Slater, Thomas Bowie 2015 1-4955-0282-1 264 pages This collection of essays is an Afrocentric examination into the gospels and Jesus-studies by persons of African descent. The study encourages us to reassess our commonly held beliefs about biblical interpretation by offering us a fresh point of view and different cultural perspective than those that have been developed by traditional Eurocentric research. This work challenges our presuppositions about the Bible and biblical interpretation.
Marsh, Clive 1992 0-7734-9822-2 248 pages This study reappraises Albrecht Ritschl and represents a fresh perspective on his work, through his study and use of the canonical Gospels. Ritschl's concern for theological responsibility when interpreting the life of Jesus is noted and explored in a discussion of the New Testament canon and the problem of the christological diversity found within the Gospel tradition.
Craig, William Lane 1989 0-88946-616-5 420 pages Draws on the evidence of Paul and the Gospels to present the case for accepting the historicity of the bodily resurrection of Jesus.
Borg, Marcus J. 1984 0-88946-603-3 397 pages A study of the political dimension of the ministry of Jesus, presented as a corrective to the over-emphasis on eschatology in much New Testament scholarship.
". . . certainly one of the most constructive and original books about Jesus to have been written in recent years. . . . there is also a great deal of fresh and valuable detailed exegesis. . . . an illuminating perspective on Jesus in the social context of his day [and] an important contribution to an important ongoing debate." - Themelíos
". . . full of wise judgments and fresh insights. . . . The argument is crisp; the perspective is fresh and groundbreaking; the judgments are sound and serious. . . . an excellent study, of exceptional insight and coherence." - Biblical Theology Bulletin
Kelly, J. Landrum Jr. 1994 0-7734-1935-7 460 pages The author argues that Jesus' views were based on belief in a non-retributive, omnibenevolent God, challenging not only the Mosaic Law but assumptions about eternal punishment and the divine sanction of the state and its retributive institutions of war and punishment. It also interprets Paul as being the first Christian revisionist. As a result, orthodox Christianity, through the influence of Paul (and thus Augustine, Aquinas, Luther, and Calvin), has mistakenly promoted the 'just war' and 'divinely-ordained state' doctrines in the name of a thinker whose conclusions were in the opposite direction.
Waterford, William Bede 2008 0-7734-5259-1 356 pages This study examines the difference between reading and hearing biblical texts, a difference demonstrated in ten studies wherein theories of aural and literal interpretation are applied to the Greek text of Mark 6:30-8:27a. The biblical texts used in the studies vary in the size, as do the themes and issues investigated.
Van Noppen, Ronald 2015 1-4955-0360-7 420 pages This excellent book is very well written, thoroughly researched and full of insight, Readers will find much new light shed on the conundrum of ‘drinking Jesus’ blood’, on John 6 as a passage, and on Johannine theology in general.
Wilson, J. Christian 1995 0-7734-2392-3 112 pages This study contains five essays concerning the Shepherd of Hermas and an introduction which spells out the author's views on the major critical issues involved in the study of this early Christian document. The first essay examines remarkable similarities in genre between the Mandates of the Shepherd and 1QS, similarities too complex to be coincidental. The second examines the canonical history of the Shepherd, which was widely accepted as a book of the New Testament in the second and third centuries, offering possible explanations for its canonical demise in the fourth and fifth centuries. The third essay offers possible explanations for the fact that, while clearly a Christian writing, the Shepherd over its entire 114 chapters never mentions the name Jesus nor the title Christ. In "The Twilight of Apocalyptic", Wilson notes the apocalyptic form of the Shepherd in comparison with its minimal apocalyptic content, and that it is a prime example of how ecclesiology took the place of apocalypticism in second century Christianity. The final essay examines the legacy of the Shepherd of Hermas for our understanding of early Christianity.
Frost, William P. 1991 0-88946-249-6 278 pages Searches for "ultimate meaning: the basic religious dimension, that transcendent quality by which existence, happiness, and human suffering, hopes and expectations, heroic sacrifice and the affirmation of life, love and death receive some perspective".
Mueller, David L. 1991 0-88946-583-5 510 pages Tripartite study introduces some of the main lines of Barth's developing theological perspectives, traces their developing theological differences with particular reference to diverging interpretations of the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and analyzes his mature teaching concerning the doctrine he termed "the heart of the Church's dogmatics." Chapters include: The Early Barth and his Critics; The Cross and the Resurrection: The Barth - Bultmann Debate (1941-1948); and The Doctrine of Reconciliation in the Church Dogmatics.
Craig, William Lane 1985 0-88946-811-7 474 pages A study of apologetical arguments of anti-Deist thinkers, tracing a series from Vives' De veritate fidei christianae (1543) to Paley's Evidences of Christianity (1794).
Diericx, Erin M. 2014 0-7734-0073-7 116 pages The literary paradigm approach to this study on “healing” examines three key features in Chapter 9 in the Book of John. It provides a literary criticism on the text from an ahistorical view, it examines the autonomy of the text, and points us toward its aesthetic meaning. This approach helps the reader to understand "healing” from the perspective of the individual’s physical healing as well as his psychosocial and spiritual healing experience.
Oakman, Douglas E. 1986 0-88946-608-4 312 pages A study of the social conditions of first-century Palestine that explores the economic context of the historical Jesus, focusing on: issues of production and economic distribution; the "Jesus tradition" from an economic perspective; comparative material from biblical and Hellenistic authors; Jesus' occupation and the settings a carpenter might have encountered in finding work; the social contracts that could have resulted in Jesus' becoming a broker or bridge between social classes; and reflections on the economic values in the words and ministry of Jesus.
Smith, Barry D. 1993 0-7734-2370-2 232 pages The goal of this work is a historical reconstruction of the Last Supper, of not only the who, what, where, and when, but also the why. It begins with a detailed account of how a typical first-century Passover would have proceeded, and then moves into a literary-critical analysis of the relevant New Testament texts.
Munro, Winsome 1998 0-7734-2440-7 712 pages This book is an exploration of Jesus' social origins and location in the society of his time and place. The hypothesis proposed is that Jesus was of slave status because he was born of a woman who was a slave. Contends that his career outside his household of origin was as a "freedman" with continuing obligations to his former owner. This hypothesis explains much that is otherwise obscure in the early Christian writings concerning Jesus, and facilitates reconstruction of his life and crucifixion. The book applies adaptations of methodologies used by the Jesus Seminars of the Westar Institute, of which the writer was a Fellow, to determine the historicity of teaching ascribed to Jesus.
Table of Contents: Introduction; Jesus as a Slave - Historical Plausibility; In the Form of a Slave; Slave or Son? John's Gospel; Slave Experience in Jesus' Teaching; From Slave to Slave/Child of God - the Synoptic Gospels and the Acts; An Outlaw Slave and the Jewish Law - the Synoptic Gospels; A Fugitive Slave and His Community in the Synoptic Gospels; Condemnation and Death of an Upstart Slave; Family and Birth Traditions; Conclusions and Reflections; Bibliography and Index
Hertig, Paul 1998 0-7734-2444-X 204 pages Matthew deals with underlying tensions created by synagogues which were isolated from the multicultural context of Galilee and churches which were contextualized in multicultural settings, attempting to bridge these opposing constituencies through a three-horizon hermeneutic: the Galilee of the Gentiles text of Isaiah 9:1,2; contemporary Judaism; and the missionary church in a multicultural context. This study provides insights into the historical background of Galilee in a first-century multicultural context. The multicultural foundations of the Matthean community have implications for contemporary mission practice. This study brings together ecclesiology and missiology, long separated, which must be bridged according to Matthew's holistic model of church and mission in dynamic partnership.
Cabrido, John Aranda 2012 0-7734-1406-1 556 pages This is the first monograph on Matthew’s presentation of Jesus as “Shepherd.”
Seven passages are selected and critically analysed.
(Matt 2,1-12; 9,35-38; 15,21-28; 18,10-14; 25,31-46; 26,30-35; 28,16-20)
Burke, Alexander J. 2003 0-7734-6694-0 274 pages This study holds that the fourth evangelist adopted and combined various traditions in chapters 11 and 12 into a single, unified eschatological statement, separately and specially conceived, as a complex literary and theological hinge of John’s Gospel, a bridge between Christ’s ministry to the world and his ministry to his disciples. The extent and unity of this statement has been disguised by the tendency to apply to John a pericopean mentality suitable for the Synoptics but foreign to John. When John 11 and 12 are viewed as a single, eschatological statement, an analysis of its three dominant literary forms (plot structure, sign and dialogue structure, and narrative dramatic structure) can help establish that the passage of 10:40-12:50 constitutes a tightly-knit literary unity. John shapes Jesus’ final discourse, 12:44-50 primarily as the natural conclusion of his eschatological statement, and secondarily as a summary of chapters 1-12 because the insertion of 11 and 12 is itself designed as the climax and summary of chapters 1-12. This new interpretation gives the passage a tight and comprehensive fit with the whole of John’s Gospel.
Brands, Michael 2015 1-4955-0333-X 476 pages This stimulating book fills a lacuna in New Testament studies on the interpretation of the missional paradigm of the “Great Commission” by energizing an interdisciplinary dialogue and fresh inquiry into the passage, it’s biblical theology, it’s missiological theory and it’s contemporary cultural perspective which are deeply rooted in Jesus’ mission and His vision for the coming kingdom of God.
Rushton, Kathleen 2011 0-7734-1500-9 404 pages She has provided feminist theology and Johannine studies with new challenges and new creative insights and understandings with which future scholars, activists and mystics will need to engage if we are to allow the moon to come into view and not just the finger that points to it as we read and engage with this study.
Simmons, William A. 1996 0-7734-2436-9 216 pages This volume represents the latest and most comprehensive treatment of a critical issue of New Testament studies: Paul's relationship to the historical Jesus. It clearly defines the nature and scope of the issue by analyzing the debate from F. C. Baur to the most recent materials on the subject. The subject is examined from several standpoints: methodological, theological, historical, and sociological.
Milavec, Aaron 1982 0-88946-966-0 345 pages Defends the thesis that the concrete reality of religious life is best understood as a learned activity. Milavec illustrates this thesis through an interpretation of Jesus which pictures him as a "master" apprenticing his disciples, with analyses of individual growth in community, the manner in which personal transformations can occur, and the role of scripture, prayer, and ritual in promoting religious life.