Interpretation articles from April 2001

Interpretation archives from April 2001

Editorial.
April 1, 2001... The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in 1997 declared the current year (July 2000 through June 2001) the "Year of the Child." Indeed, the church has a long and venerable history of care for the vulnerable, including...

Children in the Bible.
April 1, 2001... In the Gospels, Jesus points to children as pattern and paradigm of God's reign. Challenged by Jesus' counter-cultural affirmation of the child, Christian communities are called to vigorous and insistent advocacy for children in our own time....

Curing Anxious Adolescents Through Fatherlike Performance.
April 1, 2001... Jesus' encounter with two "troubled" adolescents exposes the distance between the generations resulting from the anxieties their conflicts provoke. As a "surrogate" father, Jesus brings a nonanxious presence that heals and empowers these young...

Hungry for Honor.
April 1, 2001... Children in Violent Youth Gangs However distorted and dysfunctional, gangs satisfy the hunger for honor among adolescents. Churches that take ministry with youth seriously will seek to enable them to express their need for honor, group...

Toward a Theology of Childhood.
April 1, 2001... Communities of faith have much to learn from children's experience of God and their view of the world. Theology that values the perspectives of children will address quite different questions from the ones that have dominated the Christian...

1 Samuel 1 & 2.
April 1, 2001... THE FIRST CHAPTERS OF 1 SAMUEL PROVIDE THE BACKDROP against which Christians are accustomed to seeing Luke's story of the birth of Christ. Luke clearly made use of 1 Samuel as he shaped his nativity narrative, and chapters 1 and 2 have been...

Psalm 8:1-2.
April 1, 2001... FOR MUCH OF THE HISTORY OF THE INTERPRETATION of Psalm 8, the "babes and infants" in verse 2 (in Hebrew, v. 3) have been a puzzle and obstacle for interpreters. The lack of consensus about them in the exegetical literature may lead the...

Proverbs 23:13-14.
April 1, 2001... For years individuals have appealed to the biblical book of Proverbs as a warrant for spanking their children. They often say, "The Bible says, 'Spare the rod and spoil the child.'" Yet they are unaware that this specific adage does not appear...

Zechariah 8:1-8.
April 1, 2001... "TELL ME A STORY ABOUT ME" IS A FREQUENT REQUEST of children. Children love to hear the timeless retelling of stories that reveal their place in the life and love of family and home, where their identity is formed and nurtured. Narratives of...

Ruth.(Review)
April 1, 2001... by Katharine Doob Sakenfeld Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching. John Knox, Louisville, 1999. 103 pp. $21.95 (cloth). ISBN 0-0842-3149-4. Ruth and Esther by Tod Linafelt and Timothy K. Beal Bent Olam:...

Perseverance in Gratitude: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary on the Epistle "to the Hebrews".(Review)
April 1, 2001... by David A. deSilva Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 2000. 560 PP. $40.00 (cloth). ISBN 0-8028-4188-0. THIS IS AN INNOVATIVE AND IMPORTANT full-scale commentary on one of the lengthiest and least-appreciated books in the New Testament. It is...

Christianity and the Making of the Modern Family.(Review)
April 1, 2001... by Rosemary Radford Ruether Beacon Press, Boston, 2000. 294 pp. $28.50. ISBN 0-8070-5404-6. RUETHER OFFERS AN EXPANSIVE OVERVIEW of the family from a feminist perspective in Christian theology, ecclesiology; and U. S. religious...

1 Samuel.(Review)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... by David Jobling Bent Olam: Studies in Hebrew Narrative and Poetry. Liturgical Press, Collegeville, 1998. 330 pp. $34.95 (cloth). ISBN 0-8146-5047-3. JOBLING EMPLOYS a new approach to commentary writing by focusing on the large...

Ezra & Nehemiah.(Review)
April 1, 2001... by Gordon F. Davies Berit Olam: Studies in Hebrew Narrative & Poetry. Liturgical Press, Collegeville, 1999. 148 pp. $29.95 (cloth). ISBN 0-8146-5049-X. IN THIS UNUSUAL COMMENTARY, Davies has attempted to understand the rhetorical shape...

The Challenge of Discipleship: A Critical Study of the Sermon on the Mount as Scripture.(Review)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... By Daniel Patte Trinity Press International, Harrisburg, 1999. 265 pp. $25.00. ISBN 1-56338-256-5. THE KEY TO UNDERSTANDING THIS BOOK is found in its subtitle. It is an exercise in what Patte calls "Scriptural criticism." To read the...

Preaching the Gospel of Luke: Proclaiming God's Royal Rule.(Review)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... by Keith F. Nickle Westminster John Knox, Louisville, 2000. 266 pp. $21.95. ISBN 0-664-22239-0. A BOOK OF THIS TYPE, as the author states, stands third in line in the preacher's library behind the Gospel text and the more detailed...

Luke, Judaism, and the Scholars: Critical Approaches to Luke-Acts.(Review)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... by Joseph B. Tyson University of South Carolina Press, Columbia, 1999. 196 pp. $29.95 (cloth). ISBN 1-57003-334-X. LUKE MAY ONCE AGAIN BE A "STORM CENTER" in New Testament study, with much of the storm centering on the place of the...

The Past As Legacy: Luke-Acts and Ancient Epic.(Review)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... By Marianne Palmer Bonz Fortress, Minneapolis, 2000. 230 pp. $18.00. ISBN 0-8006-3225-7. INTO THE LWELY RECENT DEBATE concerning the genre of Luke-Acts, with options ranging from Hellenistic biography and apologetic history to...

Paul: A Man of Two Worlds.(Review)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... By C. J. den Heyer, translated by John Bowden Trinity Press International, Harrisburg, 2000. 312 pp. $29.00. ISBN 1-56338-301-2. "PAUL WAS A JEW.... He grew up in Tarsus in Asia Minor.... From his birth he was 'a man of two worlds"'...

The Apostle of God: Paul and the Promise of Abraham.(Review)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... John L. White Hendrickson, Peabody, 1999. 312 pp. $24.95 (cloth). ISBN 1-56563-283-4. THIS INTERESTING BUT UNUSUAL BOOK is neither a description of Paul nor an explanation of his theology. Most of the attention falls on three themes:...

Agape, Eros, Gender: Towards a Pauline Sexual Ethic.(Review)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... by Francis Watson Cambridge University Press, New York, 2000. 268 pp. $59.95 (cloth). ISBN 0-521-66263-X. IN THIS INTERDISCIPLINARY EXERCISE, Watson draws from biblical scholarship, systematic theology, and ethics to produce a reading...

The Letters of John.(Review)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... by Colin G. Kruse Pillar New Testament Commentary. Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 2000. 255 pp. $28.00 (cloth). ISBN 0-85111-776-7. THIS CLEAR AND CONCISE commentary on the Johannine Epistles takes account of the seething difficulties hidden...

Jesus the Meek King.(Review)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... by Deirdre J. Good Trinity Press International, Harrisburg, 1999. 131 pp. $16.00. ISBN 1-56338-284-9. GOOD AIMS TO REFRAME our understanding of "meekness"--a dispositional virtue that bears quite different connotations for ancient and...

The Jesus Controversy: Perspectives in Conflict.(Review)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... by John Dominic Crossan, Luke Timothy Johnson, and Werner H. Kelber Trinity Press International, Harrisburg, 1999. 121 pp. $17.00. ISBN 1-56338-289-X. THIS HOOK IS MUST READING for those interested in the Jesus controversy. It is...

The Theology of the First Christians.(Review)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... by Walter Schmithals, translated by O. C. Dean, Jr. Westminster John Knox, Louisville, 1997. 396 pp. $32.95. ISBN 0-664-25615-5. THIS BOOK IS WRITTEN in the classic vein of German historical-critical investigation, coupled with an...

Serve the Community of the Church: Christians as Leaders and Ministers.(Review)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... by Andrew D. Clarke Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 2000. 305 pp. $30.00. ISBN 0-8028-4182-1. FROM THE TITLE, ONE MIGHT assume that this book is another in the endless parade of books on congregational leadership in the 21st century. This...

Incarnation.(Review)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... by Jon L. Berquist Understanding Biblical Themes. Chalice, St. Louis, 1999. 150 pp. $16.99. ISBN 0-8272-3825-8. BERQUIST ARGUES that the common biblical theology in which God is depicted as having been "literally, physically" present...

Entertaining Faith: Reading Short Stories in the Bible.(Review)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... by Lowell K. Handy Chalice, St Louis. 2000. 157 pp. $16.99. ISBN 0-8272-0815-4. HANDY OFFBRS A FRESH approach to the genre of short story in the Hebrew Bible and Apocrypha. He asserts that telling stories should be recovered by the...

Women and Religion.(Review)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... by Majella Franzmann Oxford University Press, New York, 2000. 192 pp. $19.95. ISBN 0-19-510773-X. THIS VOLUME OUTLINES a method for interpreting women's experience in and of religion. Franzmann covers the interpretive process,...

Searching for a Distant God: The Legacy of Maimonides.(Review)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... by Kenneth Seeskin Oxford University Press, New York, 2000. 250 pp. $45.00 (cloth). ISBN 0-19-512846-X. MAIMONIDES UNITES GENUINE WORSHIP, moral conduct, and philosophical reflection into an organic and logical whole. Drawing on the...

Karl Barth: Against Hegemony.(Review)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... by Timothy J. Gorringe Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1999. 313 pp. $19.95. ISBN 0-19-675247-4. THIS WORK SETS FORTH a politically-oriented interpretation of Barth, tracing parallels between cultural and political events and his...

The Postfoundationalist Task of Theology: Wolfhart Pannenberg and the New Theological Rationality.(Review)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... By F. LeRon Shults Eerdmans, Grand Rapids. 1999. 284 pp. $25.00. ISBN 0-8028-4648-6. THIS VOLUME OFFERS a constructive, "postfoundational" account of theological rationality that attempts to avoid the "extremes" of both foundationalism...

Modernity: Christianity's Estranged Child Reconstructed.(Review)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... by John Thornhill Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 2000. 240 pp. $24.00. ISBN 0-8028-4694-7. CHARACTERIZING WESTERN CULTURE as a progressive search for truth, Thornhill argues that the central impulse of modernity is valid but yet to be...

The Varieties of Transcendental Experience: A Study in Constructive Postmodernism.(Review)
April 1, 2001... by Donald L. Gelpi GELPI SEEKS TO DEMONSTRATE how a nuanced understanding of America's religious and philosophical history transcends the limits of Enlightenment thinking, and thus arrives at a religious philosophy that is congruous with...

Circles of Dignity: Community Wisdom and Theological Reflection.(Review)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... By James R. Cochrane Fortress, Minneapolis, 1999. 214 pp. $21.00. ISBN 08006-3182-X. WHAT DISTINGUISHES THIS BOOK on hermeneutics is that Cochrane reverses the process of biblical interpretation from what we (academics and pastors) can...

Down, Up and Over: Slave Religion and Black Theology.(Review)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... by Dwight N. Hopkins Fortress, Minneapolis, 2000. 312 pp. $20.00. ISBN 0-8006-2723-7. WHAT IS THE "RELATIONSHIP between the slave religion of Protestantism and American culture, on the one hand, and a constructive theological statement...

Retrieving the Tradition & Renewing Evangelicalism: A Primer for Suspicious Protestants.(Review)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... by D.H. Williams Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 1999. 243 pp. $16.00. ISBN 0-8028-4668-8. WILLIAMS HAS GIVEN US a provocative and informative disquisition on the role of sacred tradition in church history with special bearing on its impact on...

Sharing the Book: Religious Perspectives on the Rights and Wrongs of Proselytism.(Review)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... Edited by John Witte, Jr. and Richard C. Martin Religion and Human Rights Series. Orbis, Maryknoll 1999. 441 pp. $20.00. ISBN 1-57075-276-1. WITH A HASTY GLANCE at the subtitle of this volume, many potential readers will conclude that...

Seeing Children, Seeing God: A Practical Theology of Children and Poverty.(Review)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... Pamela D. Couture Abingdon, Nashville, 2000. 144 pp. $15.00. ISBN 0-687-08426-1. THIS BOOK ARGUES that care for poor children should be central to pastoral and congregational practice, because children are today, at least in North...

Hospitality to Strangers: Empathy and the Physician-Patient Relationship.(Review)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... Dorothy M Owens AAR Academy Series no. 100. Scholars Press, Atlanta, 1999. 163 pp. $24.95. ISBN 0-7885-0603-X. THIS WORK IS a thoughtful and philosophically grounded curriculum for teaching empathy to medical students. In a time when...

Good News in Exile: Three Pastors Offer a Hopeful Vision for the Church.(Review)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... Martin B. Copenhaver Anthony B. Robinson William H. Willimon Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 1999. 127 pp. $12.00. ISBN 0-8028-4604-1. NOT EVERYONE will be happy with this book: it is yet another work that identifies a liberal...