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1、 Thematic Guide to Biblical Literature Nancy M. Tischler GREENWOOD PRESS Thematic Guide to Biblical Literature Thematic Guide to Biblical Literature Nancy M. Tischler G R E E N W O O D P R E S S Westport, Connecticut London Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Tischler, Nancy M. Themat
2、ic guide to biblical literature / Nancy M. Tischler. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN13: 9780313337093 (alk. paper) ISBN10: 0313337098 (alk. paper) 1. Bible and literature. I. Title. PN56.B5T57 2007 820.93822dc22 2007000548 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is
3、 available. Copyright 2007 by Nancy M. Tischler All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, by any process or technique, without the express written consent of the publisher. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2007000548 ISBN-13: 9780313337093 ISBN-10: 0313337098 First publ
4、ished in 2007 Greenwood Press, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881 An imprint of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc. Printed in the United States of America The paper used in this book complies with the Permanent Paper Standard issued by the National Information Standards Organization (Z39.481984). 1
5、0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 For Jim Big brother, Great reader, Good friend, with enduring love. Contents Introduction ix Creation 1 Earthly Paradise 13 Nature 25 Animals and Humans 39 Temptation and Sin 51 Gods Love, Humans Response 63 Friends and Family 75 Love and Marriage 85 The Hero 97 Women as Heroes 1
6、11 The Journey of Life 125 Slavery and Freedom 137 War 149 Good People 163 Justice 177 Government and Politics 191 Predestination and Free Will 205 Truth 219 Death and the Afterlife 233 Last Days 247 Selected Bibliography 259 Index 263 viii Contents Introduction The Bible has one pervasive theme, th
7、e relationship between God and humankind. The great drama that moves from the Creation to the fi nal days is more than literature. It is the basis of millions of peoples beliefs over thousands of years. Especially in the West, the Bibles infl uence on the culture has been so deep as to make the worl
8、d-view of scripture a basic assumption for literature. As a consequence, the infl uence of biblical themes on Western literature is subtle and foundational. Even when the literature is a perversion of the original biblical concepts or a rejection of them, the infl uence remains. For example, even wh
9、en the admonition to keep the Sabbath holy has largely disappeared from American life, it retains its echoes in literature. The lapsed Catholic F. Scott Fitzgerald sets the most depraved scenes of The Great Gatsby on a Sunday afternoon, making the depravity seem even darker. And the Loman family in
10、Death of Salesman choose Sunday to wash their car. This is a deliberate violation of the commandment to keep the Sabbath holy, typical behavior of a family that appears to retain no clear memories of Judeo- Christian faith. Having replaced Christianity with the American Cinderella myth, the Lomans b
11、elieve that love of one another and of success is suffi cient to give their lives meaning. Biblical thinking is so intrinsically intertwined in our thinking that we fi nd ourselves using biblical phrases, ideas, people, and stories as a natural part of our speech, even in a “post-Christian” world. T
12、hey are deeply imbedded in our culture. The other strong thread of infl uence in Western thought is Hellenism, which strongly contrasts with Hebraism. For this reason, I have included examples of well- known Greek stories and ideas to contrast the scriptural ones, showing the differences in tastes,
13、morality, theology, and activity. This is particularly important in the study of the hero fi gure. The Greeks loved the beautiful body as well as the cultured mind. The Hebrews believed that faith in God was the beginning of wisdom and of virtue. Appearance is seldom mentioned in Bible stories. Usin
14、g these infl uences, with major focus on the Bible, I have tried to trace a few of the typical examples of the various biblical themes in English and American literature and occasionally in their European counterparts. In each chapter, a handful of individual works have detailed analysis for the pur
15、pose of demonstrating the continuing infl uence of biblical thought. The examples are by no means exhaustive, and the analyses are too brief to be fully satisfying; but they do provide samples of the transformation and persistence of the ideas through history. I have approached this using the script
16、ural concept of typology. In other words, in scripture, all events point to one another in a mutually reinforcing manner. The New Testament writers considered the events and people and words of the Old Testament as types or foreshadowings of the further antitypes that were to come. These antitypes were the fully realized forms of the earlier fi gures. Thus, Paul considered Adam as a foreshadowing of Christ (Rom. 5:14), and Peter thought Christian baptism to be the
