II. Family in the Bible
Bristow, John T. What the Bible Really Says about Love, Marriage, and the Family. St. Louis, Mo.: Chalice Press, 1994. 152 p. $12.99
Chalice Press is the publishing ministry of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). From the publisher's catalog: "The author of What Paul Really Said About Women takes a hard look at marriage, divorce, sexuality, & the role of women in the Bible."
Cassiday-Shaw, Aimee. Family Abuse in the Bible: the Scriptural Perspective. New York: Haworth Press, 2002. 144 p. $19.95
The author, who is founder of Family Abuse Ministries, boldly confronts the reality of abuse within Christian households. Written from an evangelical perspective, the book mines the Bible for passages relevant to issues of family abuse. Two chapters focus specifically on children within families, regarded first from the parent's vantage point, and then the child's. Though the stories of Isaac and Ishmael are not discussed, this book may stimulate reflection on some of the issues raised in this year's spiritual growth study.
Cohen, Norman. Self, Struggle and Change: Family Conflicts in Genesis and their Healing Insights for Our Lives. Woodstock, Vt.: Jewish Lights, 1995. 209 p. $16.95
Rabbi Cohen, who teaches at Hebrew Union College in New York City, draws on rabbinical literature, and on his own personal experience, to illuminate the significance for today of the many family conflicts that enliven the Genesis stories. Children appear most often in this book in sibling pairs (Cain and Abel, Jacob and Esau, Isaac and Ishmael, Ephraim and Menasseh) that pose particular challenges to parents. Rabbi Cohen suggests that the family problematic of the Genesis stories is designed to serve less as a model to imitate than as a stimulant to self-knowledge.
Collins, John J., et al, eds. Families in Ancient Israel. Louisville, Ky: Westminster, 1997. 272 p. $20.00
Based on a review in CrossCurrents magazine, by David Blumenthal: This scholarly study draws from archaeology and the biblical record to reconstruct family life in ancient Israel from the Iron Age to the 1st century CE. The five essays in sequence, by John Collins, Carol Meyers, Joseph Blenkinsop, and Leo Perdue, suggest that intensifications of patriarchy over time paralleled the evolution of the ancient Israelite state. Children figure as both family members and as metaphors for the whole of the people Israel.
Deen, Edith. Family Living in the Bible. New York: Harper and Row, 1963. 274 p. Out of print.
Deen, who is best known for her book, All the Women of the Bible, here assembles a treasure-trove of Bible verses on family, and comments briefly on each. Topically arranged, the sections most relevant are on "Children in the Home," "Problems between Parents and Children," and "Discipline in the Home." Specific childhoods discussed include those of Ishmael and Isaac, Joseph, Moses, Jesus and Jephthah's daughter. Though the tone of the book is dated and largely uncritical, the material presented provides seeds for reflection.
Felder, Cain Hope. Troubling Biblical Waters: Race, Class and Family. Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis, 1989. 233 p. $19.00
This far-ranging look at the implications of Bible stories and teachings for African Americans today includes a chapter on the family. Both Old and New Testament models of family life are critically examined, with special attention to issues of patriarchy, blood kinship, and parent-child relationships. Biblical patterns are sifted for what can be helpfully applied to family life today.
Greven, Philip J. Spare the Child: The Religious Roots of Punishment and the Psychological Impact of Physical Abuse. New York: Knopf, 1992. 284 p. $19.00
The author, who at the time of writing taught at Rutgers University, identifies as an adult raised by Methodist parents who practiced physical punishment as a means of discipline. The book includes stories of physical punishment, analysis of biblical justifications for it, and discussion of consequences in later life, such as predisposition to anger, depression, and paranoia. Even such social phenomena as apocalypticism can be interpreted, according to the author, in terms of punishment-needs held over from abused childhoods.
Jacobs-Malina, Diane. Beyond Patriarchy: The Images of Family in Jesus. New York: Paulist Press, 1993. 208 p. $13.95
Annotation based on a review by T. R. Hobbs published in Biblical Theology Bulletin: The author discerns a dichotomy in the ancient world between the public realm of men and the domestic realm of women. While Greco-Roman culture favored the public over the private, Jesus can be seen as identifying with the domestic and private roles of wives and mothers. The final chapter analyzes the role of children in Jesus' re-evaluation of family life, with special reference to Matt 18:3 ("Unless you become like children…")
Moxnes, Halvor, ed. Constructing Early Christian Families: Family as Social Reality and Metaphor. Routledge, 1997. 267 p. $27.95
The editor of this collection of scholarly essays, who teaches New Testament at the University of Oslo, notes that ancient languages had no word for our modern idea of family, but employed instead such concepts as kinship, household, and marriage. The essays explore the relationship between the social reality of family life for early Christians, and the metaphor of family as an ideal for church community. Several essays address the tension between the Roman emphasis, in both social life and metaphor, on father-son relationships, and contrasting ideals of egalitarianism within the early church.
Newman, Jay. Biblical Religion and Family Values: A Problem in Philosophy of Culture. London: Prager, 2001. 342 p. $99.95.
This scholarly study, motivated by unclarity in popular culture over "family values" and the presumed biblical support for them, examines what we can learn from Old Testament narrative, law, and prophecy, and from New Testament story and teaching, about family life in biblical times, and, ideally, today. By subjecting biblical views on family to challenge from alternative philosophical and anthropological perspectives, the author draws attention to a fundamental "strangeness" (for us) in them. His hope is to position us to have informed opinions on ways biblical views influence contemporary values.
Osiek, Carolyn and David Blach. Families in the New Testament World: Households and House Churches. Philadelphia: Westminster, 1997. 329 p. $25.00
Two New Testament scholars explore issues of gender, marriage, education, and home life within the Greco-Roman context of the early Christian communities. Though "Paul seldom alludes to children" (p. 156), the authors uncover what the New Testament, supplemented by archeological finds, can teach about the children of the early Christians. The most relevant chapter, on education, presents the views on child-rearing of such early Christian fathers as Clement of Rome, and Clement of Alexandria.
Rosenblatt, Naomi H. and Joshua Horwitz. Wrestling with Angels: What the First Families of Genesis Teach us about Our Spiritual Identity, Sexuality, and Personal Relationships. New York: Delacorte Pr, 1995. 388 p. $13.95
The authors, both of whom are Jewish, bring insights from psychotherapy to the Genesis stories of the patriarchs and matriarchs. Noting the teaching function of psychological pain, they suggest that the Bible can serve as much to challenge, as to support, the cultural expectations of today's world. Naomi Rosenblatt is a therapist and Bible-study leader, and Joshua Horwitz is one of her students.
Sheek, C. William. The Word on Families. Nashville: Abingdon, 1985. 156 p. Out of print
Structured around the hypothetical narrative of an impending divorce, this book explores the stress points on family life as parents move through various stages of rearing children (child-bearing, school age, adolescence, "launching,"). The Bible provides context for the advice given at each stage. At the time of writing, the author was executive director of the National Academy for Families.
Steinberg, Naomi. Kinship and Marriage in Genesis: A Household Economics Perspective. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1993. 162 p. Out of print.
Prof. Steinberg, who at the time of writing was Associate Professor of Religious Studies at DePaul University, in Chicago, employs methods from social anthropology and literary criticism to analyze issues of inheritance, lineage, and marriage in the book of Genesis. Children figure centrally in biblical lines of descent, which are complicated by the mixed practices of monogamy and polygamy. The book is structured around the biblical accounts of descent through Sarah and Hagar; Rebecca; and Rachel and Leah.
Steinmetz, Devora. From Father to Son: Kinship, Conflict, and Continuity in Genesis. Louisville, Ky: Westminster, 1991. 214 p. $24.95.
It is perhaps not accidental that most of the stories of troubled families in this year's spiritual growth study come from the book of Genesis. As Devora Steinmetz notes, family members in those stories typically remain in tense relations together, or else part from each other, posing dangers to the continuity of the family line. The author's thesis is that kinship symbolizes an ideal of cultural continuity for a people (the early Israelites) whose ongoing existence was under continuous threat. Freudian analysis enriches this study by a scholar who formerly taught at Jewish Theological Seminary.