Interpretation articles from April 2006

Interpretation archives from April 2006

Editorial.(Editorial)
April 1, 2006... MUCH OF CONTEMPORARY culture confirms what John Calvin said in his Institutes of the Christian Religion nearly a half of a millennium ago, that human nature "... is a perpetual factory of idols" (I.xi.8). From idols created by the entertainment...

The essence of orthodoxy: Deuteronomy 5:6-10 and Exodus 20:2-6.(Essay)
April 1, 2006... According to copious biblical testimony, an uncompromising allegiance to "the LORD," Yahweh, which precluded veneration of any other divine entities and all crafted representations of deity, was the essential constitutive feature not only of...

Idolatry in the New Testament.
April 1, 2006... CONTINUITIES WITH THE OLD TESTAMENT AND JEWISH TRADITIONS In the Old Testament and later Jewish traditions, the First and Second Commandments are intimately interrelated: "You shall have no other gods before me" implies "You shall not make...

Pride and idolatry.(Essay)
April 1, 2006... I recently found myself questioning the adequacy of my understanding of the Augustinian tradition that has so shaped the Christian West. In that tradition, pride is identified as the cardinal sin. For a long time I thought I knew what this...

Locating God in all the wrong places: the second commandment and American politics.(Essay)
April 1, 2006... You shall not make for yourself an idol. Exodus 20:4 Near the end of Cecil B. DeMille's 1956 film, The Ten Commandments, the scene of Israelite men and women dancing around the idol of the golden calf is juxtaposed with a scene of...

Deuteronomy 6:1-15.(Between Text & Sermon)(Essay)
April 1, 2006... SINCE 9/11, THE WAR IN IRAQ, suicide bombings and other acts of terrorism, some who are trying to understand religious radicalism have suggested that the problem is monotheism. The problem, they suggest, is not limited to Islam, but visible...

Isaiah 45:14-23.(Between Text & Sermon)
April 1, 2006... A RECENT CAR ADVERTISEMENT QUIPS, "Choice is good." Our age of individualism assumes the benefit of a wide range of choices. Whereas the typical American department store averaged 3,000 products for sale in 1950, by the 1990s the number was...

Acts 17:16-34.(Between Text & Sermon)
April 1, 2006... ATHENS WAS ARGUABLY SEVERAL CENTURIES past its prime when the apostle Paul arrived, but it still afforded its visitors and tourists quite an impressive array of Hellenistic treasures--art, poetry, drama, and lively philosophical and religious...

The Memoirs of God: History, Memory, and the Experience of the Divine in Ancient Israel.(Book review)
April 1, 2006... The Memoirs of God: History, Memory, and the Experience of the Divine in Ancient Israel by Mark S. Smith Fortress, Minneapolis, 2004. 187 pp. $21.00. ISBN 0-8006-3485-3. MARK S. SMITH, A LEADING authority on the ancient Ugaritic...

The Social Roots of Biblical Yahwism.(Book review)
April 1, 2006... The Social Roots of Biblical Yahwism by Stephen L. Cook Society of Biblical Literature, Atlanta, 2004. 310 pp. $39.95. ISBN 1-58983-098-9. THE CENTRAL THESIS OF THIS book is that the "dominant beliefs" shaping the Hebrew Bible...

Old Testament Theology, Volume One: Israel's Gospel.(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Old Testament Theology, Volume One: Israel's Gospel by John Goldingay Inter Varsity, Downers Grove, 2003. 940 pp. $35.00 (cloth). ISBN 0-8308-2561-4. JOHN GOLDINGAY HAS ENJOYED a long and productive career, both in Great Britain...

Recultivating the Vineyard: The Reformation Agendas of Christianization.(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Recultivating the Vineyard: The Reformation Agendas of Christianization by Scott H. Hendrix Westminster John Knox, Louisville, 2004. 254 pp. $29.95. ISBN 0-664-22713-9. SCOTT HENDRIX LOOKS AT the Reformation story from the...

Border Lines: The Partition of Judeo-Christianity.(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Border Lines: The Partition of Judeo-Christianity by Daniel Boyarin University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, 2004. 392 pp. $38.50 (cloth). ISBN 0-8122-3764-1. THIS IS A BOOK ABOUT the mutual formation of Judaism and...

Ruth: A Continental Commentary.(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Ruth: A Continental Commentary by Andre LaCocque Fortress, Minneapolis, 2004. 187 pp. $28.00 (cloth). ISBN 0-8006-9515-1. LACOCQUE ARGUES THAT the book of Ruth functions as a commentary on the Torah, a commentary prepared in the...

The Book of Proverbs: Chapters 1-14.(The Book of Proverbs: Chapters 15-31 )(Book review)
April 1, 2006... The Book of Proverbs: Chapters 1-14 by B. K. Waltke The New International Commentary on the Old Testament. Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 2004. 693 pp. $50.00 (cloth). ISBN 0-8028-2545-1. The Book of Proverbs: Chapters 15-31 by B. K....

Reading Women's Stories: Female Characters in the Hebrew Bible.(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Reading Women's Stories: Female Characters in the Hebrew Bible by John Petersen Fortress, Minneapolis, 2004. 226 pp. $22.00. ISBN 0-8006-3619-8. THE TITLE OF THIS BOOK misleads potential readers in two ways regarding its emphasis...

Old Testament Ethics for the People of God.(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Old Testament Ethics for the People of God by Christopher J. H. Wright InterVarsity, Downers Grove, 2004. 520 pp. $30.00 (cloth). ISBN 0-8308-2778-1. CHRISTOPHER WRIGHT OFFERS a comprehensive synthesis of his rich earlier work in...

A Violent God-Image: An Introduction to the Work of Eugen Drewermann.(Book review)
April 1, 2006... A Violent God-Image: An Introduction to the Work of Eugen Drewermann by Matthias Beier Continuum, New York, 2004. 388pp. $39.95 (cloth). ISBN 0-8264-1584-9. THIS IS A DIFFICULT but rewarding book. Matthias Beier--lecturer in...

The God Who Provides: Biblical Images of Divine Nourishment.(Book review)
April 1, 2006... The God Who Provides: Biblical Images of Divine Nourishment by L. Juliana M. Claassens Abingdon, Nashville, 2004. 145 pp. $20.00. ISBN 0-687-03023-4. THE GOD WHO NURTURES and feeds humanity and all of creation is like a nursing...

A Critical Introduction to the New Testament: Interpreting the Message and Meaning of Jesus Christ (Expanded CD-ROM Version).(Book review)
April 1, 2006... A Critical Introduction to the New Testament: Interpreting the Message and Meaning of Jesus Christ (Expanded CD-ROM Version) by Carl R. Holladay Abingdon, Nashville, 2005. 609 pp. $49.00. ISBN 0-687-08569-1. ONE NEEDS TO READ...

Spiritual Landscape: Images of the Spiritual Life in the Gospel of Luke.(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Spiritual Landscape: Images of the Spiritual Life in the Gospel of Luke by James L. Resseguie Hendrickson, Peabody, Mass., 2004. 195 pp. $19.95. ISBN 1-56563-827-1. EMPLOYING NARRATIVE criticism, James Resseguie seeks to illumine...

That We May Be Mutually Encouraged: Feminism and the New Perspective in Pauline Studies.(Book review)
April 1, 2006... That We May Be Mutually Encouraged: Feminism and the New Perspective in Pauline Studies by Kathy Ehrensperger T & T Clark International, New York, 2004. 244 pp. $34.00. ISBN 0-5670-2640-X. FEMINIST STUDIES OF PAUL, Kathy...

Reading Revelation: A Literary and Theological Commentary.(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Reading Revelation: A Literary and Theological Commentary by Joseph L. Trafton Smyth & Helwys, Macon, 2005. 224 pp. $21.00. ISBN 1-57312-289-0. THIS COMMENTARY IS designed to be an accessible and balanced guide to the book of...

Dangerous Memories: A Mosaic of Mary in Scripture.(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Dangerous Memories: A Mosaic of Mary in Scripture by Elizabeth Johnson Continuum, New York, 2004. 172 pp. $13.95. ISBN 0-8264-1638-1. THIS BOOK IS TAKEN from Part 5 of Elizabeth Johnson's Truly Our Sister: A Theology of Mary in the...

Lying: An Augustinian Theology of Duplicity.(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Lying: An Augustinian Theology of Duplicity by Paul J. Griffiths Brazos, Grand Rapids, 2004. 254 pp. $18.99. ISBN 1-58743-086-X. IN A WORLD WHERE, as Paul Griffiths says, we are "imaginatively masked, adorned with the lie, bedecked...

On the Road to Armageddon: How Evangelicals Became Israel's Best Friend.(Book review)
April 1, 2006... On the Road to Armageddon: How Evangelicals Became Israel's Best Friend by Timothy P. Weber Baker Academic, Grand Rapids, 2004. 366 pp. $24.99 (cloth). ISBN 0-8010-2577-X. IN THE WAKE OF the Left Behind publishing sensation,...

The Kingdom Is Always but Coming: A Life of Walter Rauschenbusch.(Book review)
April 1, 2006... The Kingdom is Always but Coming: A Life of Walter Rauschenbusch by Christopher Evans Library of Religious Biography. Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 2004. 348 pp. $25.00. ISBN 0-8028-4736-6. CHRISTOPHER EVANS has written a biography of...

Recovering Theological Hermeneutics.(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Recovering Theological Hermeneutics by Jens Zimmerman Baker Academic, Grand Rapids, 2004. 345 pp. $32.99 (cloth). ISBN 0-8010-2727-6. ON WHAT BASIS DOES one interpret biblical texts? That is the question Zimmerman attempts to...

Preacher, Can You Hear Us Listening?(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Preacher, Can You Hear Us Listening? by Roger E. Van Harn Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 2005. 146 pp. $15.00. ISBN 0-8028-2865-5. VAN HARN ACKNOWLEDGES that the substance of his earlier work, Pew Rights (1992), appears in this book....

A World According to God: Practices for Putting Faith at the Center of Your Life.(Book review)
April 1, 2006... A World According to God: Practices for Putting Faith at the Center of Your Life by Martha Ellen Stortz Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, 2004. 168 pp. $21.95 (cloth). ISBN 0-7879-5981-2. TO THE BURGEONING literature on Christian...

Celebrating Holy Week in a Post-Holocaust World.(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Celebrating Holy Week in a Post-Holocaust World by Henry F. Knight Westminster John Knox, Louisville, 2005. 172 pp. $19.95. ISBN 0-664-22902-6. IT WOULD BE A MISTAKE to view this book solely as a valuable addition to...

Temple and Worship in Biblical Israel.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Temple and Worship in Biblical Israel edited by John Day Library of Hebrew Bible. T & T Clark, Harrisburg, 2005. 559 pp. $175.00 (cloth). ISBN 0-567-04262-6. A major work, this book comprises twenty-three essays on the ideology,...

The Ten Commandments: The Reciprocity of Faithfulness.(Book review)(Brief review)
April 1, 2006... The Ten Commandments: The Reciprocity of Faithfulness edited by William P. Brown Library of Theological Ethics. Westminster John Knox, Louisville, 2005. 349 pp. $34.95 ISBN 0-664-22323-0. This volume incorporates essays from...

The God You Have: Politics, Religion, and the First Commandment.(Book review)(Brief review)
April 1, 2006... The God You Have: Politics, Religion, and the First Commandment by Patrick Miller Facets. Fortress, Minneapolis, 2004. 96 pp. $6.00. ISBN 0-8006-3662-7. This brief and accessible volume confronts the appropriation of theological...

The Commentator's Bible: Exodus.(Book review)(Brief review)
April 1, 2006... The Commentator's Bible: Exodus by Michael Carasik Jewish Publication Society, Philadelphia, 2005. 349 pp. $75.00 (cloth). ISBN 0-8276-0812-8. This contemporary translation of the writings of Jewish scholars on the Book of Exodus...

Smooth Words: Women, Proverbs and Performance in Biblical Wisdom.(Book review)(Brief review)
April 1, 2006... Smooth Words: Women, Proverbs and Performance in Biblical Wisdom by Carole R. Fontaine T & T Clark, Harrisburg, 2004. 296 pp. $49.95. ISBN 0-567-04270-7. This second edition of a 2002 study of Proverbs employs folklore methodology...

Apocalypticism, Anti-Semitism and the Historical Jesus: Subtexts in Criticism.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Apocalypticism, Anti-Semitism and the Historical Jesus: Subtexts in Criticism edited by John S. Kloppenborg and John W. Marshall Journal for the Study of the New Testament. T & T Clark, Harrisburg, 2005. 141 pp. $95.00 (cloth). ISBN...