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Examines the interpretations of Psalm 14 by author John Milton. Deviation from the spiritual belief of celibacy being equated with godliness; Use of sexual imagery to express the totality of the traditional West African Animist apprehension of nature and spirit being one; Impact of the spiritual intimated interm of sexuality perception.

While Francis Ponge has long been considered an heir to the Lucretian materialist tradition, scarce critical attention has been devoted to his Calvinist cultural background. This is likely because Ponge, a resolute atheist, often displays an almost blasphemous irreverence towards Christian doctrine in his work. More broadly, it would also seem that Ponge’s materialist project necessitates this rejection of his Calvinist education, as indeed, since Max Weber wrote his Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism over a century ago, it has been widely accepted that Calvinism is fundamentally incompatible with concerns for the material world. And yet, while Ponge’s Calvinist upbringing appears antithetical to his object-oriented goals, my analysis shows the surprising correspondences which exist between Ponge’s work and Calvinist texts and practices. By examining several texts from Le Parti pris des choses alongside Jean Calvin’s writing, this article therefore interrogates the divide between Reformist tradition and material culture, and suggests that an analysis of Ponge’s Calvinist heritage may improve our understanding of the structures of salvation present in texts such as Ponge’s ‘Les Plaisirs de la porte’, as well as of further dialogue between Reformist and materialist thought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analyzes the line 'The Old and the New Testaments Are the Great Code of Art' from author William Blake. Identification of a mnemonic force in the line; Translation of author Robert Lowth on the text; Claim on the ability of Blake to examine a text with synecdochic imagination.

A literary criticism of Wendell Berry's short story "The Solemn Boy" is presented. It examines the biblical weight of the story by presenting the characters Ptolemy and Minnie Proudfoot as refigurations of the biblical tale of Abraham and Sarah. It explores how Berry imagines the act of agrarianism to have a profoundly ethical effect, transforming and ennobling those who engage in it. An overview of the story is also given.

Combining a sensual celebration of love with a well-established tradition of allegorical exegesis, the Song of Songs, one of the most poetic and debated among the biblical books, is a text that has played a crucial role in the shaping of love language since the very beginning of Western vernacular literature. Among the many Song-derived topoi, the controversial one of the “black but comely” beloved (Song 1:4-5) proved particularly appealing to Shakespeare. As this study will reveal, not only is the biblical passage echoed in many of his works (1 Henry VI, The Merchant of Venice, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Antony and Cleopatra, The Sonnets), but it is endowed with a particularly significant role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay considers what might first appear to be a minor theological problem in the major work of Dante’s mentor, and shows that it indeed poses a conundrum and a riddle to be solved. Taking up Augustine’s commentary on Christ’s three resurrection miracles – in the house, outside the gate, and in the sepulchre – I note that in hisTresorBrunetto retains the first of these locations but revises the second to “in the doorway of the house” and the third to “in the street.” Ruling out a traditional “source” for these deviations, I ask: Are these changes of scenery significant – a trivial memory lapse, subtly subversive, or ringing a change? Ultimately, I propose an underlying shift in perspective: from Augustinian biblical topography to a contemporary urban setting – an “update” from a late Classical to a medieval scene, from Hippo to Florence – an “urbanization” of the Augustinian “stages of sin” that gestures towards the streetscape of theVita nuova. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The importance of the bible as/ for literature cannot be denied and outstanding developments such as Northrop Frye's to the field (The Great Code: The Bible and Literature, 1981) testify to this reality. However, as an English for Specific Purposes (ESP) trainer, the purpose of our paper is to account for the extent to which canonical literature can be brought into play to the Theological English classroom to improve our students' biblical and literary knowledge and develop their productive and receptive skills in a communicative language teaching (CLT) environment; thus, if Thomas Mann's Joseph and His Brothers (1930-1943) can be definitely considered for study at a Romanian Orthodox faculty, José Saramago's controversial Gospel According to Jesus Christ (1991) and Cain (2009) less so, due to the materialistic atheism prophesized. Consequently, our material consists of several canonical works, the above mentioned ones included, and our methods draw on general and ESP teaching methodology without ignoring the purpose of a Christian English teacher (CET). We will discuss the results of our research emphasizing the general impact of Bible and literature on the professional and personal development of theological students in their academic life and likely career (priests, sacral artists or social workers in a Christian environment). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The neglected thirteenth-century English poem on the subject of Jacob and Joseph is striking for the addition, within the brief (and fragmentary) but lively narrative, of material that is not found in the Vulgate, and as such forms part of the popular vernacular tradition of the Bible. The text can be related to an Anglo-Norman or French narrative pattern represented in a number of (larger) biblical poems, though it is not as close to the Bible of Herman de Valenciennes as has been suggested. The relationship with the later English Cursor Mundi is also complex. Some of the extrabiblical elements are matched in iconography. In spite of the focus upon the much-retold romance of Joseph, the central figure is Jacob, something made clear at several points. The clearly didactic work (by a clerically trained poet or minstrel) may have been intended for a baronial audience as a warning against injustice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The article explores the use of Biblical allusions in the plays of William Shakespeare. Emphasis is given to references to marginal notes of the Geneva Bible in plays such as "Cymbeline," "Hamlet," and "The Rape of Lucrece." Other topics include the figurative use of margins as sources of meaning and tongues as weapons.

Since the Qing dynasty, the relationship between the apocrypha and literature has concerned scholars working on theWenxuan文選(Selections of RefinedWritings) andWenxin diaolong文心雕龍(The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons). Apocryphal texts emerged in the Han dynasty under the guise of the Six Classics authored by Confucius, as a body of sacred documents explaining the mandates of former rulers or the induction between the celestial and the human. Also containing genealogies of sacred rulers, legends and ancient histories, astronomical and geographical knowledge, and auspicious omens resulting from the correspondence between the celestial and the human, these texts offered abundant resources to authors from the Han,Wei, and Six Dynasties, through the Sui and Tang. Reliance on such a canon as a foundation inevitably yielded some skepticism among scholars as to the veracity of their sources; nonetheless, their literary value was always affirmed. The rhapsodic prose-poetic tradition of the Han dynasty was itself fostered by the exaggerated descriptive style of apocryphal texts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on collection of essays presented to teacher Carol A. Newsom to honor her on her 65th birthday. Topics discussed include essays as a contribution to her set forth intellectual program in 2011 SBL Presidential Address, views of Newsom on moral self's models in the Hebrew Bible and transformation of second temple Judaism in literature, and presents a chart related to the book Indigenous Psychologies: The Anthropology of the Self.

Although overtly poetic interaction with biblical material has often been deemed beyond the pale in critical biblical scholarship, much work in reception history now positions such literature as part of the afterlife of a biblical text. While this is a welcome turn, this article argues that acts of poetic biblical retelling and recycling are more disruptive, troubling the ways in which critical scholarship operates. Utilising Timothy Beal's thinking around the 'cultural history of scripture' and analysing Roland Boer's sceptical attitude toward reception-historical practices, the first section teases out the nuances of how certain modes of biblical interpretation are deemed primary (and thus more legitimate) and others secondary (and thus anachronistic). As such, the second section introduces poetic retellings of biblical material that foreground how poetry is a literary space where knowledge is articulated in particularly performative idioms. Reading poems from Kei Miller and Michael Symmons Roberts that appropriate biblical material, this analysis demonstrates that the poetic retelling of biblical material is an act of writing that refuses secondary status and cannot be simplistically yoked to traditional modes of exegesis. In this way, poetry problematizes the originary-secondary binary in reception-historical interpretation and, at the same time, recasts historical-critical exegesis as another form of 'supplemental' writing. This opens up the discipline to rethink some of its most protected interpretative paradigms and engage more fully with other forms of biblical 'supplement' across the disciplines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author reflects on teaching the Bible as literature. He discusses his trepidation about taking on the Bible as literature, the aim of teachers of the Bible as literature to destabilize students or help them find their balance, his approach to teaching the biblical text, and the difference between Ezekiel's swallowing God's scroll and Dante composing his own.

An essay on the decision to stop teaching the Bible as literature. She discusses her experience of teaching the Bible as literature in Israel and the U.S., her colleagues' argument that spirituality is not part of an academic education, the study of the Bible by the Jews, and her definition of the relation between the Bible as literature and literature as Bible.

The author reflects on her approach to teaching the Bible which was shaped by the literary journey she has taken. She discusses her teaching of the New Testament, her pedagogical goal to challenge the territorial boundaries between the literary, historical and theological dimensions of texts she encountered throughout her journey, and her role as an interpretive guide to students.

The author reflects on teaching the Bible. She discusses the change in her understanding of literature, efficacy as an aspect of a sacramental literature, the self-critical nature of the Bible, the depiction of God's justice in the Bible, students' understandings of the sacred literature, and human conceptions of the moral order.

The article describes the case of teaching the stories in Genesis of the Bible in a class at Colgate University, a liberal arts college in New York. He discusses the teaching of the Bible as literature, the ways in which the creation in Genesis I both preserves and effaces contemporary myth, and the structure and repetitions of Genesis I.

An essay on teaching the Bible and literature in terms of familiarization. He discusses his experience of introducing the Bible to students who lack knowledge about it, the reason behind this lack of familiarity about the Bible among students, his concern on treating the Bible as literature, and the challenge for scholars in familiarizing with the Bible and its interpretation.

The author reflects on assumptions about the meanings of biblical texts and of literary works. He discusses the interpretations of the Bible as promoting male primacy or a female reply promoting equality, the "always-already-read nature of the Bible, the approach of students to the biblical text, and the narrative style of the Bible.

Eavesdropping scenes are common features of ancient and modem literary creations. However, in spite of the contemporary interest in the literary and artistic character of biblical narratives, eavesdropping scenes in biblical narratives have received little scholarly treatment. This paper engages the presence, use and functions of eavesdropping scenes in biblical narrative. In particular, eavesdropping scenes aid characterization, trigger the plots of stories, introduce turning points, and increase the mimetic qualities of the story. On the other hand, eavesdropping scenes breach the borderlines between the private and public spaces by taking readers into the private world of biblical characters. On this discourse level, the reader also becomes an eavesdropper by overhearing/ reading the conversations situated in these eavesdropping scenes. In the same way, the narrator also shares the posture of the eavesdropper in the hearing/retelling of the story to the intended readers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work deals with the main functions of apocalyptic topoi (commonplaces) in Orthodox Slavonic literature during the Middle Ages. They were derived from a specific normative system inherited by the Slavs from Byzantine literature. Depending on the subject of narration, a medieval author had to choose suitable topoi in order to interpret reality, according to the medieval model of the world. These topoi were essential components of literary memory in the Middle Ages and had the ability to infiltrate the diachrony of culture, because, in spite of changeable historical circumstances, they were able to preserve the main semantic core. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The "Better Proverb" is a rhetorical form found in ancient Near Eastern literatures, including the Bible, and in Rabbinic literature. In this paper we discuss the use of this form in Rabbinic literature, focusing on the developments and changes that occurred in the later literature. We will show that the rabbis were familiar with biblical rhetorical features, used them, and changed them if needed to meet their own rhetorical purposes and goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the affinities and divergences between the processes that the traditions about Jeremiah underwent within extra-biblical literature and those that occurred within the Hebrew Bible itself. The narratival frameworks of many of the pseudepigraphical stories about Jeremiah focus on the period following the destruction of the city and the traditions regarding Jeremiah's fate in the wake of the destruction take a fluid form in post-biblical literature. Accordingly, the article deals particularly with the fate of the prophet by the Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem; the traditions about Jeremiah in chains; the historization process linking Jeremiah and Gedaliah; the different geographical traditions regarding the location of Jeremiah after the exile; the development of the traditions regarding Jeremiah and his relation to Baruch; and the portraying of prophecy as needing preparation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay offers methodological reflections on the relationship between studies of the Dead Sea Scrolls and studies of the Hebrew Bible. These reflections center around three main claims: (1) that the Hebrew Bible is Second Temple literature; (2) that the internal development of the Hebrew Bible is, in a specific and important sense, a history 01 exegesis; and (3) that Second Temple interpretation outside of the scriptural corpus is inseparable from the history of exegesis within it. These claims all point to the problematic and artificial nature of the boundaries between the two disciplines; and they illustrate how both fields require each other in order to understand their respective objects of inquiry in a rigorous and historically appropriate manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A literary criticism is presented which discusses the themes of biblical Fall and apocalypse in the book "Invisible Man," by Ralph Ellison. The author considers allusions to the Book of Genesis and comparisons between the Garden of Eden, democracy, and the American Dream. Other topics include the influence of modernist literature on Ellison, unity-in-diversity, and depictions of the imagery of the Book of Revelation.

The article offers information on several characters including John Milton, an English poet, Dinah, daughter of Jacob in a biblical drama and Hellenistic Jewish poet, Theodotus.

An essay is presented which offers the author's insights on the poem "Paradise Lost" by John Milton in which he argued that the encounter between archangel Michael and Adam draws attention to a gap between the biblical word and Bible representation. The author says that the gap presents Milton with a chance to portray an interpretive process from the internal perspective of the poem. It adds that Milton engages and emphasizes the poem's prophetic creativity.

Beyond the doctrinal and theological construct of the Bible, lies its literary, aesthetic and sociological value. It is also not in dispute that the devotion to the sacredness of the biblical text has placed great restraint on the much needed attention to a proper socio-literary critique of the narrative. In contextualising the Nigerian church, and by implication, assessing and re-assessing the state and practice of leadership in the country, from the traditional to the modern, this study attempts a foregrounding of the literariness of the Bible within the conceptual framework of post modernism, and submits that the Bible, in its truest socio-literary realization, and indeed the [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author critiques the book "Joseph Andrews" by Henry Fielding, focusing on a scene in which the character Abraham Adams burns his copy of the book "Aeschylus," which the author compares to a scene from the book "Don Quixote" by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra and scenes from the Bible. Women in distress, Christianity, and irony in literature are discussed.

The essay discusses the literary sources utilized by author Mark Twain in his writing, with focus given to they ways in which they informed his understanding of self. These sources include the books "Cudjo's Cove," by James T. Towbridge, and "The Wonderful Adventures of Captain Priest," by Samuel Adams Hammett, and the Bible.

A literary criticism of the book "Paradis," by Philippe Sollers, is presented. Topics include the lack of punctuation and capitalization in the book, the use of words as section markers in the book, and the relation of the work to ancient oral tradition. It is said that the book is similar to the Hebrew Bible in that it requires oral reading due to a lack of punctuation.

While many readers of Percy Shelley's The Cenci have justly considered the work's Promethean themes, this essay examines the drama in relation to another figure of suffering--that of Job. The Cenci's thematic development and imagery make apparent its affinities with the biblical text. Moreover, the play introduces an important moral complication to the scriptural scheme by casting several characters as Jobian variants, or types. For Shelley, who, himself, identifies with Job, the Jobian influence deepens the work's testing of the questions of innocence and the role of the father. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Studia Universitatis Babes-Bolyai, Theologia Graeco-Catholica Varadiensis is the property of Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The purpose of this article is to examine the life, influence and greatest works of Old Testament scholar Julius Wellhausen. Wellhausen was influenced by the findings of other Old Testament critics that preceded him, as well as the new environment that the Enlightenment has created. These influences can be seen in his three major works: Die Komposition des Hexateuchs - here an idea of the method he used in the recognition, grouping and dating of the sources can be found. Wellhausen made use of these sources to construct a history of Israel which can be viewed in his Geschichte Israels. His greatest work was most certainly his Prolegomena zur Geschichte Israels and he makes significant findings in the part on the Geschichte des Kultus. The question to be answered though is: Does Wellhausen's source hypothesis still has a part to play in our modern research on the Pentateuch? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the dissemination of the Bible in Italian literature during the sixteenth century. At this time sacred scriptures came to the faithful only through preaching and the liturgy, rather than in reading. Under this conditions literature became an important vehicle of dissemination of the biblical tale and a major source of inspiration at the time. Examples given of this style of novels are "L'Adamo" by Giovan Francesco Loredan and "L'Adamo" by Francesco Pona.

The article compares Saint Peter with the character of a porter in William Shakespeare's "Macbeth." It describes the way "Macbeth" gave reference to the Gospel story of Peter's denial of Christ. According to the author, the equivocal statement in the New Testament is exemplified in the Gospel account of Peter's evasion.

In this article the author discusses the multisensory approach to prose rhythm. As stated, prose rhythm is a difficult concept that cannot be systemised and can be understood as an auditory or phonological phenomenon that is detected when prose is read aloud. As stated, literature, poetry, and the Bible are the ideal pedagogical exemplars of prose rhythm.

In both the Introduction à la vie dévote and the Traité de l'amour de Dieu, St François de Sales (1567-1622) makes extensive reference to the animal world. Writing in a tradition dating back to the medieval Christian bestiary, he draws his evidence from classical sources and from the Bible and Fathers, as well as from more demotic material. His zoological imagery is remarkable by its diversity, and by François's readiness to include the fantastic or improbable alongside the more scientifically attested. His pagan examples do not however function as a mythological fable; rather they place classical zoology at the service of Christian theology, with pride of place accorded to elephants and bees. Biblical examples too extend beyond commonplace similes; and even more modest contemporary illustrations are transformed into the means of spiritual encouragement. All such analogies are described by François as 'similitudes', and serve to effect a link between the natural and divine worlds. Yet if such zoological images may at times appear comic by their improbability or disproportion, these features do nothing to diminish their didactic potential; nor does their incorporation detract from the uniqueness of humankind's capacity to aspire to a closer spiritual union with God. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the importance of the Bible and classical mythology in literature education. The author mentions that biblical literacy is essential in literature, emphasizing on the theory of literary critic Northrop Frye that the Bible is a book that continues to influence English literature. He adds that the Bible somehow dictates the mental and emotional structures of literature.

The article presents literary criticism of the book "The Prince" by Niccolò Machiavelli. It examines the book's treatment of the 15th-century statesman Cesare Borgia. It is suggested that Machiavelli's account of Borgia is not as ironic or as anti-religious as some critics believe. Particular focus is given to what the author calls the book's Biblical resonances. Other topics include allegory, Christianity, and Machiavelli's concepts of fortune and virtue.

A literary criticism of the book "Moby-Dick" by Herman Melville is presented. It is suggested that instead of subverting the moral messages of the Bible, the novel reproduces many elements of its structure, its style, and its didactic messages about faith and justice. According to the author, both "Moby-Dick" and the Bible are both eclectic texts which present many moral and textual ambiguities. The story of the Biblical figure Jonah and the idea of forgiveness are also discussed.

Lion Gardiner's "Relation of the Pequot Warres" is a written account of the Pequot War of 1636-38 and its aftermath, up to the date of the text's composition in 1660. In it Gardiner makes several scriptural allusions, the most extensive of which is his comparison of the Montauk sachem Wyandanch (Waiandance) to Mordecai, the Jewish hero from the book of Esther. Although there are many early modern Protestant references to Mordecai and the Purim story, as well as New English Puritan descriptions of admirable Native American figures, Gardiner's typological portrait of Wyandanch is remarkable for its enthusiastic embrace of indigenous alliance, as well as its open criticism of a New English political leadership that failed to recognize Wyandanch's strategic value. Through the figure of Mordecai, who is both loyal servant and national hero, Gardiner could simultaneously pay tribute to Wyandanch and remind readers of his own role in ensuring the colonies' survival. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What would our world be like if all oppositions to capitalism were to be removed? The author describes a doomsday scenario instead of everlasting plenitude if capitalists have their ways. This conclusion comes from the author's masterful discussion of political myth and analysis of the narrative of Genesis to Joshua as a political myth. The narrative of the Hexateuch constructs and at the same time punishes all sorts of rebels who oppose the theocratic state it wishes to establish. But myth is uncanny in that the rebellion hides what it fears the most, the impossibility of such a state to come true, and needs what it desires to annihilate in order to persist as an unfulfilled fantasy that powers a political movement. The author argues that some politicians in Australia and the USA are abusing the logic of the political myth of the Hexateuch in order to support their capitalistic agendas and, therefore, the Left must tell the ending of the capitalist fantasy of endless production and expansion in order to reveal its contradictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]