The Old Testament theologian extraordinaire reflects on the meaning of Israel's prophets for today's world.

John's Gospel can be both inspiring and bewildering. This book enables insight into the Gospel in a fresh way. How is it that we respond to it as we do? Understanding is enhanced by studying the text and by being aware of the kind of responses we make. Reading and working with it will deepen fellowship and skill in pastoral care. John's text is mined for gems of insight into ourselves and as a rich resource of ample illustrative material for preachers and teachers. This book elucidates chapters five to nine of the Gospel, presenting insights that involve us in the story. The content derives from years of teaching John's Gospel in workshops and reflection groups in varying church contexts. Guidance is given in working in this way and in how we can share our insights with each other in the light of the text. This experience of John's Gospel is illuminated using recent ways of reading. What the story means is conveyed in detailed Bible study. It becomes real for us. How this happens is explored by understanding the process of reading and by observing our reactions to the text. John's Christ becomes central to who we are.

To pursue the matter of revelation in context, I will address an exceedingly difficult text in the Old Testament, Joshua 11. The reason for taking up this text is to deal with the often asked and troublesome question: What shall we do with all the violence and bloody war that is done in the Old Testament in the name of Yahweh? The question reflects a sense that these texts of violence are at least an embarrassment, are morally repulsive, and are theologically problematic in the Bible, not because they are violent, but because this is violence either in the name of or at the hand of Yahweh. -from chapter 2

"It's hard to be the only one." That single sentence from a teenage congregant sums up the conviction that motivated Christian Theology for a Secular Society. In these dying days of Christendom, the reality that most Western Christians face is living out their faith as a minority in the midst of a culture that is at every level--personal, institutional, and societal--secular in nature. While most living in Western societies still affirm belief in God and often other vaguely recognizable Christian beliefs, these affirmations frequently have little to do with how daily life is lived. The idea that the God best known to us in Jesus Christ is actually in charge of life is foreign. For most, Christianity simply does not form an overarching system of meaning that shapes life. Instead, life is lived largely without reference to God. And to live any other way is often "hard." In this volume, Mark McKim sets out to "do" theology in this context. How does one explain the core historic Christian doctrines in a way that makes sense in a secular culture--and in a way that will gain a hearing? What does it mean to be the church in this new situation? Throughout, McKim asks the question, so what? as he relates Christian teachings to a secular society and to what is actually happening in the local church. McKim's goal is to enable the singing of the Lord's song in the new and strange land of a secular society.

Annotation. Patrick Miller is widely known as an educator, editor, President of the Society of Biblical Literature, and academic who is concerned to ensure that academics and the life of the church are not torn asunder in this era of fragmentation. This volume honors him for his life's work, presenting 24 essays by students and colleagues on themes dear to Miller: (1) the Psalms and God's nearness to his people, and (2) Torah (Deuteronomy, in particular) and God's connection with his people in their lives together.

A classic text in biblical theology--still relevant for today and tomorrow. In this 40th anniversary edition of the classic text from one of the most influential biblical scholars of our time, Walter Brueggemann, offers a theological and ethical reading of the Hebrew Bible. He finds there a vision for the community of God whose words and practices of lament, protest and complain give rise to an alternative social order that opposes the "totalism" of the day. Brueggemann traces the lines from the radical vision of Moses to the solidification of royal power in Solomon to the prophetic critique of that power with a new vision of freedom in the prophets. Linking Exodus to Kings to Jeremiah to Jesus, he argues that the prophetic vision not only embraces the pain of the people, but creates an energy and amazement based on the new thing that God is doing. This edition builds off the revised and updated 2001 edition and includes a new afterword by Brueggemann and a new foreword by Davis Hankins.

In Translation Theory and the Old Testament in Matthew, Woojin Chung employs a rigorous method of Skopos theory to examine Matthew’s citation technique in his infancy narrative and locates the specific purpose of his use of Scripture. He argues that the complex nature of the formulaic quotations and allusion in Matthew 1‒2 can be understood in light of new methodological insights. The way Matthew cites the Old Testament for his communicative purpose is congruent to the approach of a Skopos translator who is motivated by a specific purpose of translation. The theory of interpretation of his use of Scripture, therefore, can be informed by the theory and method of translation.