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Reflecting the combined insights and strengths of three superior biblical scholars, this book is the most complete and detailed one-volume commentary available on the Psalms. Nancy deClaisse-Walford, Rolf Jacobson, and Beth LaNeel Tanner offer a succinct introduction to the Psalter, a new translation of all the psalms that takes special account of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and individual entries on each psalm unit. Throughout their commentary they drew on state-of-the-art research on the canonical shape and shaping of the Psalter and give nuanced attention to the poetic nature of the psalms.
The Old Testament bears witness to an in-your-face, holy God--a God who gets down and dirty with creation and history; a God who gets in people's face with love and law, with power and purpose. Yet Israel's in-your-face God is also "holy"--too other, too raw, too intense to be handled without oven mitts. Rolf Jacobson wrestles with this in-your-face God. The Old Testament starts at the beginning, where God digs in the dirt to create humanity and then gets in the dustlings' faces when they sin. God smiles on Abraham and Sarah, electing their descendants as the chosen people, but has to get in Pharaoh's face when he tries to enslave the people. Mostly, God gets in Israel's face: with laws about what it looks like to be God's people and through the prophets, who have to get in the faces of those who turn away from the Holy One. Jacobson also explores the psalms, poetry in which God often hides his face. He closes by exploring how the Old Testament points us ahead to Jesus, when God took on a human face and offered us the most intimate picture of God we'll ever get.
The book of Psalms is perhaps the most cherished book in the Old Testament. In this lively volume, two experienced teachers invite us to read and explore the Psalter and roam widely among its poems. Invitation to the Psalms introduces the dynamics of the biblical text, helping students of the Bible become careful and attentive readers. This clear and concise guide covers how to read Hebrew poetry, the Psalter's basic genres, the idea of "the psalmist," the metaphorical world of the Psalms, and the theology of the Psalms. It gives readers confidence to explore the Psalms on their own and could readily be used in the first weeks of class to orient students to the Psalms. The second edition of this popular textbook, now updated and expanded, adds a chapter on the shape and shaping of the Psalter and sidebars that highlight the use of the Psalms in popular culture. Discussion questions are also included.
The many introductions to the psalms available to readers tend to focus on various types and forms of psalms but overlook different theological approaches to the Psalter. This volume brings together leading psalms scholars from Catholic and Protestant traditions and takes into account recent scholarship on the shape and shaping of the Psalter and on the rhetorical interpretation of the Psalms.
The Bible can be hard to understand. To many of us, it often does seem like a crazy book. But, according to the authors of Crazy Book, the crazy book we call the Bible actually teaches us the sanity that we need. The sanity that lets us know who God is, who we are in light of God's love, and where God's love can be found and experienced. Very similar in tone and organization to Crazy Talk, the authors of Crazy BookÊunleash their passion, faith, and humor. This time they have their sights on the Bible and biblical terms, and they don't hold back. Here, they've elected to focus on major people, events, places, books, and types of literature in the Bible, communicating the life-giving truth of the Bible via often knock-em-dead humor. The volume's savvy and sassy overtones are bound to leave an impression. This is an accessible book almost devoid of scholarly jargon but filled with scholarly insight. The revised and expanded addition includes new and expanded entries and all new images.
So much theology is confusing and intimidating. The concepts themselves are given weighty-sounding names, such as incarnation and justification, and the explanations of the concepts sometimes can be more confusing than the names. Ê Captivating, entertaining, and highly informative,ÊCrazy TalkÊhelps readers navigate their way through that complexity and offers a vocabulary that dares (and equips!) its readers to embrace their own faith in a new, well-informed way. Ê The purpose ofÊCrazy Talk,Êsays editor Rolf A. Jacobson, is to render the heart of our Christian theology in a form that is accessible and appealing to everyone. The format of the book is similar to that of a dictionary of theological terms, but with a twist of humor! Each entry includes the name of the theological term, an ironic definition of the term, and a short humorous essay offering a fuller explanation of the term. In making the term understandable, Jacobson concentrates on the big theological issue that is at stake in the term and why it matters. Ê This revised and expanded edition includes new and expanded entries and all new images.
North in the World presents 121 poems by Rolf Jacobsen (1907-1994), one of Norway's greatest modern poets. Garnering the highest praise of critics, Jacobsen won many of Norway's and Sweden's most prestigious literary awards, including the Swedish Academy's Dobloug Prize and the Grand Nordic Prize, also known as the "Little Nobel." But he also has earned a wide popular audience, because ordinary readers can understand and enjoy the way he explores the complex counterpoint of nature and technology, progress and self-destruction, daily life and cosmic wonder. Drawing from all twelve of his books, and including one poem collected posthumously, North in the World offers award-winning English tran...
In this new volume, prolific scholar Walter Brueggemann seeks to show Christian preachers how to consider the faith witnessed in several Old Testament traditions and to help them discover rich and suggestive connections to our contemporary faith challenges. The author also assumes that a wholesale sustained engagement with the Old Testament is worth the effort for the preacher. He recognizes what he calls the "sorry state" of Old Testament texts in the Revised Common Lectionary, which he claims often constitute a major disservice for the church and its preachers. The lectionary gerrymanders the Old Testament to make it serve other claims, most of the time not allowing it to have its own evangelical say. Brueggemann hopes that his exposition in this volume will evoke and energize fresh homiletical attention to the Old Testament, precisely because he believes the urgent work of the gospel in our society requires attentive listening to these ancient voices of bold insistent faith.
Chiefly proceedings of the Book of Psalms Section of the Society of Biblical Literature at the society's 2008 annual meeting in Boston, Mass.
Old Testament scholar and interpreter Brent A. Strawn focuses on the importance of honesty in preaching, especially around three challenging Old Testament themes: sin, suffering, and violence. He makes the case that preaching honestly is critical in the church today. Without honesty regarding these topics, there is no way forward to reconciliation, health, and recovery. Further, it is imperative for today's preachers to deal with the questions of faith arising from these themes in the biblical text itself. In addition to key scripture passages, he turns to several contemporary authors and works as dialogue partners on the three themes. Asserting that keeping secrets can lead to a kind of sic...