Bible

The Invention of Monotheist Ethics, Volume I: Exploring the First Book of Samuel

admin — Sat, 29 May 2010 00:00:00 +0000

But the wicked will be put to silence in darkness; For not by power shall man prevail. Samuel 2:2

The Invention of Monotheist Ethics, Volume I is the first in a two-volume series exploring the Book of Samuel and its significant role in the evolution from a largely pagan society to a monotheistic one. The book is especially geared towards readers who are new to studying the Bible.

Why study the Book of Samuel, and not start at the beginning, in Genesis? First, Millgram argues, it is a highly accessible biblical text. Samuel’s characters are dynamic and deal with matters very similar to our own. Furthermore, states Millgram, the characters are in constant activity, “there is rarely a dull moment.”

Second, the book is diverse in contents, characters, and issues. It is one of the only books in the Bible with several prominent female characters. The very first character we are introduced to is Hannah. At the beginning of the narrative Hannah is childless, and miserable because of it. One night in act of desperation Hannah prays, promising God that if he blesses her with a child she will dedicate the life of the child to him. Hannah gives birth to Samuel shortly after and eventually becomes the mother of six children.

Despite accessibility and diversity, readers may be most interested in Millgram’s most provocative argument; he is convinced that the Book of Samuel was written by a woman. One clue is that women’s roles in the book are not circumstantial (such as being mentioned only as the wife of a male character) but essential to the moral messages of the book. While the historical aspects of the narrative may not be damaged by removing the female characters, the book’s meaning, its moral components, require the presence of the female players.

To give further credit to his argument, Millgram provides details on the daily lives of women in ancient Israel and debunks certain misnomers, such as the belief that most women in ancient Israel were illiterate. The formation of Israel in fact coincided with the adaptation of the alphabet script, and it is not at all unlikely that more women were involved in writing the Bible than believed.

Throughout the book Millgram takes it for granted that the author of Samuel was written by a woman, an approach that is unique and noticeable to those who have previously studied the Bible. Given the manner that Bible stories permeate American society, such an approach can have an enormous positive impact on the psyche of American women, Christian or otherwise.

My favorite story from Volume One was the David and Goliath narrative. Because the story is largely seen as mythical, it is compelling to have the facts of the story articulated, including insights into the consciousness of David and the other main players.

While the book does in fact make the Book of Samuel more accessible to readers, there are long sections dealing with the politics and wars of ancient Israel that are dense and less accessible than other portions of the book. The Invention of Monotheist Ethics is also printed in a format that is academic and unfriendly to the more lay reader.

Unfortunately the volume ends before the introduction of Bathsheba, one of the most memorable women of the Bible. Her story and the rest of King David’s reign are included in Volume Two. However the book is a wonderful introduction to the Bible and a great source for those looking for an unorthodox approach to the book.

Written by: Janice Formichella, May 28th 2010

A Cup of Comfort, Women of the Bible Devotional: Daily Reflections Inspired by Scripture's Most Beloved Heroines

admin — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 17:09:00 +0000

Edited by James Steward Bell, Susan B. Townsend

Adams Media

Let’s face it, regardless of our daily routines or obligations we can all use a bit of comfort from time to time. As such, I would strongly recommend A Cup of Comfort Women of the Bible Devotional, which I found to be less of a daily devotional and more of a mystical adventure. It seemed that each day’s message had been distinctly crafted just for me. There was always something valuable in the words that were shared—whether via the narratives or the quotes that lingered with me as I tended to the myriad of responsibilities that clamor for my attention each day.

This is actually one book that you can judge by its cover. True to its name, this daily devotional provides comfort and inspiration to a world weary soul, supplying the ideal amount of biblical wisdom to get your day started on the right foot. What I found particularly endearing about this devotional is the fact that it is the heroines of the Bible whose wisdom and experience is highlighted and presented. Prior to becoming a Christian I explored nearly every other mystical path out there: Sufi mysticism, New Age philosophies, Kabbala, Wicca, Buddhism, Taoism, and (she states somewhat shamefully) Hedonism.

What I enjoyed most about exploring these other paths was the central theme that allowed for focus on devotion to the balance of life, the essential connection between yin and yang, light and dark. Until I began reading this devotional I wasn’t able to see that Christianity also offers the balance of opposing forces. With each passage I was able to recognize the value of the feminine aspect of Christianity, which was something that had not been apparent to me via the most widely available Christian materials.

The reflections on life provided by the various contributors helped me to appreciate the wisdom that can be gleaned from the trials and tribulations that we all face. It is in difficult times that we often learn our most valuable lessons. If there was no dark, how could we recognize the light? It is the chiaroscuro of life’s travails that gives us our depth. Just as with a work of art, it is the light, the dark, and the myriad of shades in between that give feeling to the experience and texture to our vision.

Although I can’t say that it happens often, there have been times in my life that are akin to a fresh glass of lemonade on a hot summer’s afternoon: those moments of peace, when there are no proverbial fires to put out, no one screaming mommy, and no deadlines to meet. This is exactly where this particular devotional brings me: to a warm summer’s afternoon, with a fresh glass of lemonade in hand, a day’s work complete and time to reflect upon and marinate with all that has unfolded.

Written by: Susan G. Reyes Vasquez, September 8th 2009

The Bible Unearthed: The Making of a Religion

admin — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 23:37:00 +0000

Directed by Thierry Ragobert

First Run Features

The Bible Unearthed is a French documentary based on the 2001 bestselling book by the same name authored by Professor of Archaeology at Tel Aviv University Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman, Director of the Ename Centre for Public Archaeology and Heritage Presentation. Finkelstein’s archaeological investigation seeks to challenge the historical accuracy of the Bible by placing it in political, geographical, historical, and cultural contexts. We are toured through excavations in Egypt, Jordan, and Israel, including Megiddo, a site of twenty-five scrutinized strata worth 7,000 years of history.

This main investigation is fed by interviews with biblical scholars from France, Canada, Switzerland, Israel, Belgium, and the U.S., and museums such as the Louvre, the Museum of Cairo, the Museum of Jerusalem, and the British Museum, as well as archaeological specialists from the Levant. Archival footage of previous excavations, aerial photography, maps, computer animations, cuneiform tablets, extensive ruins, and various artifacts all supplement the interviews.

Copious questions are constantly posed by the narrator in an effort to evoke mystery—an effort that fails and evokes annoyance instead. This method also helps rob the film of dynamism, causing it to progress at an excruciatingly slow pace. The narrator uses florid language to say nothing. His are metaphors, general facts, and reiterations doled out sluggishly.

Accompanied by silence or music, shots of landscapes, old books, and close-ups of excavated finds are ubiquitous. Several of the questions posed are eventually answered by the various biblical scholars and archaeologists toward the end of each episode, which is when the episodes finally become engaging.

First is “The Patriarchs,” which begins with Genesis and evaluates where Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob ostensibly lived: Canaan. This episode is mostly vague and filled with questions. Next, “The Exodus” presents us with less speculation and more solid information, this time on Egypt and the story of Moses.

The third episode, “The Kings,” spans the story of God asking Joshua to conquer Israel, a feat that was then purportedly accomplished in two weeks. “The Kings” is the most compelling and dynamic episode thus far, in part because it puts the 1950s Israel excavation findings into a contemporary context. The archaeologists’ conclusions established just after the country’s independence, we learn, managed to fuel the notion that force and violence are necessary to give birth to a nation. This notion was allegedly what led to the conquest of Galilee by the Israelites.

The final episode, “The Books,” hunts for the writers of the Bible and the original Israelites, coming up with fascinating conclusions. This film is an engrossing adventure for religious enthusiasts, although not for the faint of heart. Let’s just say that much of the Bible is historically disproven and stories attributed to the political will of their writers. But if you want to skip the fluff and get more depth, go for the book.

Written by: Natalia Real, September 3rd 2009

The Non-Believer’s Bible

admin — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 17:15:00 +0000

By Franklin St. John

Inkwater Press

The Non-Believers Bible was passed along to me for review by a colleague who found the writing style to be painful, thereby foreclosing the possibility of her writing a deliberate review. Rather than headache-inducing, I found the text to be perplexing. Both while in the midst of reading it and after finishing it, one question continuously echoed in my mind: How to read this text? The question posed is both one of style and of method, since the method makes or is materialized in the style just as the style manifests in the method.

Perhaps, then, it is more appropriate to say that a growing sense of perplexing grew within my mind as a result of the motley combination of methods (which varied according to the “facts, research, history and common-sense view” culled by St. John) and styles at work in the text. The primary method and style is critique. The five purposes outlined in the preface articulate the overarching aim of the text: a critique of prominent world religions, a critique of the effects of religious beliefs, and a concluding section that describes the ethics of a non-believer.

It is the mode of critique—both as style and as method—that proves indigestible, as if the text were so chewy that it renders it impossible to swallow with understanding. Critique is art—to be able to write a critique, then, is an acquired artistic skill. It seems that St. John recognizes the mode of critique as the art form par excellence of writing. The text’s generic blending is reciprocated by the stylistic blending—the effects, however, for this reader, are confusing. The text, in its blatant, rhetorical, mockery of religion, sometimes reads as thoughtful provocation, while at other times reads as solipsistic and uncritical.

Particularly problematic is the author’s egregious oversight in claiming “facticity” for his project while simultaneously criticizing various world religions for asserting the same claim. “The book is factual, non-fiction, and absolutely true.” On the other hand, religious texts “are not based on fact, only hearsay,” he emphasizes, “I cannot stress enough the concept that religions are based totally on hearsay, no facts, nothing measurable.” Herein lies the problem: What is fact? St. John reiterates that his book is factual, but the assertion that his text is completely factual is predicated upon the melding of these following “facts”: as he says, “concepts [that] come from my own head. I have about twenty years of formal education, public school, college, and postgraduate work in Biology and Education. I am over sixty years old. I am a husband, a father, a grandfather, and a cousin. I read a lot and I think a lot.”

What is “fact,” St. John? Not only is the author hypocritical, more important, he fails to distinguish how his facts are different—or, more “true”—than religion’s facts. The concept of “the fact” is a nebulous one; for those of us with “formal education,” and, in particular, training in philosophy and critical thinking, we know that the concept of the fact is predicated upon the institution in power that determines what is fact; we know that quantitative systems of measurement are arbitrary and artificial, such that measured facts exist within determinate, closed, systems; and we know that all thought and language inherently emerges from perspective, from individual or collective perspective(s), such that any claim of objectivity is fundamentally rendered moot.

St. John’s text is inspiring for its discussion of how one can make meaning of life outside of religion, but, otherwise, the text is undermined by its own logic and therefore lacks the necessary rigor and critical acumen to present an effective critique of religion in general.

Written by: Marcie Bianco, June 24th 2009

The Book of Mary

admin — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 13:38:00 +0000

By Gail Sidonie Sobat

Sumach Press

Initially, this novel annoyed me. It begins with the story of Mary at the age of 14. She is of marriageable age, but she is a willful girl who is not only literate, but a teenager with ideas of her own. She sneaks out at night, and catches the eye of a young man named Jeremiah at a brothel, where she is allowed to dance. Joseph is there, too, and he has his eye on Mary, but she finds him to be dull. Mary and Jeremiah fall in love, and Mary gets pregnant. She then finds that Jeremiah is a rogue. Undaunted and ever resourceful, Mary saves both herself and the baby by concocting a wild lie about being visited by an angel who tells her that she is to give birth to Yahweh’s son. Joseph, who by now has already asked for her hand, is not fooled, but he is easily dominated, and so he goes along with the lie. Her parents, though devout Jews, do as well. And so Mary is married to Joseph, and he takes her to Bethlehem on a camel’s back. You may know rest.

Mary reminds me too much of a stereotype in the beginning. It is a story of a girl becoming a woman and coming into her own, refusing to buckle before authority, no matter how harsh and domineering that authority might be. Sobat repeatedly reminds us that in Mary’s day, women were stoned on a routine basis. This is, in theory, what kindles Mary’s crazy story about a virginal conception. What is so hard to believe, however, is that she actually gets away with it, or with the pseudo hospital and spiritual home for women that she supposedly builds, and which survives, despite the harsh patriarchal rule of law. However, the more I read, the more entranced I became. Sobat is a good story teller, and her Mary becomes a character that it is hard not to fall in love with. And the fact that Sobat comes up with her own version of the story told for 2,000 years becomes rather fascinating. We all know how this one is going to end. But it is the question of what happens to Mary, not to Jesus, that kept this reader turning the page.

Written by: Susan Melinda Dunlap, January 2nd 2007