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There are many biblical episodes in which people are compelled by an explicit or implicit threat of force, which is one definition of coercion, yet the issue of coercion has not yet been systematically explored for Hebrew Bible narrative. Examining the phenomenon of coercion across biblical narrative, this study asks how coercion is viewed and valued in the Hebrew Bible, what determines whether coercion is punished or rewarded, and what the theological significance is of this judgment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article contributes to the ongoing discussion of the story of Cain by exploring the speeches within Genesis 4 as speech acts. The investigation will focus on two narrative levels of analysis, the story level (the viewpoint of the characters) and the storyteller level (the presentation of the narrative to the audience). The speech acts in this story display a clash of imaginations, with Eve and Yhwh on one side and Cain and Lamech on the other. On the story level, Eve and Yhwh imagine the world in ways that resist human sin and violence and that celebrate God's relationship with humanity. Cain and Lamech reject this notion and choose to focus only on themselves. On the storyteller level, the speech acts of Genesis 4 invite the audience to adopt and celebrate the imaginations of Eve and Yhwh and to reject the imaginations of Cain and Lamech. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a disabled person, Psalm 139:13–14 has long presented as theologically problematic for me. How could "For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well" fall as praise from my lips when as young as six years old I realized I was differently abled; and that with all of the shameful, negative connotations assumed with being so. The theological narrative about disability centered on sins of the mother, shame of the family, pity of the public, and sympathetically low expectations for achieving, excelling, and fitting into mainstream ableism. This article weaves biographical vignettes and theological reflections to develop a liberation hermeneutic for creating a narrative theology of disability in the church; challenges commonly held perceptions about disabled personhood; examines familiar efforts to enhance the worship experience for disabled persons; admonishes practices which inconvenience or otherwise undermine a disabled parishioner; and examines the efficacy of ministry accommodations to equip disabled persons to worship, serve, and lead in the church. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article opens the road towards a theological media theory by discussing developments in narrative theology. Human stories are messages encoded in the medium of language, and narrative theology has rediscovered their importance for theology, especially in connection with the meaning of revelation. Understanding revelation as symbolic communication, mediation and "resonance" helps us to see how narrative and revelation merge within a concept of auto/Theo-biography. Before people are able to reflect upon revelation, they are already a part of it. Auto/Theo-biography suggests that theology is animated communication, growing from the interplay between participation and mediation. This calls for study of the medium and of mediation from a theological perspective, which may be a first step towards a theological media theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article seeks to explore theological meaning in a particular and unexpected event in the author's life. It begins by telling the story, and then explains why all narrative is open to the possibility of theology. By means of the tropes of mountain and wilderness, it begins to expand theological horizons, albeit with a level of physical and spiritual discomfort. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intersex conditions (those where an individual’s body cannot be classified as male or female) have received little attention in theological or church circles. This paper draws on empirical research with ten intersex Christians, suggesting that their stories are of relevance to broader theological discourse about sex, gender and sexuality. In a narrative theological framework, stories constitute and reinforce world-views. Christian communities which invest only clearly male or clearly female bodies with legitimacy and cosmic significance risk eliding other types of body-story. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comments on the July 1975 issue of `Theology Today,' which contained an article called `A Symposium on Story and Narrative Theology.' Discusses two aspects of the category of narrative: a theme that emerges not just in a few theological communities but crosses most denominational boundaries; There are many different theological disciplines involved; Literature on narrative theology continues to grow rapidly in all directions.