Evangelical Elites’ Anti‐Homosexuality Narratives as a Resistance Strategy Against Attribution Effects

While attribution theory expects that beliefs about the origins of homosexuality are directly related to beliefs about the moral acceptability of homosexual behavior, we use content analysis of the popular evangelical magazine Christianity Today to show that evangelical elites have developed a series of anti‐homosexuality narratives that allow them to resist attribution effects. In particular, we find that even when evangelical elites have expressed belief in the physiological origins of homosexuality, such as the influence of genetics and/or prenatal hormones, their negative beliefs about the moral acceptability of homosexual behavior have not varied. We argue, then, that evangelical elites’ anti‐homosexuality narratives provide them with a strategy for influencing rank‐and‐file evangelicals, so that while allowing for a diversity of beliefs about the origins of homosexuality, rank‐and‐file evangelicals still have a viable mechanism for connecting these beliefs—whatever they may be—to negative beliefs about the moral acceptability of homosexual behavior. Our findings thus extend attribution theory, illuminate the potential power of moral narratives, and amplify the need for future research.     

Iranian Psychotherapists’ Behaviors and Beliefs Toward Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity

The aim of this study is to investigate Iranian psychotherapists’ behaviors and beliefs toward sexual orientation and gender identity. The sample consisted of 358 Iranian psychotherapists, of whom 29.3% (n = 105) were male and 67% (n = 24) were female. Results from the chi-square analyses showed that more male participants reported accepting homosexual clients and treating them as having a pathological disorder than their female counterparts; and licensed respondents reported engaging more in accepting only male or female clients, accepting more homosexual and transgender clients for treatment, and treating them as having a pathological disorder when compared with their unlicensed counterparts. Furthermore supervised respondents reported accepting more homosexual clients than their unsupervised counterparts. However results from the multivariate analysis of variance has indicated that the female participants reported “accepting homosexuals or transgender clients for treatment” more often than the male participants; unsupervised participants reported “accepting homosexual or transgender clients for treatment” and “treating homosexuality per se as a pathological disorder” more often than their supervised counterparts.     

Reviews

Books reviewed: Peter C. Hodgson God's Wisdom: Toward a Theology of Education Charles F. Melchert Wise Teaching: Biblical Wisdom and Educational Ministry Fernando F. Segovia and Mary Ann Tolbert, eds., Teaching the Bible: The Discourses and Politics and Biblical Pedagogy H. Edward Everding, Jr. Mary W. Wilcox, Lucinda A. Huffaker and Clarence H. SnellingViewpoints: Faith Perspectives and Christian Nurture Peter McLaren Revolutionary Multiculturalism: Pedagogies of Dissent for the New Millennium     

Is Isaac without Ishmael complete? A nineteenth‐century debate re‐visited

Biblical passages which Christians have traditionally applied to Islam, predicting the rise of false prophets and of false Christs, inform negative judgements. The theory of one nineteenth‐century writer, Charles Forster (1787–1871) is examined as possibly offering a sympathetic Biblical‐key in its interpretation of God's promise to Abraham that he would bless Ishmael and make him father of a great nation. Islam, Forster argued, fulfilled this promise: permitted to exist by God, Islam's eventual “bringing in” to the Kingdom would be by divine not human action. This raises questions about the propriety of proselytizing Muslims and suggests that theological disputation might yield to mutual striving to “do good works” or to obey God's will (Q.5:48; Matt 7:21).     

Teaching Exegesis in Historically Black Theological Schools

This Forum collects the papers presented at a 2010 panel at the Society of Biblical Literature, an outcome of a Wabash Center funded grant project. The project examined the unique dimensions and experiences of teaching Biblical exegesis at the six historically black theological schools (HBTSs), including discussion of the unique needs of HBTS students and their communities, and appropriate learning goals and effective teaching practices for this context. None of the biblical studies faculty were prepared as graduate students for the unique challenges that they have encountered teaching at a HBTS, so they have all had to “learn on the job” how best to approach the unique needs of the student body. The brief statements collected here summarize the findings from the project, describe and analyze some effective teaching strategies, and offer suggestions for continuing the conversation.     

Freud, Oedipus and the Hebrew Bible

The current paper examines the question of why Freud employed Greek rather than Hebrew foundation legends, specifically the story of Oedipus, as a basis for psychoanalysis, Freud's choice of Oedipus emanates from his deterministic view of the universe, paralleling the Greek rather that the Biblical story of creation. In the Biblical account God precedes and creates nature with no sign of an Oedipal conflict. In the Greek account, nature precedes the gods and the Oedipal conflict is inherent. Freud's choice has implications for his view of human psychology.     

Genre of Music and Lyrical Content: Expectation Effects

This study was designed to examine whether people's expectations differ regarding how music lyrics affect individual behavior as a function of music genre. Because legislative attention and media publicity have been biased against certain types of popular music (i.e., heavy metal and rap), the authors expected that those genres of music would be viewed more negatively than other genres of popular music, for which there has been little or no negative publicity (i.e., pop and country). Participants (N = 160 college students) rated their perceptions of how the lyrical content of a song would affect listeners' behavior. The authors presented prosocial or antisocial lyrical passages to students (N = 160) under the guise of four musical genres (heavy metal, rap, pop, and country). Participants rated the potential impact of the lyrics on listeners' behavior. Findings indicated that lyrics labeled as heavy metal or rap were perceived as less likely to inspire prosocial behavior but not more likely to inspire antisocial behavior than the same lyrics labeled as country or pop.     

Homosexuality and the Bible or Queer Reading? A Response to Martti Nissinen

Abstract

This article offers a response to Martti Nissinen's important text Homoeroticism in the Biblical World. Although Nissinen's research is historical, his analysis of ancient practices is offered as a contribution to contemporary debates on homosexuality within the Church. A powerful case is made that attitudes towards gender relations in the ancient world were governed by assumptions concerning the proper relations between active, ‘penetrating’, social superiors and passive, ‘penetrated’, inferiors. The disjunction between this worldview and contemporary contexts and concepts is demonstrated, thus problematizing the notion that contemporary practices can be predicated upon ‘biblical’ norms.

Despite its significance Nissinen's work cannot be straightforwardly appropriated as a helpful contribution to debate. The very act of constructing a canon of biblical references to homosexuality is problematic. It positions homosexuality once again as the object of research—that which is silent while spoken about. This, in turn, disguises the assumption that there is an unproblematic continuum in heterosexual relations that endures over time and does not require similar interrogation. Heteronormativity is thus actively sustained. There is a need to go beyond even the apparently progressive forms of biblical scholarship currently being pursued by Nissinen and others in order to develop a ‘queer commentary’ on the Bible. This will denaturalize the very concepts male, female and homosexual through which our relations with the text are currently constructed.     

Pedagogy and Practice: Using Wisdom Ways in the Classroom

Abstract. The Academic Teaching and Biblical Studies Section of the Society of Biblical Literature chose Wisdom Ways, by Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, as the basis for a discussion on teaching at its November 1902 meeting in Toronto. Each presenter commented on the underlying pedagogy of the book, sharing exercises and assignments they had used in their classrooms to help students interpret the materials, especially from a feminist and/or liberationist perspective. Adapted from the SBL presentations, this is a different type of review essay that describes the use of a book in three different settings: a free‐standing seminary, a state university, and a university‐affiliated divinity school. These three distinct contexts are in turn the settings for three individual pedagogical styles. The result is a conversation among author, teachers, text, and students that illustrates the interplay of teaching, learning, and context.     

Textual demands of passages in three english/language arts common core assessments and one core literacy program for intermediate elementary grades

The Common Core has emphasized reading for comprehension, including making inferences. However, little is known about the textual demands found within assessment and instructional passages that are promoted as being in line with Common Core expectations. The purpose of this content analysis was to identify the readability levels, passage length, and types of inferences found within 72 fiction and nonfiction passages from the PARCC, Smarter Balanced, and SAGE Common Core assessments and one core literacy program, Journeys, for students in grades three, four, and five. Results show that the readability levels of passages in this study were written at higher levels than their associated grade levels. Anaphoric relationships were by far the most common inference type found in the texts, followed by Prior Knowledge and Retrospective inferences.     

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article: Daniel Patte, The Ethics of Biblical Interpretation: A Reevaluation, Louisville D. William Faupel, The Everlasting Gospel: The Significance of Eschatology in the Development of Pentecostal Thought, Shefffield     

Idealization,Splitting, and the Challenge of Homophobia

How can we account for the persistence of homophobia? What makes homophobia so resistant to change? In this paper we discuss the psychic and discursive persistence of homophobia by problematizing the political unconscious. Focusing on Freud's psychic defense mechanisms, idealization and splitting, we show how these forces can be thought of as the psychic work of discourse. To this end we interviewed fathers of homosexual sons who had initially reacted with panic, but eventually came to “accept” their sons' homosexuality. We discuss the paradox that the fathers' narratives raise: their love and adoration of their (masculine) homosexual sons, and on the other hand their hatred and denunciation of homosexuality. We argue that idealization and splitting in this case operate as regulatory psychic mechanisms in the service of social discourse. This psychic power of discourse reappropriates masculinity (as a fetish) and reinstates the naturalization of heterosexuality and the masculine/feminine binary. The notion of the political unconscious is brought up by concluding that in order to change sexual prejudices we need to understand why we fail to change and how psychic mechanisms work in the service of social and cultural discourse.     

Homosexuality,Heterosexuality, and Cross-Dressing: Perceptions of Gender Discordant Behavior

This study examined attitudes of heterosexual and homosexual males toward heterosexual and homosexual cross-dressers. It was hypothesized that heterosexual males would be equally intolerant of homosexual cross-dressers, heterosexual cross-dressers, and homosexuals who did not cross-dress, but that homosexuals would be more tolerant of noncross-dressing homosexuals than of the other two groups. It was also hypothesized that homosexual subjects, but not the heterosexual subjects, would rate the homosexual noncross-dressers as more masculine than the cross-dressers. Forty-five heterosexual and 45 homosexual male college students read stories about a character who was described as a heterosexual cross-dresser, a homosexual cross-dresser, or a plain homosexual. 83 subjects were Caucasian, 2 were Asian, and 5 were African American; about 60% of the subjects were middle class; 30% were from lower class families and 10% were upper class. Heterosexuals were much less tolerant of all three vignette characters than homosexuals, but neither group rated the characters much differently when they were labeled differently. Homosexuals, but not heterosexuals, rated the plain homosexual as more masculine than the cross-dressing characters. Results also showed that gay males with highly nontraditional attitudes toward women had higher self-esteem.     

Patristic and Early Christian Biblical Exegesis: A New Tool for Historians,Theologians, and Philosophers

The Oxford Handbook of Early Christian Biblical Interpretation (2019) should be viewed as a definitive new tool for understanding the contextual concerns, literary genres, and shifting ideological principles that generated Early Christian biblical exegesis. This review essay explains why the new Handbook is distinct among tools of its kind, and highlights some of its major benefits for encountering and engaging the ancient resources of Christian theologies on their own terms. This collection of essays may be fruitfully used to nuance and expand contemporary trends in hermeneutical and analytic theology (This research is made possible by Research Foundation – Flanders [F.W.O.]).     

Book Reviews

Books reviewed: Martin McNamara, Inspiration and Authority: Nature and Function of Christian Scripture Martin McNamara, On the Way to the Canon: Creative Tradition History in the Old Testament (Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement Series 191) Martin McNamara, The Wisdom Literature (Interpreting Biblical Texts) Sabine Van Den Eynde, God's Holy People: A Theme in Biblical Theology (Journal for the Study of the Old Testament. Supplement Series 305) Martin McNamara, A History of the Synoptic Problem: The Canon, the Text, the Composition, and the Interpretation of the Gospels (The Anchor Bible Reference Library) N. H. Taylor, The Historical Jesus Quest: Landmarks in the Search for the Jesus of History Nicholas King, The Revelation of Jesus Christ N. H. Taylor, Matthew and the Margins: A Socio‐Political and Religious Reading (JSNTS 204) Nicholas King, Paul and Politics: Ekklesia, Israel, Imperium, Interpretation: Essays in Honor of Krister Stendhal Martin McNamara, The Theology of Paul the Apostle Martin McNamara, One Bible, Many Voices: Different Approaches to Biblical Studies Martin McNamara, A Manual of Hermeneutics (The Biblical Seminar 54) Martin McNamara, Shepherd of Hermas: A Commentary (Hermeneia) Chris O'Gorman, Health Care and the Rise of Christianity Michael Robson, The Emergence of Monasticism: From the Desert Fathers to the Early Middle Ages Alastair Hamilton, Monastic Visions: Wall Paintings in the Monastery of St. Antony at the Red Sea Andrew Louth, Picturing the Passion in Late Medieval Italy: Narrative Painting, Franciscan Ideologies, and the Levant James L. Empereur, Eyes To See, Ears to Hear: An Introduction to Ignatian Spirituality (Traditions of Christian Spirituality) Francesca Bugliani Knox, To the Greater Glory: A Psychological Study of Ignatian Spirituality Richard P. Hardy, John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila: Mystical Knowing and Selfhood Jonathan Rolls, Reformation and Scholasticism: An Ecumenical Enterprise Stuart Elden, Writing Violence on the Northern Frontier: The Historiography of Sixteenth‐Century New Mexico and Florida and the Legacy of Conquest Jan Marten Ivo Klaver, Rival Jerusalems: The Geography of Victorian Religion Norman Tanner, From Inquisition to Freedom: Seven Prominent Catholics and their Struggle with the Vatican Michael Purcell, Theology and the Dialogue of Religions Victoria Harrison‐Carter, On Virtue Ethics Stuart Elden, Civilising Sex: On Chastity and the Common Good Catherine Cowley, Inequality and Christian Ethics     

BOOK REVIEWS

Books reviewed: V. Philips Long, David W. Baker and Gordon J. Wenham, Windows into Old Testament History: Evidence, Argument, and the Crisis of ‘Biblical Israel’ J. Cheryl Exum and H. G. M. Williamson, Reading from Right to Left. Essays on the Hebrew Bible in Honour of David J. A. Clines Martin Hengel, The Septuagint as Christian Scripture. Its Prehistory and the Problem of its Canon Erhard S. Gerstenberger, Theologies in the Old Testament Daniel L. Smith‐Christopher, A Biblical Theology of Exile P. M. Michéle Daviau, John W. Wevers and Michael Weigl, The World of the Aramaeans: Biblical Studies in Honour of Paul‐Eugéne Dion Carole R. Fontaine, Smooth Words. Women, Proverbs and Performance in Biblical Wisdom Volkmar Fritz, 1 and 2 Kings: A Continental Commentary Adele Berlin, Lamentations. A Commentary Vicky Balabanski, Eschatology in the Making. Mark, Matthew and the Didache A. Andrew Das, Paul and the Jews Steve Mason, Josephus and the New Testament John L.Thompson, Writing the Wrongs: Women of the Old Testament among Biblical Commentators from Philo through the Reformation Kim Paffenroth, Judas: Images of the Lost Disciple David R. Cartlidge and J. Keith Elliott, Art and the Christian Apocrypha Charles A. Robertz and David Brakke, Reading in Christian Communities. Essays on Interpretation in the Early Church Michael Fishbane, The Exegetical Imagination. On Jewish Thought and Theology Jacob Neusner and Bruce Chilton, Jewish‐Christian Debates. God, Kingdom, Messiah Paul Rhodes Eddy, John Hick's Pluralist Philosophy of World Religions Carl Starkloff, A Theology of the In‐Between: The Value of Syncretic Process B. Jakim, The Bride of the Lamb Nicolas Stebbing, Bearers of the Spirit: Spiritual Fatherhood in Romanian Orthodoxy Noel Dermot O'Donoghue, The Angels keep their Ancient Places. Reflections on Celtic Spirituality Mark Atherton, Celts and Christians: New Approaches to the Religious Traditions of Britain and Ireland. Graydon F. Snyder, Irish Jesus, Roman Jesus: The Formation of Early Irish Christianity. Brendan Bradshaw and Dáire Keogh, Christianity in Ireland: Revisiting the Story. Caterina Bruschi and Peter Biller, Texts and the Repression of Medieval Heresy Werner O.Packull and Geoffrey L. Dipple, Radical Reformation Studies. Essays presented to James M. Stayer. Geoffrey Dipple, Antifraternalism and Anticlericalism in the German Reformation. Johann Eberlin von Günzburg and the Campaign against the Friars. Philip B, Richard Hooker: Prophet of Anglicanism Rocco Pezzimenti, The Political Thought of Lord Acton: the English Catholics in the Nineteenth Century. Una Agnew, The Mystical Imagination of Patrick Kavanagh: A Buttonhole in Heaven? Edward R. Wierenga, The Nature of God: An Inquiry into Divine Attributes Jonardon Ganeri, Philosophy in Classical India: The Proper Work of Reason Naomi Reshotko, Desire, Identity and Existence: Essays in Honour of T.M. Penner Peter Kingsley, Reality Brian Jacobs and Patrick Kain, Essays on Kant's Anthropology. Smith, John Searle. Ruth Abbey, Charles Taylor Kees van Kooten Niekerk and Hans Buhl, The Significance of Complexity: Approaching a Complex World Through Science, Theology and the Humanities. Larry A. Witham, Where Darwin Meets the Bible: Creationists and Evolutionists in America. Ian Barbour, Nature, Human Nature, and God.     

Proposal for Centers for the Study of Biblical Psychotherapy

This paper describes the need for a Biblically based psychotherapy to replace a psychotherapy dominated by Greek mythology. Centers for Biblical Psychotherapy are proposed and sample curriculae are discussed.     

A Miscellany of Recent Boob

A Miscellany Of Recent Books in this article: Believing and Knowing: The Meaning of Truth in Biblical Religion and in Science. By Emerson W. Shideler . The New Christianity: An Anthology of the Rise of Modern Religious Thought. Edited by William Robert Miller . The Challenge of Science. By George Boas .     

A Three-Dimensional Concept of Worldview

Several Christian school associations and many Christian schools identify developing a Biblical worldview in their students as an essential component of their organizational mission, yet few report on their level of success. This study investigates the concept of worldview from an Evangelical Christian perspective. The first step in investigating worldview is to establish a working definition of the term worldview. A Biblical definition of worldview is a challenge since Scripture does not use the term, but various writers have defined the term with language that is Biblically relevant. This study used the definition of worldview as derived by James W. Sire in 2004 Sire , J. W. (2004). Naming the elephant: Worldview as a concept . Downer's Grove , IL : InterVarsity Press. [Google Scholar] as the basis for a three-dimensional conception of worldview. The dimensions are propositional, behavioral, and heart-orientation.     

Operating within the mainstream: Coping and adjustment among a sample of homosexual youths

A sample (N = 37) of African American adolescent homosexual males was administered a questionnaire that focused on four areas of social psychological functioning (self‐identity, family relation, school‐work relations, and social adjustment). The findings contradicted several past studies that reported in general that homosexual males experience crippling cognitive dissonance. Even with the existence of homophobia in the society, the adolescents were found to possess an adequate social psychological attitude and survival skills. The sampled adolescents reported being comfortable with their sexual orientation even though the majority of them had not disclosed their homosexuality. The respondents reported how they managed self‐presentation among heterosexual persons. The adolescents appeared well‐adjusted and stable in their social functioning and disagreed with the idea that they needed professional counseling.