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Who Killed Goliath?: Reading the Bible With Heart and Mind

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Who Killed Goliath is a thought-provoking collection of articles in honor of two professors of biblical studies at Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary. It combines serious scholarly work and an approach accessible to pastors and lay persons interested in digging deeper into the Bible. The goal of these nine articles is to encourage biblical readers to go beyond a wooden, one-level approach to biblical interpretation by using text-critical study and by exploring the interface between biblical study, the social sciences, and philosophy. Articles cover the range of biblical texts from Genesis to Revelation. Worth the price of the volume in themselves are the contributions from the book's two editors. Robert Shedinger looks at the David and Goliath narratives to challenge the view that God espouses violence to achieve God's purposes. Deborah Spink interweaves an understanding of the Ancient Near Eastern lament genre found in Lamentations with experiences of grieving in a twenty-first century congregation. In a somewhat different approach, Robert Manzinger explores the relationship between Jesus' teaching of the Golden Rule and twentieth-century philosopher Emmanuel Levinas' exploration of human encounter with the "other." All the articles are accompanied by discussion questions that help to make this volume useful in sermon preparation or in lay study groups. I highly recommend Who Killed Goliath

Under the skilled editorship of Robert Hedinger and Deborah Spink, Who Killed Goliath: Reading The Bible With Heart And Mind is an engaging and informative collection of essays on Bible topics that is certain to engage and enlighten students of the sacred scriptures. The contributors include Robert Parkinson (New Testament Textual Criticism: don't Leave the Church without It!); Grand H. Ward (Two Words and Their Translations That Have Indeed Hurt); Robert F. Shedinger (Who Killed Goliath?: History and Legend in Biblical Narrative); Deborah J. Spink (An Ancient Formula for a Church/Community in Mourning: Insights into the Grief Process); Benjamin G. Wright III (Heaven: A Place of Revelation and Discovery); Terence C. Mournet (Honor and Shame in First Corinthians: Paul's Conflict with the Pivotal Values of Mediterranean Society); Julia Pizzuto-Poaco (Unity in the Midst of Diversity: The Early Church at Rome as Reflected in Romans 16); Karen L. Onesti (Three Women Maligned: Mary Magdalene, the Samaritan Woman, and the Woman Caught in Adultery); and Robert L. Manzinger (The Golden Rule and Responsibility to the Other). Highly recommended.