William P. Brown

Perspectives on the Bible As Scripture

Engaging Biblical Authority

Brown embarks on an unprecedented tour of the various creation traditions of Scripture, seven total, in conversation with the natural sciences. The result is a groundbreaking work that recaptures the genuine awe that drives the best of scientific and theological inquiry, the wonder that unites the psalmist and the scientist.

The Bible, Science, and the Ecology of Wonder

The Seven Pillars of Creation

Wisdom's Wonder offers a fresh reading of the Hebrew Bible's wisdom literature with a unique emphasis on "wonder" as the framework for understanding biblical wisdom. William Brown argues that wonder effectively integrates biblical wisdom's emphasis on character formation and its outlook on creation, breaking an impasse that has plagued recent wisdom studies. Drawing on various disciplines, from philosophy to neuroscience, Brown discovers new distinctions and connections in Proverbs, Job, and Ecclesiastes. Each book is studied in terms of its view of moral character and creation, as well as in terms of the social or intellectual crisis each book identifies. Most general treatments of the wisdom literature spend too much time on issues of genre, poetry, and social context at the neglect of discussing the intellectual and emotional power of the wisdom corpus. Brown argues that the real power of the wisdom corpus lies in its capacity to evoke the reader's sense of wonder. An extensive revision and expansion of Brown's Character in Crisis (Eerdmans, 1996), this book demonstrates that the wisdom books are much more than simply advice literature: with wonder as the foundation for understanding, Brown maintains that wisdom is a process with transformation of the self as the goal.

Character, Creation, and Crisis in the Bible's Wisdom Literature

Wisdom's Wonder

Biblical texts create worlds of meaning and invite readers to enter them. When readers enter such textual worlds, which are often strange and complex, they are confronted with theological claims. With this in mind, the purpose of the Interpreting Biblical Texts series is to help serious readers in their experience of reading and interpreting, by providing guides for their journeys into textual worlds. The controlling perspective is expressed in the operative word of the title—interpreting. The primary focus of the series is not so much on the world behind the texts or out of which the texts have arisen as on the worlds created by the texts in their engagement with readers. The focus of the volume moves from the smallest to the largest of scales, from an examination of poetic segments to considerations of God and the world through the psalmists’ eyes. The author will present new slants and questions that equip the reader with various tools of interpretation while leaving issues open for the reader’s further exploration. Included are discussions of Psalms as Hebrew poetry, species, performance, corpus, anthropology, and theology.

Interpreting Biblical Texts Series

Psalms

All too often Scripture is read only to find answers to life’s perplexing questions, to prove a theological point, or to formulate doctrine. But William Brown argues that if read properly, what the Bible does most fundamentally is arouse a sacred sense of life-transforming wonder. In this book Brown helps readers develop an orientation toward the biblical text that embraces wonder. He explores reading strategies and offers fresh readings of seventeen Old and New Testament passages, identifying what he finds most central and evocative in the unfolding biblical drama. The Bible invites its readers to linger in wide-eyed wonder, Brown says -- and his Sacred Sense shows readers how to do just that.

Discovering the Wonder of God's Word and World

Sacred Sense

Matt Patrick Graham

Jeffrey K. Kuan

Essays in Honour of John H. Hayes

History and Interpretation

Designed for both Hebrew and non-Hebrew students, A Handbook to Old Testament Exegesis offers a fresh, hands-on introduction to exegesis of the Old Testament. William P. Brown begins not with the biblical text itself but with the reader, helping students to identify their own interpretive lenses before engaging the biblical text. Brown guides the student through a wide variety of interpretive approaches, including modern methodologiesâ€"feminist, womanist, Latino/a, queer, postcolonial, disability, and ecological approachesâ€"alongside more traditional methods. This allows students to critically reflect on themselves as bona fide interpreters. While covering a wide range of biblical passages, Brown also highlights two common biblical texts throughout the work to help show how each interpretive approach highlights different dimensions of the same texts. Students will appreciate the value of an empathetic inquiry of Scripture that is both inclusive of others and textually in-depth.

A Handbook to Old Testament Exegesis

Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching is a distinctive resource for those who interpret the Bible in the church. Planned and written specifically for teaching and preaching needs, this critically acclaimed biblical commentary is a major contribution to scholarship and ministry.

Ecclesiastes

Offering a host of classic and new essays surveying the scholarly ethical and biblical debate surrounding the Ten Commandments, William Brown organizes his volume into three parts: the history of interpretation, contemporary reflections on the Decalogue as a whole, and contemporary reflections on individual commandments. A useful addition to ethics as well as Old Testament and Hebrew Bible courses, Brown'sThe Ten Commandmentswill be a standard reference for all Decalogue research, as it facilitates a helpful balance between moral, theological, and biblical study. The Library of Theological Ethics series focuses on what it means to think theologically and ethically. It presents a selection of important and otherwise unavailable texts in easily accessible form. Volumes in this series will enable sustained dialogue with predecessors though reflection on classic works in the field.

The Reciprocity of Faithfulness

The Ten Commandments

The Psalms-the longest and most complex book in the Bible-is a varied collection of religious poetry, the product of centuries of composition and revision. It is the most transcribed and translated book of the Hebrew Bible. Intended for both scholar and student, The Oxford Handbook of the Psalms features a diverse array of essays that treat the Psalms from a variety of perspectives. Beginning with an overview of the Psalms that touches on the history of scholarship and interpretation, the volume goes on to explore the Psalms as a form of literature and a source of creative inspiration, an artifact whose origins remain speculative, a generative presence in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and a still-current text that continues to be read and appropriated in various ways. Classical scholarship and traditional approaches as well as contextual interpretations and practices are well represented. The Handbook's coverage is uniquely wide-ranging, covering everything from the ancient Near Eastern background of the Psalms to contemporary liturgical usage. This volume offers a dynamic introduction into an increasingly complex field and will be an indispensable resource for all students of the Psalms.

The Oxford Handbook of the Psalms

Forest birds differentially respond to deforestation and fragmentation: some species are absent from small patches, some species increase in abundance in isolated patches, while others are not present in patches that appear to be of sufficient quality and area to meet their ecological requirements. Mechanisms currently associated with forest fragmentation, such as increased nest predation and nest parasitism, are insufficient to predict how populations of a given species, or individuals, respond to deforestation. Based on published data representing 573 forest patches, I examined the effects of deforestation on the abundance of forest birds and tested the hypothesis that species exhibit differential responses to deforestation based on their mean body mass. Very small, small, and large species were present in reduced numbers, or not at all, in small, isolated patches while medium and intermediate species often increased in abundance in these forests. Cavity-nesting species appear less affected than cup-nesting species of similar size. I found that forest bird communities can be generally predicted based on the home range needs and the average body mass of individual bird species; mass may be an indicator of competitive abilities. A natural experiment was conducted in the State of Delaware to verify and refine the above patterns detected in the literature. The effects of local forest cover, patch area, and patch isolation on the abundance of five mass classes of forest birds were examined with regression analyses based on data collected from 296 forest patches. Very small (e.g., most warblers), small (e.g., Ovenbird, Red-eyed Vireo) and large (e.g., American Crow) birds increased in abundance (number detected per survey) with increasing local forest cover, patch area, and decreasing patch isolation. Intermediate birds (e.g., Blue Jay) decreased in abundance as local forest cover and patch area increased, and increased in abundance as isolation increased. The abundance of medium (e.g., Wood Thrush) species decreased with increasing local forest cover and was not influenced by patch isolation. Abundance of medium species initially increased then decreased with increasing patch area. All of these patterns can be explained if forest resources are limiting and outcomes of interspecific competition, generally determined by body mass, either allow or restrict access to these resources. Body mass may be sufficient to predict, within bounds, avian community composition and the abundance of each species within a forest patch. (Abstract shortened by UMI.).

On the Community Composition and Abundance of Delaware Forest Birds

This groundbreaking work investigates how the various pictures of creation found in Scripture helped shape the ancient faith community's moral character. Bringing together the fields of biblical studies and ethics, William Brown demonstrates how certain creation traditions of the Old and New Testaments were developed from the community's moral imagination for the purpose of forming and preserving both Israel's and the early church's identity in the world.

The Genesis of Moral Imagination in the Bible

The Ethos of the Cosmos

An indispensable resource for students and scholars, The Oxford Handbook of the Psalms features a diverse array of essays that treat the Psalms from a variety of perspectives. Classical scholarship and approaches as well as contextual interpretations and practices are well represented. The coverage is uniquely wide ranging.

In their highly selective and literal reading of Scripture, creationists champion a rigidly reductionistic view of creation in their fight against "soulless scientism." Conversely, many scientists find faith in God to be a dangerous impediment in the empirical quest for knowledge. As a result of this ongoing debate, many people of faith feel forced to choose between evolution and the Bible's story of creation. But, as William Brown asks, which biblical creation story are we talking about? Brown shows that, through a close reading of biblical texts, no fewer than seven different biblical perspectives on creation can be identified. By examining these perspectives, Brown illuminates both connections and conflicts between the ancient creation traditions and the natural sciences, arguing for a new way of reading the Bible in light of current scientific knowledge and with consideration of the needs of the environment. In Brown's argument, both scientific inquiry and theological reflection are driven by a sense of wonder, which, in his words, "unites the scientist and the psalmist." Brown's own wonder at the beauty and complexity of the created world is evident throughout this intelligent, well-written, and inspirational book.

William P. Brown

Books

Your next favorite book is out there