“I firmly believe that Christians should read Scripture and make it relevant to our lives. But I also believe that we need new ways of thinking about how we read Scripture. We need to move beyond the false claims of modernism that looked to the text of the Bible as a reliable and objective ‘source’ for knowledge or as a ‘foundation’ for ethics. We need to think about Scripture more theologically and with fresh imaginations. Far from urging the irrelevance of the Bible, I am advocating a more robust use of the Bible and a more sophisticated and adequate theology of Scripture.” —from the conclusion Probing into numerous questions about gender and sexuality, Dale Martin delves into the biblical texts anew and unearths surprising findings. Avoiding preconceptions about ancient sexuality, he explores the ethics of desire and marriage and pays careful attention to the original meanings of words, especially those used as evidence of Paul’s opposition to homosexuality. For example, after a remarkably faithful reading of the scriptural texts, Martin concludes that our contemporary obsession with marriage—and the whole search for the “right” sexual relationships—is antithetical to the message of the gospel. In all of these essays, however, Martin argues for engaging Scripture in a way that goes beyond the standard historical-critical questions and the assumptions of textual agency in order to find a faith that has no foundations other than Jesus Christ.
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Dale B. Martin is Woolsey Professor of Religious Studies at Yale University.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Dale B. Martin is a fascinating teacher. If you don't know the difference between exegesis and eisegesis and can't tell a foundationalist from a fundamentalist, or hermeneutics from Hermetics, Dale is just the guy to set you `straight'. (Well, kind of...) I first met up with Dale when I took his on-line introductory course on the New Testament from the Yale Open University [...] . He is the first lecturer I have encountered to make the study of the Scriptures fun, interesting, and educational. The title of his book "Sex and the Single Savior" titillated my interest further.
In this excellent book of essays on the biblical interpretation of gender and sexuality, he out-does his classroom lectures with some surprising revelations. Did you ever wonder how Jesus of Nazareth interpreted Scripture? Dale gives us Jesus' take on divorce. In the Introduction he talks about the "anxiety of uncertainty" and cautions that "unethical readings of Scripture will abound." If you have ever wondered what the word `faith' really means, you will be mesmerized by his final chapter and conclusion on "the Risk of Faith."
Everyone will get something different from his book, but I found his analogy of "Scripture as a space: Museum" especially remarkable. He starts off by saying: "....we need to move beyond thinking of Scripture as a foundation for knowledge, as a rule book, a constitution, or an owner's manual. It is the work of our imagination." He compares Scripture to a museum or the objects in a museum. By the end of the chapter I had already begun to reexamine my views on the Bible.
In this excellent book of essays on the biblical interpretation of gender and sexuality, he out-does his classroom lectures with some surprising revelations. Did you ever wonder how Jesus of Nazareth interpreted Scripture? Dale gives us Jesus' take on divorce. In the Introduction he talks about the "anxiety of uncertainty" and cautions that "unethical readings of Scripture will abound." If you have ever wondered what the word `faith' really means, you will be mesmerized by his final chapter and conclusion on "the Risk of Faith."
Everyone will get something different from his book, but I found his analogy of "Scripture as a space: Museum" especially remarkable. He starts off by saying: "....we need to move beyond thinking of Scripture as a foundation for knowledge, as a rule book, a constitution, or an owner's manual. It is the work of our imagination." He compares Scripture to a museum or the objects in a museum. By the end of the chapter I had already begun to reexamine my views on the Bible.
15 of 23 people found the following review helpful
By E. Jones
Format:Paperback
Martin has an acerbic wit and the tenacity of a yapping yorkie. This book is great fun to read, and he pulls no punches in pointing out the flaws in his foes' arguments. He's also a careful New Testament scholar who can beat literalists at their own game. Several of these essays have been published elsewhere. Most compelling are "Heterosexism and the Interpretation of Romans 1:18-32" and "Familiar Idolatry and the Christian Case against Marriage." A must-read if you're interested in issues of gender, sexuality and Christianity.
10 of 16 people found the following review helpful
By Nanabird
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Excellent book--I recommend it highly because it makes a reader think. This book will upset all our biases. If it doesn't, then a reader's mind begins arguing with the author in the prologue and never stops long enough to take in what Martin says. One particular idea that is disrupting relates to the fact that Jesus and Paul both seemed to oppose typical family life.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is the book you have to read if you find yourself in lots of discussions about what the New Testament says about gender (sorry, very little about the Old Testament). This was our principle text in a course on Sex in the New Testament by an instructor who studied under Martin at Yale.
The book has all the apparatus of a good scholarly text, such as end-notes, bibliography, scriptural references table, and index. While the book is created by combining articles written at different times, for different audiences, the author has endeavored to smooth over the differences in tone.
The use of end notes instead of footnotes makes this very easy for the casual reader, and the author is skillful at putting things in just the right way to pick up his ideas easily.
One thing which may annoy the casual reader, but which delights the professional, is how Martin engages other writers in biblical exegesis, such as Richard Hayes (Martin and Hayes were colleagues once at Yale.) Hayes premise for the whole book, and the nub of his disagreement with Hayes, is that there is no undeniable, fixed meaning to scripture. It is all up for interpretation, until a community of believers comes to accept a particular interpretation.
Some of the articles deal with especially famous passages, mostly in Paul's letters, such as the well known statements which sound like they are about homosexuality in the first chapter of Romans. Turns out, Martin makes a very good case for saying Paul's statements are primarily about idolatry, not homosexuality.... Read more ›
The book has all the apparatus of a good scholarly text, such as end-notes, bibliography, scriptural references table, and index. While the book is created by combining articles written at different times, for different audiences, the author has endeavored to smooth over the differences in tone.
The use of end notes instead of footnotes makes this very easy for the casual reader, and the author is skillful at putting things in just the right way to pick up his ideas easily.
One thing which may annoy the casual reader, but which delights the professional, is how Martin engages other writers in biblical exegesis, such as Richard Hayes (Martin and Hayes were colleagues once at Yale.) Hayes premise for the whole book, and the nub of his disagreement with Hayes, is that there is no undeniable, fixed meaning to scripture. It is all up for interpretation, until a community of believers comes to accept a particular interpretation.
Some of the articles deal with especially famous passages, mostly in Paul's letters, such as the well known statements which sound like they are about homosexuality in the first chapter of Romans. Turns out, Martin makes a very good case for saying Paul's statements are primarily about idolatry, not homosexuality.... Read more ›
17 of 27 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Confronting biblical literalists with their unquestioned assumptions
February 1, 2007
By DMDude
Format:Paperback
As a NT scholar myself, I wrestled with Martin's views for some time. I was taught the supremacy of the historical-critical method and unwittingly learned all the shaming rhetoric used against anyone with an open mind on this topic. I have stopped living with the illusions taught me in Bible College and seminary about these matters -- that the INTERPRETER plays an integral part in what "meaning" is "found" in the text of the Bible, and that entire groups have been socialized to read the Bible as anti-gay. The ancients thought about sex and sexuality so dramatically differently than we do, anyone making that claim is simply naive or misguided. It's time GLBT people be embraced by the church for who they are - not in spite of who they are. I hope Martin's book opens people's eyes to how they need to reconsider what they've been taught about gay people.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Exellent Read
This is the book, if you have been wondering about how our religion should tackle sexuality, this would be a good resource. Read more
Published on March 13, 2011 by Godfrey Jankie
5.0 out of 5 stars
Indispensable...
There is probably no area of human relations more obscured by the fog of emotional response and uninterrogated cultural and personal bias than the subject of sexual mores. Read more
Published on July 14, 2007 by Reviewer extraordinary
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Starting point to go beyond "natural"
Dale Martin's Sex and single savior has been so useful for me in the field of hermeneutic and also how to engage sexuality in our discussion. Read more
Published on May 6, 2007 by Irawati Setiawan
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 100
books:
See all 100 books this book cites
- The Corinthian Body by Professor Dale B. Martin on 7 pages
- Divorce and Remarriage (Marriage in the Catholic Church) by Theodore MacKin on 4 pages
- Marriage and the Catholic Church: Disputed Questions (Theology) by Michael G. Lawler in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
- New Testament by T. Moore in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
- Vision And Virtue by Stanley Hauerwas on page 165, Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
See all 100 books this book cites
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