The discourse of contemporary country music creates a world permeated with religion and centered on the notion of salvific love. This form of salvation arises in the connection between people (or between people and God) and includes elements of sacrifice and transformation. Although highly conventional, country music must meet standards of 'authenticity' and 'relevance', which require the incorporation of contemporary American religious values (including self-love and self-actualization). An analysis of recent country music lyrics reveals the remarkable openness to new religious messages. However, the only acceptable messages are those that can be harmonized with the implicit Protestant Christian sensibility of the music. Salvific love, for this reason, is always heterosexual and at least compatible with a Christian message. While the music industry does its best to erase minority sexualities, the music itself is often surprisingly open to a queer interpretation.
Scholars tend to view the Damascus Document as a historical source, but a reading of the text in light of contemporary (audience-oriented) literary criticism finds its emphasis in the ideological construction of history and communal identity, rather than in the preservation of a historical record. An introduction to contemporary literary criticism is followed by a series of thematic readings, focusing on historical narrative, priestly imagery, and gender in the covenant community. Each theme is examined in terms of its potential for multiple (sometimes contradictory) interpretations and for its place in the larger sectarian discourse. This study offers an alternative approach to the historiography of ancient Jewish sectarianism, acknowledging the presence of competing claims to shared traditions and the potential for changes in textual interpretation over time or among diverse communities. Readership Those interested are academic libraries, institutes, researchers, students. For more information see brill.com
Postmodern theory, with its concerns about textual meaning, identity formation, and dynamics of power, has had an impact on the study of ancient Judaism in a variety of ways over the last several decades. Theories of reader-response and intertextuality have particularly shaped recent work in biblical studies, while these and other philosophical concerns have contributed to postmodern understandings of midrash. The impact of postmodern theory on the study of the Dead Sea Scrolls is more subtle but nonetheless provides an interesting model for the use of theory in the study of ancient Judaism. Attention to the work of a particular scholar (D. Boyarin) or the possibilities for a particular theoretical approach (postcolonial theory) provides further evidence for postmodern treatments of ancient Jewish texts and history. Although the heyday of critical theory is now long past, the field of ancient Jewish studies has been shaped by theory-driven concerns about discourse, power, and the world.
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