Canter Bridge

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Copernicus, we are told early in this presentation of an earth that is uniquely and improbably endowed to support complex life, thought the impossible.

It is a notion that is gripping many cosmologists, physicists, and the like in our time. Predictably for the advance of human knowledge, any robust questioning of received wisdom provokes defensive and emotional reaction. Students of the intellectual movement called Intelligent Design (its detractors consider it a religious rather than a scientific enterprise) have grown accustomed to disproportionate responses, an observation that is born out by a quick scan of the reviews of this DVD on amazon.com. (more…)

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This collection of 36 essays provides a telling profile of the state of Isaiah studies following the breakdown of the paradigm constructed by B. Duhm and generations of his followers. This first volume of a twin set is divided by subject matter into two parts: ‘The Formation and Leitmotifs of the Book of Isaiah’ and ‘Oracles and Passages’. When viewed as a snapshot of Isaiah studies at the end of the century just ended, however, the articles helpfully record clustering of a different nature. Most of them published here for the first time, these essays illuminate the methodological and sometimes ideological divergences which characterise both the speciality in question and biblical studies in general.

Whether this represents a post-modern flourishing of variety which is to be celebrated or a fragmentation of the discipline which ought rather to be lamented will depend upon the perspective of the reader.
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Marvin Sweeney’s distinguished career has so often touched upon the compositional urges that lie behind different tranches of biblical literature that he has become one of the most-mentioned points of reference in introductions and prefaces to works that travel the same road. This 2001 publication now turns to one of the personalities—whether one defines such in historical or literary terms—that appears to lie behind the literature and to illuminate the product by filling out our understanding of the process. Temperamental considerations suggest that the book’s provocative—and not entirely misleading—subtitle is likely the invention of Sweeney’s editors rather than the author himself.
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This recently-launched intellectual journal has a most promising masthead. Chock full of news-, policy-, and even history-makers, it suggests that the publication taking shape under the influence of such notables will soon be a must-read for those who don’t leave home without Foreign Affairs. Fukuyama, Brzezinksi, Applebaum, Berger, Ferguson, Huntington, Mead, Rabinovich, Vargas Llosa … The jaw drops.
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If the Catholic Biblical Quarterly (‘CBQ‘) can be compared to AAA baseball, that’s only because they throw so hard in the bigs. Journals like the Journal of Biblical Literature and both Novum Testamentum and Vetus Testamentum may be the first choice when biblical scholars choose to publish their best work, but CBQ is on balance just about as capable and perhaps only slightly less consistent.
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Full product information for this item, together with my review, my ranking of the product, and any reader comments, can be found at www.amazon.com.

When I first picked up Interpretation many years ago prior to my own graduate studies in the field, I was working with a stingy book budget. An alert colleague warned me away from making my investment in that journal. ‘Not really a first-rate forum for biblical studies’, he commented, or something along those lines. (more…)

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