Center and Library for the Bible and Social Justice

Part 1: Methods, Models, and Comparative Studies What Does Sociology Have to Do with The Bible? The Bible and Economic Ethics. Social Class as an Analytic and Hermeneutical Category in Biblical Studies. Social Class and Ideology in Isaiah 40-55: An Eagletonian Reading. Ideology and Ideologies in Israelite Prophecy Periodization, Interactive Power Networks, and Theological Constraints in Hebrew Bible Studies. Icelandic and Israelite Beginnings: A Comparative Probe. Structure and Origin of the Early Israelite and Iroquois "Confederacies". Part 2: Tributes to Colleagues James Muilenburg: Superlative Teacher. David Jobling: Fearless Frontiersman. Marvin L. Chaney, Master Social Critic. Jack Elliott: Breacher of Boundaries.

PART 1: The Origins of Ancient Israel -Early Israel as an Anti-Imperial Community -The Origins of Israel as a Textual -Models for Envisioning Early Israel -Triumphalist versus Anti-Triumphalist Versions of Early Israel: A Response to Articles by Lemche and Dever -Historical Description versus Historical Representation and Symbol -The Interplay of Religion and Ethnicity in Ancient Israel -Proto-Globalization and Proto-Secularization in Ancient Israel -Revisiting the Tribes of Yahweh after Twenty-five Years. PART 2: The Politics of Ancient Israel -Religion and Politics: Early Israel and Judaism -The Puzzling Politics of Ancient Israel -The Role of Biblical Politics in Contextual Theologies PART 3: Review and Reflections -Forward to Jeremy Young, The Violence of God and the War on Terror -Reflections on R. S. Sugirtharajah's Asian Biblical Hermeneutics and Post colonialism. Contesting the Interpretations and The Bible and the Third Way: Precolonial, Colonial and Postcolonial Encounters -Review of Stephen L. Cook, The Social Roots of Biblical Yahwism -Review of Marty E. Stevens, Temples, Tithes, and Taxes: The Temple and the Economic Life of Ancient Israel -Review of Philip R. Davies, The Origins of Biblical Israel -Panel Presentation on Joshua A. Berman, Created Equal: How the Bible Broke with Ancient Political Thought.

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

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.

Over the past few decades biblical economics has developed into an important subfield of biblical studies. Through examining the economic realities that lay behind Hebrew biblical texts and archaeological findings, biblical economics has led to greater understandings of the cultures and experiences of ancient Hebrew communities, the legal and religious texts they produced, and of how those texts may or may not relate to the experiences of communities who continue to receive them, today. Economics and Empire in the Ancient Near East has brought together ten scholars of biblical economics and one economic anthropologist to create a repository of what is understood about the economic realities of Southwest Asia in the late second and first millennia BCE. In addition to furthering the research and teaching interests of biblical scholars, this volume has also been created for the benefit of economic historians, anthropologists, and sociologists.

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, historical, and theological analysis, and part practical workbook, this process invites settler Christians (and other people of faith) into a discipleship of decolonization. How are our histories, landscapes, and communities haunted by continuing Indigenous dispossession? How do we transform our colonizing self-perceptions, lifeways, and structures? And how might we practice restorative solidarity with Indigenous communities today?