Kirjahaku

Foreword by Phyllis Trible This new edition of Till the Heart Sings, including a substantial foreword by Phyllis Trible, makes available again Samuel Terrien's rich, acclaimed study of the biblical witness to personhood. Sweeping yet selective in scope, the book argues that the Bible as a whole advances a theology of manhood and womanhood unique in the ancient world. This theology, which resides in the main thrust of Scripture, turns away from sexism and misogyny to confer upon woman as well as man the full stature of humanity. Terrien begins his argument where the Bible itself begins, with creation. He describes the first woman as "the crown of creation," in a mutual relationship with the first man. He then proceeds through Scripture - including the prophets, the Wisdom literature, the Gospels, and the Pauline letters - systematically showing that when the books of the Old and New Testaments are viewed in their historical growth, they reveal a theology of manhood and womanhood that runs counter to both traditional Judaism and Christianity and to modern religious attitudes and practices.In the course of his thorough analysis of Scripture, Terrien eloquently examines a host of themes bearing on the issues of gender and personhood, from the myth of the Garden and the eros-agape continuum in the Song of Songs to male overreaction to sexual mysticism and the Gnostic personification of wisdom.Terrien also explores matters related to marriage, homosexuality, and male and female priesthood, all with the aim of uncovering a truly biblical understanding of the relationship between the genders and between all people and God.

In this monumental work, his most ambitious undertaking, the late Samuel Terrien brings together a lifetime of scholarship on Psalms, long the wellspring of Jewish spirituality as well as the main hymnal of the Christian church. The book's insightful and clearly written introduction treats such subjects as the longevity and ecumenicity of the psalms, their Near Eastern background, the Hebrew text and ancient versions, their music, their strophic structure, their literary genre, their theology, and their relation to the New Testament. In the commentary itself Terrien freshly elucidates the theological significance of these collected poems by putting readers in touch with the formal versatility and religious passion of the psalmists themselves. While Terrien always engages in scientific exegesis before drawing theological conclusions, he is careful to allow full expression to the theological - and, especially, the doxological - voice of these unmatched spiritual songs. The result is a commentary that provides a link between the archaic language of Psalms and the intellectual demands of modern thinking and spirituality.Throughout his exposition Terrien shows great respect for the scribal testimony of the Jewish tradition, especially the consonants of the Masoretic text. He likewise displays great care in finding the most accurate meaning for Hebrew words of obscure origin. This meticulous work renders a translation of Psalms more reliable than those of Terrien's predecessors. He also draws on many fruitful gains of structural analysis in discerning the strophic divisions within the Hebrew text. Often he finds unity of composition where earlier critics denied it. And for readers interested in specific aspects of translation and interpretation, Terrien has appended bibliographical lists of modern works on each psalm.

In this monumental work, his most ambitious undertaking, the late Samuel Terrien brings together a lifetime of scholarship on Psalms, long the wellspring of Jewish spirituality as well as the main hymnal of the Christian church. The book's insightful and clearly written introduction treats such subjects as the longevity and ecumenicity of the psalms, their Near Eastern background, the Hebrew text and ancient versions, their music, their strophic structure, their literary genre, their theology, and their relation to the New Testament. In the commentary itself Terrien freshly elucidates the theological significance of these collected poems by putting readers in touch with the formal versatility and religious passion of the psalmists themselves. While Terrien always engages in scientific exegesis before drawing theological conclusions, he is careful to allow full expression to the theological - and, especially, the doxological - voice of these unmatched spiritual songs. The result is a commentary that provides a link between the archaic language of Psalms and the intellectual demands of modern thinking and spirituality.Throughout his exposition Terrien shows great respect for the scribal testimony of the Jewish tradition, especially the consonants of the Masoretic text. He likewise displays great care in finding the most accurate meaning for Hebrew words of obscure origin. This meticulous work renders a translation of Psalms more reliable than those of Terrien's predecessors. He also draws on many fruitful gains of structural analysis in discerning the strophic divisions within the Hebrew text. Often he finds unity of composition where earlier critics denied it. And for readers interested in specific aspects of translation and interpretation, Terrien has appended bibliographical lists of modern works on each psalm.

Shortly after Dr. Terrien had completed his illuminating book on 'The Psalms and Their Meaning for Today', he decided to write a book about Job.This book, like its predecessor, is intended for the general reader: to give him a fuller knowledge, clearer understanding, and deeper appreciation of the religious and literary values of a truly great dramatic poem.Job, more than any other book of the Bible, belongs to the literature of the world. Yet who reads this poem in our day? Classics bear the burden of greatness. They are celebrated and unknown.Of such is Job, today unknown even to those who claim no immunity to cultural urges. Incidentally, the fact that this classic happens to belong to the Bible does not explain its quality of 'terra incognita', for it is neglected also by synagogue and church goers who daily read other portions of Scripture.The ancient Hebrew poem is modern, for it proffers a plea for pure religion. The poet of Job did not attempt to solve the problem of evil, nor did he propose a vindication of the justice of God. For him, any attempt of man "to justify God" would have been an act of arrogance. But he knew and promoted in the immediacy of faith a mode of life and in the very pangs of insecurity a sense of triumph. He transmuted the taste of sorrow into the knowledge of joy - not in the shallowness of gaiety, to be sure, but the depth of a joy brought by the presence of one who moves and warms the worlds.