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Mark’s genius lies, not in telling a story about Jesus, but in creating conditions under which the reader may experience the peculiar quality of God’s good news. The Evangelist hurries one along breathlessly, “immediately,” making sure that the reader lurches with the characters into one pothole after another. “What is this new teaching” that consorts with the flagrantly sinful, turning the pious homicidal, intimates into strangers, and mustard seeds into “the greatest of all ... shrubs”? Jesus’ closest adherents, the Twelve, are among the most muddled. Who can blame them? They ask for an obscure parable’s interpretation and receive an answer even more confounding. They a...
C. Clifton Black provides a thorough analysis of the most famous prayer in the Christian church, the Lords Prayer. He begins with an impressionist painting of how the ancients prayed during Jesus time in order to set the context for understanding the prayer he taught his disciples. Throughout the book, Black systematically interprets the rich meanings of each part of the Lords prayer. Additionally, he includes an overview of Christian thought on the Lords Prayer from early church mothers and fathers like Tertullian and Teresa of Avila to modern theologians like Karl Barth. Uniquely, this book is an academic study of the Lords Prayer with a focus on the rhetorical culture from which it developed as well as the theological, literary, and historical meanings of the prayer itself.
Redaction criticism attempts to identify biblical authors' theological interests by examining their adaptation of sources. Focusing on representative studies of Jesus' disciples in the Gospel of Mark, this pioneering book by C. Clifton Black has become the standard evaluation of that method's exegetical reliability. Comprehensively reviewing recent scholarship, Black identifies three distinctive types of redaction criticism in Markan interpretation. He demonstrates that diverse redaction-critical interpretations of the disciples in Mark have bolstered rather than controlled scholarly presuppositions to a degree that impugns the method's reliability for interpreting Mark. The book concludes by assessing redaction criticism's usefulness and offering a more balanced approach to Mark's interpretation. This second edition includes a substantial, detailed afterword that revisits the book's primary issues, converses with its critics, and provides an update of Markan scholarship over the past twenty-five years.
With delightful disrespect and hilarious updated illustrations, the author takes you through the history of Western philosophy and religion. Beginning with classic Greek pigs, the author pokes good-natured fun as you learn the essentials of these most important thinkers and schools of thought. See a little band of Methodist pigs fleeing from the wrath to come, a Calvinist pig being saved because he is predestined to be among the elect, a Barthian Pig hearing a resounding “NO” from above, a Deconstuctionist pig interpreting a text, and many others.
It has been more than two decades since the publication of George Kennedy's influential New Testament Interpretation Through Rhetorical Criticism (1984). The essays in Words Well Spoken demonstrate the influence of Kennedy's work on New Testament studies. The essays offer applications of his method to canonical New Testament books and provide more general discussions of rhetorical analysis. Kennedy's thoughtful response articulates his present thinking about the New Testament and demonstrates why this scholar continues to be of such value to New Testament studies.
Every aspect of the study of John is represented in this book, including the historical origins of the Johannine community, the religious traditions in the gospel within and beyond early Christianity, the Fourth Gospel's literary dimensions and theological concerns, and the distinctive challenges presented by the Gospel's interpretation.
Highly respected New Testament scholar Craig Keener is known for his meticulous and comprehensive research. This commentary on Acts, his magnum opus, may be the largest and most thoroughly documented Acts commentary available. Useful not only for the study of Acts but also early Christianity, this work sets Acts in its first-century context. In this volume, the first of four, Keener introduces the book of Acts, particularly historical questions related to it, and provides detailed exegesis of its opening chapters. He utilizes an unparalleled range of ancient sources and offers a wealth of fresh insights. This magisterial commentary will be a valuable resource for New Testament professors and students, pastors, Acts scholars, and libraries.
A gospel written to help us experience what we will never fully understand.
'Acknowledging the Divine Benefactor' is a socio-rhetorical interpretation of the Second Letter of Peter. Using multiple interpretive perspectives and emphasising the pictorial dimensions of 2 Peter, Terrance Callan shows that the letter makes the following argument: since Jesus Christ has given his followers benefits, including the promise of sharing in divine nature, they need to make a proper return for these benefits by living virtuously; and this in turn will enable them to receive the fulfilment ofthe promise. The occasion of the letter is that Peter's death is near. He writes so the addressees can remember his teaching after his death. The author expounds this teaching because some people do not await the future fulfilment of Christ's promises and so do not emphasise the need for virtuous living.