Читать книгу The Struggle to Define God - Robert A. Butterfield - Страница 4

Hundreds of scholarly opinions have been published on the books of Jonah, Job, and Ruth and on the story of Rahab. These opinions all have a certain authority, but to fully respect a literary text is to allow it to speak for itself. This book presupposes that a literary text is perfectly capable of speaking for itself, in the sense that every text is or creates its own logical universe. Analyzing every element of that universe and showing how its elements function in relation to each other should clarify what the text is trying to do. In short, the text is its own authority and does not require confirmation from outside the text. Seen in this perspective, the task of the reader or critic is to understand the universe of the text and follow its logic to the conclusions to which the text itself points.

Since the aim of this book is to learn from these four biblical texts and to apply that learning to the wider world, it will be necessary to reflect on the impact that these texts had on postexilic Judah and, later, on the synagogue and church. The next step will be to offer a brief history showing that xenophobia/nativism and misogyny are serious problems in the United States. The final step will be to reflect on the role and responsibility of the synagogues and churches with respect to these problems.