Isaiah saw a vision of YHWH enthroned in glory and he was commissioned with an unusual task for a prophet – that is to harden the hearts of the people. Judgement had been passed on Israel and Isaiah was charged with communicating the verdict to the people in a manner that would ensure they would not repent. After examining the various scholarly proposals for the hardening motif in Isaiah 6, I will offer my own proposal that the commission to harden the hearts is as a direct result of the idolatry of the people. I will go on to describe how the hardening motif functions in this passage and in the rest of Isaiah.
How long is a novel?
I’ve posted the suggested word count limits for different types of writing and I’ve included some examples under each type. I’ve mainly written this post as a reference for myself, but I hope that you will find it useful too.
On Speculative Fiction: What constitutes speculative fiction?
On Speculative Fiction: What constitutes speculative fiction?
This post is taken from a chapter of a short book called “On Speculative Fiction” that I am working on. If you would like to know when the book has been published and receive a free copy of the eBook, please sign up here:
With reference to a biblical text of your choosing, critically assess the role of genre in biblical interpretation.
Different types of literature can be categorised by their form, style or content. This is known as genre. The meaning of the text is embedded within the genre. The Bible contains literature from a number of genres. After providing a description of genre, I will assess its role in biblical interpretation using a pericope from Mark’s Gospel to demonstrate how genre impacts reading and meaning. I will conclude with describing the effect that genre has on teaching from this text.
Evaluate N.T. Wright’s ‘five-act’/kingdom hermeneutical lens and use it to offer a contemporary interpretation of a biblical concept of your own choosing.
The question of how to read the Bible today is one of how we view the authority of Scripture. Can the stories in the Bible be applied to our present situation, and if they can how should we interpret them today? N.T. Wright has suggested that the Bible is a drama in five acts – Creation, Fall, Israel, Jesus and the Church. The fifth act is unfinished and it is for the reader to enter into the drama and then to complete the story.
Critical review, response and application of reading based on Fowler’s theory on stages of faith
Developmental psychologists have attempted to understand if there is a discernible universal pattern to how a person’s values and perspectives change at different stages in their life. James Fowler developed a theory of six stages in his 1981 book Stages of Faith where he describes how an individual’s faith matures as they age.
