OBSA Library

Books and articles written by biblical scholars from Oceania are listed here.

Jione Havea, Elusions of Control: Biblical Laws on the Words of Women. Atlanta: SBL, 2003.

Pivoting on Numbers 30, Havea explores the nature of vows involving women in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, and demonstrates an alternative way of reading biblical law by drawing on the transoceanic leanings of South Pacific islanders. Click here to order: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/9004126961/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_1/175-4789214-7151914?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_r=17ZTM3F56PWRE37VHNB7&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_p=1278548962&pf_rd_i=1589830334

Jione Havea and Clive Pearson (eds.), Out of Place: Doing Theology on the Crosscultural Brink. London: Equinox, 2010.

Out of Place looks at the ways in which theology, as a discipline and a practice, is 'out of place' at several locations: churches, nations, communities, disciplines, institutions, and in public space. It contains several reflections on what it means to be out of place in both theory and in reality, from views and realities that are out of place from the dominant theological stream. Together the contributions in this volume aim to show that for theology to transform and be transformative, it must come out of place and attend to peoples and cultures (understood broadly) that have thus far been out of place. The contributions in this book uphold the key convictions that theologies are shaped by place and they are unavoidably contextual so that no theology can encompass all places and contexts. Therefore it is necessary for our spatially-defined theologies to cross, intersect and interweave and thus seek to embrace 'places' that have not been acknowledged or expressed. To order, click here: http://www.amazon.com/Out-Place-Theology-Crosscultural-Theologies/dp/1845533895/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1320615153&sr=8-2

Jione Havea, "Lazarus Troubles," in Hornsby, Teresa J., and Ken Stone (eds.), Bible Troubles: Queer Reading at the Boundaries of Biblical Scholarship. Atlanta: SBL, 2011.

The essays in Bible Trouble all engage queer theories for purposes of biblical interpretation, a rare effort to date within biblical scholarship. The title phrase “Bible Trouble” plays on Judith Butler's Gender Trouble, gesturing toward a primary text for contemporary queer theory. The essays consider, among others, the Lazarus story, the Ethiopian eunuch, “gender trouble” in Judges 4 and 5, the Song of Songs, and an unorthodox coupling of the books of Samuel and the film Paris Is Burning. This volume “troubles” not only the boundaries between biblical scholarship and queer theory but also the boundaries between different frameworks currently used in the analysis of biblical literature, including sexuality, gender, race, class, history, and literature. The contributors are Ellen T. Armour, Michael Joseph Brown, Sean D. Burke, Heidi Epstein, Deryn Guest, Jione Havea, Teresa J. Hornsby, Lynn R. Huber, S. Tamar Kamionkowski, Joseph A. Marchal, Jeremy Punt, Erin Runions, Ken Stone, Gillian Townsley, Jay Twomey, and Manuel Villalobos.

Nasili Vaka'uta, Reading Ezra 9-10 Tu'a-wise: Rethinking Biblical Interpretation in Oceania. Atlanta: SBL, 2011.

Reading tu’a-wise (Tongan lau faka-tu’a) is an attempt to interpret the Bible through the "eye-/I-s" of a Tongan commoner (tu’a). Lau faka-tu’a emphasizes contextualizing the task of biblical interpretation rather than contextualizing the Bible per se. Contextualizing interpretation uses contextual or specifically indigenous categories of analysis, while contextualizing the Bible applies the insights from one’s reading to one’s situation. Lau faka-tu’a offers "an-other," uniquely Oceanic, way of reading. The volume engages critically with existing literature on contextual biblical interpretation and existing interpretations of the chosen text, Ezra 9–10, and aims at making biblical interpretation practice-based, nonelitist, noncontinental, transparent, and accountable. Click here to order: https://secure.aidcvt.com/sbl/ProdDetails.asp?ID=063803P&PG=1&Type=BL&PCS=SBL

Siotame Havea, Jesus: Beyond Reasonable Doubt: Legal Perspectives of Redemption. Bloomington: Xlibris, 2011.

Jesus: Beyond Reasonable Doubt: Legal Perspectives of Redemption is an attempt to look into the rule of law to provide reasons as to why Jesus ought to be regarded as the only Saviour of the world. This book unravels the divine connection between the law and the redemptive act of God. Every single step of God’s redemptive act was formulated to satisfy the requirements of the law. God’s love is a holy love. Thus, the loving act of God cannot be shown outside God’s legal framework. That is, the divine love of God is a legal act and it cannot be done outside the law that is based on holiness. After discussing the rule of law in the process of God’s Redemptive act, we will be able to see why nobody else can be the Saviour of the world beside Jesus Christ. Jesus states: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father accept through me” (John 14:6). Click here to order: http://www2.xlibris.com/Bookstore/bookdisplay.aspx?bookid=104503

Ma'afu Palu, Jesus and Time: An Interpretation of Mark 1.15. London: T&T Clark, 2012.

This work offers an examination of Jesus’ conception of time on the basis of Mark 1.15. Palu contends that the background which makes Mark 1.15 most intelligible is God’s covenant with day and night which is established in the act of creation, specified in prophetic eschatology, and developed in Second Temple literature; it is God’s commitment to give day and night in their appointed time, promising the restoration of Israel under David’s offspring. On the basis of recent developments in scholarly literature concerning the Greek verbal aspect, this study argues that the perfect verbs in Mark 1.15 denote an ongoing dynamic of time fulfilment, closely tied to the ultimate restoration of Israel. This begins with the appearance of Jesus during the days of John the Baptist and is mapped onto two phases of the horizon of Jesus’ view of time. Palu concludes that the biblical notion of time is to be tied intimately to the hope of the restoration of Israel, ultimately manifested as the establishment of the Kingdom of God. To order, visit http://www.continuumbooks.com/books/detail.aspx?BookId=167704&SntUrl=149450&SubjectId=901&Subject2Id=1008

more to come...