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  Lee Edelman and the Queer Study of Religion

  Kent L. Brintnall, Rhiannon Graybill, and Linn Marie Tonstad

  This book takes the groundbreaking work of Lee Edelman in queer theory and, for the first time, demonstrates its importance and relevance to contemporary theology, biblical studies, and religious studies. It argues that despite extensive interest in Edelman’s work, we have barely begun to understand the significance of Edelman’s ideas both in their own right and with respect to the study of religion. Therefore, it offers fresh approaches to Edelman’s work that necessarily complicate the established interpretations of his thinking. With essays by rising and established scholars, as well as a response by Edelman himself, it contends that by fully engaging Edelman, scholars of religion will have to confront negativity and its consequences in ways that will contribute to reshaping the terrain of scholarship on religion, race, sexuality, and social change. The insights provided in this book are new territory for much of the study of religion. As such, it will be of keen interest to scholars of religious studies, theology, and Biblical studies, as well as gender studies and queer, feminist, and critical race theory.

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  [Description of] Jonah A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary

  Rhiannon Graybill, John Kaltner, and Steven L. McKenzie

  The book of Jonah, which tells the outlandish story of a disobedient prophet swallowed by a great fish, is one of the Bible’s best-known narratives. This tale has fascinated readers for millennia and has inspired countless interpretations.
  
  This commentary features a new translation of Jonah as well as an introduction outlining the major interpretive issues in the text. The introduction traces the composition history of the book, paying special attention to the psalm in the second chapter; and the authors explore new theories surrounding the time and place where Jonah delivers his message to Nineveh, as well as the city’s act of repentance. In addition to these features, this volume draws on a variety of critical approaches to biblical literature—including affect theory, animal studies, performance criticism, postcolonial criticism, psychological criticism, spatial theory, and trauma theory—to reveal the book’s many interpretive possibilities. An updated treatment of Jonah’s reception history includes analyses of the story in religious traditions, art and literature, and popular culture.

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  [Description of] What Are They Saying About the Book of Jonah

  Rhiannon Graybill, John Kaltner, and Steven L. McKenzie

  Aimed at a general audience, this book provides an overview of how biblical scholars have addressed important issues related to the biblical book of Jonah. Moving far beyond 'the story about that guy and the whale,' this work leads readers to appreciate how complex a work Jonah is and the unique contribution it makes to biblical literature.

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  1 Clement: A Reader's Edition

  Theodore A. Bergren

  The present volume is a "reader's edition" of 1 Clement, an important early Christian epistolary writing in Greek that probably dates from the late first century CE. The volume is designed for rapid reading and for classroom use. On each left-facing page is printed a running, sequential section of the Greek text. Next to that, on each right-facing page, are recorded all of the more unusual words in that section of Greek text, with dictionary form, part of speech, and definition(s). All of the more common words in that same section of Greek text are included in a comprehensive glossary at the end of the book.

  This system, then, is designed so that the reader of the Greek text will not have to stop to look up every unusual Greek word in a printed or online dictionary. He or she will simply have to look to the facing page. Such constant lookups in a printed or online dictionary are tedious and time-consuming, and have little pedagogical value. Since in the present edition the words recorded on the right-facing page are not parsed, the reader is still faced with the challenge of parsing the word and determining its place in the overall structure of the sentence. It is this process that does serve a useful pedagogical purpose, and the present system preserves the challenge of this process.

  The introduction to the volume covers (1) 1 Clement's genre, date, setting in life, purpose, sources, and main themes; (2) the compositional outline of the book; (3) the book's authorship, history of reception, and textual attestation; (4) discussion of the present "reader's edition"; (5) a list of scriptural quotations and allusions; and (6) a comprehensive bibliography on the text of 1 Clement.

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  A Latin-Greek Index of the Vulgate New Testament and the Apostolic Fathers

  Theodore A. Bergren

  This volume lists, in alphabetical order, all the Latin words that appear in the Vulgate translation of the New Testament and the various ancient Latin translations of the "Apostolic Fathers". Following each Latin word are listed all the Greek words that are attested as translational antecedents, or "Vorlagen", for that Latin word in the Greek New Testament and the Greek Apostolic Fathers. Each Greek word is followed by a numerical marker indicating its page location in a particular Greek concordance of the New Testament or the Apostolic Fathers.

  Containing approximately 9,000 Latin words and phrases, and approximately 13,800 Greek translational equivalents, the index is sure to be of interest to anyone, including classicists and medievalists, studying Latin texts that were translated or may have been translated from Greek originals.

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  [Introduction to] Language as Bodily Practice in Early China: A Chinese Grammatology

  Jane Geaney

  Jane Geaney argues that early Chinese conceptions of speech and naming cannot be properly understood if viewed through the dominant Western philosophical tradition in which language is framed through dualisms that are based on hierarchies of speech and writing, such as reality/appearance and one/many. Instead, early Chinese texts repeatedly create pairings of sounds and various visible things. This aural/visual polarity suggests that texts from early China treat speech as a bodily practice that is not detachable from its use in everyday experience. Firmly grounded in ideas about bodies from the early texts themselves, Geaney’s interpretation offers new insights into three key themes in these texts: the notion of speakers’ intentions (yi), the physical process of emulating exemplary people, and Confucius’s proposal to rectify names (zhengming).

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  [Introduction to] Darkness Falls on the Land of Light: Experiencing Religious Awakenings in Eighteenth-Century New England

  Douglas L. Winiarski

  This sweeping history of popular religion in eighteenth-century New England examines the experiences of ordinary people living through extraordinary times. Drawing on an unprecedented quantity of letters, diaries, and testimonies, Douglas Winiarski recovers the pervasive and vigorous lay piety of the early eighteenth century. George Whitefield's preaching tour of 1740 called into question the fundamental assumptions of this thriving religious culture. Incited by Whitefield and fascinated by miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit--visions, bodily fits, and sudden conversions--countless New Englanders broke ranks with family, neighbors, and ministers who dismissed their religious experiences as delusive enthusiasm. These new converts, the progenitors of today's evangelical movement, bitterly assaulted the Congregational establishment.

  The 1740s and 1750s were the dark night of the New England soul, as men and women groped toward a restructured religious order. Conflict transformed inclusive parishes into exclusive networks of combative spiritual seekers. Then as now, evangelicalism emboldened ordinary people to question traditional authorities. Their challenge shattered whole communities.

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  [Introduction to] Believing and Acting: The Pragmatic Turn in Comparative Religion and Ethics

  G. Scott Davis

  How should religion and ethics be studied if we want to understand what people believe and why they act the way they do? In the 1980s and '90s postmodernist worries about led to debates that turned on power, truth, and relativism. Since the turn of the century scholars impressed by 'cognitive science' have introduced concepts drawn from evolutionary biology, neurosciences, and linguistics in the attempt to provide 'naturalist' accounts of religion. Deploying concepts and arguments that have their roots in the pragmatism of C. S. Peirce, Believing and Acting argues that both approaches are misguided and largely unhelpful in answering the questions that matter: What did those people believe then? How does it relate to what these people want to do now? What is our evidence for our interpretations? Pragmatic inquiry into these questions recommends an approach that questions grand theories, advocates a critical pluralism about religion and ethics that defies disciplinary boundaries in the pursuit of the truth. Rationality, on a pragmatic approach, is about solving particular problems in medias res, thus there is no hard and fast line to be drawn between inquiry and advocacy; both are essential to negotiating day to day life. The upshot is an approach to religion and ethics in which inquiry looks much like the art history of Michael Baxandall and advocacy like the art criticism of Arthur Danto.

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  [Introduction to] Warcraft and the Fragility of Virtue: An Essay in Aristotelian Ethics

  G. Scott Davis

  The origins of the book make a chronicle of the unexpected. In the spring of 1985, if memory serves, I was invited by Jeffrey Stout to teach a course at Princeton focusing on war and traditions of moral reasoning. Although I had not previously explored the just war tradition, it dovetailed nicely with my interest in Aristotle and his place in contemporary moral theory.

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  [Introduction to] On the Epistemology of the Senses in Early Chinese Thought

  Jane Geaney

  Sense perception, which is of enormous importance in Western philosophical traditions, has scarcely attracted the notice of scholars of early China. As a result of little direct comment on the senses in the Chinese philosophical classics, sinologists have generally interpreted their occasional references to sense functions in familiar Western philosophical terms. This original work challenges this tradition, arguing that despite the scarcity of direct comment on the senses in these sources, it is possible to discern early Chinese views of sensory functions from a close reading of the texts. Working with metaphorical and structural analysis, the author reconstructs an understanding of sense perception that seems to have been taken for granted by the early Chinese philosophers. By departing from traditional sinological approaches, this method uncovers a detailed picture of certain shared underlying views of sense perception in the Lun Yu, the Mozi (including the Neo-Mohist Canons), the Xunzi, the Mencius, the Laozi, and the Zhuangzi.
  
  Based on its assembly of textual evidence, the book presents a conception of sense perception that diverges from the "five senses" model so prevalent in the modern world. It argues that in early Chinese texts the importance of hearing and seeing surpasses that of the other senses. These two modalities--aural and visual--are paired with one another and constitute the sensory foundation for trust and knowledge in the Chinese worldview. The work also draws on the parallels between the ears and eyes to challenge standard understandings of the early Chinese notion of reality.

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  [Introduction to] Religion and Justice in the War over Bosnia

  G. Scott Davis

  This volume brings together a distinguished group of thinkers to explore the moral and religious issues that underlie the violence and atrocities in Bosnia. From diverse academic and philosophical perspectives, the works of Jean Bethke Elshtain, James Turner Johnson, Michael Sells, John Kelsay, and G. Scott Davis will inform not just scholars of ethics, politics and religion, but everyone concerned with the prospects for justice in the post Cold War world.