Presuming that the heart of Paul's gospel announcement was the news that God had raised Jesus from the dead (as indicated in 1 Thessalonians 1:9b-10), Pillar explores the evidence in Paul's letter and in aspects of the Roman imperial culture in Thessalonica in order to imagine what that proclamation would have evoked for its first hearers. He argues that the gospel of resurrection would have been heard as fundamentally anti-imperial: Jesus of Nazareth was executed by means of the epitome of imperial power. The resurrection thus subverts and usurps the empire's immense power. The argument is verified in aspects of the response of those living in a thoroughly imperialized metropolis.

Setzer uses social science and rhetorical studies to demonstate the importance of the belief in resurrection in the symbolic construction of Jewish and Christian communities in the first to early third centuries.

Robert Lewis examines Paul's use of the phrase “Spirit of Adoption” in Romans 8:12-17 against the background of its Roman Imperial context in order to shed light on interpretation of Paul's Letter to the Romans. Whereas other scholars have explored what Paul may have meant when he uses the term “adoption” Lewis instead explores the reasons behind Paul's coupling of it with the term “spirit”. Having examined theories for a possible Jewish antecedent for Paul's use of this phrase, and found them less than persuasive, Lewis unlocks the data within the term's Roman Imperial context that significantly clarifies what Paul means when he uses the phrase “Spirit of adoption". Lewis shows that when Paul wrote his letter to the Romans, adoption had become a feature of Imperial succession. Roman religion gave a great deal of prominence to the Roman family spirit - the genius. The Emperor's genius became identified as a deity in Roman religion and its veneration was widespread in Rome as well as the provinces. When Romans 8.12-17 is read against this background, a very different kind of exegetical picture emerges.

In this work, Anthony Giambrone investigates the appropriation and development of Jewish charity discourse in Luke's Gospel. In contrast to previous scholarship, neither the coherence of Lukan "wealth ethics" nor its contemporary actualization defines his study. Instead, the sacramental significance of almsgiving becomes the starting point for a more theologically oriented exegesis. The end result recognizes Luke's "Christological mutation" of the inherited tradition.The text is organized around three exegetical probes, each handling parabolic material: i.e. Luke 7:36-50, 10:25-37, and 16:1-31. The author advances an approach to these parables that highlights Christological allegory (metalepsis) as a Lukan narrative device. A break is thus implied with the dominant rationalist constructions of Luke's parabolic art and ethics. Also in contrast to a dominant trend, stress is laid upon Luke's Jewish rather than Greco-Roman context.

Songs of Resistance: Challenging Caesar and Empire examines New Testament hymns in light of their historical and cultural contexts. Such a reading yields new insights. Rather than finding theological truths alone, one also discovers lyrics that contest and defy Rome’s “great tradition.” The early Christ followers sang songs that opposed the empire’s worldview and offered an alternative vision for society. These songs were a first-century equivalent of modern-day protest songs. But instead of marching and singing in the streets, believers gathered in private spaces where they lifted their voices to Jesus and retold the story of his execution as an enemy of the state and how God raised him from the dead to rule over the universe. As they sang, believers were emboldened to remain faithful to Christ and withstand the temptation to comply with the sociopolitical agenda of the empire.

Presuming that the heart of Pauls gospel announcement was the news that God had raised Jesus from the dead (as indicated in 1 Thessalonians 1:9b-10), Pillar explores the evidence in Pauls letter and in aspects of the Roman imperial culture in Thessalonica in order to imagine what that proclamation would have evoked for its first hearers. He argues that the gospel of resurrection would have been heard as fundamentally anti-imperial: Jesus of Nazareth was executed by means of the epitome of imperial power. The resurrection thus subverts and usurps the empires immense power. The argument is verified in aspects of the response of those living in a thoroughly imperialized metropolis.

Firmly rooted in his ancestral Jewish traditions, Paul interacted with, and was involved in vivid communication primarily with non-Jews, who through Christ were associated with the one God of Israel. In the highly diverse cultural, linguistic, social, and political world of the Roman Empire, Paul's activities are seen as those of a cultural translator embedded in his own social and symbolic world and simultaneously conversant with the diverse, mainly Greek and Roman world, of the non-Jewish nations. In this role he negotiates the Jewish message of the Christ event into the particular everyday life of his addressees. Informed by socio-historical research, cultural studies, and gender studies Kathy Ehrensperger explores in her collection of essays aspects of this process based on the hermeneutical presupposition that the Pauline texts are rooted in the social particularities of everyday life of the people involved in the Christ-movement, and that his theologizing has to be understood from within this context.