New from SBL: Lamentations and Social Sciences

Two more new titles from SBL:

Lamentations in Ancient and Contemporary Cultural Contexts
Nancy C. Lee and Carleen Mandolfo, editors
Personal tragedy and communal catastrophe up to the present day are universal human experiences that call forth lament. Lament singers—from the most ancient civilizations to traditional oral poets to the biblical psalmists and poets of Lamentations to popular singers across the globe—have always raised the cry of human suffering, giving voice to the voiceless, illuminating injustice, or pleading for divine help. This volume gathers an international collection of essays on biblical lament and Lamentations, illuminating their genres, artistry, purposes, and significant place in the history and theologies of ancient Israel. It also explores lament across cultures, both those influenced by biblical traditions and those not, as the practices of composition, performance, and interpretation of life’s suffering continue to shed light on our knowledge of biblical lament.

Paper $34.95 — ISBN 9781589833579 — 288 pages — Symposium Series 43 — Hardback edition www.brill.nl

The Social Sciences and Biblical Translation
Dietmar Neufeld, editor
The Bible is an ancient book, written in a language other than English, describing social and cultural situations incongruent with modern sensibilities. To help readers bridge these gaps, this work examines the translation and interpretation of a set of biblical texts from the perspectives of cultural anthropology and the social sciences. The introduction deals with methodological issues, enabling readers to recognize the differences in translation when words, sentences, and ideas are part of ancient social and cultural systems that shape meaning. The following essays demonstrate how Bible translations can be culturally sensitive, take into account the challenge of social distance, and avoid the dangers of ethnocentric and theological myopia. As a whole, this work shows the importance of making use of the insights of cultural anthropology in an age of ever-increasing manipulation of the biblical text.

$24.95 — ISBN 9781589833470 — 200 pages — Symposium Series 41 — Hardback edition www.brill.nl