Pub Date : 2022-04-01DOI: 10.1177/00209643221081705c
R. Burnette-Bletsch
thIs commentary on 2 Kings is the twelfth installment of the Wisdom Commentary series. This series addresses the problem that, despite ever increasing numbers of women entering the biblical studies guild, relatively few have authored commentaries. It is undoubtedly advantageous to the field when diverse voices are brought into the interpretive dialogue about biblical texts. Wisdom Commentaries do not limit their focus to biblical passages dealing overtly with women, but rather encourage feminist engagement with the whole biblical text. Such a goal is especially pertinent for 2 Kings, which focuses primarily on power struggles among male kings and their male god YHWH. Although this text seems at first glance an unlikely candidate for feminist interpretation, Park argues persuasively that a driving force behind 2 Kings is the interrogation of YHWH’s masculinity (defined in contradistinction to the feminine) which is continually defended, questioned, reformulated, and ultimately deconstructed.
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Pub Date : 2022-04-01DOI: 10.1177/00209643221081711
D. Womack
This study compares Protestant portrayals of Islam during the sixteenth-century Protestant Reformation and the nineteenth-century era of imperialism and missions. It considers the earliest Protestant writings about Islam and the views of the first Protestant missionaries who had close personal contact with Muslims. To understand the historical thought patterns that still influence contemporary American Protestant views of Muslims, the article examines common theological themes, statements about women and sexuality, rhetoric about Islamic violence, and shifting approaches to Muslims over the centuries. While addressing misrepresentations of Islam, this study finds that Protestant understandings of Islam are not always skewed or hostile. Religious rivalry and condemnation have made a lasting impact, yet this history also reveals appreciative views of Islam from which we could learn today.
{"title":"Protestant Portrayals of Islam: From the Reformation to Modern Missions","authors":"D. Womack","doi":"10.1177/00209643221081711","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00209643221081711","url":null,"abstract":"This study compares Protestant portrayals of Islam during the sixteenth-century Protestant Reformation and the nineteenth-century era of imperialism and missions. It considers the earliest Protestant writings about Islam and the views of the first Protestant missionaries who had close personal contact with Muslims. To understand the historical thought patterns that still influence contemporary American Protestant views of Muslims, the article examines common theological themes, statements about women and sexuality, rhetoric about Islamic violence, and shifting approaches to Muslims over the centuries. While addressing misrepresentations of Islam, this study finds that Protestant understandings of Islam are not always skewed or hostile. Religious rivalry and condemnation have made a lasting impact, yet this history also reveals appreciative views of Islam from which we could learn today.","PeriodicalId":44542,"journal":{"name":"INTERPRETATION-A JOURNAL OF BIBLE AND THEOLOGY","volume":"48 1","pages":"140 - 155"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2022-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"76297346","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-04-01DOI: 10.1177/00209643221081705
R. Baard
In thIs hefty tome, noted Presbyterian theologian Douglas Ottati offers a theology rooted in Augustinian, Protestant, liberal, and humanist elements, which enables him both to embrace classical theological wisdom and to rethink theological themes in light of “new and pressing realities” (p. xxi). The book consists of three sections structured around seventy propositions. In the first section, on method, he introduces Christian theology as a practical wisdom, i.e., as “a vision of God, the world, and ourselves in the service of a piety, a settled disposition, and a way of living” (p. 25). Then follows a section on creation, which offers fresh perspectives on creation and providence, while emphasizing the unity of God’s creative and redemptive work. Finally, in the section on redemption, Ottati focuses on the themes of Christ, Spirit, sin, regeneration, and world renewal, concluding with three final propositions on God the Redeemer. The overall structure of the theology rests on three central insights gained from Augustine: the goodness of creation, the depth of sin, and the centrality of grace. From these themes, Ottati presents God as Creator, Judge, and Redeemer. This is an experiential and narratival perspective on God rooted in both Protestantism’s call to return to the source of Scripture, and liberalism’s emphasis on experience as a source of knowledge. It is therefore precisely as a liberal theologian who values the experiential that Ottati expresses discomfort with “speculative” elements in theology, noting, for example, that his “metaphysical reticence” leads him to remain “agnostic about ‘internal relations’ among the three persons within God” (p. 741). He focuses on the revelatory experiences captured in Scripture, stating that he intends to “work with current historical and biblical scholarship rather than dismiss it on dogmatic grounds” (p. 364). The fourth element in his theological viewpoint is that of Christian humanism, partially borrowed from Calvin, which offers a way out of the “dislocation” that marks the twenty-first century (p. 16). Christian humanism, he says, is theocentric, and as such dislodges humans from the center of the theological frame by recognizing that in the context of divine governance the world beyond humans has value. It also relocates humans by sensing that within the context of the divine dynamic human beings have worth.
{"title":"Major Review: A Theology for the Twenty-First Century","authors":"R. Baard","doi":"10.1177/00209643221081705","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00209643221081705","url":null,"abstract":"In thIs hefty tome, noted Presbyterian theologian Douglas Ottati offers a theology rooted in Augustinian, Protestant, liberal, and humanist elements, which enables him both to embrace classical theological wisdom and to rethink theological themes in light of “new and pressing realities” (p. xxi). The book consists of three sections structured around seventy propositions. In the first section, on method, he introduces Christian theology as a practical wisdom, i.e., as “a vision of God, the world, and ourselves in the service of a piety, a settled disposition, and a way of living” (p. 25). Then follows a section on creation, which offers fresh perspectives on creation and providence, while emphasizing the unity of God’s creative and redemptive work. Finally, in the section on redemption, Ottati focuses on the themes of Christ, Spirit, sin, regeneration, and world renewal, concluding with three final propositions on God the Redeemer. The overall structure of the theology rests on three central insights gained from Augustine: the goodness of creation, the depth of sin, and the centrality of grace. From these themes, Ottati presents God as Creator, Judge, and Redeemer. This is an experiential and narratival perspective on God rooted in both Protestantism’s call to return to the source of Scripture, and liberalism’s emphasis on experience as a source of knowledge. It is therefore precisely as a liberal theologian who values the experiential that Ottati expresses discomfort with “speculative” elements in theology, noting, for example, that his “metaphysical reticence” leads him to remain “agnostic about ‘internal relations’ among the three persons within God” (p. 741). He focuses on the revelatory experiences captured in Scripture, stating that he intends to “work with current historical and biblical scholarship rather than dismiss it on dogmatic grounds” (p. 364). The fourth element in his theological viewpoint is that of Christian humanism, partially borrowed from Calvin, which offers a way out of the “dislocation” that marks the twenty-first century (p. 16). Christian humanism, he says, is theocentric, and as such dislodges humans from the center of the theological frame by recognizing that in the context of divine governance the world beyond humans has value. It also relocates humans by sensing that within the context of the divine dynamic human beings have worth.","PeriodicalId":44542,"journal":{"name":"INTERPRETATION-A JOURNAL OF BIBLE AND THEOLOGY","volume":"38 1","pages":"165 - 167"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2022-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77661504","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-04-01DOI: 10.1177/00209643221081706
Joshua Ralston
For Christian theology to learn from Muslims, it cannot simply cross over into Islamic thought by reading Muslim texts or appropriating Islamic ideas. The Christian theologian must find a way to attend to the history of Christian-Muslim polemics in a non-confrontational fashion that still accounts for disagreement and difference. Many Muslim voices offer profound and challenging questions concerning Christian theology. This essay proposes that Christian theology can engage with Islamic thought as a key resource in the theological quest for a more truthful and just witness to God.
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Pub Date : 2022-01-01DOI: 10.1177/00209643211051122
Bill Gaventa
Brian Brock’s powerful Book invites readers into an intense, detailed conversation between the Bible, theology, early church history, ethics, health, modern medical practices, the contemporary church, and people with disabilities and their families, exploring questions of how we understand, treat, and love people with disabilities, particularly those with intellectual and developmental challenges. Brock’s academic and pastoral credentials represent all the disciplines above except the last, which is embodied, represented, and symbolized in his life as a father to his son Adam, a young man with Down syndrome and autism.
Brian Brock这本强大的书邀请读者进入圣经,神学,早期教会历史,伦理,健康,现代医学实践,当代教会,残疾人及其家庭之间激烈而详细的对话,探讨我们如何理解,治疗和爱残疾人的问题,特别是那些有智力和发展挑战的人。布洛克的学术和牧师资历代表了上述所有学科,但最后一个学科除外,这在他作为儿子亚当(一个患有唐氏综合症和自闭症的年轻人)的父亲的生活中得到了体现、代表和象征。
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Pub Date : 2022-01-01DOI: 10.1177/00209643211051122a
Luke Timothy Johnson
luke timothy Johnson is an outstanding and prolific New Testament scholar. His textbook, The Writings of the New Testament (Fortress, 1986), is widely used in seminaries, his commentaries on Luke (Liturgical, 1991) and Acts (Liturgical, 2006) in the Sacra Pagina series are just what every preacher/ scholar needs, and his many other books and articles on a variety of important topics have greatly enriched New Testament studies, both in the academy and in the church.
{"title":"Major Review: Constructing Paul (The Canonical Paul, Vol.1) by Luke Timothy Johnson","authors":"Luke Timothy Johnson","doi":"10.1177/00209643211051122a","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00209643211051122a","url":null,"abstract":"luke timothy Johnson is an outstanding and prolific New Testament scholar. His textbook, The Writings of the New Testament (Fortress, 1986), is widely used in seminaries, his commentaries on Luke (Liturgical, 1991) and Acts (Liturgical, 2006) in the Sacra Pagina series are just what every preacher/ scholar needs, and his many other books and articles on a variety of important topics have greatly enriched New Testament studies, both in the academy and in the church.","PeriodicalId":44542,"journal":{"name":"INTERPRETATION-A JOURNAL OF BIBLE AND THEOLOGY","volume":"68 1","pages":"63 - 65"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81108906","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-01DOI: 10.1177/00209643211051130
Suzanne Watts Henderson
In recent decades, scholars have come to see 1 Corinthians as a rhetorically unified response to the problem of divisions among Corinthian believers. This essay explores the ways in which Paul presents the cross as the organizing principle that can bind together three different forms of community division: the cult of the personality (1:10–4:21); the freedom to eat idol meat (8:1–11:1); and economic disparities when gathered for a meal (11:17–34). In each case, Paul appeals implicitly or explicitly to the cross as a remedy for the all-too-familiar strains on the fractured community. In the end, Paul’s countercultural message about the cross offers a word of exhortation for the American church today, as it navigates a society that shares much in common with first-century Corinth.
{"title":"Mending What Is Broken: The Logic of the Cross in 1 Corinthians","authors":"Suzanne Watts Henderson","doi":"10.1177/00209643211051130","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00209643211051130","url":null,"abstract":"In recent decades, scholars have come to see 1 Corinthians as a rhetorically unified response to the problem of divisions among Corinthian believers. This essay explores the ways in which Paul presents the cross as the organizing principle that can bind together three different forms of community division: the cult of the personality (1:10–4:21); the freedom to eat idol meat (8:1–11:1); and economic disparities when gathered for a meal (11:17–34). In each case, Paul appeals implicitly or explicitly to the cross as a remedy for the all-too-familiar strains on the fractured community. In the end, Paul’s countercultural message about the cross offers a word of exhortation for the American church today, as it navigates a society that shares much in common with first-century Corinth.","PeriodicalId":44542,"journal":{"name":"INTERPRETATION-A JOURNAL OF BIBLE AND THEOLOGY","volume":"8 1","pages":"5 - 14"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89699965","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-01DOI: 10.1177/00209643211051124
R. Gench
The dangerous memory of the crucified and risen Jesus confronts the “lie” of racism, past and present. The cross and resurrection disrupt our forgetfulness about the lie and awaken memory of our complicity in the reality of racism and its ongoing diminishment of the lives of racially-minoritized people. Indeed, the dangerous memory embodied in the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus creates tension that evokes a relational and agitational community of resistance to racist ideas and policies.
{"title":"Dangerous Memory: An Antiracist Political Theology of the Cross","authors":"R. Gench","doi":"10.1177/00209643211051124","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00209643211051124","url":null,"abstract":"The dangerous memory of the crucified and risen Jesus confronts the “lie” of racism, past and present. The cross and resurrection disrupt our forgetfulness about the lie and awaken memory of our complicity in the reality of racism and its ongoing diminishment of the lives of racially-minoritized people. Indeed, the dangerous memory embodied in the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus creates tension that evokes a relational and agitational community of resistance to racist ideas and policies.","PeriodicalId":44542,"journal":{"name":"INTERPRETATION-A JOURNAL OF BIBLE AND THEOLOGY","volume":"33 1","pages":"39 - 50"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87365110","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-01DOI: 10.1177/00209643211051128
S. M. Heim
Contemporary Christian witness about the death of Jesus moves in a culture already saturated with an aesthetic or intuitive ethic of the crucifixion. That aesthetic has many features acquired though Christianity’s long social dominance. This essay focuses on one aspect, authentically derived from the distinctive understanding Christian faith attributed to the crucifixion. First, I describe the Roman context, and the natural “reading” of the image of a crucified person there, as the background to considering the absence of that image in early Christianity. This leads to exploration of the ways that early Christianity used a variety of typological images to weave a new frame of meaning around the crucifixion of Christ. Then, using Tom Holland’s recent historical synopsis of Christianity, I indicate how this new aesthetic of the cross lodged itself in shared cultural assumptions and perceptions. Finally, I consider the crucial American case of lynching, in which White Christian churches betrayed this distinctive meaning of the crucifixion, Black churches affirmed it, and the cultural aesthetic of crucifixion proved itself a key medium for resistance to lynching. Finally, I suggest some implications for church preaching and teaching in relation to the surrounding culture today.
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