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Hengel...here marshals a vast body of learning to illuminate brilliantly a few specific questions about the New Testament.... For anyone who has read much in contemporary European New Testament scholarship, this wise little book will come as a tonic. And for the beginning adult student of the New Testament, the book will serve as an excellent introduction to the question of historicity in early Christian writings. 'Review for Religious' The book is extremely well written and gives evidence of an astonishing command of ancient literature. 'Journal of the American Academy of Religion'

The pioneer of contextual theology concludes his trilogy on the person and message of Jesus with a profound meditation on the significance of Jesus for a post-Christian world. Probing and exploding the distortions of a religion too-long married to Western culture, Song finds Christians in the Third World who "are discovering that Jesus full of grace...is greater than the apostles and larger than Christianity". In their stories and insights, Song detects the Spirit of truth alive and well - although resisting domestication within the narrow confines of theologies that "curtail the magnitude of God's salvation" to suit their own preferences. In conversation with them and with Song, we are compelled - as was Jesus - by the Spirit to cross the frontiers of truth. After his explorations of the person of Jesus in Jesus, the Crucified People (1989) and of the message of Jesus in Jesus and the Reign of God (Fortress Press, 1993), Song here extends the picture in surprising ways. Whether in a Buddhist parable, a Rabbinic tale, a Yoruba drama, or the Tao Te Ching, Song finds the "open truth" of Jesus Christ at large in the world. In the end, for Song, the Incarnation is a more subtle, far-reaching, and earth-shattering event than one simple historical moment - or movement - can contain. As its Spirit-driven winds reach our shores, we are invited by Song on a theological journey to wherever it prompts.

This brief history of Judaism not only seeks to tell the story of Judaism (or of Judaisms) but to define it in such a way as to make it possible for the reader to grasp and make sense of Judaism, all at once, on its own terms.Professor Neusner accomplishes this task by selecting the central Jewish symbol of Torah and describing its role down through the ages. First Torah is defined--the dual Torah, oral and written--and related to Jewish identity. Then follows an account of the formation of the written Torah and the development of the Mishnah after the fall of Jerusalem in 70 CE. This leads into an account of Midrash and the composition of the Talmud.After a discussion of Torah as a symbol, chapters follow on Maimonides, the Zohar, Reform Judaism and Zionism. The book ends by pulling the threads together into a woven portrait of Judaism.Here, in concise and readable form, is the model volume for writing the history of Judaism (or of Judaisms) as well as the history of any particular religion.

Every student of the letters of Paul, the Acts of the Apostles, and the Book of Revelation will find much of value in 'New Testament Cities in Western Asia Minor'," writes W. Ward Gasque. The author investigates the status of the archaeological information which we now have about key cities of western Asia Minor during the early Roman Empire": Assos, Pergamum, Thyateira, Smyrna, Sardis, Philadelphia, Ephesus, Miletus, Didyma, Laodicea, Hierapolis, and Colossae.

This is that rare book which both informs and entertains. It is scholarly and sprightly - an unusual combination for any book, let alone one treating of the law. Lawyers and laymen alike can read it with profit and amusement. I hope many do, for it deserves a wide audience. The Honorable Arthur J. Goldberg (1908-1990), United States Supreme Court, The New York Herald Tribune A superb piece of writing, lucid, witty, meticulous in scholarship and unfailingly interesting. Robert R. Kirsch, Los Angeles Times We now have a full-scale study of our legal language that is written with an extraordinary awareness for vacuous words and phrases and an astounding amount of research into their history and usage.... This book has a practical value to every lawyer who drafts a document, a pleading, or even a letter. It is a great plea to bring the law up to date by awakening us to the empty verbalisms in which we think we are housing our thoughts.... It is a rare book that has value for all lawyers, despite the tendency of publishers and reviewers to make this claim with great frequency. Here, however, is a rarity. No lawyer could fail to learn many facts of surprising interest. But beyond this, 'The Language of the Law' presents a subtle challenge to the American Bar, a stimulus to improve our work and our profession by sharpening the product of our minds. If we meet this challenge head-on, we can perform a far more fundamental and genuine service to our clients, the public, and to ourselves than any other area of improvement, including court reform, can possibly offer. Ray D. Henson, American Bar Association Journal It should be compulsory reading for lawyers and judges; for a layman it is learning and entertainment of high order. The Honorable Matthew O. Tobriner (d. 1982), Associate Justice, Supreme Court of California, San Francisco Chronicle ...[B]rilliant and discursive treatise, concisely and urbanely presented, ...a remarkable stimulus, recommended highly to the general reader as well as the wordy professional. Hugo Sonnenschein, Jr., Chicago Daily New

The biblical image of the steward is highly provocative and even revolutionary. In recent years, environmentalists and peace marchers have been discovering the radical potential of the stewardship motif, while the church, sadly, has muffled this symbol's power in ecclesiastical wrappings.So writes Douglas John Hall in the first edition of 'The Steward' (1982). This provocative book has been so much in demand all over the world that Hall has completely rewritten, revised, and expanded his work, adding new material and deleting dated references. Yet Hall has kept his original book's basic format the same in this new and improved edition.In short, Hall aims to recapture the most basic meaning of the biblical metaphor of the 'steward' and to apply that meaning to our social context, one in which human beings are confused and ambivalent about their place and vocation in a threatened world. Working from numerous angles - biblical, historical, sociological, theological, and ecclesiastical - Hall explores the rich meaning and implications of stewardship.Scripture portrays the steward as a caretaker and servant. Hall compares scriptural teaching on stewardship - concentrated in Jesus' parables - with the role of stewardship in the church's history, maintaining that ever since the fourth century, the church's understanding and practice of stewardship have been distorted by its alliance with institutional power.Hall also puts forth apocalyptic warnings about the fate of the earth unless we heed the call to be stewards of the creation, work for world peace and justice, and nurture life in its many forms. The church around the world, says Hall, urgently needs to live as 'steward' - it is a matter of death and life.

In the decade before he became the highly controversial director of psychedelic drug research at Harvard, Timothy Leary was one of the leading clinical psychologists practicing in the U.S., heading the prestigiousKaiser Foundation Psychological Research Center in Oakland.INTERPERSONAL DIAGNOSIS OF PERSONALITY (1957), his first full-length book, summarizes the innovative experimental studies in interpersonal behavior performed by the author and his associates at the Kaiser Foundation and in private practice between 1950 and 1957.

Spirituality, according to William Stringfellow, represents the ordinary experience of partaking in politics - the activity of the Word of God in judgment over all that belongs to human history. He criticizes religiosity, advocating instead for a biblical holiness that implies wholeness for all creation. He takes a prophetic and somber view of the present dark ages, characterized as they are by hypocrisy, profligate consumption, disregard for human life, and dependence on nuclear force. Speaking from a lifetime of experience and reflection, Stringfellow issues a call to conscience and sanity, a reaffirmation of the incarnation, and belief in the grace of the Word of God who transcends the injustice of the present age and agitates the resilience of those who struggle to expose and rebuke injustice.

'Narrative Art in Genesis' was remarkable for its uncompromising insistence on the analysis of the 'final form' of the text, and for the attempt at a total description of every level of organization, from the phoneme up.... [It] is a pleasure, because of the freshness of writing that transgresses unabashedly the conventions of academic discourse. from the Foreword by Francis Landy

The fanciful novels of Charles Williams have long fascinated a rather elite reading public - T.S. Eliot, W.H. Auden, and C.S. Lewis, for example, were among his great admirers. But those books - which include ''The Place of the Lion'', ''Descent into Hell'', and ''All Hallows'' Eve'' - are also dense and perplexing, and even the writer''s fondest devotees have found the meanings of his fiction elusive. Here at last is a clear and informed guide to the complexities and rich rewards of Charles Williams'' novels.As Thomas Howard notes, Williams'' tales might best be described as metaphysical thrillers, in which Williams used occult machinery in much the same way that Conrad used exotic locales and Joyce used the subconscious: to vivify human experience and awaken readers to its range and possibilities. One tale might feature a chase for the Holy Grail across Hertfordshire fields, while in another the picture may switch with no apology at all from a policeman at a crossroad to the Byzantine Emperor. As Howard lucidly demonstrates, the controlling factor behind Williams'' work is an essentially Christian worldview in which heaven and hell seem to lurk under every bush and the constant theme is order versus disintegration.Concentrating on Williams'' novels, Howard brilliantly illuminates the major concerns that informed all of Williams'' thinking. Howard also considers Williams'' work in the context of modern fictional practice and assesses its place in the tradition of the English language novel.

This book is a thought-provoking study of some issues concerning the historic Calvinist/Arminian debate. Does God know absolutely everything that''s going to happen? Can He foresee future moral choices and actions which have not yet been made? If one''s future responses and behavior are totally foreknowable, is she truly free?Dr. Richard Rice explores these and other fascinating questions which have sometimes divided Christians. The author gives new perspective on one of the most fundamental issues of the Christian faith: the relationship of God to His creation and the reality and extent of human freedom.Carefully scrutinizing the Scriptures on this subject, the author challenges the reader to examine for himself this critical issue of theology. With strong theological background and sound biblical scholarship, Dr. Rice presents his viewpoint in a convincing and readable style.

A THEOLOGY OF LIBERATION FOR NORTH AMERICANS Much has been written about issues of oppression and liberation for Latin Americans, but little about the same struggles for middle-class North Americans who feel powerless–those, for example, experiencing problems with employment, money, marriage, and alcohol dependency. Through a close reading of the Book of Revelation, with illustrations from his pastoral experience, Ewing offers readers a Christian view of power. 

Contemporary controversies over the inspiration and authority of the Bible have left many people confused. The host of specialized studies makes it difficult for a reader to be introduced to the nature of Scripture without consulting a number of sources.

Suspect Tenderness opens with a narrative concerning the capture of Daniel Berrigan, related in his continuing friendship and pastoral relationship with Stringfellow and co-author Anthony Towne. It continues with an examination of the ethical and theological implications of the Berrigan witness, in which middle-class American piety is asked to face the fact that Jesus was a criminal. Stringfellow insists that every state feels threatened by Christ's claim to a moral authority over death, and sees the community of resistance as a community of resurrection.

The problems of moral philosophy were a central preoccupation of literate people in eighteenth-century America and Britain. It is not surprising, then, that Jonathan Edwards was drawn into a colloquy with some of the major ethicists of the age. Moral philosophy in this era was so all-encompassing in its claims that it encroached seriously on traditional religion. In response, Edwards presented a detailed analysis and criticism of secular moral philosophy in order to demonstrate its inadequacy, and he formulated a system that he believed was demonstrably superior to the existing secular systems. In this comprehensive study, Norman Fiering skillfully integrates Edwards's work on ethics into seventeenth- and eighteenth-century British and Continental philosophy and isolates Edwards's particular contributions to the ethical thought of his time. In addition, Fiering traces the chronological development of Edwards's thought, showing the relationship between his wide reading and his writing.

These essays were originally intended for presentation to Professor Erwin Ramsdell Goodenough on the occasion of his seventy-fifth birthday. Before his death, in March, 1965, he knew of our plans for this volume and was gladdened by them.... The editor hopes that these papers, many of which fruitfully utilize Goodenough''s scholarship, may contribute to the critical discussion of some problems of concern to him during his lifetime. He can conceive no higher, nor more appropriate, act of reverence for the memory of a beloved teacher and friend.From the Foreword by Jacob Neusner

Making Gospel Sense is theologian James Wm. McClendon, Jr.'s riveting story of his experiences as an interim pastor in a floundering congregation. Through twenty-six prophetic sermons, each introduced by interpretive commentary, McClendon describes his call to the church, the struggle between disparate personalities, the difficulties and rewards of moving from classroom to sanctuary, and the evolution of his congregation from seemingly hopeless decline to spirited recovery. Here is a microcosm of today's church - a tale of anxiety, dissension, self-discovery, and renewal. Essential reading for pastors, seminarians, and all those who care about the church, 'Making Gospel Sense' is at once a challenging and inspiring pilgrimage to the true meaning of ministry.

At different times and places, Christian ideas have had a radical, critical role and have served as a basis for programs of social change. This concise and clearly written book documents the history of radical Christianity by discussing some of the most important developments and figures, from the millenarian movements of early Christianity to the liberation theology of today.Christopher Rowland begins by discussing the character and transformation of early Christian ideas and the ongoing patterns of protest against the status quo. Subsequent chapters deal with the legacy of the Apocalypse and with the work of Thomas Muenzer and Gerrard Winstanley. A final chapter on liberation theology examines the role of religion in Latin America today, where basic Christian communities have emerged as power-houses of social and political reform.'Radical Christianity' is a reading of recovery which shows that social criticism and hope for a better world are integral features of the Christian tradition. The book will be of great interest to students of religion and to anyone concerned with the role of religious ideas in past and present-day societies.

The editor hopes that these papers, on themes of interest to Morton Smith, will contribute to the critical discussion of some problems of concern to him. Since Smith is one of the great scholarly masters of this generation, it is through scholarship, and not through encomia, that the editor and his colleagues choose to pay their tribute. The facts about the man, his writings, his critical judgment, intelligence, erudition and wit, his labor as selfless teacher and objective, profound critic speak for themselves and require no embellishment.... I hope that the quality of what follows will impress my teacher, Professor Morton Smith, and those scholars who care to read these volumes, as having been worth the immense efforts of all concerned.From the Foreword by Jacob Neusner

A major contribution to Puritan scholarship, 'Puritans and Predestination' presents the first consistent and thorough historical analysis of a key Puritan theological concept - predestination.For almost two centuries prior to 1695, English religious and cultural life endured a period of great upheaval. Dewey Wallace illuminates this complex era by tracing patterns of religious thought that took root in early English Protestantism and by explaining their social, cultural, and ecclesiastical implications.'Puritans and Predestination' concludes that the differences between Puritan and Anglican theology were often subtle and sometimes nonexistent. Central to Protestant theology was the doctrine of grace - the notion that salvation was a divine gift, a free gift to those who believed. Among the many elements that constituted the doctrine of grace, predestination was the foremost. Wallace believes that shifting attitudes toward and emphases on predestination serve as both a measure of the extent of theological unity and an index of theological change.Among the significant conclusions documented in the course of this study are the importance of the Bucerian order of salvation in the early English Reformation, the anachronistic character of reading sharp differences in outlook between Puritan and Anglican, and the centrality of the piety and theology of grace in Puritanism. Wallace also explores the radically innovative character of the Laudian and Arminian theology, the inroads of rationalistic moralism into theology by the middle of the seventeenth century, and the emergence among later Stuart Dissenters of an evangelical pietism prefiguring the religion of the awakenings.This book will be indispensable to those interested in Puritanism and the theology of the Church of England.

Acknowledging that hermeneutics has become an increasingly important major focus in theological study, Donald McKim's A Guide to Contemporary Hermeneutics presents a series of essays by various writers, assessing current hermeneutical approaches and methods of biblical hermeneutics from their own personal experience.

In the first part of the sixth century, variant forms of Monophysitism existed. In 'Christology after Chalcedon', Iain Torrance provides a theological introduction and a translation of the letters between Severus of Antioch and Sergius the Grammarian. Severus was the Monophysite Patriarch of Antioch - a leader of the moderate Monophysites whose doctrine adhered more closely to Catholic teaching and whose primary divergence from orthodoxy was terminological. Though little is known of Sergius, it is apparent from his letters that he was a Monophysite of the more extreme sort. The correspondence between Sergius and Severus comprises three letters from Sergius, three replies by Severus, and an apology by Sergius.