Interpretation articles from April 1999

Interpretation archives from April 1999

Apocalyptic themes in biblical literature.
April 1, 1999... Apocalyptic themes in the Bible imaginatively address issues of perennial concern to communities of faith. Apocalyptic rhetoric has the potential to unmask forces that pretend to be benign, but are actually exploitative. Two kinds of...

Christ's coming and Christian living.
April 1, 1999... The New Testament relates the expectation o f Jesus' return to the Christian moral lip. Attempts to predict the End are pointless, and Christians are summoned to patient confidence in a sovereign God and to perseverance in the face of evil. ...

A new heaven and new earth: uses of the millennium in American religious history.
April 1, 1999... As far as American religion is concerned, the countdown to the year 2000 began centuries ago. From the "Great Awakening" through Scofield's Reference Bible and on to Hal Lindsey's Late Great Planet Earth, Americans have been fascinated with the...

"A sharp two-edged sword": pastoral implications of apocalyptic.
April 1, 1999... Clarity seems to be a constant feature of apocalyptic. On closer examination, biblical precedent suggests that apocalyptic speaks with a two-edged sword. Both the tyrant to be toppled by the in-breaking of God's reign and the tortured faithful...

Revelation 4:1-11.(Between Text and Sermon)
April 1, 1999... Revelation is little preached from the pulpits of those likely to read this essay. Among the more occasional entries in the common lectionary, it has long been a controversial book in the church. In recent years, it has become tainted by its...

Revelation 5:1-14.(Between Text and Sermon)
April 1, 1999... The countdown has begun! The clock is ticking away! The End is about to come! These final days of the second millennium have stirred up feelings of anxiety, fear, and panic. The concern over global warming, environmental disasters, worldwide...

Revelation 21:22-22:5.(Between Text and Sermon)
April 1, 1999... Some years ago, the writer Annie Dillard reflected upon driving with her husband across the mountains of central Washington state to a location that would place them in the path of a total eclipse of the sun. Early that morning in February...

World Without End: The Old Testament as Abiding Theological Witness.(Review)
April 1, 1999... by Christopher R. Seitz. Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 1998. 355 pp. $28.00. ISBN 0-8028-4322-0. THIS IS AN IMPORTANT BOOK FOR THREE REASONS. It advocates a canonical approach to the interpretation of the Old Testament and in its name lays down...

Acts.(Review)
April 1, 1999... by F. Scott Spencer. Sheffield Academic Press, Sheffield, 1997. 266 pp. $19.50. ISBN 1-85075-817-4. Waves of scholarship on the book of Acts continue to flow onto our bookshelves, and the storm appears unlikely to lessen any time soon....

The Acts of the Apostles: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary.(Review)
April 1, 1999... by Ben Witherington III. Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 1998. 875 pp. $50.00. ISBN 0-8028-4501-0. Waves of scholarship on the book of Acts continue to flow onto our bookshelves, and the storm appears unlikely to lessen any time soon. Perhaps this...

Ephesians.(Review)
April 1, 1999... by Ernest Best. International Critical Commentary. T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1998. 686 pp. $69.99 (cloth). ISBN 0-567-08565-1. Best brings a lifetime of study to his reading of Ephesians. His bibliographical range stretches from patristic...

Women and Redemption: A Theological History.(Review)
April 1, 1999... by Rosemary Radford Ruether. Fortress, Minneapolis, 1998. 366 pp. $19.00. ISBN 0-8006-2945-0. The title of Ruether's newest book is simultaneously revealing and concealing. The author deals with a central issue in feminist theology,...

The Vitality of Worship: A Commentary on the Book of Psalms.(Review)(Brief Article)
April 1, 1999... by Robert Davidson, Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 1998. 484 pp. $32.00. ISBN 0-8028-4246-1. The title of this volume could lead one to believe that it is simply one more form-critical, cult-functional commentary on the Psalms. But do not be...

Malachi.(Review)
April 1, 1999... by Andrew E. Hill. Anchor Bible 25 D. Doubleday, New York, 1998. 436 pp. $37.95 (cloth). ISBN 0-385-46892-X. The 1990s have witnessed a wealth of Malachi scholarship, offering commentaries by David Petersen and Paul Redditt, as well as...

The Jewish People in Classical Antiquity: From Alexander to Bar Kochba.(Review)(Brief Article)
April 1, 1999... by John H. Hayes and Sara R. Mandell. Westminster John Knox, Louisville, 1998. 272 pp. $28.00. ISBN 0-664-25727-5. Hayes and Mandell begin where Hayes and J. Maxwell Miller ended their History of Ancient Israel. The present volume shares...

The Signs of a Prophet: The Prophetic Actions of Jesus.(Review)(Brief Article)
April 1, 1999... by Morna D. Hooker. Trinity Press International, Harrisburg, 1997. 131 pp. $14.00. ISBN 1-56338-210-5. Hooker's thesis is reflected well in the subtitle of the book: Jesus understood himself to be a prophet in the tradition of Israel's...

Jesus Christ: The Message of the Gospels, The Hope of the Church.(Review)(Brief Article)
April 1, 1999... by Burton H. Throckmorton, Jr. Westminster John Knox, Louisville, 1998. 145 pp. $13.00. ISBN 0-664-25735-6. With this volume, Throckmorton swells the ranks of scholars bridging the gap between academy and interested public. He offers...

The Gospel and Letters of John.(Review)(Brief Article)
April 1, 1999... by R. Alan Culpepper. Interpreting Biblical Texts. Abingdon, Nashville, 1998. 327 pp. $19.95. ISBN 0-687-00851-4. The aim of this new series, the editors write, is "clearly pedagogical" and "more concerned about guiding the reader than in...

The Gospel and the Law in Galatia: Paul's Response to Jewish-Christian Separatism and the Threat of Galatian Apostasy.(Review)(Brief Article)
April 1, 1999... by Vincent M. Smiles. Liturgical, Collegeville, 1998. 286 pp. $23.95. ISBN 0-8146-5868-7. Smiles broaches many controversial issues in Pauline scholarship in this book. Caveats are unavoidable. Smiles's use of Acts 15 to interpret...

First and Second Thessalonians.(Review)(Brief Article)
April 1, 1999... by Beverly Roberts Gaventa. Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching. John Knox, Louisville, 1998. 138 pp. $22.00 (cloth). ISBN 0-8042-3142-7. Gaventa offers the reader a theological reading of the text that situates...

A Theology of Life: Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Religionless Christianity.(Review)(Brief Article)
April 1, 1999... by Ralf K. Wustenberg. Translated by Doug Stott. Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 1998. 207 pp. $20.00. ISBN 0-8028-4266-6. Bonhoeffer's tantalizing thoughts in his later prison letters about a "nonreligious interpretation of biblical concepts" for...

Wilderness Wanderings: Probing Twentieth-Century Theology and Philosophy.(Review)(Brief Article)
April 1, 1999... by Stanley Hauervas. Westview, Boulder, 1997. 242 pp. $28.00 (cloth). ISBN 0-8133-3349-0. This book inaugurates a series entitled "Radical Traditions," which will present postcritical theologies: theologies that affirm the ability of...

Why Scripture Matters: Reading the Bible in a Time of Church Conflict.(Review)(Brief Article)
April 1, 1999... by John P. Burgess. Westminster John Knox, Louisville, 1998. 186 pp. $20.00. ISBN 0-664-25708-9. Burgess appeals not for better methods of biblical interpretation, but for a piety of the word, a "reverent confidence that these words set...

Mother Church: Ecclesiology and Ecumenism.(Review)(Brief Article)
April 1, 1999... by Carl E. Braaten. Fortress, Minneapolis, 1998. 164 pp. $16.00. ISBN 0-8006-3082-3. The author understands himself as an "evangelical catholic" (p. 6). He argues for a truly ecumenical church, the mother of all who believe in God as the...

The Return of Splendor in the World: The Christian Doctrine of Sin and Forgiveness.(Review)(Brief Article)
April 1, 1999... by Christof Gestrich. Translated by Donald Bloesch. Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 1997. 344 pp. $40.00. ISBN 0-8028-4164-3. The twin doctrines of sin and forgiveness are thoroughly treated here by one of Germany's most capable theologians. To...

Missional Church: A Vision for the Sending of the Church in North America.(Review)(Brief Article)
April 1, 1999... edited by Darrell L. Guder. Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 1998. 280 pp. $26.00. ISBN 0-8028-4350-6. This book is the result of a study undertaken by six researchers who are associated individually with varying evangelical traditions and...

Clergy Women: An Uphill Calling.(Review)(Brief Article)
April 1, 1999... by Barbara Brown Zikmund, Adair T. Lummis, and Patricia Mei Yin Chang. Westminster John Knox, Louisville, 1998. 190 pp. $16.00. ISBN 0-664-25673-2. The twentienth century has seen tens of thousands of women ordained in America's Protestant...

Reshaping Religious Education: Conversations on Contemporary Practice.(Review)(Brief Article)
April 1, 1999... Marian Harris and Gabriel Moran. Westminster John Knox, Louisville, 1998. 202 pp. $18.00. ISBN 0-664-25783-6. The authors of this volume invite their readers to help "refashion" the ways we think about the purposes and practices of...

Handbook for Spiritual Directors.(Review)(Brief Article)
April 1, 1999... by Julie M. Douglas. Paulist, New York, 1998. 90 pp. $7.98. ISBN 0-8091-3802-6. Douglas explains why she chose to write this "casebook" for spiritual directors when there is a "vast array of books by competent authors already available in...