In this volume, Douglas Yoder uses the tools of modern and postmodern philosophy and biblical criticism to elucidate the epistemology of the Tanakh, the collection of writings that comprise the Hebrew Bible. Despite the conceptual sophistication of the Tanakh, its epistemology has been overlooked in both religious and secular hermeneutics. The concept of revelation, the genre of apocalypse, and critiques of ideology and theory are all found within or derive from epistemic texts of the Tanakh. Yoder examines how philosophers such as Spinoza, Hume, and Kant interacted with such matters. He also explores how the motifs of writing, reading, interpretation, image, and animals, topics that figure prominently in the work of Derrida, Foucault, and Nietzsche, appear also in the Tanakh. An understanding of Tanakh epistemology, he concludes, can lead to new appraisals of religious and secular life throughout the modern world.

Epistemology and Biblical Theology pursues a coherent theory of knowledge as described across the Pentateuch and Mark's Gospel. As a work from the emerging field of philosophical criticism, this volume explores in each biblical text both narrative and paraenesis to assess what theory of knowledge might be presumed or advocated and the coherence of that structure across texts. In the Pentateuch and Mark, primacy is placed on heeding an authenticated and authoritative prophet, and then enacting the guidance given in order to see what is being shown—in order to know. Erroneous knowing follows the same boundaries: failure to attend to the proper authoritative voice or failure to enact guidance creates mistaken understanding. With a working construct of proper knowing in hand, points of contact with and difficulties for contemporary philosophical epistemologies are suggested. In the end, Michael Polanyi’s scientific epistemology emerges as the most commensurable view with knowing as it appears in these foundational biblical texts. Therefore, this book will be of interest to scholars working across the fields of Biblical studies and philosophy.

The importance of human knowledge and the consequences of error are constantly stressed within Scripture, which emphasizes the knowledge of good and evil: knowing that YHWH IS your God; knowing that Jesus is the Christ; and the goal of developing Israel into a 'wise and discerning people'. We, too, long for confidence in our understanding - the assurance that our most basic knowledge is not ultimately incorrect. Biblical Knowing assesses what Israel knew, but more importantly, how she was meant to know - introducing a comprehensive scriptural epistemology, firmly rooted in the Scripture's own presentation of important epistemological events in the story of Israel. Because modern philosophy has also made authoritative claims about knowledge, Biblical Knowing engages contemporary academic views of knowledge (e.g., Reformed Epistemology, scientific epistemology, Virtue Epistemology, etc) and recent philosophical method (e.g., Analytic Theology), assessing them for points of congruence ordeparture from Scripture's own epistemology. Additionally, Biblical Knowing explores what proper knowing looks like in the task of theology itself, in the teaching and preaching of the church, and in the context of counseling.

What do rituals have to do with knowledge? Knowledge by Ritual examines the epistemological role of rites in Christian Scripture. By putting biblical rituals in conversation with philosophical and scientific views of knowledge, Johnson argues that knowing is a skilled adeptness in both the biblical literature and scientific enterprise. If rituals are a way of thinking in community akin to scientific communities, then the biblical emphasis on rites that lead to knowledge cannot be ignored. Practicing a rite to know occurs frequently in the Hebrew Bible. YHWH answers Abram’s skepticism—“How shall I know that I will possess the land?”—with a ritual intended to make him know (Gen 15:7–21). The recurring rites of Sabbath (Exod 31:13) and dwelling in a Sukkah (Lev 23:43) direct Israel toward discernment of an event’s enduring significance. Likewise, building stone memorials aims at the knowledge of generations to come (Josh 4:6). Though the New Testament appropriates the Torah rites through strategic reemployment, the primary questions of sacramental theology have often presumed that rites are symbolically encoded. Hence, understanding sacraments has sometimes been reduced to decoding the symbols of the rite. Knowledge by Ritual argues that the rites of Israel, as portrayed in the biblical texts, disposed Israelites to recognize something they could not have seen apart from their participation. By examining the epistemological function of rituals, Johnson’s monograph gives readers a new set of questions to explore both the sacraments of Israel and contemporary sacramental theology.

In the present polyphony of evangelical theological epistemology, there are several authoritative approaches. Yet, the evangelical emphasis on sola scriptura demands that theological epistemology be subjected to the biblical canon. In this book, Dan-Adrian Petre argues for a canonically-derived theological epistemological framework that may foster a fuller understanding of theological knowledge formation within evangelicalism. Specifically, he explores some representative evangelical voices to identify the reasons for the contemporary epistemological variance. Petre then uses a canonical-epistemological methodology to outline a biblically-based framework. In exploring how the Scripture conceptualizes the formation of theological knowledge, the book uses cognitive linguistics to grasp the conceptual meaning of the theological knowledge formation in the Bible using prototypical case studies. The resulting epistemological implications outline a minimal epistemological model derived from the biblical canon. Using this vantage point, the author assesses the contemporary evangelical epistemological dissonance as a means of indicating a way forward for a canonical-epistemological attunement.

This book offers a new framework for reading the Bible as a work of reason.

One would think that peace, a term that occurs as many as one hundred times in the New Testament, would enjoy a prominent place in theology and ethics textbooks. Yet it is surprisingly absent. Willard Swartley's Covenant of Peace remedies this deficiency, restoring to New Testament theology and ethics the peace that many works have missed. In this comprehensive yet accessible book Swartley explicates virtually all of the New Testament, relating peace -- and the associated emphases of love for enemies and reconciliation -- to core theological themes such as salvation, christology, and the reign of God. No other work in English makes such a contribution. Swartley concludes by considering specific practices that lead to peacemaking and their place in our contemporary world. Retrieving a historically neglected element in the Christian message, Covenant of Peace confronts readers anew with the compelling New Testament witness to peace.