Such faith rightly provides a basis for full assurance and lasting conviction. Faith is indeed ‘the assurance for things hoped for, the conviction of things unseen.’”

Moltmann, Jürgen, "Control Is Good -- Trust Is Better: Freedom and Security in a 'Free World,'" Theology Today, 2006.
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“Trust is the necessary habitat of freedom, its living-space.”

Luke 12

Carter, Kenneth H., Jr., "Treasure Chest," The Christian Century, 2007.
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“The call is clear: be prepared, light the lantern, wake up, get ready. The audit is scheduled; the date and time are unknown to us, but the Son of Man is coming soon. Our security is finally not in the stock market, which goes up and down; or in the government, which rises and falls; or in the corporation, which splits and merges and restructures. Instead, we would do well to learn from the ravens—they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet God feeds them (12:24). Their patterns of behavior teach us that life is a gift, a gift to be shared, a gift to be treasured. Our true security lies in the grasp of a fundamental truth: the reign of God is near, closer than we realize.”

Comments

[David Lupo]

Thanks!!