SETTING FREE THE MOTHER BIRD: ON READING A STRANGE TEXT |
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Authors: | RACHEL MUERS |
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Institution: | Department of Theology, University of Exeter, Queen's Building, The Queen's Drive, Exeter EX4 4QH, UK |
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Abstract: | Deuteronomy 22:6–7 has been used in recent theological discussions of environmental ethics. Earlier traditions of interpretation (Jewish and Christian) suggest the further possibility of reading it as a text about how to read texts and about the nature and function of law. This article examines, and offers a contemporary Christian reappropriation of, these traditions of interpretation. The focus is on how the confrontation with the vulnerable other as a locus of divine revelation interrupts and transforms relations of use and exploitation. It is argued that in a Christian reading of the bird's‐nest precept Christ “does what the precept does”. |
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