The Bible,Finland, and the Civil War of 1918

Reception history and the effective history of the Bible give a good paradigm to see the Bible in temporally and geographically different contexts. Here, I begin by discussing methodological issues of intertextuality, reception and effect. After that, I present two examples that illustrate the contextual possibilities of this paradigm. The first one is the use of the biblical lex talionis in the Finnish civil war of 1918. The second example is the modernist poet Edith Södergran, whose apocalyptic poems interpreted the same war. I argue that reception historical and effective historical approaches make it possible for biblical scholars to participate in the social and cultural discussions in their contexts.     

The Bible and psychology, an interdisciplinary pilgrimage

This article discusses the semantic issues regarding such terminology as the integration and interface of the discreet disciplines of Psychology, Theology, and Biblical Studies. It then defines a set of principles relevant to the interdisciplinary enterprise of relating these sciences. It suggests ideas for the illumination of psychological models with theological and biblical perspectives as well as for the employment of psychology as a new perspective from which to see the biblical text, offering new depths of understanding. This project is illustrated and illumined by observations upon the efforts of the Christian Association for Psychological Studies to wrestle with these issues, particularly through its main published organ, The Journal of Psychology and Christianity.This inevitably unfolds some of the story of the author's fifteen year pilgrimage as Editor of JPC and Executive Director of CAPS and endeavor to relate the sciences of Psychology and Theology, psychological experience and spirituality, emotional health and biblical faith. It is the first claim of this paper that the relationship of Psychology and the Bible is less a matter of integration of the two into each other's framework, scientifically or intuitively, and more a matter of that kind of interface between them which affords the mutual illumination of the two phenomena, knowing that these are two sources of insight and information in which truth is revealed about us, and therefore, presumably, about God who created, sustains, and heals us. It is the second claim of this paper that biblical interpretation, as text analysis, cultural understanding, literary-historical appreciation, and theology formation is an enterprise upon which all the tools of human inquiry must be brought to bear in order to distill from the text the full range of cognitive and affective import which it carries and offers the inquirer. Among these took are historical criticism, literary criticism, form criticism, redaction criticism, textual criticism proper, and many others. Lately, some scholars such as Howard Clark Kee have attempted to bring sociological perspectives to biblical studies. Gerd Theissen has written on the psychological aspects of Pauline thought. This paper argues that the science and models of Psychology can be employed as a lens through which to see any text in fresh ways with productive results in new dimensions of insight.J. Harold Ellens isExecutive Director Emeritus of the Christian Association for Psychological Studies, Founding Editor and Editor in Chief Emeritus of the Journal of Psychology and Christianity, a retired Presbyterian theologian and pastor, and a licensed psychotherapist. He holds graduate degrees of MDiv from Calvin Theological Seminary, a ThM from Princeton Theological Seminary, and a PhD from Wayne State University.     

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.     

The Bible, Knowledge of God and Dei Verbum

How may an inquiring person fittingly look upon the Bible? In what manner can a person's attention to the Bible assist them to knowledge? For a Catholic Christian analysis, what ideas are suitable about the place of the Bible in relations between God and humans, and in appropriation by a person today of whatever divine disclosure or revelation is at hand? This article outlines reflections on these matters. Links are apparent with key points in Vatican II’s Dei Verbum. The first of four sections concerns a fundamentalist outlook. Section II has to do with certain limited but significant ways in which a person may look on the Bible: ways similar to ways in which a person may look on other texts. Section III pauses on inquiries into ‘deep, inner’ matters of life where the person inquiring does not proceed from a perspective of Catholic Christian faith. Section IV surveys a broad range of thoughts that may aptly be endorsed from within a perspective of Catholic Christian faith. The thoughts concern the nature of the situation by which a Catholic Christian person today can advance in knowledge of God: in appropriation of divine disclosure. Ways in which a person may look on the Bible that go beyond those exhibited earlier are now made explicit. (The article fully allows that numerous views held by one or another follower of Jesus who does not adhere to Roman Catholicism may, in respects at stake, harmonize with a Catholic Christian faith‐perspective.)     

《圣经》中的性道德

《圣经》中的性是个敏感的问题。本文试图从性的联系意识、性的创造功能和性的快乐原则三方面来论述《圣经》中的性道德观 ,并说明除了世俗的快乐意义之外 ,上帝的性观念更有其理性的意义。     

Restorative Utopias: The Settlers and the Bible

The attitude to the Bible is a seismograph for scrutinizing the attitude of Zionism, in general, and that of the settlers, in particular, to their ideological and political worldview. To where in the Bible are the settlers returning? To the Land of Canaan, to the land of the Patriarchs, or perhaps to the Kingdom of David? And what is the meaning of this return? It is not only the land that is basic to this question, but the relationship of the Land of Israel to the people of Israel. In this article, we will mainly address the radical theological facets of the settler movement, not the proponents of Greater Israel. Our article will focus on the replication of settler theology from the first stage of Gush Emunim (The Bloc of the Faithful) and the act of settlement, which in the opinion of the settlers is in accord with the continuation and completion of the Zionist project, to a more metaphysical phase, in which the centrality of the act of settlement gives way to Hassidic or kabbalistic thinking. The models which we present make possible a fresh look at the utopian thinking and radical theology that are nourished by the settler movement and reflect a new, non-homogeneous stage.     

The Brest Bible and other Polish translations of the Bible in the poetical works of Erazm Otwinowski

Abstract

Polish antitrinitarians of the sixteenth century (also known as Polish Brethren and later as Socinians) rejected some of the most fundamental dogmatic beliefs of traditional Christianity. However, while their Church emerged as the result of a split in the Reformed Church, they still used the Brest Bible to read not only the Old Testament (the antitrinitarian translation of Szymon Budny was controversial and rarely accepted by the Brethren), but also the New Testament. This situation is discussed here using the example of Erazm Otwinowski, a major antitrinitarian poet. His two major poetical works are based on various biblical passages. In his Parables of Our Lord Jesus Christ there is considerable evidence that he used both the Brest Bible and the first edition of the New Testament translated by his antitrinitarian friend, Marcin Czechowic. However, it is also possible that he used Jakub Wujek's Catholic version, even if strongly contested in Czechowic's polemical works.