Interpretation articles from July 1998

Interpretation archives from July 1998

In memoriam. (tribute to publication 'Interpreter' co-founding editor Donald G. Miller)(Obituary)
July 1, 1998... On February 22, 1997, Donald G. Miller, the founding co-editor of Interpretation, died at the age of 87. As the Walter H. Robertson chair of New Testament at Union Theological Seminary in Virginia, he and his colleague Balmer H. Kelly, both...

Paul and the Corinthians. (religious figure St. Paul the Apostle)
July 1, 1998... The Letters, the Challenges of Ministry, the Gospel To understand the theological orientation attested in 1 and 2 Corinthians, one must pay close attention to the practical issues Paul had to address. His development of such theological themes...

Paul's use of the Old Testament in 2 Corinthians. (religious figure St. Paul the Apostle; Old and New Testament in the Bible)
July 1, 1998... The Jewish scriptures provide a rich resource for Paul's reflection and argument in 2 Corinthians. Quotations and images from the Old Testament illuminate Paul's mission and suffering, and point to the theocentric perspective of his ministry,...

Conquest, control, and the cross: Paul's self-portrayal in 2 Corinthians 10-13. (St. Paul the Apostle's second letter to the Corinthians in the Bible's New Testament)
July 1, 1998... An embattled Paul portrays himself as both soldier and parent in 2 Cor 10-13. These metaphors assert Paul's authority over the Corinthians, but at the same time undergo transformation in the light of the cross. Paul had a difficult time with...

The gospel takes place: Paul's theology of power-in-weakness in 2 Corinthians. (St. Paul the apostle and his epistle in the Bible's New Testament)
July 1, 1998... The theme of power is both crucial and contested in 2 Corinthians and is tied throughout to the language of place. While Paul's rivals "place" their power in authoritative lineage and charismatic signs, Paul's apostolic power takes place...

2 Corinthians 4:7-18. (St. Paul the Apostle's second letter to the Corinthians contained in the Bible's New Testament)(Between Text and Sermon)
July 1, 1998... Many of my ordained friends who serve congregations are weary in ministry. By the cultural measures of success in numbers, money, and property, many congregations in the established American Protestant denominations are declining. Clergy members...

2 Corinthians 5:12-17. (St. Paul the Apostle's second letter to the Corinthians contained in the Bible's New Testament)(Between Text and Sermon)
July 1, 1998... One morning when I was wondering why in the world I had ever come to be a minister, and how I could possibly keep on with it, I came upon a verse in 1 Timothy. I copied it on a scrap of paper and taped it to my desk lamp. It reads, "For to this...

2 Corinthians 12:1-10. (St. Paul the Apostle's second letter to the Corinthians contained in the Bible's New Testament)(Between Text and Sermon)
July 1, 1998... There was a member of my congregation who loved to tell me riddles. "When is a book like a beagle?" he would ask. "You've got me," I would answer. "When it's dogeared," he would say with a glint in his eye. I usually groaned dutifully and...

Jesus and the Victory of God.
July 1, 1998... By N. T. Wright. Fortress, Minneapolis, 1996. 741 pp. $65.00. ISBN 0-8006-3089-0. This volume, the second in a projected multi-volume series (the first was The New Testament and the People of God), is Wright's attempt to recover the true...

Hebrews.
July 1, 1998... By Thomas G. Long. Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching. John Knox, Louisville, 1997. 153 pp. $21.00. ISBN 0-8042-3133-8. Hebrews is one of the books of the New Testament most neglected by preachers and teachers, for...

Minor Prophets I.(Brief Article)
July 1, 1998... By Elizabeth Achtemeier. New International Biblical Commentary. Paternoster, Carlisle, 1996. 369 pp. $11.95 (paper). ISBN 0-85364-809-3. Achtemeier has produced a fine commentary that is both academically informed and pastorally useful. Using...

Obadiah through Malachi.(Brief Article)
July 1, 1998... By William P. Brown. Westminster Bible Companion. Westminster John Knox, Louisville, 1996. 209 pp. $17.00 (paper). ISBN 0-664-25520-5. The aim of the Westminster Bible Companion series, and therefore of this volume as well, is to support lay...

Ethics and the Old Testament.(Brief Article)
July 1, 1998... By John Barton. Trinity Press International, Harrisburg, 1998. 112 pp. $12.00 (paper). ISBN 1-56338-234-2. Barton has reflected long and well upon ethics in the Old Testament and is among the foremost contributors to that discussion. In this...

Luke.(Brief Article)
July 1, 1998... By Robert C. Tannehill. Abingdon New Testament Commentaries. Abingdon, Nashville, 1996. 378 pp. $24.95 (paper). ISBN 0-687-06132-6. One of the premier interpreters of Luke-Acts today, Tannehill in this commentary makes available to a broad...

The Gospel of John: A Theological Commentary.
July 1, 1998... By Herman Ridderbos. Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 1997. 721 pp. $42.00 (paper). ISBN 0-8028-0453-5. The wealth of information would already justify purchase of this translation of Ridderbos's 1987 book - a dense study that cuts a wide swath through...

Is John's Gospel True?(Brief Article)
July 1, 1998... By Maurice Casey. Routledge, New York, 1996. 268 pp. $74.95. ISBN 0-415-14630-5. The title of Casey's study of John is a "true" statement of the book's guiding question, and the reader does not have to wait long to find the question's answer....

What Saint Paul Really Said: Was Paul of Tarsus the Real Founder of Christianity?(Brief Article)
July 1, 1998... By N. T. Wright. Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 1997. 192 pp. $14.00 (paper). ISBN 0-80284445-6. Wright is one of the most interesting New Testament scholars today, and this book does not disappoint. He begins with a brief review of Pauline...

Elusive Israel: The Puzzle of Election in Romans.(Brief Article)
July 1, 1998... By Charles H. Cosgrove. Westminster John Knox, Louisville, 1997. 146 pp. $16.00 (paper). ISBN 0-664-25696-1. There are three possible answers to the question, "Who is the 'Israel' to which Paul refers in Romans 9 and 11?" The first is that...

Galatians.(Brief Article)
July 1, 1998... By Sam K. Williams. Abingdon New Testament Commentaries. Abingdon, Nashville, 1997. 176 pp. $19.95 (paper). ISBN 0-68705707-8. Given the intense scholarly focus on Galatians in recent times, some may wonder if anything new can be said of the...

Ephesians.(Brief Article)
July 1, 1998... By Pheme Perkins. Abingdon New Testament Commentaries. Abingdon, Nashville, 1997. 160 pp. $19.95 (paper). ISBN 0-68705699-3. Perkins has provided readers with an excellent short commentary on Ephesians. She holds Ephesians to be a pseudonymous...

Letters to Paul's Delegates: 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus.(Brief Article)
July 1, 1998... By Luke Timothy Johnson. Trinity Press International, Valley Forge, 1996. 263 pp. $20.00 (paper). ISBN 1-56338-144-3. Johnson aims to identify the appropriate literary and sociohistorical context for reading the Pastorals, making a good case...

Hebrews and James.(Brief Article)
July 1, 1998... By Frances Taylor Gench. Westminster Bible Companion. Westminster John Knox, Louisville, 1996. 128 pp. $13.00 (paper). ISBN 0-664-25527-2. The goal of this series is "to help the laity of the church read the Bible more clearly and...

Community of the Wise: The Letter of James.(Brief Article)
July 1, 1998... By Robert W Wall. Trinity Press International, Valley Forge, 1997. 288 pp. $24.00 (paper). ISBN 1-56338-143-5. A canonical reading of the Letter of James! With this statement of his project, Wall establishes the critical and theological...

Peace, Violence, and the New Testament.(Brief Article)
July 1, 1998... By Michel Desjardins. Sheffield Academic Press, Sheffield, 1997. 131 pp. $16.50. ISBN 1-85-075799-2. Desjardins aims to introduce this troubling subject to non-academic readers. This concise volume could also serve as a beginning point for...

Exploring the Texture of Texts: A Guide to Socio-Rhetorical Interpretation.(Brief Article)
July 1, 1998... By Vernon K. Robbins. Trinity Press International, Valley Forge, 1996. 148 pp. $15.00 (paper). ISBN 1-56338-183-4. Robbins proposes a new interpretive approach to biblical texts in what he calls "socio-rhetorical criticism." This approach aims...

Jesus and the Holy City: New Testament Perspectives on Jerusalem.(Brief Article)
July 1, 1998... By P. W. L. Walker. Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 1996. 370 pp. $25.00. ISBN 0-8028-4287-9. This book is a painstaking survey of perspectives on Jerusalem. Part one (Landscapes of Jerusalem) surveys every allusion to Jerusalem in Mark, Matthew,...

Divine Grace and Human Agency: A Study of the Semi-Pelagian Controversy.(Brief Article)
July 1, 1998... By Rebecca Harden Weaver. North American Patristics Society Patristic Monograph Series 15. Mercer University Press, Macon, 1995. 240 pp. $30.00. ISBN 0-86554-491-3. Weaver provides a detailed narrative of the stages of the controversies...

Light of Truth and Fire of Love: A Theology of the Holy Spirit.(Brief Article)
July 1, 1998... By Gary Badcock. Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 1997. 306 pp. $25.00 (paper). ISBN 0-8028-4288-7. The pneumatological problem has faced every Christian theologian: how to construct an adequate theological exposition of the Holy Spirit that is...

The Mystery of God: Karl Barth and the Postmodern Foundations of Theology.(Brief Article)
July 1, 1998... By William Stacy Johnson. Westminster John Knox, Louisville, 1997. 216 pp. $18.00. ISBN 0-664-25094-0. This book is a very important contribution to the postmodern interpretation and appropriation of Karl Barth's theology. It is lucidly...

The Transforming God: An Interpretation of Suffering and Evil.(Brief Article)
July 1, 1998... By Tyron L. Inbody. Westminster John Knox, Louisville, 1997. 233 pp. $23.00 (paper). ISBN 0-664-25711-9. Yet another theodicy?! Inbody convincingly explains why that is needed. There are fine books on theodicy, narrowly conceived, by...

Helping People Forgive.(Brief Article)
July 1, 1998... By David W. Augsbuvger. Westminster John Knox, Louisville, 1996. 180 pp. $17.00 (paper). ISBN 0-664-25686-4. Forgiveness is a key theme in much of Augsburger's work. He is especially concerned with those who make forgiving too easy as well as...

Discovering Images of God: Narratives of Care Among Lesbians and Gays.(Brief Article)
July 1, 1998... By Larry Kent Graham. Westminster John Knox, Louisville, 1997. 205 pp. $20.00 (paper). ISBN -0-664-25626-0. Graham has written an important book that deserves to be widely read at this time in the church's history when the questions regarding...

The Sermon: Dancing the Edge of Mystery.(Brief Article)
July 1, 1998... By Eugene L. Lowry. Abingdon, Nashville, 1997. 208 pp. $19.95 (paper). ISBN 0-687-01543-X. In this brief but important book on homiletical theory, Lowry places his homiletic of the "sermon as narrative plot" (p. 19) in historical and...

Sharing the Word: Preaching in the Roundtable Church.(Brief Article)
July 1, 1998... By Lucy Atkinson Rose. Westminster John Knox, Louisville, 1997. 158 pp. $17.00 (paper). ISBN 0-664-25658-9. The postmodern ethos in which life and faith are experienced at the end of the twentieth century has given rise to homiletical theories...

Preaching Proverbs: Wisdom for the Pulpit.(Brief Article)
July 1, 1998... By Alyce M. McKenzie. Westminster John Knox, Louisville, 1996. 170 pp. $15.00 (paper). ISBN 0-664-25653-8. The preacher as sage! McKenzie begins her work with this image, at once appalling and appealing. To name oneself wise is the clearest...

"You Have Stept Out of Your Place": A History of Women and Religion in America.
July 1, 1998... By Susan Hill Lindley. Westminster John Knox, Louisville, 1996. 500 pp. $35.00. ISBN 0-664-22081-9. During the last quarter of the twentieth century, many excellent studies on the role of women in American society have uncovered a history that...

Money Matters: Personal Giving in American Churches.(Brief Article)
July 1, 1998... By Dean R. Hoge, Charles Zech, Patrick McNamara, and Michael J. Donahue. Westminster John Knox, Louisville, 1996. 248 pp. $20.00 (paper). ISBN 0-664-25687-2. Based on a study of the factors that influence the levels of religious giving in five...