The Sabbath as an Interpretative Lens for Ecological Biblical Hermeneutics

Date of Award

12-1-2023

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy in Theology

First Advisor

Ma. Marical S. Ibita, PhD, SThD

Abstract

In the midst of a worsening climate emergency, it is crucial to both search for practical solutions and for a change of ethos that influences individual and collective human behavior. In response, bible scholars turned to the Bible and reflected on the understanding of human relationship with nature/creation in the Biblical text, thus giving rise to a subfield called ecological biblical hermeneutics. In this subfield, biblical scholars seeks to reinterpret or re-vision the Bible from the perspective of or with a greater sensitivity to nature/the non-human creation. This more systematic biblical hermeneutical insight in contemporary times was first developed by the Earth Bible Project (Habel et al.) and later built on by colleagues from other theological disciplines, especially with implications to systematic theology (Conradie) and ethics (Horrell, et al., Marlow). This dissertation project furthers the conversation in contemporary ecological biblical hermeneutics as it contributes to the growth of readings of re-vision (Horrell) by identifying an interpretative lens, in this case, the Sabbath from a Jewish-Christian lens. Given the potential of the biblical Sabbath and the need for the identification of interpretative lens, this study, therefore asks, how can the biblical Sabbath be developed and used as an interpretative lens in an ecological reading of biblical texts?

In order to identify an interpretative lens based on the biblical Sabbath, this project analyzed the various Sabbath texts using literary (narrative) and contextual approaches (modified ecological triangle, Marlow; Ibita). The close reading of Sabbath texts using these approaches identified seven models of the dynamics of relationships among the divine, humans, and non-humans. This investigation of the Sabbath as a possible interpretative lens likewise discerned, grounded, compared and integrated the resulting insights with what the Christian-Catholic tradition say about the seventh-day of creation. This study on the Sabbath as a proposed interpretative lens shows that the Sabbath is composed of dimensions where humans and non-humans both exist to benefit each other and work together to ensure that God’s gift of restful existence may be enjoyed by all. Finally, as a test case, the story of the disciples plucking grain on the Sabbath Mark 2:23-28 was reread from an ecological perspective using the Sabbath as an interpretative lens on how the insights of this dissertation can be employed in the Christian-Catholic tradition.

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