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What questions do interpreters ask of Scripture and how have those questions changed over time? History of Biblical Interpretation starts at 150 BCE and moves to the present in exploring the major developments and principal approaches to interpreting the Bible. Thirty-four chapters survey the most significant methods and provide introductions to the prominent people who exemplify them. Each chapter also presents an original document that demonstrates this person's interpretational approach and includes a reference bibliography for further reading. Whether used as a textbook or in individual study, this excellent introduction to the history of biblical interpretation will open new doors for students of the Bible, theology, and church history.
Was Jonathan Edwards the stalwart and unquestioning Reformed theologian that he is often portrayed as being? In what ways did his own conversion fail to meet the standards of his Puritan ancestors? And how did this affect his understanding of the Divine Being and of the nature of justification? Becoming Divine investigates the early theological career of Edwards, finding him deep in a crisis of faith that drove him into an obsessive lifelong search for answers. Instead of a fear of God, which he had been taught to understand as proof of his conversion, he experienced a ‘surprising, amazing joy’. Suddenly he saw the Divine Being in everything and felt himself transported into a heavenly world, becoming one with the Divine family. What he developed, as he sought to make sense of this unexpected joy, is a theology that is both ancient and early modern: a theology of divine participation rooted in the incarnation of Christ.
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.
Good poetry is like a good painting: the more you linger over it, the more it reveals. It is a deep well that never runs dry. And that is why the Psalter, like a good painting, keeps giving. In the last four decades, Psalms scholarship has found remarkable fruitfulness in reading the Psalter as a book--that is, in reading the Psalms as a unified composition with a metanarrative across its 150 poems. Pivotal questions associated with this approach really boil down to two questions--how and why? How are individual psalms sequenced, if at all, and what is the design logic behind that macrostructure? This volume seeks to answer those questions. In essence, the Psalter unfurls the story of the Davidic covenant. While interest in the editing of the Psalter remains high in recent Psalms scholarship, this interest has not led to clear consensus. The specific and timely contribution of this volume is twofold. First, it consolidates the results of studies on groups of psalms. Second, it integrates poetic and thematic approaches that are typically separated in Psalms scholarship. Readers will find results of this study surprising and their implications sobering.
This book illuminates sojourn language in Genesis using an innovative application of sociological theory about ethnic myths. Close exegetical investigation reveals that sojourn, despite its connotations of alienation, is a significant contributor to a strong communal identity for biblical Israel.
The church of the Bible is presented as a pattern of human life in marked contrast both to the values of secular society and to the restrictive outlook that characterizes many religious groups. The church is to be the manifestation of the biblical instruction to love God and neighbor. Is Christ Divided? takes a penetrating look at the identity of the local church. Is it comprised of believers with a passion to worship the God of Truth and live by His purpose, following His Holy Spirit that lives inside? Or is the church a group of individuals segregated by culture, class, economics and education, following the traditions of men? Is Christ Divided? urges the original and philosophical concept of the church advocated by the Word of God. Each chapter reveals biblical support for cooperation amongst the brethren; the local church and the para church. Containing critical research of Scripture and analysis of church history, this book will provide proof that both populations have existed since the beginning without distinction. The intent is to bridge the gap between denominations, associations, local churches, para church organizations, missions and ministries.
The Psalms as Christian Scripture. Reading the Psalms Theologically presents rich biblical-theological studies on the Psalter. Reading the Psalter as a Unified Book: Recent Trends (David M. Howard and Michael K. Snearly) The Macrostructural Design and Logic of the Psalter: An Unfurling of the Davidic Covenant (Peter C. W. Ho) David's Biblical Theology and Typology in the Psalms: Authorial Intent and Patterns of the Seed of Promise (James M. Hamilton) A Story in the Psalms? Narrative Structure at the "Seams" of the Psalter's Five Books (David "Gunner" Gunderson) Does the Book of Psalms Present a Divine Messiah? (Seth D. Postell) The Suffering Servant in Book V of the Psalter (Jill Firth) Exca...
The idea that we can partner with God strikes some people as audacious. Others consider it pretentious. Some may think it’s downright blasphemous! Can creatures actually can partner with God? This book answers that question... in the affirmative. The responses vary and the proposals provoke new insights. Along the way, the ideas break new ground. It turns out “partnering with God” has various meanings and dimensions. The seventy-seven contributors explore this rich diversity in accessible language, deep insight, and multiple stories. Their explorations inspire, elucidate, and motivate! What they're saying... This helpful book provides both important concepts and lived experience that invite us to consider how what we think about God affects how we live in the world. - Sarah Heaner Lancaster, Methodist Theological School in Ohio These essays are insightful, practical, thoughtful, and worth our consideration. Each author brings unique insights into the divine. - Christopher Fisher, God is Open Get a copy of Partnering with God!
The academic disciplines of Biblical Studies and Systematic Theology were long closely linked to one another. However, in the modern period they became gradually separated which led to increasing subject specialization, but also to a lamentable lacuna within the various branches of Divinity. As the lack of dialogue between Biblical Studies and the various theological disciplines increased, a minority-group of scholars in the past few decades reacted and sought to re-establish the time-honoured bonds between the disciplines. The present volume is part of this intellectual response, with contributions from scholars of various professional and denominational backgrounds. Together, the book's 25 chapters seek to reinvigorate the crucial cross-disciplinary dialogue, involving biblical, narrative, historical, systematic-theological and philosophic-theological perspectives. The book opens the horizon to contemporary research, and fills a lamentable research gap with a number of fresh contributions from scholars in the respective sub-disciplines
This book explores the early evangelical quest for enlightenment by the Spirit and the Word. While the pursuit originated in the Protestant Reformation, it assumed new forms in the long eighteenth-century context of the early Enlightenment and transatlantic awakened Protestant reform. This work illuminates these transformations by focusing on the dynamic intersection of experimental philosophy and experimental religion in the biblical practices of early America’s most influential Protestant theologians, Cotton Mather (1663-1728) and Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758). As the first book-length project to treat Mather and Edwards together, this study makes an important contribution to the extensive scholarship on these figures, opening new perspectives on the continuities and complexities of colonial New England religion. It also provides new insights and interpretive interventions concerning the history of the Bible, early modern intellectual history, and evangelicalism’s complex relationship to the Enlightenment.