Pieces of Ease and Grace

by Alan Cadwallader (Editor)

Overview

The previous volume of essays, Five Uneasy Pieces was warmly received. People of faith and spirituality were looking for liberating understandings of the Bible in engagement with their own sexualities and those of friends, family and beyond. The book demonstrated clearly that oppressive uses of selected texts from the Bible were invalid. But more is needed. The obligation upon scriptural scholars is to establish scripture's hospitable inclusion of those whose sexual identities have been subjected to such oppression. Pieces of Ease and Grace retrieves biblical texts as actively embracing gays and lesbians within the community of faith. Their stories profoundly intersect with those of scripture. Here is a collection of biblical essays on sexuality and welcome that restores the Bible as a book of grace to those whose sexual identities had previously been lost, or condemned, in interpretation.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781922239006
Publisher:	ATF Press
Publication date:	06/30/2013
Pages:	264
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)

Table of Contents

Editor's Prologue: Writing Pieces of Ease and Grace into the Garden of Love Alan Cadwallader ix

Preface: Reading the Bible for Inclusion Cynthia Kittredge xix

Foreword: Widening the Circle Peter Francis xxv

Introduction: Warming Up for the Conversation Elizabeth J Smith xxxiii

1 'Set in Tradition and History': Genesis 2:24 and the Marriage Debate Meg Warner 1

2 Ruth and Naomi Ruth Mathieson 17

3 Opposite Sex Marriage a Biblical Ideal? The Case of David and Jonathan James Harding 35

4 Esther's 'Coming Out' as Costly Redemption: Living Through and Beyond the Violence of 'Othering' Richard Treloar 53

5 The sign of Jonah: Rereading the Jonah Tradition for Signs of God's Generosity Gregory C Jenks 71

6 Surprised by Faith: A Centurion and a Canaanite Query the Limits of Jesus and the Disciples Alan Cadwallader 85

7 'I Met a Strange Lady': The Eunuchs From Matthew 19:12 and Acts 8:26-40 Ceri Wynne 101

8 In My Sister's House: Decolonising the Household in Bethany Gillian Moses 117

9 Paul's Inclusive Gospel: 'For this Reason it Depends on Faith in Order that the Promise May Rest on Grace' (Romans 4:16) Marian Free 135

10 The Corinthian Body and the Preferential Inclusion of the Rejected (1 Corinthians 12:12-31) Joan Riley 151

11 Exclamations in the Margins: On Women Partners in the New Testament (Euodia and Syntyche in Philippians 4:2) Gillian Townsley 169

List of Contributors 185

Indices 189

Index of Scripture 191

Index of other Ancient Writings 201

Index of Modern Authors 205

Index of Subjects 211