Democratizing Biblical Studies: Toward an Emancipatory Educational Space

by Elisabeth Sch ssler Fiorenza

Overview

Elizabeth Schussler Fiorenza argues that it is necessary to reframe the field of biblical studies and replace the competitive teaching models prevalent in graduate programs with an emancipatory, radical democratic pedagogical model that fosters collaboration, participation, and critical engagement. To achieve constructive engagement with the differences of social location and diversity of perspectives that exist both in the Bible and in our contexts, Fiorenza argues, we must become aware of the pitfalls of one-dimensional thinking that seeks to use the Bible to find definite answers and to exclude different understandings.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780664235093
Publisher:	Westminster John Knox Press
Publication date:	10/07/2009
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza is Krister Stendahl Professor of Divinity at Harvard Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She is the author of numerous books, including In Memory of Her.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments vii

Introduction: Toward a Radical Democratic Self-Understanding of Biblical Studies 1

Contextualizing Arguments for a Radical Democratic Educational Space 7

Toward a Radical Democratic Pedagogy of Biblical Studies 12

1 The Rhetorical Space of Graduate Biblical Studies 23

Charting the Problem 24

The Need to Transform the Discourses of Biblical Studies 30

Proposals for Re-Visioning Biblical Studies 38

Problematizing the Dualistic-Domain Construction of the Field of Biblical Studies 44

2 A Republic of Many Voices: Paradigms of Biblical Studies 51

Paradigm Criticism 52

Redescribing and Renaming the Four Paradigms of Biblical Studies 63

Conclusion 81

3 Fashioning a Radical Democratic Discourse 85

Delineating the Fourth Emancipatory Paradigm 87

Discursive Struggles within the Fourth Paradigm: From Margin to Postcolonialism 95

Toward a Shared Analytic: Intersectional Analysis of Kyriarchy 106

A Pedagogical Model of Agency and Conscientization 120

4 Changing Biblical Studies: Toward a Radical Democratic Pedagogy and Ethos 127

Transforming Malestream Pedagogical Models 130

Toward a Radical Democratic Emancipatory Pedagogy 139

Transforming the Didactic Triangle 149

Toward a Radical Democratic Emancipatory Ethos-Space 160

Instead of a Conclusion 166

Metalogue: From Theory to Practice 169

Creating a Radical Democratic Space: Forum 170

Creating a Radical Democratic Space: Seminar 172

A Forum of Many Voices/A Kaleidoscope of Personal Reflections 176

Index 207