Colombo, US Embassy. “Interreligious Symposium on Community Resilience.” (2019).
In one of the articles in this source, “The Role of Religious Leaders in Disastrous Events,” the Dean of the Faculty of Buddhist Studies at the Buddhist and Pali University of Sri Lanka, Prof. Samantha Ilangakoon, examines religious leaders’ roles in disasters. The report highlights religious personalities’ positive impact on society in seven categories. It shows that religious explanations for calamities are still crucial in everyday life despite modern expectations for rational responses. Religious teachings emphasize ‘otherness’ and protecting and respecting others. According to the author, religious leaders should be social healers and mediators to solve life and afterlife problems. I believe that Ilangakoon’s study on religious leaders’ participation in catastrophe recovery aligns with the idea of community resilience. Ethics of protecting and honoring others correlate with Deuteronomy’s values of communal well-being. This source supports the premise that compassionate and altruistic religious teachings can help communities rebuild after a tragedy. It raises the possibility that religious concepts and Deuteronomy can promote resilience and societal repair, which will be important for my topic.
Krause, Joachim J. “The Constellation of Agents: An Often Overlooked Aspect in the Comparison of Deuteronomy and Ancient Near Eastern Treaties.” Religions 14,no. 3 (2023): 339.
The author of this article, Joachim J. Krause, works at Ruhr-University Bochum’s Evangelisch-Theologische Fakultät. He explores the structural similarities between Deuteronomy and ancient Near Eastern treaties, expanding on George Mendenhall and Klaus Baltzer’s work. Deuteronomy 13* and 28* may be a Hebrew rendition of the Neo-Assyrian Succession Treaties of Esarhaddon, but Krause emphasizes nuanced models to comprehend its uniformity. The article illuminates Deuteronomy’s literary origins in the ancient Near Eastern treaty tradition. Krause highlights a key difference, which is the agent constellation. Ancient treaties involved gods as witnesses and sanctioners, but Deuteronomy does not. As Krause argues, this often-overlooked aspect has profound implications for understanding Deuteronomy’s curses and the treaty-style structure as a whole, prompting theological and literary reflection on this divergence and emphasizing the importance of comparing similarities and differences, which can offer insight into the teachings of Deuteronomy that can be valuable for communities.
Manik, Eppi, and Pantjar Simatupang. “A Holistic Community Empowerment to Increase the Youth Generation Resilience of the Social Conflict Potential in Todokuiha Village, North Halmahera Regency.” ENDLESS: INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF FUTURE STUDIES 6, no. 1 (2023): 36-45.
Eppi Manik from Halmahera University, Indonesia, and Pantjar Simatupang from Universitas Kristen Indonesia, Jakarta, wrote “A Holistic Community Empowerment to Increase the Youth Generation Resilience of the Social Conflict Potential in Todokuiha Village, North Halmahera Regency,” about the persistent social conflict potential in the village more than 20 years after the horizontal conflict in Malu. Hibualamo indigenous culture and family economics are used in community empowerment, especially for youth. Todokuiha teaches Hibualamo harmony through the Children’s Forum and Savings and Loans Association for Children’s Needs with Wahana Visi Indonesia’s support since 2006. Data collection and qualitative descriptive analysis were done in September–October 2022 using observation, in-depth interviews, and a literature review. The results show that the Children’s Forum and SLACN are important for children’s education, character development, and family economic assistance. The Children’s Forum members emphasize the importance of Hibualamo cultural values in character building, which increases resilience to societal challenges. The paper emphasizes holistic community empowerment, drawing from local culture and family-oriented techniques, to build youth resilience to social conflict. The research is important for my topic because it follows Deuteronomy 6:6-9, which emphasizes continual family instruction and attention to children, reflecting the socioeconomic and cultural effects of education and character formation even in crises.
Orr, Z., Erblich, T., Unger, S., Barnea, O., Weinstein, M., & Agnon, A. (2021). Earthquake preparedness among religious minority groups: the case of the Jewish ultra-Orthodox society in Israel. Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences, 21(1), 317-337.
Zvika Orr and his co-authors are professionals in research about disaster management. In this source, they research earthquake preparedness in Israel’s Jewish ultra-Orthodox community, a significant religious minority with particular social, cultural, and economic characteristics. The study follows from the bible, including verses such as Deuteronomy 4:15. The research uses surveys, in-depth interviews, and focus groups. Even though the community has experienced disastrous earthquakes, the data show low hazard understanding and significant skepticism about their occurrence. The study notes that strong social capital improves preparation, but restricted media exposure, educational institution insularity, and distrust of governmental authority hinder it. This study examines a religious group, a cultural minority, requiring special earthquake preparations. Support from religious leaders, dissemination of preparation recommendations in appropriate venues, collaboration with recognized civilian groups, and customizing technologies and information to religious standards are recommended. The findings emphasize the need to acknowledge and address religious minority emergency management challenges. The study’s emphasis on social capital and religious leaders in increasing preparedness supports the premise that community engagement and cultural sensitivity are crucial to disaster planning. The guidelines, especially about religiously suitable technologies and information, emphasize the necessity for individualized catastrophe preparedness, inspired by readings from Deuteronomy. This shows that a one-size-fits-all approach may not work for religious minority groups in crises but instead provides significant insights for leaders and communities.
Richter, Sandra L. “The Question of Provenance and the Economics of Deuteronomy: The Neo-Babylonian and Persian Periods.” The catholic biblical quarterly 82, no. 4 (2020): 547-566.
Sandra L. Richter Is affiliated with Westmont College. She examines Deuteronomy’s provenance from an economic perspective. This work is part of an economic project on the issue. Richter examines the Neo-Babylonian (604-539 BCE) and Persian economics of the southern Levant and compares them to Deuteronomy (Deut 4:44-27:26). The study focuses on currency difficulties. The author previously suggested that Deuteronomy’s economic realities contradict Neo-Assyrian conventions, indicating an earlier period. Some suggest an exilic, postexilic, or late Persian setting. Richter compares Deuteronomy’s postexilic economy to Neo-Babylonian and Persian economies to better understand its social background. This study is insightful for me because it critically analyzes Deuteronomy’s economic features concerning historical periods, offering light on its provenance issue of community resilience after a crisis.
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