Full Description
In this book Australian biblical scholars engage with texts from Genesis to Revelation. With experience in the Earth Bible Project and the Ecological Hermeneutics section of the Society of Biblical Literature, contributors address impacts of war in more-than-human contexts and habitats, in conversation with selected biblical texts. Aspects of contemporary conflicts and the questions they pose for biblical studies are explored through cultural motifs such as the Rainbow Serpent of Australian Indigenous spiritualities, security and technological control, the loss of home, and ongoing colonial violence toward Indigenous people.
Alongside these approaches, contributors ask: how do trees participate in war? Wow do we deal with the enemy? What after-texts of the biblical text speak into and from our contemporary world? David Horrell, University of Exeter, UK, responds to the collection, addressing the concept of herem in the Hebrew Bible, and drawing attention to the Pauline corpus. The volume asks: can creative readings of biblical texts contribute to the critical task of living together peaceably and sustainably?
Contents
List of tables
Notes on contributors
Acknowledgements
List of abbreviations
1. Introduction: Ecological Aspects of War - engagements with biblical texts, Keith Dyer and Anne Elvey, University of Divinity, Australia
2. 'A bow in the clouds' (Gen 9:13): YHWH's qešet and the Rainbow Serpent as Metaphors of Life and Destruction - Jeanette Mathews, Charles Sturt University, Australia
3. Drones over Sodom: Resisting the Fantasy of Security - Carolyn Alsen, University of Divinity, Australia
4. Reading the Magnificat in the Contemporary Contexts of International Conflict and Climate Change - Anne Elvey, Monash University and University of Divinity Australia
5. Dealing with the Enemy: ecological Reflections out of Luke's story of Jesus's Trial on the Mount of Olives (Luke 22.39-53) - Michael Trainor, Austrailian Catholic University, Australia
6. The Death of Absalom: The Forest is Mightier than the Sword - Marie Turner, Flinders University, Australia
7. Desolate Land/Desolate People in Jeremiah and Lamentations - Elizabeth Boase, Flinders University, Australia
8. Violence and Destruction in Opposition to Justice and Righteousness - Anne Gardner, Monash University, Australia
9. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and the Consequences of War (Rev 6:1-11) - Keith Dyer, University of Divinity, Australia
9. War, ecology and engagements with biblical texts: a response - David Horrell, University of Exeter, UK
Bibliography
