Interpretation articles from July 2001

Interpretation archives from July 2001

Editorial.(Ecclesiastes)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2001... Ecclesiastes is a strange book, all the more so when read as scripture. Early Jewish tradition, for example, notes how certain rabbis found this book to be at odds with Torah teaching. Similarly, biblical theologians today often exclude...

THEOLOGY WHEN EVERYTHING IS OUT OF CONTROL.(Ecclesiastes)
July 1, 2001... Qoheleth's theology concerns the practical realities of life and how one can cope in a topsy-turvy world. He espouses an ethic of liberality and enjoyment in the face of uncertainty. There is probably no book in the Bible whose authority is...

ECCLESIASTES: A READING FROM THE PERIPHERY.
July 1, 2001... Qoheleth speaks most profoundly to men and women most disillusioned with a world governed by efficiency, technology, and profit. To them, the sage offers both an affirmation of faith and a call to value the concrete and the sensuous. ...

"How Sweet is the Light".(old age in Qoheleth)
July 1, 2001... Qoheleth's Age-Centered Teachings The joy of youth and the ravages of aging lie at the heart of Qoheleth's instructions. Through poetry, the sage instills in his readers a yearning to live more fully in the present. The seven...

"Whatever Your Hand Finds to Do" Qoheleth's Work Ethic.
July 1, 2001... Contrary to popular opinion, Qoheleth does not disparage work; he redefines it by dislodging it from the arena of the marketplace and setting it within the ethos of enjoyment. Qoheleth's "work ethic" is profoundly subversive and relevant. ...

A Disciple for Our Time.(Qoheleth)
July 1, 2001... A Conversation Qoheleth's work invites a passionate response and a new way of living in paradox. Though a product of antiquity, Qoheleth has an uncanny knack for addressing issues of contemporary relevance. Yet we tend to respond not...

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8.
July 1, 2001... When there is no bread, there is no learning. When there is no learning, there is no bread. Rabbi Elazar THIS TEXT FROM QOHELETH OFFERS THE PREACHER or teacher an opportunity to encounter with the community of faith: (1) aspects of...

Ecclesiastes 5:1-7.
July 1, 2001... THIS PASSAGE LIES AT THE VERY HEART OF THE BOOK in its placement and significance. While Ecclesiastes uses only Elohim as the name for God, the relationship with God is central in the book. The exclusive use of Elohim as the name for God can be...

Ecclesiastes 7:1-19.
July 1, 2001... About a third of my cases are suffering from no clinically definable neurosis, but from the senselessness and emptiness of their lives. This can be described as the general neurosis of our time. Carl Jung--Modern Man in Search of a Soul ...

Ecclesiastes 12:1--13.
July 1, 2001... IF ONE FOLLOWS THE CONSENSUS OF SCHOLARS in claiming the relation between the allegorical poem (12:1-8) with the verses that precede it (11:7-10), one should recognize that this passage begins as the second part of a repetitive parallelism,...

The Torah's Vision of Worship.(Review)
July 1, 2001... by Samuel E. Balentine Overtures to Biblical Theology. Fortress, Minneapolis, 1999. 266 pp. $26.00. ISBN 0-8006-3155-2. BOOK-LENGTH TREATMENTS of the topic "Worship in the Old Testament" last appeared in the 1950s and 1960s. Those...

Who Is Jesus? History in Perfect Tense.(two books on Jesus and his life)(Review)
July 1, 2001... by Leander E. Keck Studies on Personalities of the New Testament. University of South Carolina Press, Columbia, 2000.207 pp. $24.95 (cloth). ISBN 1-57003-338-2. The Challenge of Jesus: Rediscovering Who Jesus Was and Is by N.T. Wright...

Eccliesiastes.(Review)
July 1, 2001... by William P. Brown IIBC John Knox, Louisville, 2000. 143 pp. $21.95 (cloth). ISBN 0-8042-3146-X. THIS IS A FINE CONTRIBUTION to the literature on Ecclesiastes, an accessible, well informed and critically acute commentary. Like most...

1. and 2 Samuel.(Review)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2001... by Mary J. Evans NIBC. Hendrickson, Peabody, 2000. 267pp. $11.95. ISBN 1-56563-579.5. THIS COMMENTARY is part of a series designed to offer sound scholarship expressed with "warm Christian affection" for the Bible (p. x)....

2 Kings.(Review)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2001... by Robert L. Cohn Berit Olam: Studies in Hebrew Narrative and Poetry. Liturgical Press, Collegeville, 2000. 186 pp. $34.95 (cloth). ISBN 0-8146-5054-6. THIS COMMENTARY is an important contribution to the Berit Olam series, which...

The Book of Job: A Short Reading.(Review)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2001... by Roland E. Murphy, O. Carm. Paulsist Press, New York, 1999. 137 pp. $14.95. ISBN 0-8091-3889-1. FOR THOSE FAMILLIAR with biblical studies, Murphy will forever be associated with wisdom literature as one of the field's foremost...

Psalms.(Review)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2001... by Alastair G. Hunter Old Testament Readings. Routledge, London, 1999. 298 pp. $29.99. ISBN 0-415-12770-X. HUNTER PROVIDES A CHALLENGING and suggestive reading of the psalms. He explains that the primary intent of the study "is that of...

Surviving Lamentations: Catastrophe, Lament, and Protest in the Afterlife of a Biblical Book.(Review)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2001... by Tod Linafelt University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2000. 180 pp. $30.00 (cloth). ISBN 0-226-48190-5. THIS IS A WELCOME CONTRIBUTION amid the numerous commentaries forthcoming on a generally neglected biblical book. With sensitivity...

Jeremiah 1-20: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary.(Review)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2001... by Jack R. Lundbom AB 21. Doubleday, New York, 1999. 934 pp. $49.00 (cloth). ISBN 0-385-4112-X. LUNDBOM IS A LEADING PROPONENT of rhetorical criticism, a discipline which "analyzes discourse... asking questions about structure,...

Minor Prophets, Part 2.(Review)
July 1, 2001... by Michael H. Floyd FOTL Volume XXII. Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 2000. 651 pp. $49.00. ISBN 0-8028-4452-9. WHILE FLOYD'S WORK FITS the goal of the series, to evaluate biblical texts according to questions associated closely with the...

The Prophets: A Liberation-Critical Reading.(Review)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2001... by Carol J. Dempsey A Liberation-Critical Reading of the Old Testament. Fortress, Minneapolis, 2000. 211 pp. $20.00. ISBN 0-8006-3116-1. DEMPSEY SELECTS TEXTS from prophetic writings that reflect a dual focus: the role of power and the...

Taboo or not Taboo: Sexuality and Family in the Hebrew Bible.(Review)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2001... by Ilona Nemesnyik Rashkow Fortress, Minneapolis, 2000. 195 pp. $22.00. ISBN 0-8006-3085-8. RASHKOW'S REFRESHING BOOK reads dysfunctional family relations in the Hebrew Bible from a psychoanalytic perspective. The book's main target...

The Four Gospels and the One Gospel of Jesus Christ: An Investigation of the Collection and Origin of the Canonical Gospels.(Review)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2001... by Martin Hengel Translated by John Bowden. Trinity Press International, Harrisburg, 2000. 354 pp. $30.00. ISBN 1-56338-300-4. HENGEL UTILIZES a strict historical-critical methodology to examine the range of issues related to the...

Excavating Q: The History and Setting of the Sayings Gospel.(Review)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2001... John S. Kloppenborg Verbin T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 2000. 546 pp. $32.00. ISBN 0-567-08728-X. VERBIN AMBITIOUSLY ATTEMPTS a multi-dimensional analysis of the hypothetical Q source. He is not merely interested in excavating the...

What Are They Saying About the Parables?(Review)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2001... by David B. Gowler WATSA. Paulist Press, New York, 2000. 150 pp. $10.95. ISBN 0-8091-3962-6. PARABLE RESEARCH has been a significant microcosm of New Testament scholarship and this work offers a superb review of the history of that...

A Preface to Romans: Notes on the Epistle in its Literary and Cultural Setting.(Review)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2001... by Christopher Bryan Oxford University Press, New York, 2000. 278 pp. $49.95 (cloth). ISBN 0-19-513023-5. ACCORDING TO BRYAN, Paul's most famous letter reflects the apostle's concerns about the situation in Rome as well as his own...

The Significance of Grace in the Letters of Paul.(Review)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2001... by Brad Eastman Peter Lang, New York, 1999. 247 pp. $51.95 (cloth). ISBN 0-8204-4075-2. THIS EXCELLENT STUDY begins by briefly surveying the contributions of Sanders, Dunn, Raisanen, Hubner, Westerholm, and Thielman to the debate...

James.(Review)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2001... by C. Freeman Sleeper Abingdon New Testament Commentaries. Abingdon, Nashville, 1998. 152 pp. $19.95. ISBN 0-687-05816-3. SLEEPER HAS GIVEN US a readable and useful commentary on James, which he views as "a more general call to a life...

Reading and Writing In the Time Of Jesus.(Review)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2001... by Alan Millard New York University Press, New York, 2000. 288 pp. $35.00 (cloth). ISBN 0-8147-5637-9. THIS IS A VERY USEFUL COMPENDIUM of up-to-date information concerning writing practices in the ancient world. Millard proposes that...

Prayer and the New Testament: Jesus and His Communities at Worship.(Review)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2001... by Robert J. Karris Companions to the New Testament. Crossroad, New York, 2000. 210 pp. $25.95. ISBN 0-8245-1874-8. THIS CONTRIBUTION admirably fits the series' goal of providing accessible surveys of key religious issues in the New...

The Promise of the Father: Jesus and God in the New Testament.(Review)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2001... by Marianne Meye Thompson Westminster John Knox, Louisville, 2000. 206 pp. $16.95. ISBN 0-664-22197-1. THE IMMEDIATE IMPETUS for this study is the contemporary debate over God language and, more particularly, about the role of...

New Wine into Fresh Wineskins: Contextualizing the Early Christian Confessions.(Review)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2001... by Richard N. Longenecker Hendrickson, Peabody, 1999. 207 pp. $14.95. ISBN 1-56563-098-X. THIS AMBITIOUS LITTLE VOLUME reflects a decade's worth of exegetical study and reflection on the topic of Christian confession. Part one traces...

Augustine: The Scattered and Gathered Self.(Review)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2001... by Sandra Lee Dixon Chalice, St. Louis, 1999. 278 pp. $29.99. ISBN 0-8272-0024-2. HOW MIGHT WE, amidst the multitude of experiences that make up our lives, learn to recognize the coherence of the whole? More specifically, how might...

Waiting for the Word: Dietrich Bonhoeffer on Speaking about God.(two books on Dietrich Bonheffer's theology)(Review)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2001... by Frits de Lange Translated by Martin N. Walton. Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 2000. 161 pp. $19.00. ISBN 0-8028-4532-0. The Wisdom and Witness of Dietrich Bonhoeffer edited by Wayne Whitson Floyd Fortress, Minneapolis, 2000. 128...

Karl Barth in the Theology of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.(Review)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2001... by Andreas Pangritz Translated by Barbara and Martin Rumscheidt. Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 2000. 167 pp. $20.00. ISBN 0-8028-4281-X. PANGRITZ HAS WRITTEN a well-researched and much-needed exposition of the friendly yet complicated...

Ascension and Ecclesia: On the Significance of the Doctrine of the Ascension for Ecciesiology and Christian Cosmology.(Review)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2001... by Douglas Farrow Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 1999. 340 pp. $35.00 (cloth). ISBN 0-8028-4683-1. THE CHIEF PURPOSE of this passionate and pugnacious book is stated in its opening and closing chapters: to locate the church, theoretically...

Theology for the Community of God.(Review)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2001... by Stanley J. Grenz Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 2000. 691 pp. $34.00. ISBN 1-57383-160-3. EVANGELICAL THEOLOGY often promotes views of faith and salvation that privilege the individual believer. Grenz challenges both fellow evangelicals...

Life Abundant: Rethinking Theology and Economy for A Planet in Peril.(Review)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2001... Sallie McFague Fortress, Minneapolis, 2001. 251 pp. $18.00. ISBN 0-8006-3269-9. WITH THIS VOLUME, McFague directs her critical-reconstructive energies toward the most formidable challenge for North American middle-class Christians:...

To Begin with, God Created ... Biblical Theologies of Creation.(Review)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2001... by Karl Loning and Erich Zenger Translated by Omar Kaste. Liturgical Press, Collegeville, 2000. 200 pp. $39.95. ISBN 0-8146-5937-3. THIS BOOK TREATS TEXTS in the Hebrew Bible and New Testament under four categories: ideas about the...

Suffering Divine Things: Theology as Church Practice.(Review)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2001... by Reinhard Hutter Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 2000. 314 pp. $25.00 ISBN 0-8028-4688-2. THE ROLE OF THEOLOGY as servant of the church seems all but lost at times in the day-to-day lives of contemporary pastors and theologians. Hutter's...

What Happens in Holy Communion.(Review)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2001... by Michael Welker Translated by John Hoffmeyer. Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 2000. 183 pp. $18.00. ISBN 0-281-05291-3. THIS BOOK'S TITLE becomes an oft-repeated question throughout the text, "What happens in holy communion?" Twelve...

The Continuing Conversion of the Church.(Review)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2001... by Darrell L. Guder The Gospel and Our Culture Series. Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 2000. 222 pp. $20.00. ISBN 0-8028-4703-X. GUDER'S EXCELLENT INTRODUCTION to evangelism is almost a theology of the church. His overarching thesis is that...

The Other Six Days: Vocation, Work, and Ministry in Biblical Perspective.(Review)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2001... R. Paul Stevens Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 1999. 296 pp. $24.00. ISBN 0-8028-4800. THE AUTHOR PRESENTS a well-developed theology Christian ministry and mission in the form that most of us would call "practical theology," but he would...

My Only Comfort: Death, Deliverance, and Discipleship in the Music of Bach.(Review)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2001... by Calvin R. Stapert Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 2000. 250 pp. $t6.00. ISBN 0-8028-4472-3. THE 20TH CENTURY'S SEARCH for historical "truth" seemed to delight in chipping away at the perhaps idealized portraits of many of our most cherished...

Religious Education and the Brain: A Practical Resource for Understanding How We Learn about God.(Review)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2001... by Jerry Larsen Paulist Press, New York, 2000. 188 pp. $19.95. ISBN 0-8091-3934-0. LARSEN PROVIDES the reader with an introduction to recent discoveries of neuroscience as to the ways the brain organizes and processes information and...

Preaching the Whole Bible as Christian Scripture.(Review)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2001... by Graeme Goldsworthy Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 2000. 272 pp. $20.00. ISBN 0-8028-4730-7. THE CHALLENGE OF PREACHING the Old Testament has prompted the knees of many pastors to buckle, sometimes in prayer, at other times under the strain...

The Pilgrim Road: Sermons on Christian Life.(Review)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2001... by B. A. Gerrish Edited by Mary T. Stimming. Westminster John Knox, Louisville, 2000. 212 pp. $14.95. ISBN 0-664-25691-0. THIS BOOK BEAUTIFULLY EXEMPLIFIES how theology serves the task of preaching, and how preaching is fed by...