Browsing by Subject "Genesis."
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Item A canonical exegesis of the eighth Psalm : YHWH's maintenance of the created order through divine reversal.(2010-10-08T16:21:23Z) Keener, Hubert James.; Bellinger, W. H.; Religion.; Baylor University. Dept. of Religion.This dissertation presents a canonical exegesis of Psalm 8. The dissertation seeks to contribute to two areas of scholarship: 1) literature on the canonical approach to exegesis carrying forward the emphases first articulated by Brevard Childs, and 2) literature grappling with the question of how one ought to interpret Psalm 8 as Christian Scripture. The first chapter of the study reassesses the canon exegetical approach, concluding that it is a viable and salutary means for interpreting the text theologically, while arguing for some refinements to the approach as it is now understood that clarify its theological underpinnings. The rest of the dissertation then goes on to examine Psalm 8 in relation to the broader canon. In order to bring Psalm 8 into dialogue with the rest of the canon, the study attends to the literary context of the psalm (the Psalter) and utilizes key texts which relate to the psalm (Genesis 1; Job 7; Psalm 144; Matthew 21; 1 Corinthians 15; Ephesians 1; Hebrews 2) as entry points through which to connect Psalm 8 with the broader witness of Scripture. Thus, the study attends to the discreet witness of Psalm 8, the place of Psalm 8 in the shape of the Psalter, the relationship between Psalm 8 and the rest of the Old Testament, and the relationship between Psalm 8 and the New Testament witness. The dissertation describes the place of Psalm 8 within the Christian canon as representing the intersection of three motifs or trajectories: 1) The distinct theological message of Psalm 8, summarized as the reversal motif; the psalm describes YHWH as making his name great in all of creation by exalting relatively insignificant things over and against seemingly superior things, as is seen most prominently in the exaltation of the human to the role of YHWH's vice-gerent. 2) The motif of the conflicted and conflicting human, which permeates the canon; humanity finds itself beset by troubles and prone to misconduct. 3) The motif of the redeeming Christ, who becomes the ultimate representation of the reversal motif and who alone violates the type of the conflicted and conflicting human.Item Jacob and the divine Trickster : a theology of deception and YHWH's fidelity to the ancestral promise in the Jacob cycle.(2010-10-08T16:12:43Z) Anderson, John E. (John Edward), 1981-; Bellinger, W. H.; Religion.; Baylor University. Dept. of Religion.The book of Genesis portrays the character Jacob as a brazen trickster who deceives members of his own family: his father Isaac, brother Esau, and uncle Laban. At the same time, Genesis depicts Jacob as YHWH's chosen from whom the entire people Israel derive. These two notices produce a latent tension in the text: Jacob is concurrently an unabashed trickster and YHWH's preference. How is one to reconcile this tension? This dissertation investigates the phenomenon of divine deception in the Jacob cycle (Gen 25-35). The primary thesis is that YHWH both uses and engages in deception for the perpetuation of the ancestral promise (Gen 12:1-3), giving rise to what I have dubbed a theology of deception. Through a literary hermeneutic, emphasizing the symbiotic relationship between both how the text means and what the text means, with theological aims, this study examines the various manifestations of YHWH as Trickster in the Jacob cycle. Attention is given to how the multiple deceptions evoke, advance, and at times fulfill the ancestral promise. In Gen 25-28 YHWH engages in deception to insure Jacob receives the ancestral promise. Here Jacob is seen cutting his deceptive teeth by extorting the right of the firstborn from Esau and the paternal blessing from Isaac. YHWH, however, also plays the role of Trickster through an utterly ambiguous oracle to Rebekah in Gen 25:23, which drives the human deceptions. At Bethel (Gen 28:10-22) Jacob receives the ancestral promise from YHWH, in effect corroborating the earlier deceptions. In Gen 29-31 YHWH uses the many deceptions perpetrated between Jacob and Laban to advance the ancestral promise in the areas of progeny, blessing to the nations, and land. Lastly, in Gen 32-35 YHWH participates in Jacob's final deception of Esau (Gen 33:1-17) through two encounters Jacob has, first with the "messengers of God" and second with God. Jacob's tricking of Esau during their reconciliation results in Jacob's return to the promised land. Attention is given to the theological implications of this divine portrait, along with prospects for further study.Item Meditative poetry, covenant theology, and Lucy Hutchinson's order and disorder.(2014-06-11) Wright, Seth Andrew.; Donnelly, Phillip J. (Phillip Johnathan), 1969-; English.; Baylor University. Dept. of English.I argue that Order and Disorder (1679), Lucy Hutchinson’s biblical epic on Genesis, is a meditative poem, while claiming that Hutchinson’s study of Independent theologian John Owen’s covenant theology informed her narration of the events in Genesis. I offer a reading of the poem as a whole to show how these claims illuminate Hutchinson’s construal of Genesis. These claims permit me to engage scholarly literature on three heads. First, by demonstrating that Order and Disorder is a meditative poem, I seek to extend the current discussion of seventeenth-century meditative poetry to include poems narrating the content of the poet’s meditation alongside poems narrating the process. Second, by showing Order and Disorder’s specific theological background, I challenge accounts claiming Lucretian atomism and Republican politics as the poem’s intellectual foundation. Finally, I offer the first extended account of meditation in Owen’s theology. Chapter One puts Hutchinson and her work in the historical and critical context, while Chapter Two argues that Owen understood meditation as an intellectual duty whose final cause is communion with God by understanding biblical revelation, and that Hutchinson assumed a similar view in Order and Disorder. As she discerned scriptural truth through meditation, Hutchinson rejected the Epicurean philosophy she had encountered while translating Lucretius. In Chapter Three, I argue that Theologoumena Pantodapa, Owen’s major treatise on covenant theology, which Hutchinson studied closely, implicitly confronts Thomas Hobbes’s contract theory by arguing that communion with God is the highest end of humanity. Chapters Four—Six show how Hutchinson’s approach to meditation and covenant undergird her dilations of Genesis 1—3 in Cantos 1—5. By contending that people can commune with God by meditating on Creation, Providence, and the covenant, Hutchinson denies the ontological materialism found in Lucretius. Finally, Chapters Seven and Eight argue that Hutchinson uses Cantos 6—20 to narrate Genesis 4—31 in terms of an Independent ecclesiology grounded in Owen’s covenant theology. By claiming that the Church is distinguished by acknowledging Providence through meditation, Hutchinson contests the definition of the Church in the Act of Uniformity. The Epilogue suggests Owen regarded Hutchinson’s meditative project as successful.