Tanakh Epistemology: A Philosophical Reading of an Ancient Semitic Text

Tanakh Epistemology: A Philosophical Reading of an Ancient Semitic Text PDF Author: Douglas Yoder
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781109977318
Category : Bible
Languages : en
Pages : 531

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Book Description
This study presents a philosophical reading of the native epistemology of the Tanakh. It seeks to provide a maximally noncontroversial account of this form of conceptuality by treating the Tanakh not as religious literature, but as an ancient Semitic epistemic text. The frequency of the verb "know" is used to identify textual locations of epistemic emphasis indigenous to the literature, while analytic philosophy and classical studies are employed to elucidate these passages and set them in transcultural context. Tanakh epistemology is cohesive, nuanced, far-ranging, and bold. Its deepest conceptual commitments voice noncontradictory positions regarding skepticism, perception, physical and nonphysical reality, epistemic limits, and the relation of knowledge to power, desire, and life. The articulation of these positions enables a meta-epistemic assessment of the sometimes variant assumptions of Hellenically-derived philosophical epistemology. Since this form of Greek thought conceptually undergirds the western intellectual tradition, a meta-epistemic engagement of this nature is broadly relevant for western culture. This can be seen in the early Enlightenment in the way Spinoza sets off philosophical against biblical epistemology in his attempt to liberate the western mind from ecclesial control. This study argues that neither early modern Christendom nor Spinoza provide accurate accounts of Tanakh epistemology. The prisms by which ancient forms of Greek and Semitic conceptuality are refracted into early modern Europe are therefore flawed, and with them the western bases for assuming that Greek-derived epistemology is of uniquely transcultural validity and application. Consequences follow for biblical studies, religion, philosophy, and politics, and for other domains in thought and culture.

Tanakh Epistemology: A Philosophical Reading of an Ancient Semitic Text

Tanakh Epistemology: A Philosophical Reading of an Ancient Semitic Text PDF Author: Douglas Yoder
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781109977318
Category : Bible
Languages : en
Pages : 531

Get Book Here

Book Description
This study presents a philosophical reading of the native epistemology of the Tanakh. It seeks to provide a maximally noncontroversial account of this form of conceptuality by treating the Tanakh not as religious literature, but as an ancient Semitic epistemic text. The frequency of the verb "know" is used to identify textual locations of epistemic emphasis indigenous to the literature, while analytic philosophy and classical studies are employed to elucidate these passages and set them in transcultural context. Tanakh epistemology is cohesive, nuanced, far-ranging, and bold. Its deepest conceptual commitments voice noncontradictory positions regarding skepticism, perception, physical and nonphysical reality, epistemic limits, and the relation of knowledge to power, desire, and life. The articulation of these positions enables a meta-epistemic assessment of the sometimes variant assumptions of Hellenically-derived philosophical epistemology. Since this form of Greek thought conceptually undergirds the western intellectual tradition, a meta-epistemic engagement of this nature is broadly relevant for western culture. This can be seen in the early Enlightenment in the way Spinoza sets off philosophical against biblical epistemology in his attempt to liberate the western mind from ecclesial control. This study argues that neither early modern Christendom nor Spinoza provide accurate accounts of Tanakh epistemology. The prisms by which ancient forms of Greek and Semitic conceptuality are refracted into early modern Europe are therefore flawed, and with them the western bases for assuming that Greek-derived epistemology is of uniquely transcultural validity and application. Consequences follow for biblical studies, religion, philosophy, and politics, and for other domains in thought and culture.

Tanakh Epistemology

Tanakh Epistemology PDF Author: Douglas Yoder
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108580408
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 525

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Book Description
In this volume, Douglas Yoder uses the tools of modern and postmodern philosophy and biblical criticism to elucidate the epistemology of the Tanakh, the collection of writings that comprise the Hebrew Bible. Despite the conceptual sophistication of the Tanakh, its epistemology has been overlooked in both religious and secular hermeneutics. The concept of revelation, the genre of apocalypse, and critiques of ideology and theory are all found within or derive from epistemic texts of the Tanakh. Yoder examines how philosophers such as Spinoza, Hume, and Kant interacted with such matters. He also explores how the motifs of writing, reading, interpretation, image, and animals, topics that figure prominently in the work of Derrida, Foucault, and Nietzsche, appear also in the Tanakh. An understanding of Tanakh epistemology, he concludes, can lead to new appraisals of religious and secular life throughout the modern world.

Epistemology and Biblical Theology

Epistemology and Biblical Theology PDF Author: Dru Johnson
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351661795
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 184

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Book Description
Epistemology and Biblical Theology pursues a coherent theory of knowledge as described across the Pentateuch and Mark's Gospel. As a work from the emerging field of philosophical criticism, this volume explores in each biblical text both narrative and paraenesis to assess what theory of knowledge might be presumed or advocated and the coherence of that structure across texts. In the Pentateuch and Mark, primacy is placed on heeding an authenticated and authoritative prophet, and then enacting the guidance given in order to see what is being shown—in order to know. Erroneous knowing follows the same boundaries: failure to attend to the proper authoritative voice or failure to enact guidance creates mistaken understanding. With a working construct of proper knowing in hand, points of contact with and difficulties for contemporary philosophical epistemologies are suggested. In the end, Michael Polanyi’s scientific epistemology emerges as the most commensurable view with knowing as it appears in these foundational biblical texts. Therefore, this book will be of interest to scholars working across the fields of Biblical studies and philosophy.

Knowledge by Ritual

Knowledge by Ritual PDF Author: Dru Johnson
Publisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 1575064324
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 310

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Book Description
What do rituals have to do with knowledge? Knowledge by Ritual examines the epistemological role of rites in Christian Scripture. By putting biblical rituals in conversation with philosophical and scientific views of knowledge, Johnson argues that knowing is a skilled adeptness in both the biblical literature and scientific enterprise. If rituals are a way of thinking in community akin to scientific communities, then the biblical emphasis on rites that lead to knowledge cannot be ignored. Practicing a rite to know occurs frequently in the Hebrew Bible. YHWH answers Abram’s skepticism—“How shall I know that I will possess the land?”—with a ritual intended to make him know (Gen 15:7–21). The recurring rites of Sabbath (Exod 31:13) and dwelling in a Sukkah (Lev 23:43) direct Israel toward discernment of an event’s enduring significance. Likewise, building stone memorials aims at the knowledge of generations to come (Josh 4:6). Though the New Testament appropriates the Torah rites through strategic reemployment, the primary questions of sacramental theology have often presumed that rites are symbolically encoded. Hence, understanding sacraments has sometimes been reduced to decoding the symbols of the rite. Knowledge by Ritual argues that the rites of Israel, as portrayed in the biblical texts, disposed Israelites to recognize something they could not have seen apart from their participation. By examining the epistemological function of rituals, Johnson’s monograph gives readers a new set of questions to explore both the sacraments of Israel and contemporary sacramental theology.

Biblical Knowing

Biblical Knowing PDF Author: Dru Johnson
Publisher: James Clarke & Company
ISBN: 0227902300
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 249

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Book Description
The importance of human knowledge and the consequences of error are constantly stressed within Scripture, which emphasizes the knowledge of good and evil: knowing that YHWH IS your God; knowing that Jesus is the Christ; and the goal of developing Israel into a 'wise and discerning people'. We, too, long for confidence in our understanding - the assurance that our most basic knowledge is not ultimately incorrect. Biblical Knowing assesses what Israel knew, but more importantly, how she was meant to know - introducing a comprehensive scriptural epistemology, firmly rooted in the Scripture's own presentation of important epistemological events in the story of Israel. Because modern philosophy has also made authoritative claims about knowledge, Biblical Knowing engages contemporary academic views of knowledge (e.g., Reformed Epistemology, scientific epistemology, Virtue Epistemology, etc) and recent philosophical method (e.g., Analytic Theology), assessing them for points of congruence ordeparture from Scripture's own epistemology. Additionally, Biblical Knowing explores what proper knowing looks like in the task of theology itself, in the teaching and preaching of the church, and in the context of counseling.

Covenant of Peace

Covenant of Peace PDF Author: Willard M. Swartley
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
ISBN: 9780802829375
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 564

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Book Description
One would think that peace, a term that occurs as many as one hundred times in the New Testament, would enjoy a prominent place in theology and ethics textbooks. Yet it is surprisingly absent. Willard Swartley's Covenant of Peace remedies this deficiency, restoring to New Testament theology and ethics the peace that many works have missed. In this comprehensive yet accessible book Swartley explicates virtually all of the New Testament, relating peace -- and the associated emphases of love for enemies and reconciliation -- to core theological themes such as salvation, christology, and the reign of God. No other work in English makes such a contribution. Swartley concludes by considering specific practices that lead to peacemaking and their place in our contemporary world. Retrieving a historically neglected element in the Christian message, Covenant of Peace confronts readers anew with the compelling New Testament witness to peace.

The Philosophy of Hebrew Scripture

The Philosophy of Hebrew Scripture PDF Author: Yoram Hazony
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521176670
Category : Bibles
Languages : en
Pages : 393

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Book Description
This book offers a new framework for reading the Bible as a work of reason.

Dissertation Abstracts International

Dissertation Abstracts International PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Dissertations, Academic
Languages : en
Pages : 784

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Book Description


Tanakh & Talmud

Tanakh & Talmud PDF Author: Various Authors
Publisher: Good Press
ISBN:
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 3776

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Book Description
"Tanakh" or, The Hebrew Bible, which is also sometimes called the Miqra, is the canonical collection of Hebrew scriptures, including the Torah. The form of this text that is authoritative for Rabbinic Judaism is known as the Masoretic Text. The Tanakh consists of twenty-four books: it counts as one book each Samuel, Kings, Chronicles and Ezra–Nehemiah and counts the Twelve Minor Prophets as a single book. The Torah (literally "teaching"), also known as the Pentateuch, or the "Five Books of Moses" is the first part of Tanakh and it contains Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. Nevi'im (Prophets) is the second main division of the Tanakh, between the Torah and Ketuvim. It contains three sub-groups. This division includes the books which cover the time from the entrance of the Israelites into the Land of Israel until the Babylonian captivity of Judah. Ketuvim (Writings) consists of eleven books. They are also divided into three subgroups based on the distinctiveness of Sifrei Emet and Hamesh Megillot. "Talmud" is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (halakha) and Jewish theology. The term "Talmud" normally refers to the collection of writings named specifically the Babylonian Talmud (Talmud Bavli). It may also traditionally be called Shas, a Hebrew abbreviation of shisha sedarim, or the "six orders" of the Mishnah. The Talmud consists of tractates and contains the teachings and opinions of thousands of rabbis (dating from before the Common Era through to the fifth century) on a variety of subjects, including halakha, Jewish ethics, philosophy, customs, history, and folklore, and many other topics. The Talmud is the basis for all codes of Jewish law and is widely quoted in rabbinic literature.

Rediscovering Philo of Alexandria:

Rediscovering Philo of Alexandria: PDF Author: Michael Leo Samuel
Publisher: First Edition Design Pub.
ISBN: 1506903509
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 443

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Book Description
"Philo is one of the great thinkers of the ancient world, yet he no longer remains enigmatic to biblical interpreters. I enthusiastically recommend Rediscovering Philo of Alexandria." Dr. Marvin Wilson, Professor of Biblical and Theological Studies Gordon College, Wenham, MA "Philo proves to be a staunch supporter of the classical approach to biblical characters, immediately and unequivocally defending them and dispelling any possible negative interpretation of their behavior. In situations where such 'mainstream' commentaries as Nachmanides or Rabbi S.R. Hirsch find fault in the behavior of the matriarchs or patriarchs, Philo is quick to defend; in fact, there are many instances in which he inserts a virtuous spin on seemingly neutral situations...Rabbi Leo Samuel has done an outstanding service, both to Philo and to modern readers. In Rediscovering Philo of Alexandria, Philo’s ancient Torah commentary becomes readable and meaningful, exciting and contemporary. I look forward to future volumes..." Rabbi Ari D. Kahn, Echoes of Eden on the Pentateuch The intellectual fecundity of Philo's era was remarkable. He lived at one of the most creative periods of Western Civilization, as two of the greatest traditions--Semitic and Greek--were continuing to winnow the useful insights of their counterpart's teachings, while they refined their own modes of thoughts and religious expression. Philo became Hellenistic Judaism's greatest philosopher and was the first ancient Judaic thinker to compose a commentary on the Torah. His style of interpretation included the exegetical, legal, linguistic, proto-midrashic, and theological strands of 1st century Jewish thought. Reading Rediscovering Philo of Alexandria offers the reader a glimpse into the unknown world of 1st Hellenistic Judaism, which in many ways resembled the Western world we now inhabit. Michael Leo Samuel has meticulously culled from all of Philo’s exegetical remarks, arranging them according to the biblical verses. He provides extensive parallels from the corpus of rabbinical literature, Greek philosophy, and Christian theology in presenting how Philo impacted the great minds of Late Antiquity and beyond. Keywords: Books , Religion & Spirituality , Judaism , Sacred Writings , Torah Bible Study & Reference, Commentaries, Old Testament, Mystical Torah, Middle Platonism, Hellenistic Jewish Philosophy