You may have to Search all our reviewed books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
Holding Hands with Pascal is about the story of one family's journey to follow Christ with a special-needs child. The chapters intertwine memoir, biblical study, and theological reflection to reveal that weakness is a gift from God that is indispensable for our discipleship. Ranging from creation through daily life to the return of Jesus, a father tells of how the unusual and challenging life of his son, Pascal, has affected their entire family and where they have found morsels of grace in scripture and community to help sustain them. For families with special-needs children, groups seeking to grow as disciples, and churches seeking a way of faith-in-weakness, Holding Hands with Pascal offers insights and an inspiration for the way.
The New Testament gospels feature numerous social exchanges between Jesus and people with various physical and sensory disabilities. Despite this, traditional biblical scholarship has not seen these people as agents in their own right but existing only to highlight the actions of Jesus as a miracle worker. In this study, Louise A. Gosbell uses disability as a lens through which to explore a number of these passages anew. Using the cultural model of disability as the theoretical basis, she explores the way that the gospel writers, as with other writers of the ancient world, used the language of disability as a means of understanding, organising, and interpreting the experiences of humanity. Her investigation highlights the ways in which the gospel writers reinforce and reflect, as well as subvert, culturally-driven constructions of disability in the ancient world.
This volume argues that Titus’s invocation of Crete affected the ways early readers developed their identities. Using archaeological data, classical writings, and early Christian documents, he describes multiple traditions that circulated on Crete and throughout the Roman Empire concerning Cretan Zeus, Cretan social structure, and Cretan Judaism. He then uses these traditions to interpret Titus and explain how the letter would intersect with and affect readers’ identities. Because readers had differing conceptions of Crete based on their location and access to and evaluation of Cretan traditions, readers would have developed their identities in multiple, conflictual, even contradictory ways.
In the book of Acts divine involvement is everywhere. From the beginning God is responsible for promised action, including the geographic expansion--"in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth" (1:7)--referenced in Jesus' response to the disciples, clearly related to Luke's purpose in writing the book. Geographic expansion, however, is only the second part of Jesus' reply. Is it possible that the first half of Jesus' reply--"It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority"--has even greater bearing on the actions that follow and on Luke's purpose? Is the Father setting times and seasons related to the kingdom's establishment?...
A major scholarly collaboration exploring vivid visual rhetoric in the New Testament From Jesus’s miraculous walk on water to the graphic horrors of hell, New Testament authors make vivid and unforgettable images appear before their audience’s eyes. In the past decade, scholarship on early Christian use of ancient rhetorical techniques has flourished. One focus of rhetorical criticism of the New Testament has been the function of ekphrasis, or vivid visual description. In this landmark collection, leading New Testament scholars come together to probe the purpose and import of ekphrasis in early Christian literature. The research in this collection explores the relationship between vivid ...
Journal of Biblical and Pneumatological Research VOLUME FIVE FALL 2013 The Journal of Biblical and Pneumatological Research (JBPR) is a new international peer-reviewed academic serial dedicated to narratively and rhetorically minded exegesis of biblical and related texts. Potential topics include theological and pneumatological interpretation, the role of spiritual experience with authorial, canonical, and contemporary contexts, and the contextual activity of Ruach Yahweh, Ruach Elohim, and various identifications of the Holy Spirit. JBPR hopes to stimulate new thematic and narrative-critical exploration and discovery in both traditional and under-explored areas of research. CONTENTS Volume ...
Over the centuries, the prophetic book of Zechariah has suffered from accusations of obscurity and has frustrated readers seeking to unlock its treasures. This work by Mark Boda provides insightful commentary on Zechariah, with great sensitivity to its historical, literary, and theological dimensions. Including a fresh translation of Zechariah from the original Hebrew, Boda delivers deep and thorough reflection on a too-often-neglected book of the Old Testament.
In scholarly study of the New Testament and early Christian rhetoric, one key element is often overlooked: the sublime. To address this omission, contributors to this volume explore how the awe-inspiring, dislocating, and sometimes horrifying language that characterizes sublime rhetoric exerts cognitive, emotional, and physiological force on its audiences, transporting them to new realities as they go along. The essays lay a foundation for scholars and students to identify and interpret sublime rhetoric in biblical literature. Contributors include Murray J. Evans, Alan P. R. Gregory, Christopher T. Holmes, Roy R. Jeal, Harry O. Maier, Erika Mae Olbricht, Thomas H. Olbricht†, Vernon K. Robbins, and Jonathan Thiessen.
This volume provides an up-to-date introduction to the diverse ways the Bible is being interpreted by scholars in the field.
The monetary fund that the apostle Paul organized among his Gentile congregations for the Jewish-Christian community in Jerusalem was clearly an important endeavor to Paul; discussion of it occupies several prominent passages in his letters. In this book David Downs carefully investigates that offering from historical, sociocultural, and theological standpoints. Downs first pieces together a chronological account of Paul's fund-raising efforts on behalf of the Jerusalem church, based primarily on information from the Pauline epistles. He then examines the sociocultural context of the collection, including gift-giving practices in the ancient Mediterranean world relating to benefaction and care for the poor. Finally, Downs explores how Paul framed this contribution rhetorically as a religious offering consecrated to God.