Interpretation articles from April 1993

Interpretation archives from April 1993

Deuteronomy 4:32-40. (From Text to Sermon)
April 1, 1993... WHILE THE HISTORICAL AND LITERARY STUDY of Deuteronomy has left scholars with a farrago of unresolved problems, the theology of the book is in clear focus. Deuteronomy is the work of preachers, and this is a work with which every preacher is able...

Psalm 47. (From Text to Sermon)
April 1, 1993... IT IS NO ACCIDENT that Psalm 47 is appointed to be read on the Sunday when Christians celebrate the ascension of the Crucified and Risen Christ, to sit "on the right hand of God the Father Almighty." The New Testament witness to the ascension is...

Matthew 10:24-33. (From Text to Sermon)
April 1, 1993... Matthew 10:24-33 falls within Jesus, speech commissioning the twelve disciples to preach the news of the kingdom of heaven and to do works of power among the people (10:1-42). In the verses immediately prior to the lection (vs. 16-23), Jesus...

I Peter 2:2-10. (From Text to Sermon)
April 1, 1993... Sharing particular customs, values, and traditions makes persons a people. American Christians today inhabit a culture ruled instead by a pluralism that recognizes no final authority for establishing common values. American society, promoting...

Amos: A Commentary on the Book of Amos.
April 1, 1993... By Shalom M. Paul. Hermeneia. Fortress Press, Minneapolis, 1991. 409 pp. $44. 95. ISBN 0-8006-6023-4. THIS COMMENTARY is the second on Amos to have appeared in the Hermeneia series. The first was the work on Joel and Amos by Hans Walter...

Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson.
April 1, 1993... by Camille Paglia. Yale University Press, New Haven, 1990/Vintage Books, Random House, New York, 1991. 718 pp. $15.00. ISBN 0-679-73579-8. LAST SPRING, just as I began reading Paglia's Sexual Personae, the book became the focus of bitter...

Goddesses in Religions and Modern Debate.
April 1, 1993... edited by Larry Hurtado. University of Manitoba Studies in Religion 1. Scholars Press, Atlanta, 1990. 227pp. $29.95. ISBN 1-55540-549-5. SEVERAL YEARS AGO Susanne Heine, in a book translated into English as Christianity and the Goddesses...

In the Wake of the Goddesses: Women, Culture, and the Biblical Transformation of Pagan Myth.
April 1, 1993... by Tikva Frymer-Kensky. The Free Press, New York 1992. 292 pp. $24. 95. ISBN 002-910800-4. SEVERAL YEARS AGO Susanne Heine, in a book translated into English as Christianity and the Goddesses (London: SCM, 1988), took aim at contemporary...

Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission.
April 1, 1993... by David J. Bosch. OrbzsBooks, Maryknoll, 1991. 587 pp. $19. 95 (paper). ISBN 0-88344-719-3. BY THE LATE 1960s, says the author, "It became evident that a decisive shift had taken place, even in the mind of Westerners, from a Europe-centered...

The Bible, Violence, and the Sacred: Liberation from the Myth of Sanctioned Violence.
April 1, 1993... by James G. Williams. HarperSanFrancisco/HarperCollins Publishers, New York, 1991. 288 pp. $27.00. ISBN 0-06-069453-X WILLIAMS'S BOOK iS one of two volumes to appear recently from scholars active in the Colloquium on Violence and Religion at...

The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books.(Brief Article)
April 1, 1993... Edited by Bruce M. Metzger and Roland E. Murphy. Oxford University Press, New York, 1991. 432 pp. $37. 95. ISBN 0-19-528356-2. PASTORS, students, and scholars familiar with the previous edition of The New Oxford Annotated Bible (1973, 1977)...

The Anchor Bible, vol. 3a, Leviticus 1-16: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary.
April 1, 1993... By Jacob Milgrom. The Anchor Bible, Vol. 3A. Doubleday, New York, 1991. 1163 pp. $42. 00. ISBN 0-385-11434-6. MILGROM'S COMMENTARY on Leviticus is both an extensive introduction and a detailed commentary on the first sixteen chapters. The...

Character and Ideology in the Book of Esther.(Brief Article)
April 1, 1993... By Michael V. Fox. Studies on Personalities of the Old Testament. University of South Carolina Press, Columbia, 1991. 317 pp. $32.95. ISBN 0-87249-757-7. THIS IS a very fine presentation of the Book of Esther by a Jewish scholar whose...

Reformed and Feminist: A Challenge to the Church.(Brief Article)
April 1, 1993... By Johanna W. H. van Wijk-Bos. Westminster/John Knox Press, Louisville, 1991. 117 pp. $10.95 (paper). ISBN 0-664-25194-3. IF THERE IS VIRTUE in displaying as much as one can of one's preunderstandings when doing biblical interpretation, van...

Every Promise Fulfilled: Contesting Plots in Joshua.(Brief Article)
April 1, 1993... By L. Daniel Hawk. Literary Currents in Biblical Interpretation. Westminster/John Knox Press, Louisville, 1991. 172 pp. $14.95 (paper). ISBN 0-664-2535-4. BEGINNING HIS STUDY of Joshua with the observation that the book contains numerous...

The Reforming Kings: Cults and Society in First Temple Judah.(Brief Article)
April 1, 1993... By Richard H. Lowery. JSOT Sup. Series 120. JSOT/Sheffield Academic Press, Sheffield, 1991. 236 pp. $50.00. ISBN 1-85075-318-0. IN THIS REVISION of a Yale dissertation, Lowery presents "a broad-sweep social history of deuteronomic theology in...

Zion's Final Destiny: The Development of the Book of Isaiah - A Reassessment of Isaiah 36-39.(Brief Article)
April 1, 1993... By Christopher R. Seitz. Fortress Press, Minneapolis, 1991. 228 pp. $24.95. ISBN 0-8006-2504-8. THE WIDELY HELD BELIEF that the parallel narratives in Isaiah 36--39 and II Kings 18:13--20:19 originated in Kings during the exile and were...

Prophetic Oracles of Salvation in the Old Testament.(Brief Article)
April 1, 1993... By Claus Westermann. Translated by Keith Crim. Westminster/John Knox Press, Louisville, 1991. 283 pp. $18.95 (paper). ISBN 0-664-25239-7. IN THIS VOLUME, a compliment to his earlier Basic Forms of Prophetic Speech, Westermann traces the...

Ancient Wine, New Wineskins: The Lord's Supper in Old Testament Perspective.(Brief Article)
April 1, 1993... By Jon L. Berquist. Chalice Press, St. Louis, 1991. $13.95 (paper). ISBN 0-8272-0019-6. BERQUIST, a professor of Old Testament at Phillips Graduate Seminary in Tulsa, is concerned that we Christians too often overlook the riches of the Old...

Let the Reader Understand: Reader-Response Criticism and the Gospel of Mark.(Brief Article)
April 1, 1993... By Robert M. Fowler. Fortress Press, Minneapolis, 1991. 279 pp. $21.95. ISBN 0-8006-2491-2. FOWLER is not one of those extremists proclaiming that the reader is everything. But he does argue vigorously that the reader is a very significant...

The Son of Man: A Metaphor for Jesus in the Fourth Gospel.(Brief Article)
April 1, 1993... By Mary Margaret Pazdan, O.P. Michael Glazier/Liturgical Press, Collegeville, MN, 1991. 87 pp. $7. 95 (paper). ISBN 08146-5677-3. IN THIS STUDY Pazdan explores the function and significance of "Son of Man" in the Fourth Gospel. The study is...

What Are They Saying About Acts?(Brief Article)
April 1, 1993... By Mark Allan Powell. Paulist Press, New York and Mahwah, 1991. 147 pp. $6.95 (paper). ISBN 0-80913279-6. TOGETHER with Powell's earlier What Are They Saying About Luke? (see the review in INTERP. 45 [1991], 312), this concise survey orients...

Proleptic Priests: Priesthood in the Epistle to the Hebrews.(Brief Article)
April 1, 1993... By John M. Scholer. JSNT Sup. Series 49. JSOT/ Sheffield Academic Press, Sheffield, 1991. 243 pp. $52.50. ISBN 1-85075266-4. NO READER of Hebrews can miss its interpretation of Jesus as priest. The present volume, however, examines tendencies...

The Visionary Mode: Biblical Prophecy, Hermeneutics, and Cultural Change.
April 1, 1993... By Michael Lieb. Cornell University Press, Ithaca and London, 1991. 362 pp. $32.50. ISBN 0-8014-2273-6. UTILIZING Ezekiel's inaugural visio Dei (Ezek. 1--3) as his catalyst, Lieb traces the development of the merkabah within the...

The Bible's Authority: A Portrait Gallery of Thinkers from Lessing to Bultmann.
April 1, 1993... By J. C. O'Neill. T.&T. Clark, Edinburgh, 1991. 323 pp. $24.95 (paper). ISBN 0-567-29189-8. ASSUMING that no one who wrote in French or in English during the two hundred years of intellectual history covered by O'Neill is worthy of a place...

Stony the Road We Trod: African American Biblical Interpretation.
April 1, 1993... Edited by Cain Hope Felder. Fortress Press, Minneapolis, 1991. 260 pp. $15.95 (paper). ISBN 0-8006-2501-3. THIS BOOK contains eleven essays by African American biblical scholars, who articulate and assess the present trends of modern...

First, Second and Third John.(Brief Article)
April 1, 1993... By Dwight Moody Smith. Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching. John Knox Press, Louisville, 1991. 164 pp. $17. 95. ISBN 0-80423147-8. SMITH, of Duke Divinity School, is one of our foremost interpreters of the Fourth...

The Pre-Christian Paul.(Brief Article)
April 1, 1993... By Martin Hengel, in collaboration with Roland Deines. Translated by John Bowden. SCM Press, London/Trinity Press International, Philadelphia, 1991. 162 pp. $21. 95 (paper). ISBN 1-56338-009-9. PROFESSOR HENCEL of the University of Tubingen...

Paul's Gospel in an Intercultural Context: Jew and Gentile in the Letter to the Romans.(Brief Article)
April 1, 1993... By William S. Campbell. Peter Lang, Bern and New York, 1991. 213 pp. SFr 46,80 (paper). ISBN 3-631-42981-9. THIS FINE VOLUME collects the author s essays from 1973 to the present; four of the eleven essays appear here for the first time....

Disciples and Leaders: The Origins of Christian Ministry in the New Testament.(Brief Article)
April 1, 1993... By John F. O'Grady. Paulist Press, New York, 1991. 137 pp. $9. 95 (paper). ISBN 0-8091-3269-9. IF THE CHURCH is to renew its faith and correct its misperceptions concerning the shape of contemporary ministry, then it must return to the New...

Variety and Unity in New Testament Thought.(Brief Article)
April 1, 1993... By John Reumann. The Oxford Bible Series. Oxford University Press, New York, 1991. 330 pp. $55.00. ISBN 019-826201-9. AS A PART of the Oxford Bible Series, this book examines the question of unity and diversity within the New Testament. The...

The Promise and Practice of Biblical Theology.(Brief Article)
April 1, 1993... Edited by John Reumann. Fortress Press, Minneapolis, 1991. 214 pp. $12.95 (paper). ISBN 0-8006-2495-5. THIS COLLECTION of essays is in two parts. The first reviews "current and new perspectives" in biblical studies. The second attempts to...

Jewish Civilization in the Hellenistic-Roman Period.(Brief Article)
April 1, 1993... Edited by Shemaryahu Talmon. Trinity Press International, Philadelphia, 1991. 269 pp. n.p. (paper). ISBN 1-56338-034-X THIS VOLUME contains essays deriving from the 1986 and 1987 summer sessions of the Continuing Workshop on Teaching Jewish...

Power and Politics in Palestine: The Jews and the Governing of Their Land, 100 B.C.-A.D. 70.(Brief Article)
April 1, 1993... By James McLaren. JSNT Sup. Series 63. JSOT/Sheffield Academic Press, Sheffield, 1991. 244 pp. $42.50. ISBN 1-85075-3199. THIS BOOK is a study of twenty-one historical incidents recorded in Josephus and the New Testament that seeks to...

The Partings of the Ways: Between Christianity and Judaism and Their Significance for the Character of Christianity.
April 1, 1993... By James D. G. Dunn. SCM Press, London/Trinity Press International, Philadelphia, 1991. 368 pp. $29.95 (paper). ISBN 1-56338-022-6. THIS DETAILED WORK of New Testament interpretation by the University of Durham exegete attempts to establish...

Christians and Jews Together: Voices from the Conversation.(Brief Article)
April 1, 1993... Edited by Donald G. Dawe and Aurelia Fule. Theology and Worship Ministry Unit, Presbyterian Church (USA), 1991. 171 pp. $7.95 (paper). PPH 18091000. The 1987 General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) adopted for study and reflection...

Divine Revelation: Our Moral Relation with God.(Brief Article)
April 1, 1993... By Kern R. Trembath. Oxford University Press, New York and Oxford, 1991. 230 pp. $32.50. ISBN 0-19-506937-4. WITH ROOTS in evangelical faith, this book offers us a stimulating, clearly argued, if not ultimately convincing, essay on revelation...

The Open Circle: Confessional Method in Theology.(Brief Article)
April 1, 1993... By Martin L. Cook. Fortress Press, Minneapolis, 1991. 130 pp. $9. 95 (paper). ISBN 0-8006-2482-3. COOK ADDRESSES ISSUES of interest for those concerned to relate theology to science and/or to keep Christian theology Christian. He develops a...

Constructing a Public Theology: The Church in a Pluralistic Culture.(Brief Article)
April 1, 1993... By Ronald F. Thiemann. Westminster/John Knox Press, Louisville, 1991. 176 pp. $14.95 (paper). ISBN 0-664-25130-7. This ia a collection of essays, most of which were previously published, on a wide range of issues concerning the interface of...

The Christian Faith.(Brief Article)
April 1, 1993... By Ernst Troeltsch. Edited by Gertrud von le Fort, with a Foreword by Marta Troeltsch. Translated by Garrett E. Paul. Fortress Press, Minneapolis, 1991. 310 pp. $19.95 (paper). ISBN 0-8006-3209-5. PAUL'S masterfully elegant translation of...

Foundations of Contemporary Interpretation, vol. 7, The Study of Theology: From Biblical Interpretation to Contemporary Formulation.
April 1, 1993... By Richard A. Muller. Foundations of Contemporary Interpretation, Vol. 7. Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, 1991. 237 pp. n.p. (paper). ISBN 0-310-41001-0. MULLER OFFERS in his work a defense of the four-fold division of the...

Clergy Ethics in a Changing Society: Mapping the Terrain.(Brief Article)
April 1, 1993... Edited by James P. Wind, Russell Burck, Paul Camenisch, and Dennis P. McCann. The Park Ridge Center for the Study of Health, Faith, and Ethics, Chicago/ Westminster/John Knox Press, Louisville, 1991. 303 pp. $18. 95 (paper). ISBN 0-664-25161-7....

Prophetic Pastoral Practice: A Christian Vision of Life Together.(Brief Article)
April 1, 1993... By Charles V. Gerkin. Abingdon Press, Nashville, 1991. 175 pp. $13.95 (paper). ISBN 0-687-34373-9. THIS BOOK is intended for practitioners of Christian ministry in the current context of uncertainty about norms for human behavior. It samples...

Technology, Theology, and the Idea of Progress.(Brief Article)
April 1, 1993... By David H. Hopper. Westminster/John Knox Press, Louisville, 1991. 153 pp. $14.95 (paper). ISBN 0-664-25203-6. THE CONTEMPORARY theological landscape is virtually barren with respect to appraisals of technology. Thus, a volume titled such as...

Sex in the Parish.(Brief Article)
April 1, 1993... By Karen Lebacqz and Ronald G. Barton. Westminster/ John Knox Press, Louisville, 1991. 279 pp. $14. 95 (paper). ISBN 0-664 25087-4. THE CENTRAL ISSUE is "whether sexual intimacy between pastor and parishioner is wrong, and if so, what makes...

Bioethics and Secular Humanism: The Search for a Common Morality.(Brief Article)
April 1, 1993... By H. Tristram Engelhardt, Jr. SCM Press, London/Trinity Press International, Philadelphia, 1991. 206 pp. $29.95. ISBN 1-56338-000-5. FOR SOME YEARS NOW, Engelhardt has been arguing that we must look beyond the content-claims of multiple...

Temptation: A Biblical and Psychological Approach.(Brief Article)
April 1, 1993... By Wayne E. Oates. Westminster/John Knox Press, Louisville, 1991. 109 pp. $9.95 (paper). ISBN 0-664-25113-7. OATES, long-time author and teacher in the field of pastoral care and counseling, focuses attention on temptation, an issue that has...

Called to Care: Biblical Images for Social Ministry.
April 1, 1993... By Robert Kysar. Fortress Press, Minneapolis, 1991. 165 pp. $11. 95 (paper). ISBN 0-8006-2470-X. FOR CLERGY and congregational leaders who feel the frustrations of serving a local church that desires to do ministry only within the confines...

Homiletics.(Brief Article)
April 1, 1993... By Karl Barth. Translated by Geoffrey W. Bromiley and Donald E. Daniels. Westminster/John Knox Press, Louisville, 1991. 136 pp. $10.95 (paper). ISBN 0-664-25158-7. BASED UPON NOTES from lectures Barth presented in seminars from 1932-1933,...