T&T Clark Reading Genesis: Beginnings

Review Reading Genesis: Beginnings offers a gateway into a treasure trove of stories and characters that have influenced Western culture through religion, art and literature. With modern tools of analysis, these stories can still guide our exploration of human nature. While ancient, the biblical text offers insight not only to our relationship with God but also to each other in God s divine plan. --Pittsburgh Post-GazetteA marvelous collection of insights, provocations and apercus on the founding book of the human family. --Rabbi David Wolpe, Sinai Temple, LA, USAIf you think you already understand the Book of Genesis, think again. Reading Genesis offers wondrous new approaches to this ancient text penned by some of the world's most interesting minds. Sure to be a classic. Jonathan D. Sarna, Brandeis University, USA This is a stimulating collection of essays on the Bible, bringing diverse fields of expertise to bear on the text. The results are often intriguing and eloquent, yielding fresh insights. --Avivah Zornberg Product Description Deuteronomy 32:47 says the Pentateuch should not be 'an empty matter.' This new anthology from Beth Kissileff fills Genesis with meaning, gathering intellectuals and thinkers who use their professional knowledge to illuminate the Biblical text. These writers use insights from psychology, law, political science, literature, and other scholarly fields, to create an original constellation of modern Biblical readings, and receptions of Genesis: A scientist of appetite on Eve's eating behavior; law professors on contracts in Genesis, and on collective punishment; an anthropologist on the nature of human strife in the Cain and Abel story; political scientists on the nature of Biblical games, Abraham's resistance, and collective action. The highly distinguished contributors include Alan Dershowitz and Ruth Westheimer, the novelists Rebecca Newberger Goldstein and Dara Horn, critics Ilan Stavans and Sander Gilman, historian Russell Jacoby, poets Alicia Suskin Ostriker and Jacqueline Osherow, and food writer Joan Nathan. About the Author Beth Kissileff has received fellowships from the Corporation of Yaddo and the National Endowment for the Humanities and has taught at Carleton College, the University of Minnesota USA, Smith College USA, and Mount Holyoke College USA.