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Bible Blindspots
Dispersion and Othering
Edited by Jione Havea and Monica Jyotsna Melanchthon
Series: Intersectionality and Theology Series
Imprint: Pickwick Publications
Several of the ways and cultures that the Bible privileges or denounces slip by unnoticed. When those--the privileged and the denounced--are not examined, they fade into and hide in the blind spots of the Bible. This collection of essays engages some of the subjects who face dispersion (physical displacement that sparks ideological bias) and othering (ideologies that manifest in social distancing and political displacement). These include, among others, the builders of Babel, Samaritans, Melchizedek, Jezebel, Judith, Gomer, Ruth, slaves, and mothers. In addition to considering the drive to privilege or denounce, the contributors also attend to subjects ignored because the Bible's blind spots are not examined. These include planet Earth, indigenous Australians, Palestinians, Dalits, minjungs, battered women, sexual-abuse victims, religious minorities, mothering men, gays, and foreigners.
This collection encourages interchanges and exchanges between dispersion and othering, and between the Bible and context. It flows in the currents of postcolonial and gendered studies, and closes with a script that stages a biblical character at the intersection of the Bible's blind spots and modern readers' passions and commitments.
Jione Havea is a native pastor in the Methodist Church in Tonga and a research fellow with Trinity Methodist Theological College (Aotearoa, New Zealand) as well as with the Centre for Public and Contextual Theology at Charles Sturt University (Canberra, Australia).
Monica Jyotsna Melanchthon is a Lutheran pastor in the Andhra Evangelical Lutheran Church of India and associate professor of Old Testament at Pilgrim Theological College, within the University of Divinity (Melbourne, Australia).
“A very unique, intriguing collection of fifteen articles edited into three thematic parts. Each article has a distinctive perspective based on biblical texts and its own contemporary social, political, and religious situations. . . . An excellent introduction in the first chapter guides readers as to what they will encounter in each chapter. This fascinating structure gives readers freedom to pick up any chapter and experience aha moments.”
—Hisako Kinukawa, Japan Agricultural Theological Seminary
“We don’t know what we don’t see unless and until someone brings certain things we missed to our attention. Havea and Melanchthon have given us a gift by alerting us to the blind spots we may have about the Bible. Their book confronts me with three inescapable questions concerning biblical interpretation: What do I see? What do I not see? And, most importantly, why?”
—Tat-siong Benny Liew, College of the Holy Cross
“Havea and Melanchthon gather scholars from across the globe that evocatively focus on the Bible’s blind spots and blind devotion to the Bible. This book is a must-read for anyone willing to have their eyes opened to the dispersed and othered in the Bible and society.”
—Crystal Hall, United Lutheran Seminary
“What a wonderful volume that brings together an array of creative, thought-provoking contributions that . . . uncover those blind spots that exist in both text and readers. Essay after essay helped me see things in the text I’ve not yet seen, and stimulated further reflection on the politics of othering, the exceedingly painful legacy of empires old and new, and the powerful ways in which this ancient text is reclaimed by communities all over the world. A must-read for any contextual Bible reader!”
—Juliana Claassens, Stellenbosch University
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