Alan H Cadwallader

Pieces of Ease and Grace Alan H Cadwallader

Marc Notes: Includes bibliographical references and indexes. Table of Contents: Editor's Prologue: Writing Pieces of Ease and Grace into the Garden of Love / Alan Cadwallader -- Preface: Reading the Bible for inclusion / Cynthia Kittredge -- Foreword: Widening the Circle / Peter Francis -- Introduction: Warming Up for the Conversation / Elizabeth J Smith -- 1. 'Set in Tradition and History': Genesis 2:24 and the Marriage Debate / Meg Warner -- 2. Ruth and Naomi / Ruth Mathieson -- 3. Opposite Sex Marriage a Biblical Ideal? The Case of David and Jonathan / James Harding -- 4. Esther's 'Coming Out' as Costly Redemption: Living Through and Beyond the Violence of 'Othering' / Richard Treloar -- 5. The sign of Jonah: Rereading the Jonah Tradition for Signs of God's Generosity / Gregory C Jenks -- 6. Surprised by Faith: A Centurion and a Canaanite Query the Limits of Jesus and the Disciples / Alan Cadwallader -- 7. 'I Met a Strange Lady': The Eunuchs From Matthew 19:12 and Acts 8:26-40 / Ceri Wynne -- 8. In My Sister's House: Decolonising the Household in Bethany / Gillian Moses -- 9. Paul's Inclusive Gospel: 'For this Reason it Depends on Faith in Order that the Promise May Rest on Grace' (Romans 4:16) / Marian Free -- 10. The Corinthian Body and the Preferential Inclusion of the Rejected (1 Corinthians 12:12-31) / Joan Riley -- 11. Exclamations in the Margins: On Women Partners in the New Testament (Euodia and Syntyche in Philippians 4:2) / Gillian Townsley -- List of Contributors -- Indices -- Index of Scripture -- Index of other Ancient Writings -- Index of Modern Authors -- Index of Subjects. Publisher Marketing: The previous volume of essays, Five Uneasy Pieces was warmly received. People of faith and spirituality were looking for liberating understandings of the Bible in engagement with their own sexualities and those of friends, family and beyond. The book demonstrated clearly that oppressive uses of selected texts from the Bible were invalid. But more is needed. The obligation upon scriptural scholars is to establish scripture s hospitable inclusion of those whose sexual identities have been subjected to such oppression. Pieces of Ease and Grace retrieves biblical texts as actively embracing gays and lesbians within the community of faith. Their stories profoundly intersect with those of scripture. Here is a collection of biblical essays on sexuality and welcome that restores the Bible as a book of grace to those whose sexual identities had previously been lost, or condemned, in interpretation."

Contributor Bio:  Cadwallader, Alan ALAN CADWALLADER lectures New Testament studies in the School of Theology, Flinders University.