David Fuller

Itzhak Benyamini

Christopher Zeichmann

THE BIBLE & CRITICAL THEORY VOL 11 NUMBER 1 (2015) - IN TRANSITION In the current issue we have four articles. First, a lengthy piece by Itzhak Benyamini "On the Self-Creation of God: A Critical Theology of the First Verses of Genesis, Following Leibowitz and Hegel." Benyamini's article explores poststructuralist exegetical possibilities for rethinking or rewriting of the meaning or concept of "God" in light of the pliable function of Abraham in the book of Genesis. In what Benyamini describes as "an experiment in theology," and drawing on various philosophical traditions, he explores how the supposed paradigmatic function of Abraham as an emblem of submissive or fearful faith clashes with the confrontational Abraham of the text who feigns innocence and repeatedly scoffs before God's presence. Second, in "Homi K. Bhabha and the 'bene yisrael': Postcolonial Probings into the Chronicler's Construction of Northern Israelian Cultural Identity," David J. Fuller applies the postcolonial theory of Bhabha, in which "identity" is conceived of as a liminal concept fractured by the convergence of contested discourses, to the ambiguous ways in which northern Israel in constructed in a number of texts from I and II Chronicles. In doing so, a number of possible explanations for the text's curious positioning of the Other are developed. The contested construction of identity resurfaces in Christopher B. Zeichmann's "Rethinking the Gay Centurion: Sexual Exceptionalism, National Exceptionalism in Readings of Matt. 8:5-13//Luke 7:1-10." Zeichmann responds to recent articles which argue for and against the suggestion that the male centurion and his slave in Matt. 8:5-13 and Luke 7:1-10 might have been engaged in a sexual relationship. The article detects in both sides of the argument a shared assumption that Jesus' Judaism should somehow be treated as unique with regards to sexual mores. Zeichmann applies the concept of homonormative nationalism to demonstrate how the readings appeal to certain logics of neoliberal imperialism in their respective interpretive claims. Finally, in "Encountering the Song of Spring in Ralph Hotere's and Cilla McQueen's Song of Solomon," Joanna Osborne engages in a fascinating exploration of the manifestations of the Song of Songs in contemporary art, in particular, the joint work of New Zealand artist Ralph Hotere (1931-2013) and poet Cilla McQueen (b.1949). Osborne reads the multifaceted appropriation of the biblical Song of Songs in conversation with both the "original" poem in the Hebrew Bible and with theories of visual and material culture, observing the artistic rhythms that can be found within both the visual and literary forms.

Itzhak Benyamini

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