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Paperback
Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
“I firmly believe that Christians should read Scripture and make it relevant to our lives. But I also believe that we need new ways of thinking about how we read Scripture. We need to move beyond the false claims of modernism that looked to the text of the Bible as a reliable and objective ‘source’ for knowledge or as a ‘foundation’ for ethics. We need to think about Scripture more theologically and with fresh imaginations. Far from urging the irrelevance of the Bible, I am advocating a more robust use of the Bible and a more sophisticated and adequate theology of Scripture.” —from the conclusion Probing into numerous questions about gender and sexuality, Dale Martin delves into the biblical texts anew and unearths surprising findings. Avoiding preconceptions about ancient sexuality, he explores the ethics of desire and marriage and pays careful attention to the original meanings of words, especially those used as evidence of Paul’s opposition to homosexuality. For example, after a remarkably faithful reading of the scriptural texts, Martin concludes that our contemporary obsession with marriage—and the whole search for the “right” sexual relationships—is antithetical to the message of the gospel. In all of these essays, however, Martin argues for engaging Scripture in a way that goes beyond the standard historical-critical questions and the assumptions of textual agency in order to find a faith that has no foundations other than Jesus Christ.
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| Indispensable... |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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There is probably no area of human relations more obscured by the fog of emotional response and uninterrogated cultural and personal bias than the subject of sexual mores. Twenty centuries of religion "by the book" have ceded Christianity a legacy of apocalyptic morality, patriarchal dominion, denigration of women, and a poisonous atmosphere of homophobia. This legacy has been alternately supported and challenged by agenda-driven exegesis, anti-historical readings of founding texts, and argumentation riddled with internal contradiction.
There is, however, some good news. In this collection of essays, Dale Martin raises the kindly light of reason to illuminate the boundaries of legitimate interpretive practice, exposing many flawed and some frankly dishonest examples in the process.
More importantly, Martin recognizes that in the end no methodology can lead to certainty. All people, believers and unbelievers alike, must finally live in a world of some moral ambiguity. We are all, believers and unbelievers alike, suspended above a moral abyss largely of our own creation, floating, in the words of Kierkegaard, "on 70,000 fathoms of water" (page 184).
This collection should be an indispensable text for anyone who presumes to interpret the teachings of the New Testament for others. It is also a "must read" for anyone willing to challenge the Christian fundamentalist campaign to have homosexuals declared a species of untermenschen.
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| A Starting point to go beyond "natural" |
| Customer Rating: 4 out of 5 |
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Dale Martin's Sex and single savior has been so useful for me in the field of hermeneutic and also how to engage sexuality in our discussion. it bring up the idea of what is "natural" and what is "unnatural". Often we think that things are just there and "natural" without thinking further about it. and many justify what is natural just simply because "it is written in the Bible" and used it to justify or condemn for instance homosexuality. this book is a good starting point to think beyond "natural" and offers a new possibility and alternatives to read the Bible in the topic of Gender and Sexuality.
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| Confronting biblical literalists with their unquestioned assumptions |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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As a NT scholar myself, I wrestled with Martin's views for some time. I was taught the supremacy of the historical-critical method and unwittingly learned all the shaming rhetoric used against anyone with an open mind on this topic. I have stopped living with the illusions taught me in Bible College and seminary about these matters -- that the INTERPRETER plays an integral part in what "meaning" is "found" in the text of the Bible, and that entire groups have been socialized to read the Bible as anti-gay. The ancients thought about sex and sexuality so dramatically differently than we do, anyone making that claim is simply naive or misguided. It's time GLBT people be embraced by the church for who they are - not in spite of who they are. I hope Martin's book opens people's eyes to how they need to reconsider what they've been taught about gay people.
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| This will disturb your biases |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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Excellent book--I recommend it highly because it makes a reader think. This book will upset all our biases. If it doesn't, then a reader's mind begins arguing with the author in the prologue and never stops long enough to take in what Martin says. One particular idea that is disrupting relates to the fact that Jesus and Paul both seemed to oppose typical family life.
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| Readable, profound, humourous |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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Martin has an acerbic wit and the tenacity of a yapping yorkie. This book is great fun to read, and he pulls no punches in pointing out the flaws in his foes' arguments. He's also a careful New Testament scholar who can beat literalists at their own game. Several of these essays have been published elsewhere. Most compelling are "Heterosexism and the Interpretation of Romans 1:18-32" and "Familiar Idolatry and the Christian Case against Marriage." A must-read if you're interested in issues of gender, sexuality and Christianity.
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