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Polyamory and Reading the Book of Ruth is based on a simple premise- what if the Book of Ruth isn't a love story in the vein of modern rom coms, but a different sort of love story? Many people are conditioned to read romance stories as resolving into happily married, dyadic couplings, most often heterosexual. But what if that's not how to read the Book of Ruth?
This book identifies a polyamorous hermeneutic and explores how it might be helpful in interpreting the Book of Ruth. Drawing on developments in both feminist and queer biblical studies, Deborah Kahn-Harris offers a close textual reading that focuses in on a triadic basis for examining the relationships in the Book of Ruth. The book closes with a contemporary 'targumic' reimagining of the Book of Ruth that defines more clearly this polyamorous reading.
List of contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter One: The Setting
Chapter Two: Ruth 1: The Arrangement and Rearrangement of Families
Chapter Three: Who Is Naomi?
Chapter Four: Who Is Ruth?
Chapter Five: Ruth 2: Building Relationships
Chapter Six: ¿¿¿ Hesed: An Excursus
Chapter Seven: Who Is Boaz?
Chapter Eight: Ruth 3: What is Romance Really?
Chapter Nine: Ruth 4: Dyadic or Triadic: What Does Happily Ever After Actually Look Like?
Chapter Ten: The Book of Ruth: A Targum with Annotations (2022): Another Way of Telling the Story
Conclusion
Bibliography
About the Author
About the author
Deborah Kahn-Harris is Principal of Leo Baeck College in London, UK, where she also lectures in Hebrew Bible.
Summary
Polyamory and Reading the Book of Ruth establishes a polyamorous hermeneutic for reading biblical texts and applies it to the Book of Ruth. The book concludes with a contemporary ‘targumic’ rendition of the Book of Ruth, which foregrounds this polyamorous reading.
