Read complete books and articles on: Bible as Literature

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16 of the Best Books and Articles on: Bible as Literature

as selected by Questia librarians

1.

The World of Biblical Literature » Read Now
by Robert Alter. 223 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Literature, Entire Library
2.

The English Bible as Literature » Read Now
by Charles Allen Dinsmore. 334 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Literature, Entire Library

...THE ENGLISH BIBLE AS LITERATURE BOOKS BY CHARLES A. DINSMORE The...to the Study of Dante The English Bible as Literature THE ENGLISH BIBLE AS LITERATURE BY CHARLES ALLEN...
3.

Biblical Interpretation (Chap. 7 "Literary Study of the Bible") » Read Now
by Robert Morgan, John Barton. 342 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Entire Library

Modern western critical study of the Bible has radically altered the fabric of Christian belief. This book explains what interpretation is and what special issues arise in biblical interpretation. The authors analyze the development of traditional literary and historical criticism and more recent...
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Modern western critical study of the Bible has radically altered the fabric of Christian belief. This book explains what interpretation is and what special issues arise in biblical interpretation. The authors analyze the development of traditional literary and historical criticism and more recent social, scientific, and literary approaches, focusing on the key figures from Reimarus to Gerd Theissen, and exposing the underlying theological issues. What emerges is a pattern in the relationship between religious interests in the texts and the rational methods used to interpret them, providing guidance for a theologically sensitive use of the Bible today. The book includes an annotated index with detailed information on over 250 biblical scholars and other interpreters.
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4.

The Mythic Past: Biblical Archaeology and the Myth of Israel (Chap. 11 "The Bible's Literary World") » Read Now
by Thomas L. Thompson. 412 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, History, Entire Library

The Bible in History will be the first comprehensive overview and synthesis of the latest archaeological research from the Middle East written for the general reader. Its often startling assertions will make for a powderkeg of a book. Among the author's conclusions are these:
-- There never was a...
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The Bible in History will be the first comprehensive overview and synthesis of the latest archaeological research from the Middle East written for the general reader. Its often startling assertions will make for a powderkeg of a book. Among the author's conclusions are these:
-- There never was a "united monarch" (Saul, David, Solomon) in history
-- We can no longer talk about a time of the Patriarchs
-- The entire notion of "Israel" and its history is a literary fiction.
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5.

The Literature of the English Bible » Read Now
by Wilbur Owen Sypherd. 234 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Literature, Entire Library

...which relate primarily to the Bible as literature, particularly to the book...Bible 23 The Bible as English Literature 23 Contents...INTRODUCTION THE BIBLE The Bible as...
6.

Bible as English Literature » Read Now
by J. H. Gardiner. 402 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Literature, Entire Library

...THE BIBLE AS ENGLISH LITERATURE THE BIBLE AS ENGLISH LITERATURE BY J. H. GARDINER ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF...APPENDIX 397 INDEX 399 THE BIBLE AS ENGLISH LITERATURE CHAPTER I...
7.

The Bible and the Narrative Tradition » Read Now
by Frank McConnell. 152 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Literature, Entire Library

In his introduction to this book, McConnell describes the Bible as "less a book and more a living entity in the evolving consciousness of Western man." Until recently, studies of the Bible centered on finding sources for historical knowledge, theological insights, or ethical advice, overlooking the...
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In his introduction to this book, McConnell describes the Bible as "less a book and more a living entity in the evolving consciousness of Western man." Until recently, studies of the Bible centered on finding sources for historical knowledge, theological insights, or ethical advice, overlooking the true beauty of the words in the "book of books." This collection of six essays by noted literary critics and biblical scholars--including Harold Bloom, Hans Frei, Frank Kermode, James Robinson, Donald Foster, and Herbert Schneidau--breaks new ground by exploring the Bible as poetry, rhetoric, and narrative. The authors treat such issues involved in biblical narrative as its genesis, its revisionist dynamic, its fictional character, its interpretive nature, and its contradictions, prejudices, and claims. McConnell's lively, readable introduction elucidates and unifies the book's themes.
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8.

Dialogues of the Word: The Bible as Literature According to Bakhtin » Read Now
by Walter L. Reed. 234 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Literature, Entire Library

Drawing on the theory of language developed by the Soviet critic Mikhail Bakhtin, this book argues that the historically diverse writings of the Bible have been organized according to a concept of dialogue. The overriding concern with an ongoing communication between God and his people has been...
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Drawing on the theory of language developed by the Soviet critic Mikhail Bakhtin, this book argues that the historically diverse writings of the Bible have been organized according to a concept of dialogue. The overriding concern with an ongoing communication between God and his people has been formally embodied, Reed shows, in the continuous conversation between one part of the Bible and another. Reed looks beyond the close readings of recent accounts of the Bible as literature to larger paradigms of communication in the Hebrew Bible and the Christian New Testament. He considers the Bible in its different canonical states, distinguishing the genres of law, prophecy, and wisdom in the Hebrew Bible and describing how these earlier forms of divine and human communication are appropriated and answered by the New Testament genre of gospel. The dialogic character of the Bible is also discovered within individual books: patriarchal answers to primeval failures in Genesis, cross-talk between justice and providence in Job, and orchestration of judgment and worship in Revelation. Throughout this wide-ranging study, Reed demonstrates the surprising relevance of Bakhtin's ideas of literature and language to the biblical writings as they assume formal coherence within the canon.
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9.

The Biography of Ancient Israel: National Narratives in the Bible » Read Now
by Ilana Pardes. 211 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Entire Library

The nation--particularly in Exodus and Numbers--is not an abstract concept but rather a grand character whose history is fleshed out with remarkable literary power. In her innovative exploration of national imagination in the Bible, Pardes highlights the textual manifestations of the metaphor, the...
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The nation--particularly in Exodus and Numbers--is not an abstract concept but rather a grand character whose history is fleshed out with remarkable literary power. In her innovative exploration of national imagination in the Bible, Pardes highlights the textual manifestations of the metaphor, the many anthropomorphisms by which a collective character named "Israel" springs to life. She explores the representation of communal motives, hidden desires, collective anxieties, the drama and suspense embedded in each phase of the nation's life: from birth in exile, to suckling in the wilderness, to a long process of maturation that has no definite end. In the Bible, Pardes suggests, history and literature go hand in hand more explicitly than in modern historiography, which is why the Bible serves as a paradigmatic case for examining the narrative base of national constructions.
Pardes calls for a consideration of the Bible's penetrating renditions of national ambivalence. She reads the rebellious conduct of the nation against the grain, probing the murmurings of the people, foregrounding their critique of the official line. The Bible does not provide a homogeneous account of nation formation, according to Pardes, but rather reveals points of tension between different perceptions of the nation's history and destiny.
This fresh and beautifully rendered portrayal of the history of ancient Israel will be of vital interest to anyone interested in the Bible, in th
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10.

To Each Its Own Meaning: An Introduction to Biblical Criticisms and Their Applications » Read Now
by Steven L. McKenzie, Stephen R. Haynes. 310 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Entire Library
11.

A Literary Guide to the Bible: A Study of the Types of Literature Present in the Old and New Testaments » Read Now
by Laura H. Wild. 275 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Literature, Entire Library

...CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION. THE BIBLE AS LITERATURE What excuse is there for...upon the Bible and upon the Bible as literature? Have we not been studying...excuse for a...
12.

How to Read the Bible » Read Now
by Edgar J. Goodspeed. 248 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Entire Library

...undoubtedly are for literature and history, their religious...have looked upon the Bible as a huge book too antique...extreme. The poetry of the Bible must be read as...
13.

The Bible and English Prose Style: Selections and Comments » Read Now
by Albert S. Cook. 61 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Literature, Entire Library

...and stimulus as from Homer...ones native literature, a great poetry...range. The Bible has thus been...English Bible which makes...mere lover of literature. Look...
14.

Canons in Conflict: Negotiating Texts in True and False Prophecy ("The Bible as Story" begins on p. 28) » Read Now
by James E. Brenneman. 228 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Entire Library

In this new study, James Brenneman confronts the issue of conflicting canons with full force, incorporating insights gained from both literary and biblical disciplines on the question of canon. He begins with an illuminating tour through contemporary literary theory from Hans Robert Jauss to Stanley...
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In this new study, James Brenneman confronts the issue of conflicting canons with full force, incorporating insights gained from both literary and biblical disciplines on the question of canon. He begins with an illuminating tour through contemporary literary theory from Hans Robert Jauss to Stanley Fish, and current discussions in theology about the canon. He goes on to a consideration of true and false prophesy, with a detailed examination of the three apparently conflicting versions of the Old Testament "swords into plowshares" prophesy, as found in Isaiah 2:2-4,5; Joel 4:9-12 (Eng. 3:9-12); and Micah 4:1-5. Suggesting that the dynamics controlling the process for negotiating between contradictory readings of prophetic texts are the same as those at work in adjudicating between canons in conflict, Brenneman concludes by pointing the way towards an integrative approach appropriate to the question of canon and authority in a "post-modern" pluralistic context.
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15.

The Literary Impact of the Authorised Version » Read Now
by C. S. Lewis. 26 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Literature, Entire Library

...certain sense in which the Bible as literature does not exist. It is a collection...coined the expression the Bible as literature. It is very generally implied...bull, that...
16.

The Creation of History in Ancient Israel » Read Now
by Marc Zvi Brettler. 254 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, History, Entire Library

The Creation of History in Ancient Israel demonstrates how the historian can start to piece together the history of ancient Israel using the Hebrew Bible as a source.