CLBSJ Book Series

Over the past few decades the study of biblical economics has developed into an important subfield of biblical studies. This subfield uses textual and archaeological evidence to uncover the economic realities behind biblical literature, resulting in greater understandings of the lives and possible intentions of those individuals and communities that composed these religious texts, and also of their potential relevance (or lack thereof) to the communities that continue to receive them. Economics and Empire in the Roman World has brought together eight scholars of biblical economics to create a repository of what is understood about the socioeconomic realities of those who penned and first received what were to become the Christian scriptures. In addition to serving the research and teaching interests of biblical scholars, this volume has also been created for the benefit of economic historians, anthropologists, and sociologists.

Judah faced radical and rapid societal change as it was absorbed by the Assyrian Empire in the eighth century BCE. But while Judean prophets displayed outrage for the injustices these changes caused, their texts are often devoid of socio-economic context. Identities of perpetrators, victims, and even the nature of their actions are often absent. This book sheds light on those contexts by employing a recurring pattern found around the world and across time as subsistence communities are absorbed into complex economic systems. In addition to outlining this pattern's presence in Judah's archaeological record, Coomber turns the lens in the other direction to gain new insights from a recent example of this pattern's unfolding: Tunisia's absorption into international capitalism. The result is an interpretive tool that asks new questions of ancient prophetic texts, while also revealing threads through which the prophets find voice in addressing a radically different circumstance wi...

In Jesus and the Politics of Roman Palestine, Richard A. Horsley offers one of the most comprehensive critical analyses of Jesus of Nazareth's mission and how he became a significant historical figure. Horsley brings a fuller historical knowledge of the context and implications of recent research to bear on the investigation of the historical Jesus. Breaking with the standard focus on isolated individual sayings of Jesus, Horsley argues that the sources for Jesus in historical interaction are the Gospels and the speeches of Jesus that they include, read critically in their historical context. This work challenges the standard assumptions that the historical Jesus has been presented primarily as a sage or apocalyptic visionary. In contrast, based on a critical reconsideration of the Gospels and contemporary sources for Roman imperial rule in Judea and Galilee, Horsley argues that Jesus was fully involved in the conflicted politics of ancient Palestine. Learning from anthropol...

Healing Haunted Histories tackles the oldest and deepest injustices on the North American continent. Violations which inhabit every intersection of settler and Indigenous worlds, past and present. Wounds inextricably woven into the fabric of our personal and political lives. And it argues we can heal those wounds through the inward and outward journey of decolonization. The authors write as, and for, settlers on this journey, exploring the places, peoples, and spirits that have formed (and deformed) us. They look at issues of Indigenous justice and settler “response-ability” through the lens of Elaine's Mennonite family narrative, tracing Landlines, Bloodlines, and Songlines like a braided river. From Ukrainian steppes to Canadian prairies to California chaparral, they examine her forebearers' immigrant travails and trauma, settler unknowing and complicity, and traditions of resilience and conscience. And they invite readers to do the same. Part memoir, part social, histori...

PART 1: EXAMINING TEXTS 1. Social Drama in the Psalms of Individual Lament 2. Kingship in the Book of Psalms 3. Abusing the Bible: The Case of Deuteronomy 15 4. Do not Fear What They Fear: A Post-9/11 Reflection(Isaiah 8:11-15) 5. The Expropriated and the Expropriators in Nehemiah 5 6. How Do Extrabiblical Sociopolitical Data Illuminate Obscure Biblical Texts? The Case of Ecclesiastes 5:8-9 [Heb. 5:7-8] 7. On the Alleged Wisdom of Kings: An Application of Adorno's Immanent Criticism to Ecclesiastes PART 2: ENGAGING PRACTICES 8. Framing Biblical Interpretation at New York Theological Seminary: A Student Self Inventory on Biblical Hermeneutics 9. Theological Education as a Theory-Praxis Loop: Situating the Book of Joshua in a Cultural, Social Ethical, and Theological Matrix 10. The Bible as Nurturer of Passive and Active Worldviews 11. Biblical Scholarship in Public Discourse 12. On Framing Elections: The Stories We Tell Ourselves 13. Values and Economic Structures

CONTENTS PART 1: THE ORIGINS OF ANCIENT ISRAEL 1. Early Israel as an Anti-Imperial Community 2. The Origins of Israel as a Textual and Theological Problem 3. Models for Envisioning Early Israel 4. Triumphalist versus Anti-Triumphalist Versions of Early Israel: A Response to Articles by Lemche and Dever 5. Historical Description versus Historical Representation and Symbol 6. The Interplay of Religion and Ethnicity in Ancient Israel 7. Proto-Globalization and Proto-Secularization in Ancient Israel 8. Revisiting the Tribes of Yahweh after Twenty-five Years PART 2: THE POLITICS OF ANCIENT ISRAEL 9. Religion and Politics: Early Israel and Judaism 10. The Puzzling Politics of Ancient Israel 11. The Role of Biblical Politics in Contextual Theologies PART 3: REVIEW AND REFLECTIONS 12. Forward to Jeremy Young, The Violence of God and the War on Terror 13. Reflections on R. S. Sugirtharajah's Asian Biblical Hermeneutics and Postcolonialism. Contesting the Interpretations and T...

CONTENTS PART 1: METHODS, MODELS, AND COMPARATIVE STUDIES 1. What Does Sociology Have to Do with The Bible? 2. The Bible and Economic Ethics 3. Social Class as an Analytic and Hermeneutical Category in Biblical Studies 4. Social Class and Ideology in Isaiah 40-55: An Eagletonian Reading 5. Ideology and Ideologies in Israelite Prophecy 6. Periodization, Interactive Power Networks, and Teleogical Constraints in Hebrew Bible Studies 7, Icelandic and Israelite Beginnings: A Comparative Probe Structure and Origin of the Early Israelite and Iroquois "Confederacies" PART 2: TRIBUTES TO COLLEAGUES 8. James Muilenburg: Superlative Teacher 9. David Jobling: Fearless Frontiersman 10. Marvin L. Chaney, Master Social Critic 11. Jack Elliott: Breacher of Boundaries

Liberating Biblical Study is a unique collaboration of pioneering biblical scholars, social-change activists, and movement-based artists. Well known and unknown, veterans and newcomers, these diverse practitioners of justice engage in a lively and critical conversation at the intersection of seminary, sanctuary, and street. The book is divided into eight sections; in each, a scholar, activist, and artist explore the justice issues related to a biblical text or idea, such as exodus, creation, jubilee, and sanctuary. Beyond the emerging themes (e.g., empire, resistance movements, identity, race, gender, and economics), the book raises essential questions at another level: What is the role of art in social-change movements? How can scholars be accountable beyond the academy, and activists encouraged to study? How are resistance movements nurtured and sustained? This volume is an accessible invitation to action that will appeal to all who love and strive for justice--whatever th...