Interpretation articles from January 2000

Interpretation archives from January 2000

The Garden and the Plaza.
January 1, 2000... Biblical Images of the City The Bible has more to say about urban landscapes than it does about green pastures and still waters. Moreover, scripture uses certain agricultural images to impart a compelling vision of the city and, more...

A Crisis of the Imagination.
January 1, 2000... The Real Jerusalem Confronts the Ideal Jerusalem Our secular cities are burdened with problems of class conflict, crime, and sprawl. Jerusalem has all these problems, too, but it bears an extra burden as well. It is holy. Around...

The Church in the City.
January 1, 2000... Past, Present and Future Throughout history, the city has measured our capacity to live together and create a just way of life. The church in the city today is faced with enormous challenges and opportunities in its ministry to persons in...

The Best of Times and The Worst of Times.
January 1, 2000... An Overview of Richmond, Virginia The story of Richmond, Virginia is a window to the American urban experience. The political challenges this city faces can serve as a call to action to effect reconciliation across the lines that divide the...

FROM EDEN TO JERUSALEM.
January 1, 2000... The Church and the City More than ever, the city needs congregations with an urban, metropolitan vocation. As suburban sprawl continues, we are invited by our own scriptures to be faithful to the city. Human life began under the...

The City on the Hill.
January 1, 2000... Reflections from a Former Mayor The successful city of the future must do more than simply foster economic growth. It must also impart a moral, even spiritual, vision that can transcend all racial and social divisions. Jesus once said,...

Genesis 11:1--9.
January 1, 2000... IT HAS BEEN SAID THAT THE TRIBALIZATION of America is the latest movement in our social evolution. The vision of America as a melting pot--a conglomeration of cultures in which personal identity and heritage are surrendered--has faded. Now...

Numbers 35:9--34.
January 1, 2000... "A GREAT CITY IS NOTHING MORE THAN A PORTRAIT of itself, and yet when all is said and done, its arsenals of scenes and images are part of a deeply moving plan." So begins Mark Helprin's science fiction novel Winter's Tale (San Diego: Harcourt...

Jonah: 3--4.
January 1, 2000... NINEVEH WAS THE NEW YORK CITY, the Bangkok, the Rio de Janeiro of Jonah's World--single cities by name, but, in reality, each one a huge conglomeration of communities with an attendant mystique and a seeming independence from the rest of the...

Matthew 23:37-39.
January 1, 2000... CHAPTER 23's BLISTERING CONDEMNATION of the religious leaders is perhaps the bleakest spot in Matthew's Gospel. Seven woes or curses condemn the "scribes and Pharisees" (23:13, 15, 23, 25, 26, 27, 29). The polemic is standard and does not...

The Ethos of the Cosmos: The Genesis of Moral Imagination in the Bible.(Review)
January 1, 2000... by William P. Brown Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 1999. 476 pp. $35.00. ISBN 0-8028-4539-8. BROWN HAS WRITTEN AN IMPORTANT book, a sequel to and development of the themes of his earlier work Character in Crisis (Eerdmans, 1996). The...

From Epic to Canon: History and Literature in Ancient Israel.(Review)
January 1, 2000... by Frank Moore Cross Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 1998. 277 PP. $45.00 (cloth). ISBN 0-8018-5982-4. THIS IS AN IMPORTANT WORK, more for what it recollects and brings into focus than for what it originates. One of the most...

The Paul Quest: The Renewed Search for the Jew of Tarsus.(Review)
January 1, 2000... by Ben Witherington III InterVarsity, Downers Grove, 1998. 347 pp. $22.99. ISBN 0-8308-1503-1. FROM THE PEN OF THE PROLIFIC PROFESSOR of New Testament comes yet another helpful work on Paul. This one is designed to update students,...

The Book of Revelation: A Commentary on the Greek Text.(Review)
January 1, 2000... by G. K. Beale. Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 1999. 1309 pp. $75.00 (cloth). ISBN 0-8028-2174-X. REVELATION IS A FORBIDDING BOOK to many, even among religious professionals. But today, even its commentaries are formidable. While Beale's new...

Exodus 1-18.(Review)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... by George W. Coats The Forms of the Old Testament Literature. Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 1999. 178 pp. $24.00. ISBN 0-8028-0592-2. COATS OFFERS A DETAILED form-critical analysis of the individual units within Exod 1-18. He divides the...

Bound for Freedom: The Book of Exodus in Jewish and Christian Traditions.(Review)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... by Goran Larsson Hendrickson, Peabody, 1999. 315 pp. $24.95. ISBN 1-56563-083-1. THE SUBTITLE OF THIS BOOK describes its primary intent and focus. It is not a commentary on Exodus but rather a presentation of the major themes that...

Jeremiah: The World, the Wound of God.(Review)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... by Daniel Berrigan Fortress. Minneapolis, 1999. 195 pp. $18.00. ISBN 0-8006-3138-2. ONCE AGAIN BERRIGAN, in his unique poetic style, has prophetically interpreted a Hebrew prophet for the modern Christian reader. Clearly in command of...

Zechariah Readings: A New Biblical Commentary.(Review)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... by Edgar W. Conrad Sheffield Academic Press, Sheffield, 1999. 220 pp. $23.75. ISBN 1-85075-900-6. CONRAD READS THE BOOK of Zechariah as a unified document that introduces the prophet (1:1-6), treats the events surrounding the...

David: Biblical Portraits of Power.(Review)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... by Marti J. Steussy University of South Carolina Press, Columbia, 1999. 251 pp. $34.95 (cloth). ISBN 1-57003-250-5. The Heart of an Executive by Richard D. Phillips Doubleday, New York, 1999. 271 pp. $21.00. ISBN...

The Old Testament and the Significance of Jesus.(Review)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... by Fredrick C. Holmgren Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 1999. 204 PP. $16.00. ISBN 0-8028-4453-7. HOLMGREN PRESENTS A THOUGHTFUL and sensitive exegetical study of texts and ideas in the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament that have served to...

The Gospel of John: In the Light of the Old Testament.(Review)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... by Claus Westermann Translated by Siegfried S. Schatzmann Hendrickson, Peabody, 1998. 106 pp. $9.95. ISBN 1-56563-237-0. THIS BOOK ARGUES that "earlier" and "later" redactional layers can be discerned within John. In Westermann's...

God's Final Envoy: Early Christology and Jesus' Own View of His Mission.(Review)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... by Marinus de Jonge Studying the Historical Jesus. Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 1998. 176 pp. $18.00. ISBN 0-8028-4482-0. HOW MANY STUDIES of "the historical Jesus" does this generation need? Whatever the number, it should include this...

A Believer's Search for the Jesus of History.(Review)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... by Phillip J. Cunningham Paulist Press, New York, 1999. 154 pp. $14.95. ISBN 0-8091-3814-X. IN RECENT DECADES, ACADEMIC catalogs and popular media have been swirling with new studies of the historical Jesus. Cunningham attempts to put...

Jesus' Baptism and Jesus' Healing: His Personal Practice of Spirituality.(Review)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... by Bruce Chilton Trinity Press International, Harrisburg, 1998. 134 pp. $12.00. ISBN 1-56338-248-2. THIS STUDY BEGINS, as so many studies of Jesus do, with John the Baptist. Relying largely on Josephus, Chilton characterizes John as a...

Second Corlnthians.(Review)
January 1, 2000... by Jan Lambrecht Sacra Pagina. Liturgical Press, Collegeville, 1999. 250 pp. $29.95 (cloth). ISBN 0-8146-5810-5. LAMBRECHT PROVIDES CONCISE and dependable guidance through this complex letter. He draws from his wide knowledge of...

Paul: The Man and the Myth.(Review)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... by Calvin J. Roetzel University of South Carolina Press, Columbia, 1998. 269 pp. $34.95 (cloth). ISBN 1-57003-264-5. AMIDST THE PUBLICITY generated by the welter of recent books on the "historical Jesus," a similar flurry of writings...

Saint Paul Returns to the Movies: Triumph over Shame.(Review)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... by Robert Jewett Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 1999. 221. pp. $14.00. ISBN 0-8028-4585-1. A REVIEWER OF JEWETT'S earlier volume on Paul and the movies observed that "[i]f the ancient Word is to have relevance today, it must, at some point,...

Whispers of Liberation: Feminist Perspectives on the New Testament.(Review)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... by Nicholas King Paulist, New York, 1998. 189 pp. $15.95. ISBN 0-8091-3816-6. FOR THOSE WHO WANT A READABLE survey of questions raised by feminist scholars, as well as a commentary on the principal New Testament texts pertaining to...

New Testament Christology.(Review)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... by Frank J. Matera Westminster John Knox, Louisville, 1999. 301 pp. $26.00. ISBN 0-664-25694-5. THIS IS AN INGENIOUSLY DEVISED book on a longfamiliar subject. Matera proposes that, since all the New Testament authors had a story to...

Uneasy Neighbors: Church and State in the New Testament.(Review)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... by Walter E. Pilgrim Overtures to Biblical Theology. Fortress, Minneapolis, 1999.225 pp. $20.00. ISBN 0-8006-3113-7. THIS BOOK IS NOW THE DEFINITIVE treatment of the topic indicated by its subtitle. Pilgrim broadens the scope of...

Inspiration and Authority: Nature and Function of Christian Scripture.(Review)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... by Paul J. Achtemeier Hendrickson, Peabody, 1999. 166 pp. $9.95. ISBN 1-56563-363-6. ACHTEMEIER FIRST WROTE this book twenty years ago during the "Battle for the Bible" debate. That debate put particular pressure on Fuller Seminary,...

The Call of the Disciple: The Bible on Following Christ.(Review)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... by George Fischer, S.J. and Martin Hasitschka, S.J. Translated by Matthew J. O'Connell Paulist Press, New York, 1999. 165 pp. $15.95. ISBN 0-8091-3558-1. THE AUTHORS ARE spiritual directors and professors of scripture. Both roles are...

An American Bible: A History of the Book In the United States.(Review)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... by Paul Gutjahr Stanford University Press, Stanford, 1999. 271 pp. $39.50 (cloth). ISBN 0-8047-3425-9. GUTJAHR HAS WRITTEN A Bible-lover's delight--well researched, well-written, well-illustrated, very readable, with instructive...

Ad Litteram: How Augustine, Calvin, and Barth Read the "Plain Sense" of Genesis 1-3.(Review)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... by K. E. Greene-McCreight Peter Lang, New York, 1999. 288 pp. $52.95 (cloth). ISBN 0-8204-39924. FROM THE TIME OF THE APOSTLE PAUL into the present, Christians have insisted that the witness of scripture is of sufficient clarity to...

Christology Revisited.(Review)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... by John Macquarrie Trinity Press International, Harrisburg, 1998. 120 pp. $13.00. ISBN 1-56338-252-0. THIS WORK FOLLOWS UP on Macquarrie's 1990 Jesus Christ in Modern Thought (Trinity Press International). Convinced that although...

Power in the Blood?: The Cross in the African American Experience.(Review)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... by JoAnne Marie Terrell Orbis, Maryknoll, 1998. 187 pp. $18.00. ISBN 1-57075-216-8. THIS CRITICAL WORK ANALYZES the significance of the cross of Jesus for African Americans in the 21st century. Writing as a womanist theologian, the...

Introducing Redemption in Christian Feminism.(Review)
January 1, 2000... by Rosemary Radford Ruether Introductions in Feminist Theology. Sheffield Academic Press, Sheffield, 1998. 136 pp. $19.95. ISBN 1-85075-888-3. As MARY GREY STATES in her introduction, Rosemary Radford Ruether's work has "formed one of...

Letter to a Man in the Fire: Does God Exist and Does He Care?(Review)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... by Reynolds Price Scribner, New York, 1999. 108 pp. $20.00. ISBN 0-684-85626-3. THE "MAN IN THE FIRE" is Jim Fox, who wrote to Price posing questions about the existence and goodness of God and the nature of evil and suffering. Fox had...

Holy People: A Liturgical Ecclesiology.(Review)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... by Gordon W. Lathrop Fortress, Minneapolis. 1999. 246 pp. $29.00 (cloth). ISBN 0-8006-3133-1. THIS BOOK CONTINUES the thought of Lathrop's Holy Things: A Liturgical Theology (1993), in which he developed a theology from the things the...

Protestant Spiritual Exercises: Theology, History, and Practice.(Review)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... by Joseph D. Driskill Morehouse, Harrisburg, 1999. 131 pp. $12.95. ISBN 08192-1759-X. WITH THE RESURGENCE OF INTEREST in the practice of spiritual disciplines, there is a curiosity about the roots of spiritual practice in the Reformed...

The Common Task: A Theology of Christian Mission.(Review)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... by M. Thomas Thangaraj Abingdon, Nashville, 1999. 167 pp. $22.00. ISBN 0-687-00144-7. THE TERM "MISSION" is not a term that belongs to the realm of the Christian alone. Thangaraj begins by defining mission in human terms that encompass...

Folly of God: The Rise of Christian Preaching.(Review)
January 1, 2000... by Ronald B. Osborn The History of Christian Preaching Series, vol. 1. Chalice, St. Louis, 1999. 486 pp. $39.99. ISBN 0-8272-1428-6 OSBORN'S FINAL OPUS provides a tremendous beginning for this new multi-volume history of Christian...

Living Stories: Pastoral Counseling in Congregational Context.(Review)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... by Donald Capps Fortress, Minneapolis, 1998. 230 pp. $16.00. ISBN 0-8006-3073-4. IN THIS BOOK, CAPPS informs his readers of interesting and useful psychological theory that is unlikely to be discovered by the average pastor. He argues...