Description
Table of Contents
While the best-selling books in the LaHaye and Jenkins Left Behind series are fictional, they are based onand promotea particular understanding of end times events that flow from the authors' theological context and approach to biblical interpretation. Here, Flesher describes and challenges the authors':
• Theological framework
• Interpretative practices
• Socio-political ideologies
• End times scenario
Flesher outlines how to read the Bible and exposes the use and abuse of Scripture to support the peculiar doctrines of "Rapture" and "Tribulation." Demonstrating how theological preconceptions guide the use of Bible texts, she explodes the myth of "literal interpretation" and highlights the importance of understanding history, context and literary genre. Flesher continues with a presentation of alternative readings of Daniel, Revelation, and other key Scriptures. Celebrating these texts as "resistance literature," designed to help Christians keep the faith in a hostile world, Flesher offers practical guidelines for appropriating their message in a post modern world.
Ideal for preachers and church educators, as well as for interested laypersons, Left Behind?: The Facts Behind the Fiction includes a glossary of terms and recommendations for further reading.
Ethics Daily has interviewed the author and written a review about Left Behind? The Facts Behind the Fiction. To read it, click here.
Reviews
"A thought-provoking critique of a popular series, Flesher's work will undoubtedly encourage discussion." —Foreword Magazine, November/December 2006
"Left Behind? The Facts Behind the Fiction is a long overdue work that brings relief and help to parish ministries which need a helpful tool to present facts to the fiction that many in the pew believe about the end." —Dr. J. Alfred Smith, Sr., Distinguished Senior Professor of Preaching and Church Ministries, The American Baptist Seminary of the West and The Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, CA
"The 'Battle for the Bible' continues, largely in a context where fear feeds ignorance. Flesher presents a careful, well-informed comment on dispensationalism in general and "left behind" eschatology in particular. Flesher shows the way in which Scripture is distorted to serve a political ideology that is grounded in fear. Her book is an accessible invitation to find out what the real scoop of the matter is. There is much to unlearn, and Flesher contributes to that task." —Walter Brueggemann, Columbia Theological Seminary
Author Bio
LeAnn Snow Flesher, Ph.D., is an ordained minister with the American Baptist Churches, USA and a Professor of Old Testament Studies at the American Baptist Seminary of the West (a member school of the Graduate Theological Union) in Berkeley, California. She has published several articles on the Lament Psalms, Lamentations and the biblical book of Job in the Living Pulpit: Dedicated to the Art of the Sermon, Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology and The IVP Women's Bible Commentary. Dr. Flesher completed her BA at the University of Minnesota, her M.Div. at Bethel Theological Seminary, and her Ph.D. at Drew University in Madison, New Jersey.