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In this book, Colleen Conway looks at the construction of masculinity in New Testament depictions of Jesus. She argues that the New Testament writers necessarily engaged the predominant gender ideology of the Roman Empire, whether consciously or unconsciously. Although the notion of what constituted ideal masculinity in Greek and Roman cultures certainly pre-dated the Roman Empire, the emergence of the Principate concentrated this gender ideology on the figure of the emperor. Indeed, critical to the success of the empire was the portrayal of the emperor as the ideal man and the Roman citizen as one who aspired to be the same. Any person who was held up alongside the emperor as another source...
Preaching is a demand of the Bible that is fitted with a specific purpose and a strong theological base. It is the proclamation of the word of God and is done in churches throughout the world. Preaching plays a role in the spiritual formation of its hearers, helping to form a community of faith whose members are sharing in and supporting one another in a spiritual journey. The topics of preaching can be found in both the Old and New Testaments, within several different genres, but closer attention might be given to the genres of the parables of Jesus and the speeches in the book of Acts. As a topic of preaching, the parables can be understood as examples of allegory, simile, and/or metaphor. The speeches in Acts offer a picture window of a sort into the homiletical mindset of the apostles and other disciples as they proclaimed the gospel to the world as they knew it. Preaching is a demand of the Bible and a specific task of those who are privileged to do it.
Putting Jesus in His Place is designed to introduce Christians to the wealth of biblical teaching on the deity of Christ and give them the confidence to share the truth about Jesus with others.
A current, comprehensive, and clear defense of the deity of Christ. The central theological claim of Christianity, that Jesus is God incarnate, finds eager detractors across a wide spectrum--from scholars who interpret Jesus as a prophet, angel, or guru to adherents of progressive Christianity and non-Christian religions and philosophies. Yet thorough biblical scholarship strongly supports the historic Christian teaching on the deity of Christ. Authors Robert M. Bowman Jr. and J. Ed Komoszewski follow the approach of their landmark 2007 study on the same topic, Putting Jesus in His Place. They focus on five pillars of New Testament teaching, using the acronym HANDS, and demonstrate what both...
In this in-depth exploration, the authors embark on a journey to uncover the intriguing questions about the Trinity's emergence in the writings of the Apostolic Fathers. As this study takes a close look at whether we can find signs of the Trinity and shared understandings in these early texts, shedding light on whether these writings reflect a "triadic way of talking about God." A crucial aspect of the investigation is to see if there is a common belief about the Trinity, offering insights into the theological ideas of that time. A central question arises: Did the early Apostolic Fathers have a sense of the Trinity? If so, how did they try to understand it? Immersed in the early Christian mi...
Does John's Apocalypse envision destruction or salvation for the nations of the world? Scholarly views on this issue range from extreme (total destruction) to extreme (universal salvation). Jon Morales maintains that the question must be reframed to highlight, not only the destiny of the nations, but also their dilemma within the drama of world history. Using narrative methodology, Morales asks four key questions concerning the nations: What is John's story of the nations? How does he tell this story? What is John's message to the nations? And what is his message to the church concerning the nations? Literary characters cannot be understood in the abstract, but must be rather discovered sequentially in the development of an entire narrative. The nations in Revelation are no exception. Understanding that previous studies have neglected to situate the nations within Revelation's larger plot, or in interaction with other narrative characters, Morales concludes that John's purpose is to show that the nations belong to God. John achieves his purpose in part by deploying a novel metaphor, virtually unexplored until now – Christ, shepherd of the nations
This book investigates the use of the Greek term “proskuneo” with Jesus as the object in the New Testament writings. Ray M. Lozano unpicks this interesting term and examines its capacity to express various degrees of reverence directed toward a superior: from a respectful greeting of an elder, to homage paid to a king, to cultic worship paid to a god. Lozano then looks at the term in reference to Jesus in the New Testament writings, and carefully considers whether Jesus is portrayed as receiving such reverence in a relatively weak sense, as a merely human figure, or in a relatively strong sense, as a divine figure. Lozano highlights how scholars are divided over this issue and provides a fresh, thorough examination of the New Testament material (Mark, Matthew, Luke-Acts, John, Hebrews, and Revelation) and, in so doing shows, that each of these New Testament writings, in their own unique ways, presents Jesus as a divine figure-uniquely and closely linked to the God of Israel in making him an object of “proskuneo.”
An interlinked collection of essays representing the best of Stephen D. Moore’s groundbreaking scholarship This collection of previously published essays is a companion to The Bible in Theory: Critical and Postcritical Essays (2010). Chapters engage postcolonial studies, cultural studies, deconstruction, autobiographical criticism, masculinity studies, queer theory, affect theory, and animality studies—methods Moore believes present unprecedented challenges to the monochrome model of Revelation scholarship based on traditional historical-critical methods. Features: Nine essays on biblical literary criticism including two co-written with Jennifer A. Glancy and Catherine Keller Contextual introductions for each essay Annotated bibliographies
That the Apocalypse of John is a “Revelation of Jesus Christ” (Rev 1:1) is a fact too often overlooked by interpreters of this last book of the Bible. As Msgr. A. Robert Nusca’s The Christ of the Apocalypse: Contemplating the Faces of Jesus in the Book of Revelation proposes, beyond predictions of earthquakes and falling stars, St. John articulates from start to finish a multifaceted and compelling portrait of Jesus Christ. Nusca offers an exegetical reading of selected verses of the Book of Revelation, incorporating rich spiritual and pastoral reflections. The Christ of the Apocalypse above all affirms that St. John’s God- and Christ-centered, symbolic universe offers our contemporary world a spiritual place to stand amid the shifting sands of postmodernity. As Cardinal Thomas Collins, Archbishop of Toronto, writes in his Foreword, “Now, as in the first century, Christians face martyrdom, and those who are not called to die for Christ are called to live for Christ in a world which in many ways rejects the Gospel. More than ever, we need the apocalyptic vision, to have our own vision of reality clarified, and to be strengthened in our evangelical witness.”
John S. Kloppenborg gives a detailed analysis of one of the most difficult of Jesus' parables, the parable of the Tenants (Mark 12:1-12; Gospel of Thomas 65). He examines the ways in which Christians have typically read and mis-read the parable, and places the parable firmly in the context of the practices of ancient viticulture. The author models a new approach to the interpretation of the parables of Jesus. First, he critically engages the history of interpretation of the text, inquiring into the ideological interests that the parable has engaged during the history of its use in Christian churches and in political discourse. Second, he reconstructs the social world in which the parable was...