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book: Theorizing Scriptures
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Theorizing Scriptures

New Critical Orientations to a Cultural Phenomenon
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Language: English
Published/Copyright: 2008

About this book

Historically, religious scriptures are defined as holy texts that are considered to be beyond the abilities of the layperson to interpret. Their content is most frequently analyzed by clerics who do not question the underlying political or social implications of the text, but use the writing to convey messages to their congregations about how to live a holy existence. In Western society, moreover, what counts as scripture is generally confined to the Judeo-Christian Bible, leaving the voices of minorities, as well as the holy texts of faiths from Africa and Asia, for example, unheard. 

In this innovative collection of essays that aims to turn the traditional bible-study definition of scriptures on its head, Vincent L. Wimbush leads an in-depth look at the social, cultural, and racial meanings invested in these texts. Contributors hail from a wide array of academic fields and geographic locations and include such noted academics as Susan Harding, Elisabeth Shüssler Fiorenza, and William L. Andrews.

Purposefully transgressing disciplinary boundaries, this ambitious book opens the door to different interpretations and critical orientations, and in doing so, allows an ultimately humanist definition of scriptures to emerge.

Author / Editor information

VINCENT WIMBUSH is director of the Institute for Signifying Scriptures at Claremont Graduate University in California.

Reviews

The essays, by some of the best minds in the field, form a volume that is arresting in its vision and dynamically daring-a powerful challenge to scriptural interpretation across and within cultures worldwide.
— Vivian-Lee Nyitray, University of California, Riverside

In Signifying on Scriptures, Wimbush inaugurates a conversation that fills enormous gaps in the study of religious texts and practices, and shifts the field to new dimensions of exploration and new possibilities for critical reflection.
— Karen L. King, author of The Gospel of Mary of Magdala

Topics

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    Frontmatter

    i
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    Contents

    v
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    Foreword

    ix
    Charles H. Long
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    Preface

    xi
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    Introduction: TEXTureS, Gestures, Power: Orientation to Radical Excavation

    1
    Vincent L. Wimbush
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  • Part I. The Phenomenon—and Its Origins
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    1. Scriptures—Text and Then Some

    23
    Catherine Bell
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    2. Signifying Revelation in Islam

    29
    Tazim R. Kassam
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    3. Scriptures and the Nature of Authority: The Case of the Guru Granth in Sikh Tradition

    41
    Gurinder Singh Mann
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    4. The Dynamics of Scripturalization: The Ancient Near East

    55
    Hugh R. Page
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    5. Known Knowns and Unknown Unknowns: Scriptures and Scriptural Interpretations

    62
    R. S. Sugirtharajah
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    Talking Back

    67
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  • Part II. Settings, Situations, Practices
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    6. Signifying Scriptures in Confucianism

    71
    Yan Shoucheng
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    7. The Confessions of Nat Turner: Memoir of a Martyr or Testament of a Terrorist?

    79
    William L. Andrews
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    8. Signifying Scriptures from an African Perspective

    88
    Oyeronke Olajubu
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    9. Transforming Identities, De-textualizing Interpretation, and Re-modalizing Representation: Scriptures and Subaltern Subjectivity in India

    95
    Sathianathan Clarke
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    10. Signification as Scripturalization: Communal Memories Among the Miao and in Ancient Jewish Allegorization

    105
    Sze-Kar Wan
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    Talking Back

    115
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  • Part III. Material and Expressive Representations
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    11. Conjuring Scriptures and Engendering Healing Traditions

    119
    Yvonne P. Chireau
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    12. Visualizing Scriptures

    128
    Colleen McDannell
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    13. Signifying in Nineteenth-Century African American Religious Music

    134
    Jacqueline Cogdell DjeDje
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    14. Signifying Proverbs: Menace II Society

    145
    Erin Runions
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    15. Scriptures Beyond Script: Some African Diasporic Occasions

    155
    Grey Gundaker
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    16. Texture, Text, and Testament: Reading Sacred Symbols/ Signifying Imagery in American Visual Culture

    167
    Leslie King-Hammond
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    Talking Back

    179
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  • Part IV. Psycho-Social-Cultural/Power Needs and Dynamics
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    17. Differences at Play in the Fields of the Lord

    183
    Susan F. Harding
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    18. American Samson: Biblical Reading and National Origins

    195
    Laura E. Donaldson
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    19. Against Signifying: Psychosocial Needs and Natural Evil

    206
    Leonard Harris
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    20. Orality, Memory, and Power: Vedic Scriptures and Brahmanical Hegemony in India

    214
    Patrick Olivelle
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    21. Reading Places/Reading Scriptures

    220
    Wesley A. Kort
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    22. Taniwha and Serpent: A Trans-Tasman Riff

    227
    Jo Diamond
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    23. Scriptures Without Letters, Subversions of Pictography, Signifyin(g) Alphabetical Writing

    233
    José Rabasa
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    Talking Back

    244
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  • Part V. Signifying on the Questions
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    24. In Hoc Signum Vincent: A Midrashist Replies

    247
    Burton L. Visotzky
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    25. Powerful Words: The Social-intellectual Location of the International Signifying Scriptures Project

    256
    Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza
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    26. Racial and Colonial Politics of the Modern Object of Knowledge: Cautionary Notes on “Scripture”

    268
    Joseph Parker
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    27. Who Needs the Subaltern?

    278
    Ranu Samantrai
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    Talking Back

    284
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    Bibliography

    287
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    Notes on Contributors

    299
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    Index

    303
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Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
June 22, 2020
eBook ISBN:
9780813544625
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
View content
https://doi.org/10.36019/9780813544625
eBook ISBN: 9780813544625
Keywords for this book
Signifying on Scriptures; sociology; religion; American studies; religious scriptures; scriptures; Judeo-Christian Bible; Judeo Christian Bible; bible-study; Susan Harding; Elisabeth Shüssler Fiorenza; William L. Andrews; transgression; humanist; race studies; Vincent Wimbush; Scripturalization; Scriptural Interpretations; Nature of Authority; Social; Cultural; African American; De-textualizing; re-modalizing; essays; critical reflection; transforming identities; radical excavation; excavation; traditional; subversions; politics; racial politics; colonial politics; minority; needs and dynamics; interpret; scripture
Audience(s) for this book
For an expert adult audience, including professional development and academic research
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