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The Vehement Jesus composes a fresh examination and interpretation of several perplexing passages in the Gospels that, at face value, challenge the conviction that the mission and message of Jesus were peaceful. Using narrative analysis and various forms of intratextual critique in the service of a hermeneutic of shalom, the author makes the case that Gospel portrayals of the vehement Jesus are compatible with, perhaps even indispensable to, the composite canonical portrait of Jesus as the Messiah of Peace. As a result, this exploration in New Testament theology and ethics makes an invaluable contribution to the crucial conversation about the role of Jesus’ life and teaching in Christian reflection on the morality of violence today.
The first detailed exegetical treatment of Paul’s letters from the emerging discipline of missional hermeneutics, Michael Gorman’s Becoming the Gospel argues that Paul’s letters invite Christian communities both then and now to not merely believe the gospel but to become the gospel and, in doing so, to participate in the life and mission of God. Showing that Pauline churches were active public participants in and witnesses to the gospel, Gorman reveals the missional significance of various themes in Paul’s letters. He also identifies select contemporary examples of mission in the spirit of Paul, inviting all Christians to practice Paul-inspired imagination in their own contexts.
This book is about Jesus's perspective on violence, the ways this is demonstrated in his ministry, and its implications for Jesus's followers. It begins by examining the nature and role of violence within Second Temple Jewish eschatology. "Eschatological violence"--violence connected in some way with eschatological expectations--was an important factor in the world of Jesus and his contemporaries. Many believed that God's long-awaited deliverance was contingent on his people's taking up the sword against their oppressors, thus demonstrating their zealous allegiance to the covenant. In contrast, Jesus articulated and enacted a vision for God's reign in which violence was completely disassocia...
This volume engages the Gospel of Matthew in full awareness of its inherently political character. Weaver situates Matthew's version of the "good news of the kingdom" squarely within the "real world" of first-century Palestine and its occupying power, the Roman Empire. The essays here focus prominently and collectively on the issues of power and violence that not only pervade the historically occupied Jewish community of first-century Palestine, but also are clearly visible throughout Matthew's narrative account. A "lower-level" reading of the Matthean text offers a bleak portrait of the overwhelming power and violence exerted by the Roman occupying authorities and their upper-echelon Jewish...
For many of us, the connection between the ecological crisis and humanity's detachment from the land is becoming increasingly clear. In biblical terms, adam (humanity) has severed itself from the adamah (soil), and we (creation) are reaping the consequences. This collection of essays, and the conference from which it took shape, calls the church to root itself more deeply in the agrarian biblical text and ecclesial tradition in order to remember and freshly imagine ways of living on and with the land that are restorative, reconciling, and faithful to the triune God's invitation to new life in Christ. When we listen attentively to and patiently learn from the biblical text, church history, and theology, the land itself can become a conversation partner, and we are summoned to recognize that the gospel is reserved not simply for humanity, but for the whole of creation.
Revelation is resistance literature, written to instruct early Christians on how to live as followers of Jesus in the Roman Empire. The Nonviolent Apocalypse uses modern examples and scholarship on nonviolence to help illuminate Revelation’s resistance, arguing that Revelation’s famously violent visions are actually acts of nonviolent resistance to the Empire. The visions form part of Revelation’s proclamation of God’s way as a just and life-giving alternative to the system constructed by Rome. Revelation urges its readers to pursue this radical form of living, engaging in nonviolent resistance to all that stands in the way of God’s vision for the world.
In this groundbreaking book, Michael Gorman asks why there is no theory or model of the atonement called the "new-covenant" model, since this understanding of the atonement is likely the earliest in the Christian tradition, going back to Jesus himself. Gorman argues that most models of the atonement over-emphasize the penultimate purposes of Jesus' death and the "mechanics" of the atonement, rather than its ultimate purpose: to create a transformed, Spirit-filled people of God. The New Testament's various atonement metaphors are part of a remarkably coherent picture of Jesus' death as that which brings about the new covenant (and thus the new community) promised by the prophets, which is als...
How does one summarize the thirty-nine books of the Old Testament? How might one determine the message of the Old Testament with others? This book attempts an answer to these questions. The answer is taken from a single Scripture passage, Exodus 5:22-6:8, which is here considered a theological "Table of Contents" for the Old Testament. In addition to such topics as Deliverance, Community, and Experiencing God, the book has an extended discussion on "Land," a subject which deals with a wide range of interests but which only rarely receives attention in books on biblical theology. The current edition features reflections and a set of discussion questions following each of the seventeen chapters--a boon for university and seminary teachers and students, and of large help for church study groups.
Righteous Indignation: Christian Philosophical and Theological Perspectives on Anger explores the philosophy of Christian anger—what anger is, what it means for God to be angry, and when anger is morally appropriate. The book explores specific biblical questions, such as how God communicates his anger in the Old Testament and whether anger at one's enemies in the imprecatory psalms is praiseworthy. In addition, some chapters focus on the practical application of anger to topics such as racial justice, criminal law, and civil discourse, and on the ideas of historical figures such as Thomas Aquinas and Jonathan Edwards. The purpose of the book is to provide multiple perspectives, examining anger from different angles, but most of all it is hoped that readers will come away with a better understanding of God's nature and how followers of Jesus ought to relate to those who wrong them.
Living the King Jesus Gospel brings together biblical scholars, theologians, church historians, and ministry practitioners to discuss the Good News of Jesus Christ, discipleship, and the Christian life throughout the centuries and in the world today. Drawing from across the New Testament, the Church Fathers, the Reformers, the Anglican and Orthodox Traditions, and various modern contexts, the contributors bring diverse perspectives to key questions about the gospel. What ties them all together is the person of King Jesus and the hope for a church that embodies and reflects a life-giving and flourishing kingdom.