Abstract
Resurrecting Jesus: The Renewal of New Testament Theology
by Yung Suk Kim
Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2015. 140 pp. $17.00. ISBN 978-1-4982-1834-4.
Kim asks the fundamental question, “What can we learn from Jesus, and how can we build on the significance of his life and work as we do theology for our day in the here and now?” He abandons the traditional divide between criticism and theology and argues that a solid New Testament theology can be reconstructed from a critical study of the historical Jesus. He places Jesus in the context of first-century Judaism in Palestine and reexamines his life, work, death, and resurrection; he explores the significance of Jesus’s life, teaching, and death, based not on doctrine but on his work of God in first-century Judaism and Palestine; and he redefines New Testament theology as a process of discerning and engaging the historical Jesus and the New Testament writings.
The Reality of God and Historical Method: Apocalyptic Theology in Conversation with N. T. Wright
by Samuel V. Adams
New Explorations in Theology. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Academic, 2015. 297 pp. $40.00. ISBN 978-0-8308-4914-7.
After a flurry of heated debates in the mid-twentieth century over the relationship between faith and history, the dust seems to have settled. This first volume in the New Explorations in Theology series is a deliberate attempt to kick up the dust again, but this time as a constructive development of what is now being called “apocalyptic theology.” Samuel V. Adams argues that any historiography interested in contributing to theological knowledge must take into consideration, at a methodological level, the reality of God that has invaded history in Jesus Christ. He explores this idea in critical dialogue with the writings of New Testament historian and theologian N. T. Wright, whose work has significantly shaped the current conversation on apocalyptic theology.
Reading John
by Christopher W. Skinner
Cascade Companions. Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2015. 164 pp. $19.00. ISBN 978-1-61097-803-3.
The Gospel of John is often found at the center of discussions about the Bible and its relation to Christian theology. It is difficult to quantify the impact John’s Gospel has had on both the historical development of Christian doctrine and the various expressions of Christian devotion. Too often, however, readers have failed to understand the Gospel as an autonomous text with its own unique story to tell. More often than not, it is swept into a reading approach that either conflates or attempts to harmonize with other accounts of Jesus’ life. This book emphasizes the uniqueness of John’s story of Jesus and provides a road map for appreciating the historical context and literary features of the text. It aims to help readers become better, more perceptive readers of the Gospel of John, with an ability to trace the rhetoric of the narrative from beginning to end.
The Image of God in an Image Driven Age: Explorations in Theological Anthropology
edited by Beth Felker Jones and Jeffrey W. Barbeau
Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Academic, 2016. 272 pp. $28.00. ISBN 978-0-8308-5120-1.
We live in a world saturated with images. Some shape our understanding of ourselves and the world around us in positive ways, while others lead us astray and distort our relationships. Christians confess that human beings have been created in the image of God, yet we chose to rebel against that God and so became unfaithful bearers of God’s image. The good news of the gospel is that Jesus, who is the image of God, restores the divine image in us, partially now and fully in the day to come. The essays collected in this volume explore the intersection of theology and culture. With topics ranging across biblical exegesis, the art gallery, Cormac McCarthy, racism, sexuality, and theosis, the contributors offer a unified vision of what it means to be truly human and created in the divine image in the world today.
The Theological Anthropology of David Kelsey: Responses to Eccentric Existence
edited by Gene Outka
Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2016. 187 pp. $25.00. ISBN 978-0-8028-7243-2.
David Kelsey’s two-volume masterwork, Eccentric Existence: A Theological Anthropology (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2009), has been recognized as a major achievement, the culmination of decades of probing theological thought about what it means to be a human being in relationship with God. Ten distinguished scholars respond to and interact with Eccentric Existence in this book, celebrating both Kelsey and his landmark study with essays on theological anthropology as it relates to the Bible, Catholic tradition, theological education, and other subjects. David F. Ford, Joy Ann McDougall, and Amy Plantinga Pauw are among the contributors.
Systematic Theology
by Anthony C. Thiselton
Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2015. 467 pp. $40.00. ISBN 978-0-8028-7272-2.
In this concise, one-volume systematic theology, Anthony Thiselton comprehensively covers the spectrum of Christian doctrine with an eye to practical application for Christian discipleship. Written with students and busy ministers in mind, the book is readable and accessible. Each of the fifteen chapters contains five evenly balanced subsections for teaching and learning convenience. Rather than setting out an abstract system, Thiselton explores theology as a living, organic whole. The book thus includes biblical foundations, historical thought, contemporary writers, and practical implications. Expertly incorporating biblical exegesis, philosophy, conceptual grammar, and hermeneutics, this work is a succinct multidisciplinary systematic theology.
Rupturing Eschatology: Divine Glory and the Silence of the Cross
by Eric J. Trozzo
Emerging Scholars. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2014.192 pp. $49.00. ISBN 978-1-4514-7210-3.
The modern and contemporary legacy of Luther’s theology is a vital topic of continuing investigation, assessment, and construction. Trozzo presents a constructive retrieval of Luther’s theology of the cross for the purpose of establishing a contemporary Lutheran and “emerging” account of the cross, silence, and eschatology. He explores Luther’s early construction of the theology of the cross and divine hiddenness in concert with the work of the Lutheran mystical tradition and modern Lutheran theologians, such as Jürgen Moltmann, Paul Tillich, and John Caputo. He argues for an intra-historical and intra-worldly account of divine possibility oriented around a contemporary theology of the cross marked by reclamation of the biblical and mystical practice of silence as the space that creates hope.
Re-Visioning the Church: An Experiment in Systematic-Historical Ecclesiology
by Neil Ormerod
Minneapolis: Fortress, 2014. 416 pp. $49.00. ISBN 978-1-4514-7816-7.
This volume, the outcome of nearly two decades of research and writing towards constructing a systematic historical ecclesiology, applies a social-scientific and historical outlook to the story of the emergence, development, and ongoing mission and ministry of the church. Establishing a critical framework for understanding the structures of the church, the work is a wide-scale exploration of the religious, cultural, and social dimensions of what it means to be the church and which structures and ministries are fundamental to ecclesial life in its relationship to the kingdom of God. The heart of the project is a detailed account of historical development and change across the centuries of the church—from the apostolic band of witnesses to the dramatic global event of the Second Vatican Council.
Gospels: Narrative and History
edited by Mercedes Navarro Puerto and Marinella Perroni
The Bible and Women: An Encyclopedia of Exegesis and Cultural History. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2015. 582 pp. $65.95. ISBN 98-1-58983-566-5.
This first volume in the New Testament section of The Bible and Women series, devoted to the Synoptic Gospels and the Johannine Literature, displays the fruits of collaboration of American and Western European scholars. Ranging among historical-critical investigation, archaeological discovery, cultural anthropology, social-scientific modeling, narrative analysis, theological speculation, and reception history, the essays attend to the constructions of gender, the roles and representations of women, and the impact biblical studies has had—and can have—on people’s lives.
A Most Reliable Witness: Essays in Honor of Ross Shepard Kraemer
edited by Susan Ashbrook Harvey, Nathaniel DesRosiers, Shira L. Lander, Jacqueline Z. Pastis, and Daniel Ullucci
Brown Judaic Studies. Providence, RI: Brown University Press, 2015. 312 pp. $59.95 (cloth). ISBN 978-1-930675-94-0.
This Festschrift honors Ross Shepard Kraemer, a trailblazer in the areas of women and religion, Jews and Judaism, and earliest Christianity in the ancient Mediterranean world. It includes twenty-eight original essays on ancient Judaism, Christianity, and women in the Greco-Roman world. Contributors examine both ancient and modern texts in cross-cultural and trans-historical perspective. Paula Fredriksen, John Gager, Amy-Jill Levine, Susan Niditch, Elaine Pagels, and Adele Reinhartz are among the contributors.
The People Beside Paul: The Philippian Assembly and History from Below
edited by Joseph A. Marchal
Early Christianity and Its Literature. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2015. 354 pp. $43.95. ISBN 978-1-62837-096-6.
This volume brings together an international and interdisciplinary group of scholars representing a range of expertise with a common interest: Philippi in antiquity. Each contribution attends to one set of contextual particularities for the people around Paul, while simultaneously placing them in wider Greco-Roman settings. The contributions offer crucial insights into often-explored questions concerning the letter’s hymn and audience, Paul’s opponents, and the sites of the community and of Paul’s imprisonment. Additionally, contributors examine issues related to women, slaves, Jews, and members of localized cults.
An Introduction to the New Testament: The Abridged Edition
by Raymond E. Brown; edited and abridged by Marion L. Soards
Anchor Yale Bible Reference Library. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2016. 376 pp. $28.00. ISBN 978-0-300-17528-8.
Since its publication in 1997, Raymond Brown’s Introduction to the New Testament has been widely embraced by modern readers seeking to understand the Christian Bible. This new, abridged version maintains the essence and centrist interpretation of the original without tampering with Brown’s perspective, insights, or conclusions. The biblical writings remain the focus, but there are also chapters dealing with the nature, origin, and interpretation of the New Testament texts, as well as chapters concerning the political, social, religious, and philosophical world of antiquity. The volume also includes discussion of topics such as the Gospels’ relationship to one another; the form and function of ancient letters; Paul’s thought and life, motivation, legacy, and theology; and the historical Jesus. This comprehensive guidebook is now more accessible for general readers, Bible study groups, ministers, scholars, and students alike.
What They Don’t Tell You: A Survivor’s Guide to Biblical Studies, Second Edition
by Michael Joseph Brown
Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2015. 140 pp. $18.00 ISBN 978-0-664-23594-9.
This popular textbook helps students navigate the unfamiliar terrain of biblical studies. Brown provides basic information about the Bible and biblical criticism. He explains the jargon and presents the variety of perspectives students will encounter in the classroom. This new edition has been updated to account for changes in biblical scholarship since the first edition was released in 2000. Brown has also added a new “rule of thumb,” a discussion of contextualized forms of biblical interpretation, and an appendix with suggestions for getting started on the task of interpreting biblical texts.