Misreading Scripture With Western Eyes
$24.99
Introduction: Coming To Terms With Our Cultural Blinders
Part One: Above The Surface
1. Serving Two Masters: Mores
2. The Bible In Color: Race And Ethnicity
3. Just Words? Language
Part Two: Just Below The Surface
4. Captain Of My Soul: Individualism And Collectivism
5. Have You No Shame? Honor/Shame And Right/Wrong
6. Sand Through The Hourglass: Time
Part Three: Deep Below The Surface
7. First Things First: Rules And Relationships
8. Getting Right Wrong: Virtue And Vice
9. Its All About Me: Finding The Center Of Gods Will
Conclusion: Three Easy Steps For Removing Our Cultural Blinders?
Acknowledgments
Resources For Further Exploration
Notes
Additional Info
What was clear to the original readers of Scripture is not always clear to us. Because of the cultural distance between the biblical world and our contemporary setting, we often bring modern Western biases to the text. For example: When Western readers hear Paul exhorting women to “dress modestly,” we automatically think in terms of sexual modesty. But most women in that culture would never wear racy clothing. The context suggests that Paul is likely more concerned about economic modesty–that Christian women not flaunt their wealth through expensive clothes, braided hair and gold jewelry.Some readers might assume that Moses married “below himself” because his wife was a dark-skinned Cushite. Actually, Hebrews were the slave race, not the Cushites, who were highly respected. Aaron and Miriam probably thought Moses was being presumptuous by marrying “above himself.”Western individualism leads us to assume that Mary and Joseph traveled alone to Bethlehem. What went without saying was that they were likely accompanied by a large entourage of extended family. Biblical scholars Brandon O’Brien and Randy Richards shed light on the ways that Western readers often misunderstand the cultural dynamics of the Bible. They identify nine key areas where modern Westerners have significantly different assumptions about what might be going on in a text. Drawing on their own crosscultural experience in global mission, O’Brien and Richards show how better self-awareness and understanding of cultural differences in language, time and social mores allow us to see the Bible in fresh and unexpected ways. Getting beyond our own cultural assumptions is increasingly important for being Christians in our interconnected and globalized world. Learn to read Scripture as a member of the global body of Christ.
in stock within 3-5 days of online purchase
SKU (ISBN): 9780830837823
ISBN10: 0830837825
E. Randolph Richards | Brandon O’Brien
Binding: Trade Paper
Published: November 2012
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Print On Demand Product
Related products
-
DIY Home Planner
$16.99Your Decorating Dreams Can Come True
Welcome to the only house decorating journal you’ll ever need. Come inside and make yourself comfortable.
As you enter, you’ll find encouragement and inspiration to get your decorating journey started, as well as helpful instructions on how to use this unique book.
Over here, get room-by-room answers to all your commonly asked decorating questions and plenty of space to keep important information, including convenient pockets to hold paint chips, fabric samples and important papers.
Throughout, you’ll discover great tips in every area of decor from windows and walls to furniture and floors…and so much more!
This home planner from decorating expert KariAnne Wood, creator of the award-winning lifestyle blog Thistlewood Farms, has all the amenities found in reference guides, organizers, note books, and journals-all in one!
Now, all that’s left is to move in to the home of your dreams…yours!
Add to cartin stock within 3-5 days of online purchase
-
Cup Of Love
$15.99In his first children’s book, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Relationship Goals shares a tender story that helps kids understand how our families are strengthened by God’s love.
Drawing on key ideas from his #1 New York Times bestseller Relationship Goals, Pastor Michael Todd offers a fun and sweet tale about how developing a close relationship with God spills over into healthy relationships with our family and friends.
Seven-year-old Isabella loves spending time with her mom and dad, so she feels left out when they prepare to go on a date night without her. Her father brings her into the kitchen and uses the faucet, a pitcher, and cups of water to illustrate how God fills him and Isabella’s mom with love, and they pour love into each other by taking time for their relationship. Then all that love overflows onto their kids! When we make room for ourselves to be filled with God’s love and care for our most important relationships, nobody’s “cup of love” will run dry.
Add to cartin stock within 3-5 days of online purchase
-
Unveiled : The Bible, The Qur’an, And Women
$14.99I am an ex-terrorist.
I raised my hand high to volunteer to become a jihadi fighter, but then I met Jesus . . .
and that changed everything.Born the unwanted third daughter, Esther Ahmad grew up Muslim in Pakistan. Her faith and country drove every aspect of her first 18 years, from what she wore and what she ate to her prospects for work and marriage, even to the manner of her death.
Unveiled chronicles Esther’s conversion to Christianity and escape from radical Islam. Chapter by chapter, Esther lays out the lies of the Qur’an and holds them against the truths she found in the Bible. As she examines the differences between the Muslim and Christian scriptures, she reveals how she found her true identity as she journeyed from unwanted daughter to cherished child of God, from being marked by impurity to taking on the purity of Christ, and from being enslaved to rote prayer to becoming free in a true relationship with God.
Esther’s white-knuckle journey will open your eyes to the plight of women around the world and inspire you to find the courage you need to speak the hope of Christ into the lives of those who still live behind the veil.
Add to cartin stock within 3-5 days of online purchase
-
How Far To The Promised Land
$28.42From the New York Times contributing opinion writer and award-winning author of Reading While Black, Esau McCaulley shares a riveting intergenerational account of his family’s search for home and hope.
For much of his life, Esau McCaulley was taught to see himself as an exception: someone who, through hard work, faith, and determination, overcame childhood poverty, anti-Black racism, and an absent father to earn a job as a university professor and a life in the middle class.
But that narrative was called into question one night, when McCaulley answered the phone and learned that his father-whose absence defined his upbringing-died in a car crash. McCaulley was being asked to deliver his father’s eulogy, to make sense of his complicated legacy in a country that only accepts Black men on the condition that they are exceptional, hardworking, perfect.
The resulting effort sent McCaulley back through his family history, seeking to understand the community that shaped him. In these pages, we meet his great-grandmother Sophia, a tenant farmer born with the gift of prophecy who scraped together a life in Jim Crow Alabama; his mother, Laurie, who raised four kids alone in an era when single Black mothers were demonized as “welfare queens”; and a cast of family, friends, and neighbors who won small victories in a world built to swallow Black lives. With profound honesty and compassion, he raises questions that implicate us all: What does each person’s struggle to build a life teach us about what we owe each other? About what it means to be human?
How Far to the Promised Land is a thrilling and tender epic about being Black in America. It’s a book that questions our too-simple narratives about poverty and upward mobility; a book in which the people normally written out of the American Dream are given voice.
Add to cartin stock within 3-5 days of online purchase
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.