Walter Bruggemann (who sadly died on June 5, as I was beginning this presentation) said that he learned the most important thing about the Bible in the first year of his seminary training. There, his professor, quoting Barth, told the class “If you want to know what the Bible means, you must read the Bible in the one hand and the newspaper in the other.” This insight reminds us that God speaks to us, not simply through words of the Bible, but in how those words interact with newspapers, with real events in our world and in our lives. So then, the Bible can dialogue with the social sciences and with life, itself, Therefore, the Bible can yield some special understandings today and even in the future. This is a good insight to which we should always be open.
This issue of the Biblical Theology Bulletin is an example of how this insight drives biblical studies every day. As St Irenaeus told us: “God always has something new to teach us and we always have something new to learn from God.” Michael Kodzo Mensah in his article, The Critique of Wealth in Psalm 49 and in African Indigenous Sacred Texts, shows us how the biblical text is brought closer to the African reader and facilitates the transformation of the receptor culture. Using this distinctive interest approach to African biblical hermeneutics, he studies the critique of wealth in Psalm 49 and in the Adinkra text (Death accepts no money). He argues that both of these urge the evaluation and reimagination of the concept of wealth in contemporary society.
Kelly R. Iverson and Michael K. Scullin in their article, Psychology and Performance: Revisiting Rhoads’ “Performance Criticism: An Emerging Methodology in Second Temple Studies, gives us the opportunity to take another look at David Rhoads’ introduction of the discipline of performance criticism (2006). Their analysis focuses particularly on trying to understand the cognitive processes and the experiential impacts that are associated with narrative engagement and to appreciate how the modalities of reading and performance both intersect and diverge. They conclude that the psychological literature broadly affirms Rhoads’ conclusions that may have been underused by performance critics.
Emma M. Austin, in her article, “When I See … I Will Remember”: Exploring the Memorability of Rainbows and Stars in Genesis Through Mnemona-ture, demonstrates the close connection between biblical texts and the natural world which aids memorability. She proposes the term “mnemonature” which highlights the way the natural world does this. In the end, she tests this by studying the rainbow in the Covenant with Noah (Gen 9, 12-17) and the Promise made to Abram (Gen 15, 1-6).
Sandy Habib and Hiromachi Sakaba in their article, The Biblical Key Word leb̠ārêk̠: What Does It Mean and How Can It Be Rendered in English, Arabic, and Japanese?, offer us some help with the process of translation of a seminal word into English, Arabic and Japanese. Each of these offers suggestions into how it is translated, how it may be translated, and even suggestions on how it should be translated when doing biblical studies in these languages.
Robert Setio offers: Whose Interests Are Served By Eshet Chayil? Reading Woman in Proverbs 31:10-31. He asks this question of the biblical text, seeking the answer in a multi-method framework. This article relies on feminist and womanist hermeneutics to reclaim the figure of the woman of valor and to see her as a figure of agency and leadership. Setio also integrates Jean-Luc Marion’s philosophy of love to the interpretation of eshet chayil; which does not reinforce patriarchal norms, but opens a fresh perspective that highlight the relational, polyphonic nature of the Bible and its relevance to today’s issues of justice and care.
After reading this issue, please be thankful for the contribution and person of Walter Bruggemann, who had contributed to the Biblical Theology Bulletin [see issues: Feb 2003, May 2001, Aug 1999, Aug 1998, Feb 1997, Aug 1984 and many of his books were reviewed and cited in the BTB]. His entire body of work provides a wonderful survey of the Biblcal Texts and a meaningful response to the things around us that give us joy and hope and even sorrow. He reminds us of the authority of the Bible in the Church and in the world: the Bible is essentially an open, artistic, imaginative narrative of God’s staggering care for the world, a narrative that will feed and nurture into obedience that builds community precisely by respect for the liberty of the Christian man or woman.
Russell BeckerManaging Editor
