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Frederick Houk Borsch is Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles. He formerly taught at Princeton University where he was Dean of the Chapel and at the Church Divinity School of the Pacific where he was also Dean and President.

A study of how the spiritual life of persons is formed by the liturgy the ordered form of Christian worship, East and West, Catholic and Protestant.

Much is being written about the church, Mary Sawyer says, but established theologians and sociologists of religion typically limit their inquiries to white, establishment Christianity. Yet this is only one segment of the church. And so they miss writing about Christian community at all-for Christian community is lived community.The attention paid to white churches is uninformative and even misleading insofar as African Americans, Latina/os, Native Americans, and Asian Americans are concerned. Their experiences, in the world and in the church, are markedly different and cannot be generalized from the white population. Moreover, examining the church on the margins offers valuable insights for all churches looking to build living Christian community.This book explains expressions of the Christian religion that have survived, or are struggling to survive, the distortions caused by ignoring the church on the margins. In traditional church circles, community may refer to a gathering for food and fellowship, a Bible study class or adult forum, or charity and service to the needy. Community as lived by these Christians on the margin, however, is a group of people coming together intentionally to live the gospel values of inclusiveness, justice, and caring in order to create a transformed world.Mary R. Sawyer is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, where she also teaches in African American studies. She is the author of Black Ecumenism: Implementing the Demands of Justice and co-editor of People''s Temple and Black Religion in America.

One of the key questions that motivates scholars in New Testament studies is the Synoptic Problem-the relationship between Matthew, Mark, and Luke as they tell roughly the same story about the life and work of Jesus. For years, scholars have argued that the Gospel of Mark was the first Gospel produced, and that Matthew and Luke borrowed their materials from Mark, and a few additional sources. In Beyond the Impasse of Markan Priority, a follow-up to their Beyond the Q Impasse, David Peabody and his co-authors offer a dissenting voice, and demonstrate why they believe the Gospel of Mark is dependent on Matthew and Luke. While this argument is not a new one, this book provides the first detailed textual analysis to make the point definitively. Pericope by pericope, the authors examine and retell the story or teachings contained therein to highlight the dependence of Markan features on those of Matthew or Luke or both. This retelling is followed by observations that highlight structural, compositional, and thematic features of the pericope. The analysis concludes with a focus on literary details such as Markan additions to the texts of Matthew and Luke, Markan changes to the texts of Matthew and Luke, and evidence of fragmentary preservation of Matthew and Luke in the Markan text.David B. Peabody is Professor of Religious Studies at Nebraska Wesleyan University, Lincoln. Lamar Cope is Professor of Religious Studies and Chair of the Department of Religious Studies at Carroll College, Waukesha, Wisconsin. Allan J. McNicol is Professor of New Testament at the Institute of Christian Studies in Austin, Texas.

In this engaging collection of essays conservative and liberal theologians and scholars engage each other in a dialogue about the place of faith, the nature of history, the character of literary texts, and the purpose of theology. While some essays focus on the historical context of Jesus'' life and work, others focus on the ways in which the later Christian church established belief in the life and work of Jesus as a proof of faith. Included here are voices that question the value and meaning of Christology in a post-Holocaust world, voices that converse about Jewish and Islamic understandings of Jesus, and others that "save Jesus from those who are right." These moving essays offer a survey of the best in historical Jesus scholarship and contemporary Christology.Contributors to the volume include: James M. Robinson (Claremont Graduate University); Colin Brown (Fuller Theological Seminary); N. T. Wright (Westminster Abbey); John Dominic Crossan (Emeritus, DePaul University); Robert Funk (Jesus Seminar, Westar Institute); Jonathan Reed (University of LaVerne); John Hick (University of Birmingham); Charles Hughes (Chapman University); Richard Swinburne (Oxford University); Karen Torjesen (Claremont Graduate University); Ronald Farmer (Chapman University); Carter Heyward (Episcopal Divinity School); Didier Pollefeyt Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium); David Sperling (New York University); F. E. Peters (New York University); and Lloyd Geering (Victoria University, New Zealand).Marvin Meyer is Professor of Religious Studies at Chapman College and is the author of The Gospel of Thomas: The Hidden Sayings of Jesus, The Unknown Sayings of Jesus and other books. Charles Hughes is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Chapman College and is the author of studies on philosophy of religion and theology. For: General audiences; undergraduates; graduate students; professors

This provocative book pursues a series of questions associated with canon(s) of the Bible. How does the canon influence the meaning of the texts of which it is composed? Could texts be "liberated" from the canon, and what would this liberation do to them or to the canon? What does the biblical canon signify about its constituent texts? What does canonical status imply about texts that are included in the Bible, as well as texts that are excluded from it? How does a canon-a cultural and ideological product-influence or create ideology and culture? In The Control of Biblical Meaning, George Aichele draws deeply on the insights of postructuralist literary theory as he pursues these questions. He also engages in close readings of specific biblical and nonbiblical texts to demonstrate ways that canon controls the meanings of its texts. With dazzling skill, Aichele interrogates the form and function of canon as a mechanism that both reveals and conceals texts from its readers.George Aichele teaches at Adrian College in Adrian, Michigan. He is the author of Sign, Text, Scripture: Semiotics and the Bible and Jesus Framed and is a contributor to The Postmodern Bible.For: Advanced undergraduates; graduate students; biblical scholars; course text

This is the second volume of a two-volume set of essays devoted to the interpretation of the Hebrew Bible. The essays take as their foundation the exegetical methodology developed by Rolf P. Knierim at the Institute for Antiquity and Christianity in Claremont, California.The exegetical foundations of Knierim''s methodology pay special attention to the literary forms and conceptual underpinnings of biblical texts. The result is an interpretive method that combines a close reading of biblical texts with contextual criticism to understand the theological perspective from which the biblical texts were written.The sixteen essays in this volume apply the method outlined in volume one to several biblical texts ranging from Joshua 1-12 and its "theology of extermination" to Leviticus 15 and its contrasting conceptual associations about women. The contributors hope that their exegetical work and theoretical reflection will continue to guide the course of Hebrew Bible studies in the twenty-first century.Editors: Wonil Kim is Assistant Professor of Old Testament Studies at La Sierra University. Deborah Ellens is an independent scholar. Michael Floyd is Professor of Old Testament at the Episcopal Seminary of the Southwest. Marvin A. Sweeney is Professor of Hebrew Bible at Claremont School of Theology and Professor of Religion at Claremont Graduate University.

Donn Morgan explores the role of biblical sages and looks at their leadership and wisdom in a time of chaos, while asking where we can find such people today.

Over the past two hundred years, several scholars have concluded that Jesus was a Cynic, a magician, a witch, a wise teacher, and a Jewish apocalyptic prophet. These papers, collected from two conferences at Creighton University, draw on some of the best contemporary scholarship in historical Jesus studies. Catholic scholars Luke Timothy Johnson, Daniel Harrington, and Monika Hellwig provide overviews of the history of the search for the historical Jesus. Jewish scholars Alan Segal, Amy-Jill Levine, and Adele Reinhartz explore the significance of Jesus for Judaism and for contemporary culture. With clear insight, the essays point out the ways that historical Jesus scholarship can be applied to everyday issues. The essays offer a unique perspective on the historical Jesus that provides a view contrary to many other contemporary books on Jesus.Contributors include: Bernard Brandon Scott (University of Tulsa); Luke Timothy Johnson (Emory University); Daniel Harrington (Weston School of Theology); Monika Hellwig (Georgetown University); Michael Cook (Hebrew Union College--Jewish Institute of Religion); Amy-Jill Levine (Vanderbilt University Divinity School); Adele Reinhartz (McMaster University); Alan Segal (Barnard College); and Jonathan Brumberg-Kraus (Wheaton College).Bryan F. Le Beau is the John C. Kenefick Faculty Chair in the Humanities at Creighton University. Leonard Greenspoon holds the Philip and Ethel Klutznick Chair in Jewish Civilization and is Chair of the Department of Classical and Near Eastern Studies at Creighton University. Dennis Hamm, S.J., is Professor of Theology at Creighton University.

This most recent addition to the popular Trinity New Testament in Context (NTC) commentary series, edited by J. Andrew Overman and Howard Clark Kee, focuses on the apostle Paul''s refusal to match strength for strength with his detractors. Instead, Paul stresses that authentic Christian ministry is characterized by weakness and suffering, specifically the weakness and paradigmatic sufferings endured by the crucified Jesus.While not a rhetorical analysis of 2 Corinthians, this book nevertheless attends to Paul''s rhetorical skills in resolving the Corinthian controversies. It attempts to show that Paul''s theological formulations are best understood as products of rhetorical responses to controversial issues of authority and social location. The preponderance of disputed arguments and narratives in 2 Corinthians renders this letter highly unusual in the Pauline corpus and one of the most challenging for the biblical detective to unravel. Sze-kar Wan, therefore, has written a commentary that helps readers look closely at the texts relevant to the problem of dislocation, providing directional pointers that enable readers, on their own, to develop these pointers to their logical conclusions.Sze-kar Wan is Associate Professor of New Testament at Andover Newton Theological School in Newton Centre, Massachussets.For: Clergy; college, university, and seminary students; scholars; general readers

The current controversy over the historical Jesus and his significance for both scholarship and religious belief continues to rage inside and outside the academy. In this volume, three distinguished New Testament scholars debate the historical, textual, and theological problems at the core of the controversy.John Dominic Crossan offers a theological defense of the historical reconstruction of Jesus, arguing that if Christian faith is not founded on the historical Jesus, it will fall into Docetism. Luke Timothy Johnson counters this thesis, arguing that the biblical Christ and his presence in the life of believers is the proper focus of Christian faith. Werner Kelber takes issue with both views. Placing them in the broader context and history of Christian hermeneutics, he seeks to overcome the alternatives that govern the controversy.John Dominic Crossan is Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies at De Paul University.Luke Timothy Johnson is Robert W. Woodruff Professor of New Testament and Christian Origins at Emory University.Werner H. Kelber is Turner Professor of Biblical Studies at Rice University.

The church in our post-Christendom era needs different models for conceptualizing its own identity and its relationship to the rest of society. Philip Kenneson sets forth a model that suggests that the church''s role in contemporary society is to serve as a "contrast-society." In this model, the church is animated by a different spirit than that which animates "the world." Moreover, the "contrast-society" model has tremendous missional promise in that its embodied life in the world is its witness to the world.Kenneson acknowledges that this model is sometimes rejected by both Christians and non-Christians because it appears to be too "sectarian." He therefore asks, What are we claiming about a particular group when we call it sectarian? He argues that critics who regard a "contrast-society" church as sectarian often operate with untenable understandings of rationality, culture, politics, religion, and critique.In a concluding chapter, Kenneson offers reflections on how moving "beyond sectarianism" allows us to see afresh some of the missional promise of the church-as-contrast-society model.Philip D. Kenneson is Assistant Professor of Theology and Philosophy at Milligan College and author of Selling Out the Church: The Dangers of Church Marketing.

Jane Collier and Raphael Esteban present a thoughtful and disturbing critique of Western culture. They see the West as obsessed by the "culture of economism"--a pervasive and often oppressive culture in which economic causes or factors become the main source of cultural meanings and values. Such economism, they point out, perpetrates inequality, injustice, divisions among people (especially rich and poor), and a host of other evils throughout the world.The culture of economism touches all of us and is, in fact, manifest also in the organizational culture of the church. In many respects, the church has allied itself with the culture of economism (complicity), participating in a shared history of conquest and oppression. But recent paradigm shifts at the organizational level in both the church (spawned by awareness that the Spirit works in all places and in all cultures) and economism (spawned by the awareness of the basic failure of economism and its institutions to produce human happiness and of its power to demolish so much that is good in the world) present a window of opportunity for mission.Collier and Esteban believe that mission within and to the "culture of economism" needs to be a mission of encounter in which each challenges the other to conversion. Such conversion does not necessarily imply the abandonment of power, but the abandonment of its misuses and the commitment to the pursuit of the good. At that point there is "no longer master and slave, Gentile and Jew, male and female, but all are one in Christ Jesus."Jane Collier is an economist and theologian who lectures in Management Studies at the University of Cambridge. Raphael Esteban, M.Afr., is a theologian and missiologist who lectures at the Missionary Institute, London, on the social and economic context of mission.