Theses/Dissertations - Religion
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Browsing Theses/Dissertations - Religion by Author "Bellinger, William H."
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Item A canonical exegesis of the eighth Psalm : YHWH's maintenance of the created order through divine reversal.(2010-10-08T16:21:23Z) Keener, Hubert James.; Bellinger, William H.; Religion.; Baylor University. Dept. of Religion.This dissertation presents a canonical exegesis of Psalm 8. The dissertation seeks to contribute to two areas of scholarship: 1) literature on the canonical approach to exegesis carrying forward the emphases first articulated by Brevard Childs, and 2) literature grappling with the question of how one ought to interpret Psalm 8 as Christian Scripture. The first chapter of the study reassesses the canon exegetical approach, concluding that it is a viable and salutary means for interpreting the text theologically, while arguing for some refinements to the approach as it is now understood that clarify its theological underpinnings. The rest of the dissertation then goes on to examine Psalm 8 in relation to the broader canon. In order to bring Psalm 8 into dialogue with the rest of the canon, the study attends to the literary context of the psalm (the Psalter) and utilizes key texts which relate to the psalm (Genesis 1; Job 7; Psalm 144; Matthew 21; 1 Corinthians 15; Ephesians 1; Hebrews 2) as entry points through which to connect Psalm 8 with the broader witness of Scripture. Thus, the study attends to the discreet witness of Psalm 8, the place of Psalm 8 in the shape of the Psalter, the relationship between Psalm 8 and the rest of the Old Testament, and the relationship between Psalm 8 and the New Testament witness. The dissertation describes the place of Psalm 8 within the Christian canon as representing the intersection of three motifs or trajectories: 1) The distinct theological message of Psalm 8, summarized as the reversal motif; the psalm describes YHWH as making his name great in all of creation by exalting relatively insignificant things over and against seemingly superior things, as is seen most prominently in the exaltation of the human to the role of YHWH's vice-gerent. 2) The motif of the conflicted and conflicting human, which permeates the canon; humanity finds itself beset by troubles and prone to misconduct. 3) The motif of the redeeming Christ, who becomes the ultimate representation of the reversal motif and who alone violates the type of the conflicted and conflicting human.Item The characterization of Aaron : threshold encounters in Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers.(2012-11-29) Buell, Susan Darr.; Bellinger, William H.; Religion.; Baylor University. Dept. of Religion.This study presents a reader-constructed portrait of Aaron, the high priest of the ancient Israelite people. The portrait was developed according to the literary theory which proposes that a narrative character is an interdividual defined by the other characters with whom he interacts at the moment of their direct meeting. That point of interaction is designated as a threshold encounter. Therefore, texts for the study were selected based upon Aaron’s engagement in various threshold encounters. These include Exodus 32 (the golden calf incident), Leviticus 10 (the destruction of Nadab and Abihu during the inaugural sacrificial service), Numbers 12 (Miriam’s and Aaron’s challenge to Moses’ authority), and Numbers 20:1-13 (Moses’ disobedience of Yahweh). These four texts were examined from both literary and reader response perspectives. The study concludes that Aaron was a complex interdividual, as revealed through his action and speech in response to Yahweh, his sister Miriam, his brother Moses, and the Israelite people, as well as through contrast with Moses and with his own previous responses. In the narrative of the Pentateuch, Aaron presents as a character who possesses both positive qualities and unfortunate foibles. The study identifies a number of his traits which are consistently displayed across multiple threshold encounters. Additionally, the study concludes that several aspects of Aaron’s character change over the course of the pentateuchal narrative.Item Good queen mothers, bad queen mothers : the theological presentation of the queen mother in 1 and 2 Kings.(2011-12-19) Brewer-Boydston, Ginny.; Bellinger, William H.; Religion.; Baylor University. Dept. of Religion.The regnal formulas in 1-2 Kings list the name of the mother of the king for Judah, signaling an importance on the part of the queen mother and her place within the theological presentation of the books. This dissertation investigates the multiple passages in which the mother of the king appears outside of the regnal formulas through literary criticism and integrates that study with a theological discussion of the regnal formulas in order to demonstrate the narrative’s view of the queen mother’s place in the monarchy. As the gĕbîrâ, the queen mother held a sanctioned position within the Judean court and had such great influence upon her son that she too receives blame as part of the monarchy for the fall of Judah. The books of Kings depict Maacah (1 Kgs 15), Athaliah (2 Kgs 11), and Nehushta (2 Kgs 24), the only queen mothers to appear outside of the formulas, as wicked and acting in the same manner as the kings who receive a negative or qualified evaluation of their reigns. The books of Jeremiah and Ezekiel depict Nehushta (Jer 13, 22, 29) and Hamutal (Ezek 19) as wicked as well. Jezebel, appearing only in Kings (2 Kgs 9), receives the same treatment. These texts combine to show a mythos surrounding the queen mother, that she is a wicked queen mother by virtue of her son ruling during the divided monarchy. Three other queen mothers, who are not from the divided monarchy, appear in other biblical texts: Bathsheba (1 Kgs 1-2), Lemuel’s mother (Prov 31), and Belshazzar’s mother (Dan 5). Also, Genesis depicts Sarah as a proto-queen mother (Gen 16-21). The texts characterizes these women as good queen mothers, acting in a contradictory manner from the queen mothers of the divided monarchy. The queen mother outside of the divided monarchy can be a good queen mother even if she is foreign. These good queen mothers contrast with the wicked queen mothers and strengthen the mythos that the queen mother of the divided monarchy is wicked and she holds such a powerful, influential position that she is at fault, along with her son, for the exile of the nation.Item Jacob and the divine Trickster : a theology of deception and YHWH's fidelity to the ancestral promise in the Jacob cycle.(2010-10-08T16:12:43Z) Anderson, John E. (John Edward), 1981-; Bellinger, William H.; Religion.; Baylor University. Dept. of Religion.The book of Genesis portrays the character Jacob as a brazen trickster who deceives members of his own family: his father Isaac, brother Esau, and uncle Laban. At the same time, Genesis depicts Jacob as YHWH's chosen from whom the entire people Israel derive. These two notices produce a latent tension in the text: Jacob is concurrently an unabashed trickster and YHWH's preference. How is one to reconcile this tension? This dissertation investigates the phenomenon of divine deception in the Jacob cycle (Gen 25-35). The primary thesis is that YHWH both uses and engages in deception for the perpetuation of the ancestral promise (Gen 12:1-3), giving rise to what I have dubbed a theology of deception. Through a literary hermeneutic, emphasizing the symbiotic relationship between both how the text means and what the text means, with theological aims, this study examines the various manifestations of YHWH as Trickster in the Jacob cycle. Attention is given to how the multiple deceptions evoke, advance, and at times fulfill the ancestral promise. In Gen 25-28 YHWH engages in deception to insure Jacob receives the ancestral promise. Here Jacob is seen cutting his deceptive teeth by extorting the right of the firstborn from Esau and the paternal blessing from Isaac. YHWH, however, also plays the role of Trickster through an utterly ambiguous oracle to Rebekah in Gen 25:23, which drives the human deceptions. At Bethel (Gen 28:10-22) Jacob receives the ancestral promise from YHWH, in effect corroborating the earlier deceptions. In Gen 29-31 YHWH uses the many deceptions perpetrated between Jacob and Laban to advance the ancestral promise in the areas of progeny, blessing to the nations, and land. Lastly, in Gen 32-35 YHWH participates in Jacob's final deception of Esau (Gen 33:1-17) through two encounters Jacob has, first with the "messengers of God" and second with God. Jacob's tricking of Esau during their reconciliation results in Jacob's return to the promised land. Attention is given to the theological implications of this divine portrait, along with prospects for further study.Item The kingship of Yahweh and the politics of poverty and oppression in the Hebrew Psalter.(2011-01-05T19:51:20Z) Wittman, Derek Edward, 1977-; Bellinger, William H.; Religion.; Baylor University. Dept. of Religion.This dissertation is a rhetorical critical analysis of the Hebrew Psalter's use of language connoting poverty to portray Yahweh, ancient Israel, and foreign nations and to structure the literary relationships between them. It advances the thesis that such language functions to portray ancient Israel as an oppressed nation, to portray foreign nations as oppressors, and to portray Yahweh as a royal figure who acts as a just arbiter between them. The introductory chapter outlines the rhetorical critical methodology of this study, highlighting its emphasis on the reader's role in generating the sense of the text in light of the Psalter's canonical context. It also contains a summary of scholarship on the topic of poverty in the Psalter, including the issues of defining the scope of terminology that connotes poverty in the Psalter and determining the degree to which the Psalter views poverty in a literal or spiritual manner. The second chapter addresses the royal portrayal of Yahweh in the Psalter through the three lenses of scholarship on the enthronement psalms, theological analysis, and canonical criticism, and it includes a discussion of the significance of the relationship between the royal metaphor and the refuge metaphor in understanding the Psalter's view of poverty. The third chapter outlines the Psalter's portrayal of ancient Israel as an oppressed nation, with a particular emphasis on the communal psalms of lament and thanksgiving. It also includes a discussion of the Psalter's tendency to portray foreign nations in a negative light. The fourth chapter is an exegetical analysis of ten psalms that contain these three elements: language connoting poverty, references to foreign nations, and the royal portrayal of Yahweh. It demonstrates that the structures of these psalms lead the reader toward the conclusion that foreign oppressors are to be blamed for the suffering of an impoverished ancient Israel. Chapter five consists of a contextual analysis of these ten psalms. It addresses the repetition of the three aforementioned elements in psalms that precede and follow them. The final chapter contains an assessment of the study's implications for future scholarship on the Psalter and for practical theology.Item The narrative effect of Book IV of the Hebrew Psalter.(2006-07-21T21:50:17Z) Wallace, Robert E.; Bellinger, William H.; Religion.; Baylor University. Dept. of Religion.This dissertation asserts that a reader encountering the canonical Hebrew Psalter can read from the beginning and capture a sense of plot. The turning point of the story is Book IV (Psalms 90-106). It is at this point in the story that the questions of the failure of the Davidic monarchy are answered. Recent approaches to the Psalter (championed by Gerald Wilson and Nancy deClaissé-Walford) have suggested that the Psalter was redacted purposely to help the exilic and post-exilic communities answer the apparent failure of the Davidic covenant. According to these proposals, the first two books in the Psalter set up the importance of the Davidic monarchy and the Davidic covenant. The third book of the Psalter expresses the problem of Yahweh’s apparent rejection of the Davidic covenant which culminates in Psalm 89. Book V ultimately leads the reader to the fact that Yahweh should be king over Israel and over the nations. Such studies have emphasized the importance of the beginning of Book IV, calling Book IV the "theological pivot point." These approaches have focused on Psalm 90, and how this psalm shifts the reader’s focus to the importance of the Mosaic covenant in light of the failure of the Davidic covenant. As this analysis demonstrates, Book IV does not simply change the focus of the reader to the Mosaic Covenant at its beginning, the book emphasizes Moses throughout. Psalms 90-100 speak with a “Mosaic voice” and Psalms 101-106 demonstrate a "Mosaic remembrance." Book IV as a unit answers the concern of Book III—the failure of the Davidic Covenant. Book IV also introduces the concern of Book V by proclaiming the necessity to focus the attention of the reader on YHWH as King in Psalms 93-100.Item Singing songs and telling tales : the function of story in the book of Psalms.(2018-03-07) Hays, Rebecca Whitten Poe, 1987-; Bellinger, William H.This dissertation explores the presence and function of stories in the Hebrew Psalter. Pushing against a general scholarly trend to focus on the non-narrative aspect of Hebrew poetry, I demonstrate that the book of Psalms does contain stories and that the inclusion of these stories in ancient Israel’s worship texts contributes to the rhetorical power of the psalms in a way that is distinct from other poetic devices such as parallelism and imagery. I begin by building on literary theory and biblical studies of narrative to establish a clear definition of a “story” as a text that includes three or more moments (descriptions of single actions or states in clauses governed by a single verb) linked together in ways that clearly communicates sequence and causation. Using this definition to identify the story portions of psalms, I divide these stories into three major categories: retellings of history, testimonies, and paradigm stories. In the main chapters of the dissertation, I explore each category with a discussion of the category’s general characteristics, a close reading of representative texts (Pss 78, 136, and 107 for retellings of history; Pss 30, 73, and 81 for testimonies; and Pss 80, 20, and 7 for paradigms), and an assessment of distinctive ways each type of story functions in the Hebrew psalms. These poetic, psalmic stories have the rhetorical power to draw readers into narrative worlds and inspire empathy, to guide readers into particular understandings of history and teach them inductively, and to concretize the abstract and so shape the beliefs and behaviors of the communities who regard them as sacred texts.Item The foreign kings and the Jewish sages : reading the narratives in Daniel 1–6.(2018-07-11) Moon, Sung Ho, 1970-; Bellinger, William H.This study examines the portrayal of foreign kings in Dan 1–6, suggesting a new interpretive approach to these narratives and drawing out the implications of this portrayal for the unity and theme of the book of Daniel. This dissertation argues that the narratives depict foreign kings in a positive manner rather than satirizing them. While interpreting the narratives’ portrayals of foreign kings as negative fits within the apocalyptic part of the book (Dan 7–12), this reading shows that the narratives in Dan 1–6 have a distinct agenda of demonstrating the role of wise men—maśkîlîm (11:33, 35; 12:3, 10)—in the context of foreign empires. This study shows that this depiction of the ways in which wise men relate to foreign kings illustrates the role of wise men in Dan 11:33 and 12:3 to “lead many to righteousness,” including even the foreign kings, by the transformative power of wisdom—the knowledge of God. As a result, the final form of the book of Daniel reflects the concern of wisdom circles as well as an apocalyptic orientation. The narratives carry out the political and theological goals of rationalizing polity and religion under foreign rulers, and envisioning the transformative power of wisdom in an imperial context for the Jews after the exile.Item Visual exegesis of praise and lament in the psalms of individual lament.(2020-12-05) Parker, Bobby Edward, Jr., 1980-; Bellinger, William H.For most of the twentieth century, the majority of Psalms scholarship has understood the change in mood in lament psalms, or Stimmungsumschwung, to be the result of an oracle of salvation of some sort. The result of this explanation for the Stimmungsumschwung was a “certainty of hearing” for the one participating in the cultic function tied to the respective psalm. Perhaps one of the most long-lasting developments of reading the Psalms in this way is Claus Westermann’s argument for the two primary genres of lament and praise with lament transitioning to praise at both the individual and book level. While many still hold Westermann’s view to be orthodox, several recent scholars have begun to doubt strongly the existence of the oracle of salvation and the resulting certainty of hearing. These recent studies rightly question the existence of an oracle of salvation and the resulting certainty of hearing, yet they still work within the conceptual confines of previous studies that see the laments necessarily transitioning from lament to trust (Janowski) or reading lament as an act of trust (Rechberger, Markschies, Weber). These readings do little to account adequately for the juxtaposition of the two poetic modes of lament and praise so prominent with the Psalter and offer only theologically positivistic approaches to the laments. In light of eroding support for the oracle of salvation and the recognition of structures within the psalms of individual laments that do not necessitate a simplistic or linear transition from lament to praise, I propose a reading of the individual laments that finds meaning in the tension between the two poetic modes. In this dissertation, I will contribute to the ongoing discussion of the lament-praise relationship in Psalms studies in three primary ways. First, in light of the gathering consensus that the Heilsorakel is not the cause of the Stimmungsumschwung, I will offer a new explanation for the (rapid) change of mood. Second, I will offer the beginnings of a theology of lament and praise that emerges from a dialogical reading of the individual laments. Finally, I will introduce a new form of scholarly engagement with the biblical text: the Iconic-Textual Approach.Item A word fitly spoken: poetic artistry in the first four acrostics of the Hebrew psalter.(2006-05-27T15:20:22Z) Maloney, Leslie D.; Bellinger, William H.; Religion.; Baylor University. Dept. of Religion.This dissertation explores the occurrences and the functions of various poetic devices within the four alphabetic acrostic psalms found in Book I of the Psalter. These psalms are: Pss 9/10; 25; 34; and 37. These acrostics are four out of a total of eight alphabetic acrostic poems found in the Psalter -- the other four occurring in Book V. This study will also explore linguistic connections between the four Book I acrostics and will point to connections between some of the Book I and the Book V acrostics as an avenue deserving further investigation. The majority scholarly opinion has been that these acrostics are deficient poetically and artistically due to the writers'/editors' preoccupation with the alphabetic pattern. In contrast to this view, the working hypothesis of this dissertation is that the alphabetic acrostic pattern contributes to, rather than detracts from, the poetic artistry of these psalms. This study is primarily descriptive, consisting of a close reading of each of these Book I acrostics. The study highlights the functions of the various poetic devices found in these psalms. The study also sometimes highlights the linguistic connections and grammatical connections between the four acrostics and surrounding psalms in an effort to promote a holistic, canonical reading of the four acrostic poems within Book I of the Psalter. The dissertation's close reading of these poems demonstrates over and over the emotive power and the imagination of this literature in contradiction to its supposedly stiff, wooden nature. Finally, several times throughout this dissertation suggested, conventional emendations of the Masoretic Text are challenged and poetic or linguistically artistic solutions are proposed instead. This study is attuned to the frequent wordplays and plays on sound that occur throughout these four poems. Many times such considerations, as well as the preservation of grammatical parallelism within these acrostics, is a more desirable solution than is the emendation of the consonantal text.Item "YHWH, remember!" : place, memory, and ritual in Psalms 120-137.(2017-08-04) Bodenhamer, Kim Williams, 1986-; Bellinger, William H.This dissertation examines the collection of psalms with the superscription šîr hamma‘ălôt (120-134) along with the triad of psalms, 135-137, that follows the collection. The project begins with a history of scholarship with regard to the Songs of Ascents, with special attention given to studies that have explored the importance of “space” as a critical category in the Songs of Ascents. After providing a brief overview of the concept of critical spatiality and its application in biblical scholarship, this dissertation proposes that “place” as it relates to ritual provides a better framework for examining biblical texts than critical spatiality alone, specifically Jonathan Z. Smith’s work To Take Place: Toward a Theory of Ritual, which serves as the theoretical basis for the exegetical portion of the project. Psalms 120-134 are examined individually, with attention to structure, space and content. Building on Gert Prinsloo’s organizational model, the psalms will be approached in triads. This study proposes that the additional triad of psalms, 135-137, reinforces the collection’s emphasis on place and memory. The conclusion of the project explores the implications of this study for the “shape and shaping” debate in Psalms scholarship, specifically the influence of the Levitical singers in the collection of the Psalter.