Political Themes in the Hebrew Scriptures PDF Download

Author: J. Gleicher
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 023010598X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
This volume collects explorations of various selections from the Hebrew scriptures, focusing on these texts' sacred teachings and their implications for issues of law, justice, and rulership. Representative examples include the Book of Genesis, the Moses narrative, and the Decalogue and other laws.

Author: Jules Gleicher
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781349380916
Category : Bible
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
Jules Gleicher explores selected passages from the Hebrew Scriptures that focus especially, but not exclusively, on the sacred text's teachings and implications about politics, law, justice, and rulership. Chapters deal, successively, with the Book of Genesis, episodes in the career of Moses, aspects of the Mosaic Law, the Prophetic History, and five prophetic practitioners. Proceeding neither from the doctrinal premises of the professional clergy nor from the methodological assumptions of Biblical criticism, the essays offer respectful and thoughtful attempts to question an ancient and venerable source on vital issues of perennial interest.

Author: Matthew B. Schwartz
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 0765709864
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 221

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Book Description
In Politics in the Hebrew Bible: God, Man, and Government, Kalman J. Kaplan and Matthew B. Schwartz offer a genre-straddling examination of the political themes in the Jewish Bible. By studying the political implications of 42 biblical stories (organized into the categories Social Order, Government and Leadership, Domestic Relations, Societal Relations, Morale and Mission, and Foreign Policy), the authors seek to discern a cohesive political viewpoint embodied by the Jewish Bible.

Author: Yechiel J. M. Leiter
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108428185
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 433

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Book Description
John Locke, whose ideas helped give birth to the United States, predicated his political theory on the Hebrew Bible. Why?

Author: Wayne A. Grudem
Publisher: Zondervan
ISBN: 0310413583
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 624

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Book Description
A variety of perspectives exist within the Christian community when it comes to political issues and political involvement. This comprehensive and readable book presents a political philosophy from the perspective that the Gospel pertains to all of life so Christians should be involved in political issues. In brief, this is an analysis of conservative and liberal plans to do good for the nation, evaluated in light of the Bible and common sense. In this ground-breaking book, recognized evangelical Bible professor Wayne Grudem rejects five mistaken views about Christian influence on politics: (1) “compel religion,” (2) “exclude religion,” (3) “all government is demonic,” (4) “do evangel-ism, not politics,” and (5) “do politics, not evangelism.” He proposes a better alternative: (6) “significant Christian influence on government.” Then he explains the Bible’s teachings about the purpose of civil government and the characteristics of good or bad government. Does the Bible support some form of democracy? Should judges and the courts hold the ultimate power in a nation? With respect to specific political issues, Grudem argues that most people’s political views depend on deep-seated assump-tions about several basic moral and even theological questions, such as whether God exists, whether absolute moral stan-dards can be known, whether there is good and evil in each person’s heart, whether people should be accountable for their good and bad choices, whether property should belong to individuals or to society, and whether the purpose of the earth’s resources is to bring benefit to mankind. After addressing these foundational questions, Grudem provides a thoughtful, carefully-reasoned analysis of over fifty specific issues dealing with the protection of life, marriage, the family and children, economic issues and taxation, the environment, national defense, relationships to other nations, freedom of speech and religion, quotas, and special interests. He makes frequent application to the current policies of the Democratic and Republi-can parties in the United States, but the principles discussed here are relevant for any nation.

Author: Mira Morgenstern
Publisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 0271048069
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Author: Michael Walzer
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300182511
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 271

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Book Description
In this eagerly awaited book, political theorist Michael Walzer reports his findings after decades of reading and thinking about the politics of the Hebrew Bible. Attentive to nuance while engagingly straightforward, Walzer examines the commentary of the ancient biblical writers and discusses the implications for such urgent modern topics as the nature of political society, hierarchy and justice, the use of political power, the justification for and rules of warfare, and the responsibilities of clerical figures, monarchs, and their subjects./divDIV DIVBecause there are many biblical writers, and because they represent different political views, pluralism is a central feature of biblical politics, Walzer observes. Yet pluralism is never explicitly defended in the Bible—indeed it couldn't be defended since God's word is one. There is, however, an anti-political teaching which recurs in biblical texts: if you have faith in God, you have no need for particular political institutions or prudent political leaders or deliberative assemblies or loyal citizens. And, Walzer finds a strong moral teaching common to the Bible's authors. He identifies God's decree for ethics and investigates its implications for just policymaking in our own times./div

Author: Geoffrey P. Miller
Publisher: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht
ISBN: 3647550345
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 297

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Book Description
Geoffrey P. Miller argues that the narratives from Genesis to Second Kings present a sophisticated argument for political obligation and for limited monarchy as the best form of government. The Hebrew Bible, in this sense, can be considered as one of the earliest political philosopies of the western world.The Garden of Eden story identifies revelation, consent, utopia, natural law, ownership, power, patriarchy, and justice as bases for political obligation. The stories of life after the expulsion from Eden argue that government and law are essential for a decent life. The Genesis narratives recognize patriarchal authority but also identifies limits based on kinship, higher authority and power. The book of Exodus introduces the topic of political authority, arguing that nationhood strictly dominates over other forms of political organization. The Sinai narratives explore two important sources of authority: revelation and consent of the governed. The book of Joshua presents a theory of sovereignty conceived of as the exclusive and absolute control over territory. The book of Judges examines two types of national government: military rule and confederacy. It argues that military rule is inappropriate for peacetime conditions and that the confederate form is not strong enough to deliver the benefits of nationhood. The books of Samuel and Kings consider theocracy and monarchy. The bible endorses monarchy as the best available form of government provided that the king is constrained by appropriate checks and balances. Contrary to the view of some scholars, no text from Genesis to Second Kings disapproves of monarchy as a form of government.

Author: Ira Sharkansky
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 100052504X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 328

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Book Description
First Published in 1996. Much of the Bible is written with far greater beauty than is found in modern social science. Yet its use of metaphor, allegory, poetry, allusion, and hyperbole as well as its vast breadth in historical period and existential concerns render it difficult to define its meanings in ancient contexts or its messages for the present. This study is the author’s intention to portray politically relevant episodes and themes of the Hebrew Bible that appear to shed light on the continued vitality of Judaism and the character of modern Israel.

Author: Mira Morgenstern
Publisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 0271036532
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
Current conflicts in both national and international arenas have undermined the natural, organic concept of nationhood as conventionally espoused in the nineteenth century. Conceiving a Nation argues that the modern understanding of the nation as a contested concept—as the product of a fluid and ongoing process of negotiation open to a range of livable solutions—is actually rooted in the Bible. This book draws attention to the contribution that the Bible makes to political discourse about the nation. The Bible is particularly well suited to this open-ended discourse because of its own nature as a text whose ambiguity and laconic quality render it constantly open to new interpretations and applicable to changing circumstances. The Bible offers a pluralistic understanding of different models of political development for different nations, and it depicts altering concepts of national identity over time. In this book, Morgenstern reads the Bible as the source of a dynamic critique of the ideas that are conventionally considered to be fundamental to national identity, treating in successive chapters the ethnic (Ruth), the cultural (Samson), the political (Jotham), and the territorial (Esther). Throughout, she explores a number of common themes, such as the relationship of women to political authority and the “strangeness” of Israelite political existence. In the Conclusion, she elucidates how biblical analysis can aid in recognition of modern claims to nationhood.