Interpretation articles from January 2004

Interpretation archives from January 2004

Editorial.(Augustine of Hippo on biblical interpretation)(Editorial)
January 1, 2004... WHY DO THE WRITINGS of Augustine, the fourth-century Bishop of Hippo, merit the time and attention of biblical interpreters in the twenty-first century? For one reason, despite his reputation as a bishop, saint, and church father, Augustine was...

"Take up and read": basics of Augustine's biblical interpretation.
January 1, 2004... As in other areas of the theological enterprise, Augustine's influence on the development of biblical interpretation in the West can hardly be overestimated. Medieval and Reformation exegetes eagerly excerpted his commentaries and other...

Augustine and the Psalms.
January 1, 2004... The very first sentence of Augustine's Confessions is a quotation from the Psalms, and for the rest of the work hardly a page goes by without at least one such reference. It would not be an exaggeration to say that the narrative...

Reading the signs: guidance for the pilgrim community.(Augustine, Teaching Christianity)
January 1, 2004... In the opening lines of Augustine's Confessions, we find words familiar even to those who are not familiar with Augustine: "You have made us toward yourself, and our heart is unquiet until it rests in you" (author's translation). The "unquiet"...

Augustine's hermeneutics and postmodern critics.
January 1, 2004... The case has been made that Augustine anticipated postmodern criticism. Umberto Eco apparently wrote, "Textual semiotics and contemporary hermeneutics still move along the main lines set down by Augustine, even when they are secularized...

Between text & sermon: psalm 71.
January 1, 2004... REDESCRIBING THE WORLD OF THIS PSALM encourages me to think about both text and method. The passage is part of the poem-prayer of a gray-haired, aging musician (vv. 9, 18, 22) who sings lament and praise with harp and lyre (v. 22). This...

Jeremiah 17:5-11.
January 1, 2004... JEREMIAH 17:5-11 STANDS OUT FROM THE prophet's larger corpus. Its features are distinct from the prophetic utterances and historical narratives that typify the book. In this passage, particularly vv. 5-8, the reader encounters a principle that...

Luke 5:1-11.
January 1, 2004... IN THE GOSPEL OF LUKE, JESUS' disciples first appear only after Jesus has been involved in ministry for some time. This passage begins as a story of Jesus' teaching. He is standing on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. Two boats are nearby. Jesus...

Ephesians 3:1-12.
January 1, 2004... Anticipating Christmas, some who "watched out" and "didn't cry" or "pout" will invariably relapse into their former bad habits after the big day. Most adults are not tempted regularly to pouting and other such naughty behavior, but the sad...

Reverberations of Faith: A Theological Handbook of Old Testament Themes.(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... by Walter Brueggemann Westminster John Knox, Louisville, 2002. 256 pp. $29.95. ISBN 0-664-22231-5. THIS TREATMENT OF ONE HUNDRED Old Testament themes (the actual number is one hundred and five; he admits to miscounting!) offers far...

Theologies in the Old Testament.(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... by Erhard S. Gerstenberger Translated by John Bowden. Fortress, Minneapolis, 2002. 358 pp. $30.00 (cloth). ISBN 0-8006-3465-9. DOES THE OLD TESTAMENT HAVE A CENTER, an overarching theme or concept that binds together its diverse voices?...

The Resurrection of the Son of God.(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... by N. T. Wright Fortress, Minneapolis, 2003.817 pp. $39.00. ISBN 0-8006-2681-8. N. T. WRIGHT HAS WRITTEN WHAT WILL probably be viewed for many years as the definitive work on resurrection (and particularly the resurrection of Christ). The...

Preaching Mark in Two Voices.(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... by Brian K. Blount and Gary W. Charles Westminster John Knox, Louisville, 2002. 273 pp. $24.95. ISBN 0-664-22393-1. WHEN I WAS A SEMINARY PROFESSOR, my students often, and justifiably, complained that assigned commentaries assigned were too...

Between Cross and Resurrection: a Theology of Holy Saturday.(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... by Alan E. Lewis Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 2001. 477 pp. $30.00 (cloth). ISBN 0-8028-4702-1. THIS BOOK PRESENTS AN ENTIRE THEOLOGICAL system elaborated as if from a point of view available only on the day after the death of Jesus Christ and...

Deuteronomy 1:1-21:9 & Deuteronomy 21:10-34:12.(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... by Duane L. Christensen Word Biblical Commentary 6a. Revised and expanded. Thomas Nelson, Nashville, 2001. 592 pp. $39.99 (cloth). ISBN 0-7852-4220-1. Deuteronomy 21:10-34:12 by Duane L. Christensen Word Biblical Commentary 6b....

Isaiah.(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... by John Goldingay New International Biblical Commentary: Old Testament Series. Hendrickson, Peabody, 2001. 397 pp. $11.95. ISBN 1-56563-223-0. READERS WHO NEED MORE than study Bible annotations, yet who are unable to reap the full...

The Genesis of Perfection: Adam and Eve in Jewish and Christian Imagination.(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... by Gary A. Anderson Westminster John Knox, Louisville, 2001. 257 pp. $24.95. ISBN 0-664-22403-2. THIS BOOK'S CENTRAL ARGUMENT is that the biblical story of Adam and Eve, ostensibly about beginnings, has since antiquity been...

The Quest for the Plausible Jesus: the Question of Criteria.(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... by Gerd Theissen and Dagmar Winter Westminster John Knox, Louisville, 2002.344 pp. $29.95. ISBN 0-664-22537-3. How DO WE KNOW WHAT Jesus really said and did? This book is a comprehensive history of answers to that question. The authors...

Turning to Jesus: the Sociology of Conversion in the Gospels.(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... by Scot McKnight Westminster John Knox, Louisville, 2002.2:1.4 pp. $18.95. ISBN 0-664-22514-4. EFFECTIVELY INTEGRATING biblical and sociological studies with classical and contemporary biographies, McKnight provides a balanced and...

The Disciples in Narrative Perspective: the Portrayal and Function of the Matthean Disciples.(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... by Jeannine K. Brown Society of Biblical Literature Academia Biblica. Society of Biblical Literature, Atlanta, 2002. 171 pp. $29.95. ISBN 1-58983-048-2. THE DISCIPLES IN MATTHEW'S gospel have received a significant amount of attention...

Moses as a Character in the Fourth Gospel: a Study of Ancient Reading Techniques.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... by Stan Harstine Sheffield Academic Press. Sheffield, 2002. 200 pp. $95.00 (cloth). ISBN 0-8264-6026-7. AS THE TITLE OF THE BOOK suggests, this study is primarily concerned with how the character of Moses functions in the plot of the...

Mary Magdalene, the First Apostle: the Struggle for Authority.(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... by Ann Graham Brock Harvard Theological Studies, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 2003. 235 pp. $25.00. ISBN 0-674-00966-5. IN THIS ENGAGING STUDY, Brock sets out to reclaim for Mary Magdalene the title ascribed to her by the early...

Appealing to Scripture in Moral Debate: Five Hermeneutical Rules.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... by Charles H. Cosgrove Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 2002. 240 pp. $22.00. ISBN 0-8028-4942-3. COSGROVE INTENDS TO CLARIFY central hermeneutical assumptions shared by modern biblical scholars and ethicists. These rules are often unexamined...

The Future of Catholic Biblical Scholarship: a Constructive Conversation.(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... by Luke Timothy Johnson and William S. Kurz Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 2002. 299 pages. $24.00. ISBN 0-8028-4545-2. TWO LEADING ROMAN CATHOLIC scholars attempt to describe what is distinctive about Catholic biblical scholarship and what...

For the Beauty of the Earth. A Christian Vision for Creation Care.(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... by Steven Bouma-Prediger Baker, Grand Rapids, 2001. 234 pp. $21.99. SBN 0-8010-2298-3. BOUMA-PREDIGER HAS succeeded in directing onto his topic useful information drawn from scientific as well as biblical and theological authorities....

Minding God: Theology and the Cognitive Sciences.(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... by Gregory R. Peterson Fortress, Minneapolis, 2003. 252 pp. $19.00. ISBN 0-8006-3498-5 THIS BOOK ARGUES THAT theology's mandate to shape the way we inhabit this world requires that it engage the findings of modern science. Peterson...

Christian Hope and Christian Life: Raids on the Inarticulate.(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... by Rowan A. Greer Crossroad, New York, 2001. 282 pp. $24.95. ISBN 0-8245-1916-7. THIS VOLUME BRINGS TOGETHER an introductory essay on the New Testament with studies of Gregory of Nyssa, Augustine, John Donne, and Jeremy Taylor. Each...

The Spirit of Adoption: at Home In God's Family.(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... by Jeanne Stevenson-Moessner Westminster John Knox, Louisville, 2003. 134 pp. $14.95. ISBN 0-664-22534-9. IN HIS FOREWORD TO THIS BOOK, Martin Marty calls it "that practical kind of 'how-to' book on this subject on one level, and the...

Hitting Home: Feminist Ethics, Women's Work, and the Betrayal of "Family Values".(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... by Gloria H. Albrecht Continuum, New York, 2002. 176 pp. $22.95. 0-8264-1442-7. GLORIA ALBRECHT SHARES WITH religious and social conservatives a sense that the family is in crisis. Unlike those conservatives, she locates the forces...

Eastern Orthodoxy Through Western Eyes.(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... by Donald Fairbairn Westminster John Knox, Louisville, 2002. 209 pp. $19.95. ISBN 0-664-22497-0. THIS WORK IS ONE OF many sources available for those seeking to understand the differences between Eastern and Western Christianity....

Healing a Broken World: Globalization and God.(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... by Cynthia D. Moe-Lobeda Fortress, Minneapolis, 2002.236 pp. $20.00. ISBN 0-8006-3250-8. AMONG THE GLUT OF BOOKS on globalization, few take the phenomenon seriously as a theological problem. This book does so, arguing that...

Dancing with the Sacred: Ecology, Evolution, and God.(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... by Peters, Karl E. Trinity Press International, Harrisburg, 2002. 171 pp. $15.00. ISBN 1-56338-393-4. CONVINCED BY MODERN SCIENCE that the idea of a personal God is no longer tenable, Peters seeks a connection with the sacred that fits...

Fortress Introduction to Black Church History.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... by Anne H. Pinn and Anthony B. Pinn Fortress, Minneapolis, 2002. 192 pp. $16.00. ISBN 0-8006-3442-X THIS TEXT IS A SIMPLE and straightforward history of African-American churches. Well written and organized, it could be used in an...

Walk on: Life, Loss, Trust and Other Realities.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... Baker, Grand Rapids, 2002. 200 pp. $16.99. ISBN 0-80102465-X. WRITTEN BY AN EMINENT Old Testament scholar, this book offers an opportunity to "hear" the interior conversations of the author on a variety of topics that relate to vocation....

Listening Ministry: Rethinking Pastoral Leadership.(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... by Susan K. Hedahl Fortress, Minneapolis, 2001. 123 pp. $14.00. ISBN 0-8006-3174-9. ONE OF THE ESSENTIAL--albeit often overlooked--tasks of pastoral ministry is listening. Pastors listen to the hopes and fears of their parishioners,...

Pastor: a Reader for Ordained Ministry & The Company of Preachers: Wisdom on Preaching, Augustine to the Present.(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... edited by William H. Willimon Abingdon, Nashville, 2002. 326 pp. $25.00. ISBN 0-68709788-6. The Company of Preachers: Wisdom on Preaching Augustine to the Present edited by Richard Lischer Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 2002.478 pp....

The Lectionary Commentary: Theological Exegesis for Sunday's Texts.(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... edited by Roger E. Van Harn Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 2001. $120.00. (cloth). 3 vols. 1,905 pp. ISBN 0-8028-4751-X (Vol.I); ISBN 0-8028-4752 (Vol. II); ISBN 0-8028-4753 (Vol. III). IN THIS COMMENDABLE three-volume set, Van Ham has...

Inspiration.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... by David R. Law Continuum, London, 2001. 240 pp. $22.05. ISBN 0-82645183-7. LAW SETS HIS DISCUSSION in the context of biblical authority. He first analyzes the concept of authority itself, stressing that the Bible's authority is...

The New Testament: a Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings.(Book Notes)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... by Bart D. Ehrman Third Edition. Oxford University Press, New York, 2003. 506 pp. $43.95. ISBN 0-19-515462-2. This introduction to the New Testament from a historical and comparative perspective emphasizes the rich diversity of the...

The New Testament and Other Early Christian Writings: a Reader.(Book Notes)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... by Bart D. Ehrman Second Edition. Oxford University Press, New York, 2003. 419 pp. $75.00 (cloth). ISBN 0-19-515463-0. This collection of early Christian texts is intended to be a companion volume to The New Testament: A Historical...

A Feminist Companion to John: Volume One.(Book Notes)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... edited by Amy-Jill Levine Feminist Companion to the New Testament and Early Christian Writings 4. Sheffield Academic, New York, 2003. 246 pp. $29.95. ISBN 0-8264-6255-3. This collection of essays is the first of two volumes that...

Symbolism in the Fourth Gospel: Meaning, Mystery, Community.(Book Notes)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... by Craig R. Koester Second Edition. Fortress, Minneapolis, 2003. 347 pp. $27.00. ISBN 0-8006-3594-9. This respected study uses the symbolic language of the Gospel of John as a focus to explore the gospel's literary dimensions, social...

Word, Theology, and Community in John.(Book Notes)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... edited by John Painter, et al. Chalice, St. Louis, 2002. 244 pp. $32,99. ISBN 0-82724246-8. This collection of essays, by distinguished Johannine scholars in honor of Robert Kysar, examines a range of theological and cultural issues in...

Lost Scriptures: Books that Did Not Make it into the New Testament.(Book Notes)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... by Bart D. Ehrman Oxford University Press, New York, 2003. 342 pp. $30.00 (coth). ISBN 0-19-514182-2. This anthology offers up-to-date, readable translations of non-canonical Christian writings from the first centuries after Christ....

The Westminster Theological Wordbook of the Bible.(Book Notes)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... edited by Donald E. Gowan Westminster John Knox, Louisville, 2003.549 pp. $34.95 (cloth). ISBN 0-664-22394-X. This invaluable one-volume guide to the theological vocabulary of the Old and New Testaments is based on the vocabular of the...

Theological Perspectives on God and Beauty.(Book Notes)(Book Review)(Brief Review)
January 1, 2004... by John Milbank, Graham Ward, and Edith Wyschogrod The Rockwell Lecture Series. Trinity Press International, Harrisburg, 2003. 90 pp. $20.00. ISBN 1-56338-414-0. In this volume, three theologians debate the place of art in theology and...

The Cambridge Companion to Postmodern Theology.(Book Notes)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... edited by Kevin J. Vanhoozer Cambridge Companions to Religion. Cambridge University Press, New York, 2003. 295 pp. $23.00. ISBN 0-521-79395-5. The first part of this book offers examples of different types of contemporary theology in...

The Cambridge Companion to Martin Luther.(Book Notes)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... edited by Donald K. McKim Cambridge Companions to Religion. Cambridge University Press, New York, 2003. 320 pp. $22.00. ISBN 0-521-01673-8. Eighteen chapters by historians and theologians present a panorama of Luther's contexts, the...

The Jewish-Christian Schism Revisted.(Book Notes)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... by John Howard Yoder; edited by Michael G. Cartwright and Peter Ochs Radical Traditions. Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 2003. 298 pp. $30.00. ISBN 0-41028-1362-3. This collection of ten unpublished essays by the late Yoder present his views...

Early Christian Families in Context: an Interdisciplinary Dialogue.(Book Notes)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... edited by David L. Balch and Carolyn Osiek Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 2003.431 pp. $28.00. ISBN 0-8028-3986-X. The book covers key aspects of ancient family life, from meals and child-rearing to women's roles and the lives of slaves. Three...

Yet with a Steady Beat: Contemporary U.S. Afrocentric Biblical Interpretation.(Book Notes)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... edited by Randall C. Bailey Semeia Studies 42. Society of Biblical Literature, Atlanta, 2003. 200 pp. $27.95. ISBN 1-58983-072-5. The essays in this collection address issues of cultural criticism, utilization of black religious...

The Strange New World of the Gospel: Re-evangelizing in the Postmodern World.(Book Notes)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... edited by Carl E. Braaten and Robert W. Jenson Eerdmans, Grand Rapids. 2002. 176 pp. $23.00. ISBN 0-8028-3947-9. Representing Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox traditions, scholars reflect on Christian mission within postmodern,...