The Five Scrolls: Texts@Contexts

Description

In this collection, scholars from diverse geographical locations revisit a cluster of five biblical texts: Ruth, Song of Songs, Qoheleth (Ecclesiastes), Lamentations and Esther. The volume presents various viewpoints and contexts—geographical, communal, religious, social, economical and ethical. Matching scholarship with social awareness, the contributors keep asking themselves and their readers a dual-faced question: how does our life context influence our scholarly and non-scholarly readings of the Bible, and how does reading the Bible critically influence our life? To answer this question and to show it at work the contributors employ a range of contextual lenses. Geography is a major factor of the contributors’ contexts – with contributors from South Africa, Argentina, Israel, the Pacific Islands – but not the only one to influence their readings. Issues of society, culture and community are at the foreground for all contributors and their reading agendas with specific focus on the AIDs crisis in Africa, issues of migration and asylum, and feminist approaches to biblical texts. Cover Half-title Title Copyright Contents List of Contributors Introduction Part I: Ruth Ruling from their Graves? Reading Naomi within the African Religio-Cultural Context The Boaz Solution: Reading Ruth in Light of Australian Asylum Seeker Discourse Finding Korean Goose Mothers a Home: A Contextual Re-reading of Ruth Boaz as ‘Sugar Daddy’: Re-reading Ruth in the Context of HIV in Southern Africa Racial Melancholia and the Book of Ruth Poor and Landless Women: An African Reading of Leviticus 25 and Ruth 4 with Latino/a Critical Tools Part II: Song of Songs A Womanist Reading of the Song of Songs in the Age of AIDS Where Love and Death Meet: Reading the Old Testament in a Context of Gender Violence Part III: Qoheleth ‘What Gain Have the Workers from their Toil?’: (Con)texting Ecclesiastes 3.9-13 in Pasifika Hebel and Kong: A Cross-Textual Reading between Qoheleth and the Heart Sutra Dealing with Death: Reading Qoheleth in Different Contexts Part IV: Lamentations Reading Daughter Zion and Lady Meng: Tears, Protest and Female Voices Lamentations as Musical Performance, its Origins and Life Occasions: Some Reflections Part V: Esther Women’s Banquets and Gatherings in Text and Context: The Queens Banquets in Esther and Contemporary Women-Only Israeli/Jewish Ceremonies Esther, Pious and Brave: Reading Children’s Bibles as Commentary on Twentieth-Century Afrikaner Culture Index of References Index of Authors