Scripture, Culture, and Agriculture
An Agrarian Reading of the Bible

This book examines the theology and ethics of land use through critical biblical exegesis.

Ellen F. Davis (Author)

9780521732239, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 13 October 2008

254 pages
22.8 x 15.2 x 1.5 cm, 0.35 kg

"This is a lucid, wide-ranging, and thought provoking book that should be read by everyone in biblical studies, and should be assigned as a textbook in courses on biblical methods, Torah, prophets, and ecological hermeneutics." --The Biblical & Critical Theory

This book examines the theology and ethics of land use, especially the practices of modern industrialized agriculture, in light of critical biblical exegesis. Nine interrelated essays explore the biblical writers' pervasive concern for the care of arable land against the background of the geography, social structures, and religious thought of ancient Israel. This approach consistently brings out neglected aspects of texts, both poetry and prose, that are central to Jewish and Christian traditions. Rather than seeking solutions from the past, Davis creates a conversation between ancient texts and contemporary agrarian writers; thus she provides a fresh perspective from which to view the destructive practices and assumptions that now dominate the global food economy. The biblical exegesis is wide-ranging and sophisticated; the language is literate and accessible to a broad audience.

Introduction
1. Rupture and re-membering
2. Reading the Bible through agrarian eyes
3. Seeing with God: Israel's poem of creation
4. Leaving Egypt behind: embracing the wilderness economy
5. A wholesome materiality: reading Leviticus
6. Covenantal economics: the biblical case for a local economy
7. Running on poetry: the agrarian prophets
8. Wisdom or sloth? The character of work
9. The faithful city.

Subject Areas: Conservation of the environment [RNK], Plant ecology [PSTS], Biblical studies & exegesis [HRCG], Old Testaments [HRCF1], Religious ethics [HRAM1]