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In the first century, endemic food shortages left 25 percent of the population below subsistence level and another 30 percent at risk of slipping below subsistence. In the face of such serious food shortages, the Gospel of Matthew advocates for a society in which all people can have access to sufficient food. Matthew critiques first-century practices and attitudes of both aristocrats and peasants that helped or hindered that goal. It does this by depicting Jesus teaching and performing positive practices that provided the Matthean community with an example to emulate, as well as condemning some negative practices and attitudes. For I Was Hungry and You Gave Me Food provides a pragmatic lens and a new descriptive paradigm of food access in the first century. The perspective and model are useful for analyzing passages concerned with life-and-death issues of the Matthean community--or situations for any other Christian community, past or present. Should not every person have enough food to sustain physical life?
La 4e de couverture indique : "In this monograph, Timothy J. Murray studies early Christian practices of financial generosity by examining when, why and how they restricted their generosity. He analyzes the New Testament in its social context, arguing that common cultural ideals of mutual support in a family were adopted by the fictive-family of the early church."
At the heart of Paul’s Corinthian correspondence is a historical puzzle. How did the relative calm of 1 Corinthians deteriorate into the chaos of 2 Corinthians, and what role did the so-called Jewish “super-apostles” play in that conflict? This book proposes a new solution: it was Paul, not his rivals, who shot the first volley in the Corinthian conflict. Paul’s claims of unique authority—for instance, as the architect atop whose foundation all others must build (1 Cor 3:10) and the Corinthians’ father while others are mere pedagogues (4:15)—would relegate other leaders to lesser positions. His contention that accepting financial support put an obstacle before the gospel (9:12)...
Eden's Bridge: The Marketplace in Creation and Mission explores a biblically based theology of the marketplace implicit in the creation narrative of Genesis 1-2. The thesis validates the calling and ministry of all marketplace Christians. David Doty invites readers to rethink and redirect the purposes of vocation, trade, and profit toward the purposes of God's Kingdom, as they were revealed in the beginning and are to be restored in Christ's reign. This book is eye-opening and inviting as it explores how God is moving to reclaim the marketplace for His Kingdom, and His redeeming purposes for the world of commerce. The marketplace holds untold potential if business is conducted according to God's plan: poverty can be eradicated, abundant living can be shared among all people, and shalom can prevail. Eden's Bridge offers hope for recovering from the recent collapse of the global economic system by envisioning a new view of how wealth is made and how the marketplace is yet to serve God's purposes in His mission to the world.
No canonical Gospel is more concerned with wealth and poverty than Luke. A centuries-long debate rages over just how revolutionary Luke’s message is. This book seeks to recover Luke’s radical economic message, to place it in its ancient context, and to tease out its prophetic implications for today. Luke has a radical message of good news for the poor and resistance to wealth. God is shown to favor the poor, championing their struggle for justice while condemning the rich and recommending a sweeping disposal of wealth for the benefit of the poor. This represents a distinct break from the ethics of the Roman Empire and a profound challenge to modern economic systems. Generations of interp...
"Was Paul's relationship with the Philippians an economic partnership? Julien M. Ogereau explores the socio-economic dimension of Paul's koinonia with the Philippians from a Graeco-Roman perspective and argues that Paul maintained this partnership to provide financially for his mission."--Page 4 of printed paper wrapper.
This accessible and compelling introduction draws us into the wide-ranging narrative of Luke-Acts to discover how Luke frames the life of Jesus and of the first disciples. These two books, when read together, tell a cohesive narrative about Jesus, the Church, and the mission of God–with implications for the whole our lives today.
While recent publications have explored the relationship between New Testament texts and early Roman imperial ideology, Ephesians has been underanalyzed in these conversations. In this study, Justin Winzenburg provides an original contribution to the field by assessing how matters of the disputed authorship, audience, and date of Ephesians have varied consequences for the imperial-critical status of the epistle. Previously underexplored elements of the Roman context of Ephesians, with a focus on maiestas [treason] charges, imperial cults, and Roman imperial eschatology are examined in light of the two major theories of the date of the epistle. The author concludes that, while there are limitations to an imperial-critical reading of the epistle, some of the epistle's speech acts can be understood as subversive of Roman imperial ideology.
Becoming Christian examines various facets of the first letter of Peter, in its social and historical setting, in some cases using new social-scientific and postcolonial methods to shed light on the ways in which the letter contributes to the making of Christian identity. At the heart of the book chapters 5-7, examine the contribution of 1 Peter to the construction of Christian identity, the persecution and suffering of Christians in Asia Minor, the significance of the name 'Christian', and the response of the letter to the hostility encountered by Christians in society. There are no recent books which bring together such a wealth of information and analysis of this crucial early Christian text. Becoming Christian has developed out of Horrell's ongoing research for the International Critical Commentary on 1 Peter. Together these chapters offer a series of significant and original engagements with this letter, and a resource for studies of 1 Peter for some time to come.
In this volume, Ralph Korner argues that John's extensive social identification with Judaism(s), Jewishness, and Jewish institutions does not reflect a literary program of replacing Israel with the ekklēsiai ("churches"/"assemblies"), that is the Jewish and non-Jewish followers of Jesus as Israel's Messiah. Rather, John is emplacing his Christ-followers further within Israel, without thereby superseding Israel as a national identity for ethnic Jews who do not follow Jesus as the Christos. There are three primary roads travelled in this investigative journey. First, Korner explores ways in which a Jewish heritage is intrinsic to the literary structure, genre, eschatology, symbolism, and theo...