Interpretation articles from October 2008

Interpretation archives from October 2008

Editorial.(Editorial)
October 1, 2008... With this issue on Advent, we introduce what we envision as a continuing new accent on the rich resources for the ministry of teaching and preaching throughout the liturgical year. An issue devoted to the Lenten season is scheduled for January...

Back to the future; The eschatological vision of advent.(Essay)
October 1, 2008... Advent was the last liturgical season developed by the early church; its first documented appearance is in fifth-century Europe. From the beginning of its practice, Advent had a dual focus and purpose--to prepare joyfully for the first coming...

An Advent gift: the eschatological promise.(Critical essay)
October 1, 2008... Clearly both Christ's second coming (his parousia) and the kingdom (reign, dominion) of God (the basileia) are prominent NT themes, but they have been marginalized in both Roman Catholic and the historic Protestant churches. Traditionally,...

"Hope that is seen is not hope"; Visual explorations of advent.(Critical essay)
October 1, 2008... Advent is a uniquely Christian celebration, yet the season also reminds Christians how much they share with their Jewish brothers and sisters. First-century Jews divided all history into two ages, this age and the age of the Messiah that was to...

"Sing to the Lord No Threadbare Song": theological angularity in the face of Advent sentimentality.(Critical essay)
October 1, 2008... On the one hand, Advent is a church musician's dream. During Advent, interest in sacred music awakens from what often amounts to an eleven-month hibernation. Even part-time singers reappear at church choir practices. Thousands of stores break...

Isaiah 64:1-9.(Between Text & Sermon)(Critical essay)
October 1, 2008... ON FIRST READING OF THIS LAMENT, one might curtly sum it up: "You, O God, got us in to this mess, so come down and save us, now!" But we know that first readings are rarely reliable, and such is the case with this one. Assigned for the first...

Mark 13:24-37.(Between Text & Sermon)(Critical essay)
October 1, 2008... BEGINNING AS END: THE GOSPEL TEXT FOR THIS first Sunday of the Advent season announces cataclysmic upheaval, impending judgment, and the end of the world as we know it. How could this passage actually serve as a starting point for the life and...

1 Corinthians 1:3-9.(Between Text & Sermon)(Critical essay)
October 1, 2008... SELF-PROMOTION. SELF-INTEREST. SELF-MASTERY. Self-indulgence. How convenient it is, for readers of Scripture in late 2008, that these traits of first-century Corinth so closely parallel the contours of our own place and time. For just as...

Luther's Liturgical Music: Principles and Implications.(Book review)
October 1, 2008... Luther's Liturgical Music: Principles and Implications by Robin A. Leaver Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 2007. 499 pp. $32.00. ISBN 978-0-8128-3221-4. BECAUSE MORE HAS BEEN WRITTEN about Martin Luther than about any other historical...

The First Book of Samuel.(Book review)
October 1, 2008... The First Book of Samuel by David Toshio Tsumu'a The New International Commentary on the Old Testament. Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 2007. 720 pp. $50.00 (cloth). ISBN 978-0-8028-2359-5. THIS VOLUME, PART OF THE NICOT series,...

True to Our Native Land: An African American New Testament Commentary.(Book review)
October 1, 2008... True to Our Native Land: An African American New Testament Commentary edited by Brian Blount K.,Cain Hope Felder, Clarice J.Martin, Emerson B.Powery Fortress, Minneapolis, 2007. 566 pp. $29.00 (cloth). ISBN 978-0-8006-3421-6. TO...

Mark: a Commentary.(Book review)
October 1, 2008... Mark: a Commentary by M.Eugene Boring New Testament Library. Westminster John Knox, Louisville, 2006.482 pp. $49.95 (cloth). ISBN 978-0-664-22107-2. THIS IS IT. If YOU HAVE been looking for a commentary that is actually on Mark's...

Seized by Truth: Reading the Bible as Scripture.(Book review)
October 1, 2008... Seized by Truth: Reading the Bible as Scripture by Joel B. Green Abingdon, Nashville, 2007. $23.50-185 pp. ISBN 978-0-687-02355-4. THE SUBTITLE SAYS what the book is about: "Reading the Bible as Scripture," What is read and why it...

Introducing the Women's Hebrew Bible.(Book review)
October 1, 2008... by Susanne Scholz Introductions in Feminist Theology. T & T Clark, New York, 2007. $29.95. 142 pp. ISBN 978-0-567-08257-2. FOR A wide-ranging introduction to the history, major figures, and key issues with regard to feminist...

Yet I Loved Jacob: Reclaiming the Biblical Concept of Election.(Book review)
October 1, 2008... by Joel S.Kaminsky Abingdon, Nashville, 2007. 242 pp. $28.00. ISBN 978-0-687-02534-3. In this important contribution to the theological interpretation of the Bible, Joel Kaminsky's goal is to examine, interpret, and rehabilitate the...

Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony.(Book review)
October 1, 2008... by Richard Bauckham Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 2006. 508 pp. $32.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-8028-3162-0. A WIDELY-HELD BELIEF, especially among NT scholars today, is that the sayings and stories of Jesus in the Gospels were passed down in...

Our Mother Saint Paul.(Book review)
October 1, 2008... Beverly Roberts Gaventa Westminster John Knox, Louisville, 2007. 218 pp. $24.95. ISBN 978-0-664-23149-1. BEVERLY ROBERTS GAVENTA brings to readers' attention a set of texts in the Pauline corpus that has been largely ignored by modern...

And I Turned to See the Voice: The Rhetoric of Vision in the New Testament.(Book review)
October 1, 2008... by Edith M. Humphrey Baker Academic, Grand Rapids, 2007. 238 pp. $22.49. ISBN 978-0-8010-3157-1. ALTHOUGH A STAPLE OF biblical discourse, reports of extraordinary dreams and visions have not been examined by biblical scholars as...

The Triune God: An Essay in Postliberal Theology.(Book review)
October 1, 2008... by William C. Placher Westminster John Knox, Louisville, 2007. 163 pp. 24.95. ISBN 978-0-664-23060-9. William Placher provides in this book an apology for belief in God as Trinity. Placher combines homespun wisdom and down-to-earth...

What we Were Made For.(Book review)
October 1, 2008... by Sondra Wheeler Jossey-Bass/John Wiley & Sons, Inc., San Francisco, 2007. 191 pp. $21.95. ISBN 978-0-7879-7738-2. THE LITERATURE ON LOVE falls into two categories. On the one hand, self-help manuals abound. Their style is accessible...

Less than Two Dollars A Day: A Christian View of World Poverty and the Free Market.(Book review)
October 1, 2008... by Kent A. Van Til Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 2007. 192 pp. $16.00. ISBN 978-0-8028-1767-9. Recognizing that "over 40 percent of the world's people live on less than two dollars a day" (p. 2), Kent Van Til seeks to articulate a theology...

Reformation Christianity: A People's History of Christianity, Vol. 5.(Book review)
October 1, 2008... edited by Peter Matheson Fortress, Minneapolis. 2007. 306 pp. $35.00 (cloth). ISBN 978-0-8006-3415-5. IN THE FIFTH VOLUME of this series, Peter Matheson has assembled twelve excellent and accessible essays that cover a variety of...

The Promise of Baptism: An Introduction to Baptism in Scripture and the Reformed Tradition.(Book review)
October 1, 2008... by James V. Brownson Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 2007. 223 pp. $16.00. ISBN 978-0-80283307-5- JAMES BROWNSON's BOOK is a welcome addition to the field of baptismal studies within the Reformed tradition. It is structured around thirty...

Preaching What We Practice: Proclamation and Moral Discernment.(Book review)
October 1, 2008... by David J. Schlafer and Timothy F. Sedgwick Morehouse, Harrisburg, Penn., 2007. 162 pp. $19.95. ISBN 978-0-8192-2218-3. David Schlafer and Timothy Sedgwick offer guidance for preachers on equipping the faithful for moral discernment...

Built upon the rock: studies in the Gospel of Matthew.(Brief article)(Book review)
October 1, 2008... Built Upon the Rock: Studies in the Gospel of Matthew edited by Daniel M. Gurtner and John Nolland Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 2008. 331 pp. $34.00. ISBN 978-0-8028-4563-4. Essays by an international team of evangelical scholars...

Mark and Method: New Approaches in Biblical Studies, Second Edition.(Brief article)(Book review)
October 1, 2008... Mark and Method: New Approaches in Biblical Studies, Second Edition edited by Janice Cape! Anderson and Stephen D. Moore Fortress, Minneapolis, 2008. 288 pp. $22,00. ISBN 978-0-8006-3851-1. An updated edition of a superb overview...

John, Jesus, and History, Vol. 1: Critical Appraisals of Critical Views.(Brief article)(Book review)
October 1, 2008... John, Jesus, and History, Vol. 1: Critical Appraisals of Critical Views edited by Paul N. Anderson, Felix Just, S.J., and Torn Thatcher Society of Biblical Literature, Atlanta, 2007. 346 pp. $37.95. ISBN 978-158983293-0. Seventeen...

The Gospel of John and Christian Theology.(Brief article)(Book review)
October 1, 2008... The Gospel of John and Christian Theology edited by Richard Bauckham and Carl Mosser Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 2008. 404 pp. $28.00 ISBN 978-0-802S-2717-3. Seeking to bridge the gap between the disciplines of biblical studies and...

Taking Up the Cross: New Testament Interpretations through Latina and Feminist Eyes.(Brief article)(Book review)
October 1, 2008... Taking Up the Cross: New Testament Interpretations through Latina and Feminist Eyes by Barbara E. Reid, O.P. Fortress, Minneapolis, 2007. 263 pp. $16.00. ISBN 978-0-8006-6208-0. Aiming to bring into dialogue real stories of women...

Off the Menu: Asian and Asian North American Women's Religion and Theology.(Brief article)(Book review)
October 1, 2008... Off the Menu: Asian and Asian North American Women's Religion and Theology edited by Rita Nakashima Brock, Jung Ha Kim, Kwok Pui-Lan, and Seung Ai Yang Westminster John Knox, Louisville, 2007. 341 pp. $49.95. ISBN...

A Feminist Companion to Patristic Literature.(Brief article)(Book review)
October 1, 2008... A Feminist Companion to Patristic Literature edited by Amy-Jill levine with Maria Mayo Robbins T & T Clark, New York. 2008. 241 pp. $44.95. ISBN 978- 0-567-04555-3. This twelfth addition to the Feminist Companion to the New...

Mission in the 21st Century: Exploring the Five Marks of Global Mission.(Brief article)(Book review)
October 1, 2008... Mission in the 21st Century: Exploring the Five Marks of Global Mission edited by Andrew Walk and Cathy Ross Orbis, Maryknoll, NY 2008. 219 pp. $25.00. ISBN 978-1-57075-73-0. Pairs of contributors address the five marks of global...

Film & Religion: An Introduction.(Book review)(Brief review)
October 1, 2008... Film & Religion: An Introduction by Paul V. M. Flesher and Robert Torry Abingdon, Nashville, 2007. 306 pp. $25.50. ISBN 978-0-687-33489-6.

Jesus, the Gospels, and Cinematic Imagination: A Handbook to Jesus on DVD.(Book review)(Brief review)
October 1, 2008... Jesus, the Gospels, and Cinematic Imagination: A Handbook to Jesus on DVD by Jeffrey L. Staley and Richard Walsh Westminster John Knox, Louisville, 2007. 208 pp. $19.95. ISBN 978-0-664-23031-9.

Reframing Theology and Film: New Focus for an Emering Discipline.(Book review)
October 1, 2008... Reframing Theology and Film: New Focus for an Emering Discipline edited by Robert K. Johnston Cultural Exegesis. Baker Academic, Grand Rapids, 2007. 336 pp. $24.99. ISBN 978-0-800-3240-0. The study of religious imagery in film has...