SCRIPTURA  

Johannes N. Vorster

This volume consists of selected and approved Proceedings from the 8th InternationalConference on Rhetoric and Scriptures. It continues a proud tradition which originatedin 1992 in Heidelberg, Germany. Tom Olbricht explains that in 1990 it occurred to me ... see more

Johannes N. Vorster

In conversation with the contributors to this volume, it is indicated what theregulatory body is, and how the regulatory body functions as the social configurationof meaning and as a site of power relations, not only constituting bodies,but also as the co... see more

Gerrie F. Snyman

A review is presented of Kelley’s (2002) Racializing Jesus. Race, Ideology and theFormation of Modern Biblical Scholarship, in terms of the following question: “Ifthe argument about Western culture’s complicity in racism is taken seriously, howdoes one mo... see more

Pieter F. Craffert

In this study it is argued that the very question of whether Jesus was, indeed, a sonof David is the product of a particular historiographical paradigm and that howthings were in his life probably did not include royal ancestry. Instead, it issuggested th... see more

Pieter J. J. Botha

Study of New Testament documents is often subject to the inappropriate assumptionthat “reading” entails disembodied decoding of inherent meanings. Reading is acomplex activity which is part of a cultural system, to be understood within pertinenttechnologi... see more

William R. LaFleur

Because organ transplantation involves the literal taking into one body of anotherbody’s parts, Japanese commentators on modern biotechnology have, at least incomparison to their Western counterparts, been willing to see parallels betweensuch a practice a... see more

Amanda A. du Preez

This paper traces the relation between bungee jumping as eXtreme sport and theexperience culture that we live in. It is argued that the sublime has been commodified tosuit consumers’ preferences and choices. The higher the bridge or drop, the moreenticing... see more

Philip R. Bosman

The ancient Cynics occupy a unique place in Hellenistic thought for the physicalityof their self-representation. On the one hand, Diogenes is depicted accusingphilosophers, in particular Plato, of idle talk, himself advocating double training(mental and b... see more

Russell B. Sisson

The writer of Hebrews draws an analogy to athletic competition in exhorting hisaudience to imitate Christ’s example of enduring suffering and death. The analogyto athletic competition is rhetorically significant because of the manner in which itevokes kno... see more

Dietmar Neufeld

This paper will concentrate on the dynamic relationship between body, clothing, andidentity. Nakedness and clothing mark the bodies of Adam and Eve with religious,political, and social distinction and other forms of embodied social meaning such asthe tran... see more

Roy R. Jeal

In the Pauline letters a new rhetorical aspect of body is presented with the imagery ofbeing clothed with a person, with Christ or a new a[nqrwpo" (Gal 3:27; Rom 13:14; Col3:10; Eph 4:24). While body and clothing imagery was well-known in the ancientMedit... see more

Michel Desjardins

In the context of growing misogyny and introversion in early Christianity, Clementof Alexandria stands out as an advocate of gender equality and respect for thebroader Graeco-Roman world. He also does not demonize the body, or sexuality.Why, then, in his ... see more

Gerhard A. Van den Heever

This article considers contemporary baptismal discourse in a Reformed theologicalcontext in its relation to early Christian baptismal practice and discourse. It isargued that whereas Reformed baptismal discourse presents the ritual as connectionwith divin... see more

Hans Van Deventer

Bodies abound in the book of Daniel. In the very first chapter bold captives refusedefilement of their bodies by foreign food and present “bodies of evidence” tosupport their case. In the next story history itself finds embodiment in a huge statue.In the ... see more

Lilly Nortjé-Meyer

Many scholars are at great pains to interpret and explain the metaphor of the bodyin the letter to the Ephesians “correctly.” From a reader-response criticism point ofview, the notion of a “correct” interpretation is dubious. Metaphors point torealities b... see more

Vossie Vorster

Foucault, Veyne and others have indicated that early Christian morality was firmlyembedded in the Graeco-Roman ethos and should not be regarded as unique. Thearticle elaborates, using the notion of the “regulatory body,” expressed in terms ofLaquer’s “one... see more

Maretha M. Jacobs

Having inherited Christianity and its institutional manifestations from their maleancestors, whose voices were for many centuries, and are still, inextricably linked tothat of God, women only recently started to ask the all important why-questionsabout th... see more

Annika K. Thiem

This paper inquires into assumptions on sexuality and kinship in religious andtheological interventions in the debates around same-sex marriage and assistedreproduction. I am especially concerned about how a steadfast investment in “thenatural” and “the n... see more

Christina Landman

In the first part of this study, the faces of spiritual discourses in a South Africanfemale correctional centre are described as they are shaped by culture, race,religious background, and the need for physical contact. The source of this part ofthe study ... see more

Hennie Viviers

Our bodies determine our social selves, our social location. We in turn aredetermined by the constructed ideal or regulatory body, symbolizing society’sultimate values. It emerges from culture and in turn shapes and regulates the culturethat gave it its l... see more

J. David Hester

The body of the eunuch has been a source of tremendous rhetorical (not to mention social,moral, legal and political) contestation. In the ancient world, where the predominant“single-sex” model of human sexual identity and development demanded conformity t... see more

Vernon K. Robbins

Alternative body politics place the body in the world and the world in the body indecisively different ways. Luke 1-2 uses a priestly offering of incense in theJerusalem Temple to begin a body politics that establishes prophetic wisdom infamily households... see more

Charles A. Wanamaker

This paper employs socio-rhetorical interpretation in order to analyze Paul’sargument in 1 Cor 7:1-5 regarding the role of connubial sex in Christian marriage.The paper shows that Paul engages in Christian wisdom discourse, introducing hisargument in 1 Co... see more

Johan H. Coetzee

The body occupies a central position in the argumentation of the book of Jonah. Notonly is the prophet Jonah depicted as being involved in different life-situations, buthis bodily and personal conduct also illustrate an unwillingness to change histheologi... see more

Yehoshua Gitay

This paper focuses on speech as an instrument of the human organs. We don’t seespeech but we hear it and the words create pictures in our minds that stir ourimagination. This paper deals with the effect of speech upon the hearers anddiscusses the role of ... see more

Hendrik Bosman

For several decades the book of Exodus was the locus classicus for the struggle againstcolonialism and racial discrimination across Africa. This paper engages with the problem:How do we appropriate the book of Exodus theologically in a post-colonial Afric... see more

Rainer Kessler

The article identifies three different discourses on Egypt in the Hebrew Bible. Thepolitical discourse is interested in the politics of contemporary pharaohs andIsraelite treaty negotiations with them. In the exodus discourse, Israel projects herhistorica... see more

Jonathan T. Weor

Gerald West has drawn the attention of Biblical scholars in Africa to the usefulnessof indigenous reading resources in Africa. This essay will take as its point ofdeparture West’s persuasive argument that indigenous interpretive resources canenrich the in... see more

Edwin Zulu

For many years now the interpretation of the Old Testament in Africa has beenchallenged by the context(s) of the readers. It has become apparent that the OldTestament text is better read and interpreted within a specific context. The Exodusstory brings ab... see more

Ernst M. Conradie

This review essay of Klaus Nürnberger’s book, Theology of the Biblical witness,praises Nürnberger’s attempt to address the relationship between Biblical Studiesand Systematic Theology, outlines a number of attractive hermeneutical positions interms of his... see more

David N. Field

This article is an appreciative but critical appraisal of certain themes from KlausNürnberger’s Theology of the Biblical Witness with a focus on its significance forconstructive theology. It analyses his understanding of soteriological trajectoriesand und... see more

Louis Jonker

In this article Nürnberger’s project to develop a theology of the biblical witness2 islauded for its insistence on the dynamism of the biblical text that cannot be capturedin any one specific historical context. However, it is also indicated in this artic... see more

Douglas G. Lawrie

This review primarily examines the hermeneutical principles Nürnberger uses tobridge the gap between biblical theology and systematic theology. It argues thatNürnberger correctly identifies the task and problems facing theologians who wishto construct a c... see more

Jeremy Punt

Reviewing Nürnberger’s Theology of the Biblical Witness, and amidst appreciationfor his project, it is criticised for its presuppositions and subsequent claims. Thecomplexity of the biblical materials disappears in service of a theological grid.

Klaus Nürnberger

This essay responds to five reviews of my Theology of the Biblical Witness. Whilethe project was generally appreciated, there was a general feeling that I imposed apre-formulated grid on the wealth of the biblical detail. In my response, I argue that,to r... see more