Religious Scholarship Series

This is my archive page (starting from the most recent) of my Religious Scholarship Series:

Friday, December 12, 2008…

Torah and Canon: Changing How We See the Bible

This is a short book review I did for my old testament class in grad school on James A. Sanders’ book Torah and Canon: Second Edition.

James A. Sanders argues that in order to truly understand the power of the Tanakh and to fully appreciate its value in our modern day society we must use exegesis and especially hermeneutics in order to:

break out of the ‘boxes and circles’ in which as humans we find ourselves so that we can recover the excitement and power of reading the Bible on its own terms…Using the tools of Enlightenment helps the reader to be aware of and put her or his ‘boxes and circles’ in check while probing the amazing depths of this powerful literature…(Sanders, xxxi)

Sunday, September 21, 2008…

Las Casas as Theological Counteroffensive: Liberation Theology and the Bible

Smith, Christian. “Las Casas as Theological Counteroffensive: An Interpretation of Gustavo Gutiérrez’s Las Casas: In Search of the Poor of Jesus Christ.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 41, no. 1 (March 2002): 69-73.

The abstract of the article states:

Peruvian liberation theologian Gustavo Gutiérrez’s massive work, Las Casas: In Search of the Poor of Jesus Christ, should not be read as a defensive or retreating move for liberation theology in the face of two decades of opposition. Rather, it is best understood as a creative and strategic counteroffensive to advance liberation theology in terms that the Vatican can only find difficult to counter. Nevertheless, liberation theology struggles with the difficulty of intellectually justifying itself on nondependency and non-Marxist grounds. In any case, the struggle for the work of liberation in Latin America continues. (Bold mine)

Tuesday, April 8, 2008…

Ecclesial Anti-Racist Witness: A Critique and Affirmation Part I

A recent article [1] by Dwight N. Hopkins, a professor at the University of Chicago Divinity School, came out in the latest issue of the Anglican Theology Review. And since it involves anti-racism as a subject, a subject which I study very closely and hold dear to my heart, and the journal of the Anglican Church, which I am apart of, I figured I would discuss and critique Dr. Hopkins views in my blog.

Saturday, March 15, 2008…

Yaweh and Asherah

There’s a good article in the Biblical Archeology Review entitled “A Temple Build for Two: Did Yahweh Share His Throne With His Consort Asherah?“

Ashrh (Asherah) is a goddess of Ugarit origins who was called, in Ugarit poetry, “she who treads the sea,” and is seen as the wife of the El, who was the supreme god and creator of mankind in Ugarit folklore. El is also the generic Hebrew name “god,” which is used to describe yhwh (Yahweh), “El Yahweh,” or “the god Yahweh,” or “The Lord our God (El).”…(Read More)

Friday, March 14, 2008…

Reilgious Scholarship Series

With this series I hope to highlight interesting articles, mainly on Near Eastern and Mediterranean religions (as those are the religions which I study), from scholarly and semi-scholarly journals on ancient religion, archeology, and as well as contemporary religion and religious issues…(Read More)