In this book Janice Ewurama De-Whyte offers a reading of the Hebrew Bible barrenness narratives. Barrenness was the threat to female honour and the lineage’s continuity. Therefore, the word “wom(b)an” visually underscores the centrality of the productive womb to female identity.

2021 Association of Catholic Publishers first place award in theology 2021 Catholic Media Association Award first place award in marriage and family living Six years into the papacy of Pope Francis, Catholics are still figuring out how to respond to his image of the church as a field hospital —a church that goes into the streets rather than remaining locked up behind closed doors. Marriage and family are primary sites of the field hospital, called to meet people's need for healing and accompaniment with compassion and love. The authors of this collection —all lay, a mix of single and married, traditional and progressive Catholics —take up this work. They offer practical wisdom from and critical engagement with the Catholic tradition but avoid rehashing decades-old theological debates. Instead, their essays engage with and respond to realities shaping contemporary family life, like religious pluralism, technology, migration, racism, sex and gender, incarceration, consumerism, and the call to holiness. The result is a collection that envisions ways that families can be places of healing and love in and for the world. List of contributors: Jennifer Beste Megan K. McCabe Elizabeth Antus Kathryn Lilla Cox Kent Lasnoski Hoon Choi Cristina L. H. Traina Craig A. Ford Jr. Bridget Burke Ravizza Julie Donovan Massey Emily Reimer-Barry Richard Gaillardetz Timothy O'Malley Sandra Sullivan-Dunbar Kathryn Getek-Solis Kari-Shane Davis Zimmerman Jana Marguerite Bennett Victor Carmona Gemma Tulud Cruz Daniel Olsen Thomas Beaudoin Christine Firer Hinze David Cloutier Marcus Mescher Sue Muldoon Timothy Muldoon Mary M. Doyle-Roche Jason King Julie Rubio

What would happen if the interpretation of Song of Solomon were to move beyond the layered traditions of rabbinic Judaism, the theological concerns of Christian communities, or even the Enlightenment ideals of a rigorously objective secular hermeneutic? This new reading by Janet Tyson provides a fascinating answer to that question. –Timothy Paul Erdel, Bethel University The Song of Solomon is an intimate, eyewitness account of the stormy marriage between the last King of Babylon, Nabonidus, and the Egyptian princess Nitocris II. It details the couple’s seven-year stay in Tayma, Arabia, during which time the king formulated his plan to reinstate a long-defunct female priesthood at Ur, in honour of the lunar deity, Sîn. The Song was written by a female scribe, during the exodus from Babylon in c.538 BCE; she is potentially recorded elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible. Her ‘song of praise’ tells of magic, blood rites, jealousy and rivalry, contraception, miscarriage, lies and curses. It bears all the signs of an act of vengeance, for it preserves the bitter resentment of a woman who lived in the shadow of the king’s most exotic wife. Topics of interest include: * A consistent pattern of applied Ishtar/Hathor mythology * Potential insight into the function of the God’s Hand * The use of Jewish gematria * Clear allusions to the esoteric rite known today as the Elixir Rubeus * Internal chronology that mirrors the reign of Nabonidus, including a lunar eclipse * Profound parallels between Nabonidus and King Solomon * Strong connections between Herodotus and the Song’s narrative * Potential identification of the Song’s author and date of composition * Other ancient legends revealing this same interpretation

In this incisive work, Sam Ashton provides a compelling, consistent and erudite argument for a foundational approach to the matter of sexual difference, drawing on biblical and doctrinal material and using resources in their original languages. He tracks and traces the sexed body as it moves from creation, through the fall, to redemption “now,” and final consummation “not yet.” In doing so, Ashton presents what is perhaps the strongest case that can be made for 'male and female He created them'. Each chapter privileges biblical exegesis, drawing upon figures in church history (notably Augustine and Aquinas) as and when they illumine Scripture. By doing so, the book considers the difficulty presented to sexual dimorphism by the phenomenon of intersex. Ashton seeks to develop an understanding that is generous, inclusive and affirming, so he works carefully through the writings of Thatcher, Song and Cornwall in a way that invites engagement and dialogue. With the complete divine drama in view, the book offers synthetic judgments about what remains essential for the “structure” of the sexed body as it travels through history and what may be accidental to the sexed body's “direction” within a particular theo-dramatic act. Ashton concludes by considering ways to transition from dogmatic judgments about intersexuality to the moral-pastoral care of concrete intersex individuals, briefly thinking about the complex matter of marriage.

Blending personal narrative, historical research, and pop culture, Karen Stollznow's Missed Conceptions gives voice to an experience that has been taboo for too long but is all too common. For the one in six couples who face fertility challenges when they attempt to get pregnant, this book is a welcome and hopeful companion.

In Ethics in the Hebrew Bible and Beyond, Susan Niditch takes soundings among those who have recently approached ethics in the Hebrew Scriptures, their methodological interests, their goals, and their definitions of "ethics" itself. By means of close exegesis of specific passages from the Hebrew Bible and a discussion of the interpretation and application of these ancient texts by post-biblical Jewish writers and other creative contributors from outside the Jewish tradition, this volume explores topics in religious ethics, social justice, political ethics, economic ethics, issues in ecology, gender and sexuality, killing and dying, and reproductive ethics. Certain goals inform all chapters: interest in tracing recurring themes concerning the definition of the good, and the various ways in which Jewish thinkers rely on the more ancient material, interpret, and appropriate it; the links between areas in ethics, for example, between gender and reproductive ethics or war-views and attitudes to political ethics and environmental ethics. Niditch carves out specific biblical texts and themes in order to explore them in depth with special interest in the meanings and messages that emerge from ancient Israelite writers' varied treatments of issues in ethics. Ethics in the Hebrew Bible and Beyond provides a thoughtful discussion of biblical composers' treatment of ethical issues and an engaging overview of the ways in which these texts have been appropriated, in particular by Jewish contributors. This volume serves to challenge readers' own assumptions about biblical ethics, the applicability and the various meanings and messages that might be derived from engagement with key biblical texts.