Interpretation articles from January 2002

Interpretation archives from January 2002

Editorial.(Brief Article)(Editorial)
January 1, 2002... FOR MORE THAN HALF A CENTURY, the journal Interpretation has addressed as a matter of central concern the theological interpretation of scripture. At the heart of its mission is the task of forging connections--not only between the work of...

Scripture and Theology: Failed experiments, fresh perspectives.(Critical Essay)
January 1, 2002... ********** With apologies to Martin Luther, I recently created "Table Talk," a center for discussion on our seminary's Intranet. "Table Talk" has become a place for debate on all sorts of topics, from Harry Potter to the nature of the...

Paul, Theologian of God's Apocalypase.(Critical Essay)
January 1, 2002... ********** In his influential study of ancient apocalyptic, Christopher Rowland argues that apocalyptic is more than a matter of eschatology. Indeed, in his view, the term "apocalyptic" ought to be used only in connection with what is...

Apocalyptic family values.(Critical Essay)
January 1, 2002... ********** Culture wars rage over the proper form and function of family life and the character of family values. (1) A season of unusually rapid cultural change has provoked great anxiety about this most basic of human societies,...

Know your context: Giving and receiving money in Philippians.(Critical Essay)
January 1, 2002... ********** The practice of interpreting scripture theologically is determined by the purposes for which Christians are called to read and embody scripture. Theological interpretation of the Bible is not determined by any particular method...

Journeying through scripture with the Lectionary's Map.
January 1, 2002... ********** A review of scholarship across the last three decades, laced with anecdotal evidence drawn from my own and others' experience of biblical interpretation and preaching, has persuaded me of two things: (1) the Revised Common...

Exodus 2:11--3:15. (Between Text and Sermon).(Critical Essay)
January 1, 2002... MOSES EMERGES IN DRAMATIC FASHION AS A PERSON who suffers in the sufferings of others. The introductory words of Exod 2:11 are surprisingly compact: "One day, after Moses had grown up...." They leave us to imagine what happened between the time...

Psalm 95.(praise of God)
January 1, 2002... ARCHBISHOP WILLIAM TEMPLE WARNED THAT "[i]f you have a false idea of God, the more religious you are, the worse it is for you--it were better for you to be an atheist" (L. G. Jones, "One that matters," Christian Century [May 20-27, 1998] 544)....

Acts 10:34--43.(Critical Essay)
January 1, 2002... PETER'S SERMON TO CORNELIUS CHALLENGES their understandings about what it means to follow Christ. The radical gospel of peace challenges our own notions of what it means to belong to a privileged religious community with the "exclusive" truth...

1 and 2 Kings. (Major Reviews).(Smyth and Helwys Bible Commentary)
January 1, 2002... by Walter Brueggemann Smyth & Helwys Bible Commentary. Smith & Helwys, Macon, 2000. 645 pp. $65.00 (cloth). ISBN 1-57312-065-0. PUBLISHER AND AUTHOR HERE COLLABORATE in producing an entirely new kind of biblical commentary. The result...

Proverbs. (Major Reviews).(Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching)
January 1, 2002... by Leo G. Perdue Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching. John Knox, Louisville, 2000. 289 Pp. $29.95 (cloth). ISBN 0-8042-3116-8. PERDUE ORGANIZES HIS ANALYSIS of each unit of proverbs around four helpful...

Mark 1-8: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary. (Major Reviews).(Brief Review)
January 1, 2002... by Joel Marcus Anchor Bible 27. Doubleday, New York, 2000. 569 pp. $42.50 (cloth). ISBN 0-385-42349-7. AT LAST THE EDITORS OF THE ANCHOR BIBLE series have given us a usable commentary on Mark. Marcus begins with a discussion of...

The First and Second Letters to Timothy. (Major Reviews).
January 1, 2002... Jerome D. Quinn and William C. Wacker Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 2000. 988 pp. $65.00 (cloth). ISBN 0-8028-2443-9. QUINN'S COMMENTARY, PUBLISHED posthumously with editorial assistance and final additions by William Wacker, completes a...

Leviticus as Literature. (Shorter Reviews).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... by Mary Douglas Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2001. 298 pp. $16.95. ISBN 0-19-815092-X. DOUGLAS HAS BEEN FASCINATED with the book of Leviticus for a good portion of her scholarly career, first evidenced in Purity and Danger (1966)....

Joshua, Judges, Ruth. (Shorter Reviews).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... by J. Gordon Harris, Cheryl A. Brown, and Michael S. Moore New International Bible Commentary. Hendrickson, Peabody, 2000. 398 pp. $11.95. ISBN 0.85364-726-7. THESE EXCELLENT SHORT COMMENTARIES will be useful to lay readers, ministers,...

Esther. (Shorter Reviews).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... by Adele Berlin Translated by Am Oved. JPS Bible Commentary. The Jewish Publication Society, Philadelphia, 2001, 169 pp. 34.95 (cloth). ISBN 0-8276-06990. THE LAST SEVERAL YEARS have seen an explosion of interest in the book of Esther,...

Psalms. (Shorter Reviews).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... by James Limburg Westminster Bible Companion. Westminster John Knox, Louisville, 2000. 509 pp. $29.95. ISBN 0-664-25557-4. IT IS CLEAR from the very beginning of this volume that Limburg's work grows out of a lifetime of reading,...

The Steward Living in Covenant: A New Perspective on Old Testament Stories. (Shorter Reviews).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... by Ronald E. Vallet Faith's Horizons Series. Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 2001. 251 pp. $20.00. ISBN 0-8028-4727-7. THIS VOLUME SERVES as a companion to another book by Vallet in this series, Stepping Stones of the Steward: A Faith Journey...

The Religion of Ancient Israel. (Shorter Reviews).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... by Patrick D. Miller Library of Ancient Israel. Westminster John Knox, Louisville, 2000. 356 pp. $44.95 (cloth). ISBN 0-281-05381-2. MILLER HAS WRITTEN an introduction to the religion of ancient Israel that is both accessible and...

History and Ideology: An Introduction to Historiography in the Hebrew Bible. (Shorter Reviews).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... by Yairah Amit Sheffield Academic Press, Sheffield, 1999. 127 pp. $19.95. ISBN 1-85075-928-6. IN THE ONGOING DEBATES ABOUT the historicity of the biblical narratives, this book takes a middle position, somewhere between the...

Jesus and the Logic of History. (Shorter Reviews).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... by Paul W. Barnett New Studies in Biblical Theology. Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 1997. 182 pp. $18.00 ISBN 0-8028-4410-3. THIS IS AN INTERESTING AND SOLID ATTEMPT to restate the case for recognizing the gospels as good sources for the...

Archaeology and the Galilean Jesus: A re-examination of the evidence & Crossing Galilee: Architectures of contact in the occupied land of Jesus. (Shorter Reviews).
January 1, 2002... Archaeology and the Galilean Jesus: A Re-Examination of the Evidence. Jonathan L. Reed Trinity Press International, Harrisburg, 2000. 253 pp. $30.00. ISBN 1-56338-324-1. Crossing Galilee: Architectures of Contact in the Occupied...

Family: A Christian social perspective. (Shorter Reviews).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Lisa Sowle Cahill Fortress, Minneapolis, 2000. $17.00. 170 pp. ISBN 0-8006-3252-4. CAHILL OFFERS AN ELOQUENT, academically rich antidote to those who paint the contemporary family crisis in narrow moral terms. Drawing significantly on...

The first epistle to the Corinthians. (Shorter Reviews).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... by Anthony C. Thiselton New international Greek Testament Commentary. Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 2000. 1446 pp. $75.00 (cloth). ISBN 0-8028-2449-8. THIS-MAJOR COMMENTARY is a meticulously researched, judiciously argued, and elegantly...

Revelation. (Shorter Reviews).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... by Jonathan Knight Readings: A New Biblical Commentary. Sheffield Academic Press, Sheffield, 1999. 183 pp. $19.50. ISBN 1-85075-967-7. KNIGHT'S HOOK is a helpful addition to this new commentary series. It has an introduction,...

Sexual ethics and the New Testament: Behavior and belief. (Shorter Reviews).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... by Raymond F. Collins Crossroad, New York, 2000. 200 pp. $17.95. ISBN 0-8245-1801-2. COLLINS PROVIDES a solid overview of the references to sexual morality in the New Testament. He begins by considering stories about Jesus and women...

Psychological biblical criticism. (Shorter Reviews).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... by D. Andrew Kille Guides to Biblical Scholarship. Old Testament Series. Fortress, Minneapolis, 2001. 161 pp. $21.00. ISBN 0-8006-3246-X. THIS BOOK INTRODUCES the emerging discipline of psychologically oriented biblical criticism...

Postcolonial feminist interpretation of the Bible. (Shorter Reviews).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... by Musa W. Dube Chalice, St. Louis, 2000. 221 pp. $32.99. ISBN 0-8272-2963-1. DUBE "STANDS IN THE CROSSFIRE" between patriarchy and global imperialism (p. 199). Her goal is to teach us an exegetical method that will help us read the...

An Introduction to Early Judaism. (Shorter Reviews).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... by James C. VanderKam Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 2001. 234 pp. $18.00. ISBN 0-8028-4641-6. THIS INTRODUCTION to Second Temple Judaism for non-specialists is divided into three parts. The first section sketches the history of the period...

The unaccommodated Calvin: Studies in the foundation of a theological tradition. (Shorter Reviews).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... by Richard A. Muller Oxford Studies in Historical Theology. Oxford University Press, New York, 2000. 320 pp. $65.00 (cloth). ISBN 0-19-511681-X. THE PURPOSE OF THIS integrated collection of essays is to consolidate and advance what...

Mrs. Stanton's Bible. (Shorter Reviews).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... by Kathi Kern Cornell University Press, Ithaca, 2001. 288 pp. $39.95 (cloth). ISBN 0-8014-3191.3. KERN'S ENLIGHTENING and detailed analysis of Elizabeth Cady Stanton's Woman's Bible fills a void in the historiography surrounding the...

God and the excluded: Visions and blindspots in contemporary theology. (Shorter Reviews).
January 1, 2002... by Joerg Rieger Fortress, Minneapolis, 2001. 241 pp. $20.00. ISBN 0-8006-3254-0. HOW CAN RESPONSIBLE theological reflection take place from a position of privilege without continuing to exclude? This question is answered first through...

Anabaptist theology in face of postmodernity: A proposal for the third millennium. (Shorter Reviews).
January 1, 2002... by J. Denny Weaver C. Henry Smith Series no. 2. Pandora Press, Telford, Pa., 2001. 223 pp. $22.95. ISBN 0-9665021-4-0. WEAVER ARGUES for two important theses. First, he contends that every ecclesiology presumes a correlative and...

Consequences: Morality, ethics, and the future. (Shorter Reviews).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... by James H. Burtness Fortress, Minneapolis, 1999. 173 pp. $16.00. ISBN 0-8006-3092-0. MANY INTRODUCTORY TEXTS in Christian ethics treat the subject in isolation from the categories of philosophical ethics. Burtness's contibution avoids...

Spirit ethics: Scripture and the moral life. (Shorter Reviews).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... by Paul Jersild Fortress, Minneapolis, 2000. 174 pp. $17.00. ISBN 0-8006-3232-X. THIS BOOK EXPLORES the task of Christian ethics in a postmodern and pluralist setting. Rather than insisting on absolutes, Christians should focus on...

Can a Darwinian be a Christian? (Shorter Reviews).
January 1, 2002... by Michael Ruse Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2001. 242 pp. $24.95. ISBN 0-521-63144-0. RUSE OFFERS a distinctly different discussion of the perceived conflict between evolutionary biology and Christianity. Ruse concedes that...

Voices from the city. (Shorter Reviews).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... by John Nunes Concordia, Saint Louis, 1999. 141 pp. $12.99. ISBN 0-570-05375-7. NUNES ASKS: What is urban? He defines "urban" as place(s) of paradox and inescapable realities. Nunes summarizes poverty this way: "For people who place...

Growing compassionate kids: Helping kids see beyond their backyard. (Shorter Reviews).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... by Jan Johnson Upper Room, Nashville, 2001. $12.00. ISBN 0-8358-0932-3. AS A PARENT OF A TODDLER, I am very much aware of the self-centeredness of this stage of a child's development. But I am also noticing the messages society sends...