Provides the first collective cross-cultural reading of Romans.

The rise of China as a superpower and of Chinese Christians as vital members of the global church mean that world Christianity would be a dynamic transformation and bountiful blessing to the world by engaging with Chinese biblical interpretations among global theologies. This book, a twentieth-anniversary revised and expanded edition, includes studies that range from exploration of the philosophical structure of Eastern culture to present-day sociopolitical realities in Malaysia and China—all in support of cross-cultural methods of reading the Bible culturally and reading the cultures biblically.

This substantive evangelical commentary on Romans by a leading biblical scholar is one of the most popular in the award-winning BECNT series (more than 25,000 copies sold) and has been praised as a great preaching commentary. This new edition, updated and revised throughout, reflects Thomas Schreiner's mature thinking on various interpretive issues. As with all BECNT volumes, this commentary features the author's detailed interaction with the Greek text, extensive research, thoughtful verse-by-verse exegesis, and a user-friendly design. It admirably achieves the dual aims of the series--academic sophistication with pastoral sensitivity and accessibility--making it a useful tool for pastors, church leaders, students, and teachers.

From a gender perspective, Romans differs from many biblical texts. It contains few explicit mentions of gender, no household code and it has been understood as promoting universalism. This volume joins several feminist commentators in showing how crucial Romans is for understanding Paul's view of gender. Divided into three parts: mapping traditions in Romans, challenging gendered traditions in Romans, and gender and the authority of Romans, the concluding essays ask: Does scriptural criticism really do justice to feminist concerns? Both avenues and obstacles for feminist scholars interpreting Romans are pointed out.

The refugee that has come to your church, the pastor of the immigrant church in your town, and you yourself all come before the same Bible, even the same verse, and walk away with completely different understandings and applications. In an increasingly globalized and multicultural world, how can we learn to see beyond our own cultural influences, understand those of others, and learn from each other in order to better understand and apply the word of God? How do we stay faithful to the text when our contemporary cultural perspective is so different from the original author’s? This book will enable you to understand the common pitfalls and dangers related to cross-cultural hermeneutics while also equipping you with principles and real-life examples for how to interpret Scripture in such situations. Additionally, given the fact that our world is increasingly digitized and people are less and less likely to read, we will consider the issue of oral hermeneutics and how those who can’t read or choose not to read can interpret Scripture faithfully.

Steven M. Studebaker proposes a Pentecostal approach to a major Christian doctrine, the atonement. The book moves Pentecostal theology of the atonement from a primarily Christocentric and crucicentric register to one that articulates the pneumatological and holistic nature of Pentecostal praxis. Studebaker examines the irony of Classical Pentecostalism relying on the Christocentrism of Protestantism evangelical atonement theology to articulate its experience of the Holy Spirit, as well as the Pneumatological nature of Pentecostal praxis. He then develops a Pentecostal theology of atonement based on the biblical narrative of the Spirit of Pentecost and returns to re-imagine an expanded vision of Pentecostal praxis based on the theological formation of the biblical narrative. The result is a Pentecostal atonement theology that shows the integrated nature of pneumatology, creation and Christology in the biblical narrative of redemption. It gives theological expression to not only the pneumatological nature of Pentecostal praxis, but also the fundamental role of the Holy Spirit in the biblical narrative of redemption. The book challenges popular western atonement theologies to re-think their Christocentrism and crucicentrism as well as their atomistic tendency to separate soteriology into objective (Christological) and subjective (pneumatolgical) categories.