Interpretation articles from April 2000

Interpretation archives from April 2000

Editorial.(Statistical Data Included)
April 1, 2000... The seriousness with which scripture mandates forgiveness as a practice of the Christian community cannot be overemphasized. The urgency with which our world cries out for reconciliation is undeniable. From the Letter of James to the Truth and...

Crafting Communities of Forgiveness.
April 1, 2000... Forgiveness is much more than isolated acts and words of individuals. The capacity to discover what it means to forgive and be forgiven depends, in part, on the richness of one's communal practices and disciplines. How do people discover...

The Lord's Mercy Endures Forever: Toward A Post-Shoah Reading of Grace in the Hebrew Scriptures.(Critical Essay)
April 1, 2000... What can it mean for Christians to affirm that the mercy of the God of Israel endures forever, even after Auschwitz? Christian respect for Jewish otherness can foster reconciliation in a way that embodies the Lord's blessing of "all the...

Forgiveness and Life in Community.(Critical Essay)
April 1, 2000... The church must respond to the crisis of domestic violence with a renewed vision of forgiveness. As suggested in a parable of Jesus, forgiveness is viable when it is exercised within a community of mutual confession and accountability. The...

The Social Meaning of Reconciliation.
April 1, 2000... From Damascus to Rwanda and South Africa, a hard lesson has been learned. In situations of conflict, reconciliation must be placed at the forefront in the pursuit of justice. A Roman Catholic bishop from Rwanda observed that "the best...

A Theology of Community: The Ubuntu Theology of Desmond Tutu.
April 1, 2000... Archbishop Desmond Tutu, South Africa's primary public confessor, articulates why forgiveness is better than retributive justice, spiritually and politically. The greatest religious challenge in a new South Africa is the maintenance of...

2 KINGS 6:8--23.
April 1, 2000... "DON'T KILL THE ENEMY, FEED THEM" [1] The story of Elisha in this text presents us with valuable insights and lessons. Elisha's counsel to the king in times of trouble, his prayers in crisis situations, and his prophetic role as an agent of...

2 Corinthians 5:11-6:13.(Critical Essay)
April 1, 2000... AN OPEN MOUTH AND OPEN HEART Second Corinthians may contain fragments of several letters that an editor joined together at a later time. From our current perspective, however, it may not be possible to identify the separate pieces or to...

The Concept of Biblical Theology: An Old Testament Perspective.(Review)
April 1, 2000... by James Barr Fortress, Minneapolis, 1999. 715 pp. $48.00 (cloth). ISBN 0-8006-3191-9. IN THIS IMPORTANT BOOK, JAMES BARR has his retrospective and prospective say about the problems and promises of biblical theology, a thematic focus...

Reading Ecclesiastes.(Review)
April 1, 2000... by Craig R. Bartholomew Analecta Biblica 139. Pontifical Biblical Institute, Rome, 1998. 319 pp. $30.00. ISBN 88-7653-139-4. BARTHOLOMEW'S STUDY SEEKS to test how philosophy and literary theory bear on Old Testament studies by...

The Hope of Glory: Honor Discourse and New Testament Interpretation.(Review)
April 1, 2000... by David A. deSilva Liturgical Press, Collegeville, 1999. 245 pp. $22.95. ISBN 0-8146-5823-7. DESILVA HAS SHAPED seven previously published articles into a cogent exposition of the central cultural value of antiquity--honor and shame....

Charlotte von Kirschbaum and Karl Barth: A Study in Biography and the History of Theology & Barth's Moral Theology: Human Action in Barth's Thought.(Review)
April 1, 2000... Charlotte von Kirschbaum and Karl Barth: A Study in Biography and the History of Theology by Suzanne Selinger Penn State University Press, University Park, 1998. 206 pp. $19.95. ISBN 0-271-01864-X. Barth's Moral Theology: Human...

Eve and Adam: Jewish, Christian and Muslim Readings on Genesis and Gender.(Review)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2000... by Kristen F. Kvam Linda S. Schearing Valarie H. Ziegler Indiana University Press, Bloomington, 1999. 574 pp. $24.95. ISBN 0-253-21271-5. THIS BOOK IS A CAREFULLY CRAFTED and substantial collection of sources designed to...

Revisions of the Night: Politics and Promises in the Patriarchal Dreams of Genesis.(Review)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2000... by Diana Lipton Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement Series 288. Sheffield Academic Press, Sheffield, 1999. 241 pp. $75.00 (cloth). ISBN 1-85075-958-8. THE TITLE OF THIS PROJECT epitomizes the thesis that it advances....

First and Second Kings.(Review)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2000... by Terence E. Fretheim Westminster Bible Companion. Westminster John Knox, Louisville, 1999. 228 pp. $18.00. ISBN 0-664-25565-5. THIS BOOK IS ONE IN A SERIES of commentaries written especially for laypersons, and the author keeps his...

The Book of Isaiah: Chapters 40-66.(Review)
April 1, 2000... by John N. Oswalt New International Commentary on the Old Testament. Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 1998. 773 pp. $48.00 (cloth). ISBN 0-8028-2534-6. THIS VOLUME FOLLOWS the author's first on Isaiah 1-39 (Eerdmans, 1986), where most of his...

Images of God in the Old Testament.(Review)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2000... by Mary E. Mills Liturgical Press, Collegeville, 1998. 159 pp. $19.95. ISBN 0-8146-5935-7. MILLS'S FOCUS IS on the "many faces of the God of Israel to be discovered through reading about God in the separate parts of the Old Testament...

Ethnicity and Identity in Ancient Israel.(Review)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2000... by Kenton L. Sparks Eisenbrauns, Winona Lake, 1998. 344 pp. $37.50 (cloth). ISBN 1-57506-033-7. THIS IS A STUDY OF THE EXPRESSION of ethnic sentiment in selected texts of the Hebrew Bible. An introduction to the social scientific...

The Theology of the Gospel of Mark.(Review)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2000... by W. R. Telford Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1999. 275 pp. $19.95. ISBN 0-521-43977-9. IN THIS CAREFULLY WRITTEN and documented volume, Telford rightly sees christology as the most prominent theological focus of the Gospel...

Witness to the Gospel: The Theology of Acts.(Review)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2000... edited by I. Howard Marshall and David Peterson Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 1998. 610 pp. $45.00. ISBN 0-8028-4435-9. THIS COLLECTION of twenty-three papers is intended to supplement the well received five-volume The Book of Acts in Its...

Jesus the Miracle Worker.(Review)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2000... by Graham H. Twelftree InterVarsity, Downers Grove, 1999. 470 pp. $24.99. ISBN 0-8308-1596-1. THE PURPOSE OF THIS CLEARLY WRITTEN study of the miracles of Jesus is both historical and theological. What can be said about what actually...

Bethsaida: Home of the Apostles.(Review)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2000... by Fred Strickert Liturgical Press, Collegeville, 1998. 197 pp. $19.95. ISBN 0-8146-5519-X. BETHSAIDA, OR BETH SAIDA, is a city whose name is well known to Bible readers. Yet reliable knowledge about its population, levels of wealth,...

Remember the Poor: The Challenge to Theology in the Twenty-First Century.(Review)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2000... by Joerg Rieger Trinity Press International, Harrisburg, 1998. 241 pp. $19.00. ISBN 1-56338-256-3. THE SOVEREIGN SELF HOLDS sway in the lives of North Americans. It is pervasive in theology and biblical interpretation, but Rieger...

Sanctify Them In The Truth: Holiness Exemplified.(Review)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2000... by Stanley Hauerwas Abingdon, Nashville, 1998. 267 pp. $25.00. ISBN 0-687-08223-4. HERE WE SEE HAUERWAS at his Barthian best, not presenting "finished theology" but exposing the material conditions of Christian speech. Motivated and...

Preacher and Cross: Person and Message in Theology and Rhetoric.(Review)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2000... by Andre Resner Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 1999. 205 pp. $18.00. ISBN 0-8028-4640-8. WHAT IS THE ROLE of the person of the preacher in Christian proclamation? Resner explores this persistent question from the perspectives of classical...

Revisioning Theological Education: Exploring a Missional Alternative to Current Models.(Review)
April 1, 2000... by Robert Banks Eerdmans Grand Rapids, 1999. 267 pp. $20.00. ISBN 0-8028-4620-3. BANKS ENTERS THE DEBATE on contemporary theological education with a comprehensive and refreshingly practical call to a missional model for theological...

Preaching Christ from the Old Testament: A Contemporary Hermeneutical Method.(Review)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2000... by Sidney Greidanus Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 373 pp. $22.00. ISBN 0-8028-4449-9. GREIDANUS IS CONCERNED that the Old Testament be preached and that all sermons "preach Christ." He reviews the history of such preaching from the time of...