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Scripture
and Practice - Paper 4
Ongoing
biblical work
– NOTES ON some
newer
biblical
studies
texts
relevant
to
building
and
built
environment
URBAN
RELIGION IN ROMAN
CORINTH: Interdisciplinary
Approaches
edited
by Daniel N Schowalter
and Steven J
Friesen
Harvard
University Press 2005
523pp
ISBN 0-674-01660-2
Chapter
1 by GDR Sanders entitled
Urban Corinth:
An Introduction
and Chapter 2 by
David Gilman Romano
entitled Urban
and Rural
Planning in Roman
Corinth start
right where we
do as built
environment professionals,
with the physical
place as discovered
by archaeologists and
others.
I
am dipping into the
following fifteen chapters
on a variety
of topics – building,
religions, culture and
much else, Paul
and many others
- with a feeling
of starting to
really know the
place and being
able to see
events and movements
in a context.
JESUS
THROUGH MIDDLE EASTERN
EYES: Cultural Studies in
the Gospels
by
Kenneth E Bailey
SPCK
2008
443pp
ISBN 978-0281-05975-1
Kenneth
Bailey has spent his
life working with
Christian communities in
the Middle East,
on the home
ground of the
New Testament. In
a very factual
way he takes
us into the
narratives and teachings
of Jesus on
their own ground.
Chapter
1 on the birth of
Jesus includes sketches
of Palestinian
houses showing
living and stable
accommodation!
Part
6 unwraps eleven of the
parables. Any builder
will be attracted
to Ch 25, The
Parable of the
Two Builders,
Ch 26, The Parable
of the
Unjust Steward, and
Ch 28 The Parable
of the
Compassionate Employer.
This is our
stuff, what our
lives are about.
Now,
this book is not
primarily about building:
it’s about
Jesus, the culture
of his time
and the way
the rhetorical way
in which the
text is structured.
But the fact
that there are
some very obvious
building-related footholds
sets off one’s interest and,
I find, inspires
one to go
inside this living
place and story
opened up by
Bailey.
Particularly
when
I
was
doing
my
M
Phil
and
PhD
work,
the
hardest
part
was
making
links
with
the
New
Testament.
Well,
these
two
books
help.
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