In the past 200 years, art has become one of the most fetishized

Hailed as "the most radical repackaging of the Bible since Gutenberg", these Pocket Canons give an up-close look at each book of the Bible.

This book takes readers on a fantastic voyage to the physics of eternity, with a long-term projection of the evolution of the universe.

Since previous scholarship has searched for figures equivalent to the personified Logos in the Johannine Prologue, scholars have often ignored the context of which the Genesis creation account is the center. Masanobu Endo examines that reference to the Genesis creation account as it appears in contexts where the unique identity of God is maintained. In eschatological contexts the realization of eschatological salvation is strongly expected on the grounds of the sovereignty of God, which is known in his work of creation. This observation of the theological function of the Genesis creation account in the Second Temple period may shed light on the question of why reference is made to the Genesis creation account in the Johannine prologue. What this means is that the descriptions of the identity of the Word (the Son) in the Johannine prologue were made on the grounds of Jewish monotheistic speculation about the identity of God the Creator.

'Genesis, Creation, and Creationism' is an important new study that explores all sides of the creationism debate and gives a sound and spiritually rich way of understanding the creation stories of Genesis. -------------------- Creationism is an ardently proclaimed and widely held point of view, involving both scientific and biblical data. While much has been written about Òscientific creationism, much less is available about its counterpart, Òbiblical creationism. 'Genesis, Creation, and Creationism' provides this much-needed evaluation of creationism by uniquely allowing the Bible to speak for itself. Author Lloyd R. Bailey, who is a biblical scholar and also holds a degree in physics, begins his investigation by inviting all sides of the creationism debate to set aside their prejudices for or against the theory of evolution and read the biblical story of creation in Genesis (1:1-2, 4a). He then examines the creationist phenomenon and compares this data with the agenda of the Òyoung earth creationist. All the while, Bailey enhances the Bible's ability to speak for itself by withholding judgment on many of the assumptions of historical-critical biblical scholarship (for example, the date and authorship of Genesis). The result is a scientifically straightforward study of Genesis that explicitly answers fundamentalist questions on creationism. 'Genesis, Creation, and Creationism' is a thought-provoking study on the relationship of science and religion that speaks to all Christian denominations. It provides excellent resource material for high school science classes, religion classes, and for seminarians engaged in biblical studies.

God's creative activity in the beginning is important to many aspects of Paul's theology. Jonathan Worthington explores Paul's protology by analyzing his interpretation of scripture concerning creation, mainly the beginning of Genesis. By examining Paul's exegetical manoeuvres within 1-2 Corinthians and Romans, and by comparing these with the contemporary but more detailed treatments of the same texts by Philo of Alexandria in his formal commentary on Genesis 1-2, De Opificio Mundi, the author uncovers an approach to creation that is fundamental to both ancient interpreters. Paul's interpretation of creation, like Philo's in his commentary, contains three interwoven aspects: the beginning of the world, the beginning of humanity, and God's intentions before the beginning. Recognizing this basic hermeneutical interplay between the Beginning and the Before facilitates a more appropriate comparison between Paul and Philo as well as a more adequate treatment of difficult and debated passages in both interpreters regarding creation.

In recent years, the scholarly consensus has emerged that early Judaism should no longer be classified as a religion of legalistic works on righteousness, but rather defined primarily by God's covenant with Israel. In this work, it is argued, instead, that there is actually a tension in early Judaism between God as righteous judge and as merciful. As E. Sj berg maintained in his Gott und S nder im pal stinischen Judentum, in the sources used for a reconstruction of early Judaism, there are two mutually exclusive ways in which God is said to relate to human beings. First, God as righteous judge deals with human beings as they deserve. They are assumed to be morally free and responsible, and God judges and recompenses them in history and eschatologically. Not only are the wicked punished for their sins, but the righteous are also rewarded for their obedience. And second, God as merciful does not deal with human beings as they deserve. Rather, he removes the guilt resulting from disobedience to the Law, sometimes on the simple condition of repentance. This means that a person can escape the consequences of disobedience. The understanding of God in the sources vacillates between God as righteous judge and God as merciful, without coming down definitively on one side to the exclusion of the other.