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 21 C / Ordinary 26 C / Pentecost +18
September 26, 2010
Amos 6
Greer, Jonathan S., "A Marzeah and a Mizraq: A Prophet's Mêlée with Religious Diversity in Amos 6:4-7," Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, 2007.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials
Abstract: “This article supports the hypothesis that the feast described in Amos 6.4-7 was a religious event, even a marzeah banquet. The loungers' practice of drinking from mizraq vessels is singled out as a definitively syncretistic practice adopted from the nations around them. Epigraphic and iconographie evidence is used to illustrate the prevalence of drinking from ritual vessels at cultic banquets in the ancient Near East, thus explaining the ready incorporation of such a custom by the Samarían elite and bringing greater clarity to Amos's denouncement.”
O'Connor, Kathleen M., "Repentance in First-Person Plural," Journal for Preachers, 2008.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials
A 2008 sermon about Amos, by Kathleen M. O’Connor. Although this sermon was prepared for the Lenten season, there are interesting interpretations and illustrations here. “In those days to come, everyone will be fed; everyone will partake in the riches of the land. This Utopian vision stands as promise that God's people live in a world intended for all and that God is acting to save and restore. This vision anticipates life, renewed, regenerated, and recreated for us all in the plural.”
Simundson, Daniel J., "Reading Amos: Is It an Advantage to Be God's Special People?" Word & World, 2008.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials
“Amos speaks a difficult word to those who believe they have a special claim on God because God has a unique, covenantal relationship with them. To be chosen by God is no reason for self-satisfaction or self-righteousness. God has called us for mission, not privilege.”
Psalm 91
Gaiser, Frederick J., "'It Shall Not Reach You': Talisman or Vocation? Reading Psalm 91 in Time of War," Word & World, 2005.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials
“God's protection as announced in Ps 91 might be misunderstood as a magical shield, keeping me from all harm—or it might be received as a gift that enables me to give myself in service of the neighbor.”
Luke 16
Adewale, Olubiyi Adeniyi, "An Afro-Sociological Application of the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31)," Black Theology, 2006.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials
Abstract: “The main objective of this paper is to interpret the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus from the African perspective which the author believes is very close to the first-century Palestinian world-view and to look at its sociological implications for the contemporary African believer and Church. In doing this, the paper briefly examines the interpretation given the parable by some Western scholars before analyzing the parable based on its context. The sociological implication is therefore that since the Rich Man was actually condemned for neglecting the poor Lazarus when he could have been of help, then the contemporary African Church should take care not to neglect the poor in her midst, but take its stand in the struggle against oppression and poverty. It also gives a veiled warning to the Western Church which appears complacent and unruffled about the plight of their covenant brethren in Africa.”
Gowler, David B., "'At His Gate Lay a Poor Man': A Dialogic Reading of Luke 16:19-31," Perspectives in Religious Studies, 2005.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials
“In this essay, I will analyze the literary context and function of the parable, possible intertextual connections between the parable and similar stories in the ancient world, the social and cultural implications of the story, and some ideological elements of the parable. In this way, some of the dialogues between text, culture, and ideology in Luke 16:19-31 can be explored.”
Honeycutt, Frank G., "Hellish Indifference," Journal for Preachers, 2005. Sermon.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials
Sermon from 2005. “Jesus knew. The threat of hell will not change us. And ditto the promise of heaven. But perhaps something will. As we immerse our lives in this old story, allowing the pages of Scripture to shape and form us over time, something happens. We slowly come to our senses in a world of much greed. With Jesus as our guide, we can say with Paul today: "For we brought nothing into the world, so that we can take nothing out of it; but if we have food and clothing, we will be content with these." We open wide our hands once closed in fear, mistrust, and perhaps indifference—a hellish way to live. And perhaps, for the first time, we see a sister or brother, Lazarus at our gate. Or, as a certain prophet once put it: Jesus at our gate.”
Comments