The Rhetoric of the Babylonian Talmud, Its Social Meaning and Context

The Rhetoric of the Babylonian Talmud, Its Social Meaning and Context PDF Author: Jack N. Lightstone
Publisher: Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press
ISBN: 0889207267
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 334

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Book Description
Virtually from its redaction about the sixth century A.D., the Babylonian Talmud became the rabbinic document par excellence. Through its lens almost all previous canonical rabbinic tradition was refracted. Study and mastery of the Talmud marked one as a rabbi, a “master.” This book examines the character, use and social meaning of the formalized rhetoric which pervades the Babylonian Talmud. It explores, first, how the editors of the Talmud employ a consistent and highly laconic code of formalized linguistic terms and literary patterns to create the Talmud’s (renowned) dialectical, analytic “essays.” Second, the work considers the social meanings implicitly communicated by the use of this rhetoric, which not only provided an authoritative model for modes of thought and for treatment of earlier authoritative Judaic tradition, but also reflected, reinforced or helped engender new social definitions. Through comparison of the Talmud’s rhetoric with that of other, earlier rabbinic documents and by placing the editing of the Talmud against the backdrop of the social and political situation of Rabbinism in the Late Persian Empire, the book relates the Talmud’s creation and promulgation to a major shift in Rabbinism’s understanding of the social role, “rabbi,” and to the emergence and ascendancy of the talmudic academy (the Yeshiva) as the primary institution of Rabbinism toward the end of Late Antiquity. In its agenda, and methodological and theoretical perspectives, The Rhetoric of the Babylonian Talmud brings together the insights and tools of historical, literary and rhetorical analysis of the New Testament and of early rabbinic literature, on the one hand, and the sociological and anthropological study of religion, on the other.

Rhetoric and Scripture

Rhetoric and Scripture PDF Author: Thomas H. Olbricht
Publisher: SBL Press
ISBN: 088414478X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 524

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Book Description
This book offers a unique overview of the development of rhetorical criticism both in North America and internationally through the work of pioneering New Testament scholar Thomas H. Olbricht. Lauri Thurén has gathered nineteen of Olbricht's essays as a guidebook to rhetorical criticism for students, clergy, and scholars. The range of essays from throughout Olbricht's career illuminate the history of rhetorical criticism and reflect the different motivations of ancient and contemporary rhetorical approaches. Essays focus on the history of biblical rhetorical analysis, the rhetorical analysis of biblical texts, the characteristics of rhetorical analysis, and types of biblical rhetorical criticism. A foreword by Thurén and a memorial essay by Carl R. Holladay contextualize Olbricht's work. Anyone interested in the rhetorical study of the New Testament will find this volume inspiring and informative.

The Talmud's Theological Language-Game

The Talmud's Theological Language-Game PDF Author: Eugene B. Borowitz
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 0791482014
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 330

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Book Description
In this pioneering effort, noted Jewish philosopher Eugene B. Borowitz opens up the rules by which the language-game of aggadic discourse is carried on in the Talmud, the foundational document of rabbinic and all later Judaism. These findings are compared with the aggadah (the realm in which almost all explicit statements about classic Jewish religious belief occur) of some other early rabbinic writings. Two issues drive Borowitz's inquiry: What, if anything, constrains the unprecedented freedom of this realm? and How might one positively characterize the aggadah? Borowitz introduces us to the rabbis not only in their amazing profundity, but also in their unguarded humanity. He concludes with a reflection on how this old Jewish language-game should influence contemporary Jewish thought, and, perhaps, other religious thought as well.

Rage and Resistance

Rage and Resistance PDF Author: Theresa M. O'Donovan
Publisher: Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press
ISBN: 0889205221
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 162

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Book Description
"A practical exercise in Canadian contextual theology, Rage and Resistance analyzes responses to a tragic historical event by engaging with the work of theologian Gregory Baum and sociologist Dorothy E. Smith. Baum articulates the theological imperative to address the context in which our lives are embedded, calling for critical social analysis in order to understand, and possibly convert, social evil; Smith takes the standpoint of women as a determinate position from which society may be known."--Jacket.

Doing Ethics in a Pluralistic World

Doing Ethics in a Pluralistic World PDF Author: Phyllis D. Airhart
Publisher: Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press
ISBN: 1554584353
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 273

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Book Description
Doing Ethics in a Pluralistic World is an apt title for this collection of essays in honour of Roger C. Hutchinson who, over many decades, has encouraged and participated in shaping a Canadian contextual social ethics. His abiding interest in social ethics and in religious engagement with public issues is reflected in his life’s work — seeking the consensus and self-knowledge required to achieve cooperation in the search for a just, participatory, and sustainable society. One of Roger Hutchinson’s many notable accomplishments is his development of a method of dialogue for ethical clarification in situations of diversity. Some of the essays collected here apply this method to specific issues, while others discuss how religious persons and organizations can and do co-operate in a pluralistic world to achieve social and ecological well-being. All essays are of keen interest to those concerned with the role and function of ethics at the matrix of religious conviction and social transformation. For nearly three decades Roger Hutchinson has been based at Victoria University in Toronto, first in religious studies, then at Emmanuel College, where he completed his teaching career as professor of church and society while serving as principal from 1996 to 2001.

Women in God’s Army

Women in God’s Army PDF Author: Andrew Mark Eason
Publisher: Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press
ISBN: 1554586763
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 261

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Book Description
The early Salvation Army professed its commitment to sexual equality in ministry and leadership. In fact, its founding constitution proclaimed women had the right to preach and hold any office in the organization. But did they? Women in God’s Army is the first study of its kind devoted to the critical analysis of this central claim. It traces the extent to which this egalitarian ideal was realized in the private and public lives of first- and second-generation female Salvationists in Britain and argues that the Salvation Army was found wanting in its overall commitment to women’s equality with men. Bold pronouncements were not matched by actual practice in the home or in public ministry. Andrew Mark Eason traces the nature of these discrepancies, as well as the Victorian and evangelical factors that lay behind them. He demonstrates how Salvationists often assigned roles and responsibilities on the basis of gender rather than equality, and the ways in which these discriminatory practices were supported by a male-defined theology and authority. He views this story from a number of angles, including historical, gender and feminist theology, ensuring it will be of interest to a wide spectrum of readers. Salvationists themselves will appreciate the light it sheds on recent debates. Ultimately, however, anyone who wants to learn more about the human struggle for equality will find this book enlightening.

Doing Ethics in a Pluralistic World

Doing Ethics in a Pluralistic World PDF Author: Helen M. Buss
Publisher: Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press
ISBN: 0889204101
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 273

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Book Description
Annotation A collection of essays in honur of the man who encouraged and participated in shaping a Canadian contextual social ethics.

Creation and Composition

Creation and Composition PDF Author: Jeffrey L. Rubenstein
Publisher: Mohr Siebeck
ISBN: 9783161486920
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 476

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Book Description
The contributors to this book analyze how the redactors of the Talmud transformed and reworked earlier aggadic (non-legal) traditions. Critical study of the Babylonian Talmud is founded on the distinction between two literary strata: traditions attributed to named sages (the Amoraim, c. 200-450 CE) and setam hatalmud, the unattributed or anonymous material. The conclusion of modern scholars is that the anonymous stratum postdates the Amoraic stratum and should be attributed to the Talmudic redactors, also known as Stammaim (c. 450-700 CE.) The contribution of the Stammaim to the aggadic (non-legal) portions of the Talmud - to midrash, narratives, ethics and theology - has received minimal scholarly attention. The articles in this book demonstrate that the Stammaim made a profound contribution to the aggadic portions of the Babylonian Talmud and illustrate the processes by which they created and composed many aggadic traditions.

Asceticism in the Graeco-Roman World

Asceticism in the Graeco-Roman World PDF Author: Richard Damian Finn
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521862817
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 195

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Book Description
Pagan asceticism: cultic and contemplative purity -- Asceticism in Hellenistic and Rabbinic Judaism -- Christian asceticism before Origen -- Origen and his ascetic legacy -- Cavemen, cenobites, and clerics.

The Questions of Jesus in John

The Questions of Jesus in John PDF Author: Douglas Estes
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004205101
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 232

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Book Description
In The Questions of Jesus in John Douglas Estes crafts a theory of question-asking based on insights from ancient rhetoric and modern linguistics in order to investigate the logical and rhetorical purposes of Jesus' questions in the Fourth Gospel.