In Sacred Witness, Susanne Scholz discusses the wide range of rape texts in biblical literaturesome that long have troubled readers, others that should have but didn't, such as texts of marital rape, for example, or metaphorical speech about God as rapist. Assuming the androcentric nature of these writings, Scholz asks how we may read these texts in order to find some redemptive meaning for women, children, and men who have been injured by sexual violence and by "cultures of rape." Sacred Witness provides illuminating reflection on some of the most troubling texts in the Hebrew Bible.

The thought of Karl Barth (1886-1968) has undergone a remarkable renewal of interest in the past twenty years. Joseph Mangina's Karl Barth: Theologian of Christian Witness offers a concise, accessible guide to this important Christian thinker. Unique among introductions to Barth, it also highlights his significance for Christian ecumenism. The first chapter describes Barth's extraordinary life, from his youthful break with liberalism during the First World War to his mature theology in the Church Dogmatics. Subsequent chapters offer a detailed reading of this magisterial work and place Barth in dialogue with five contemporary thinkers: George Lindbeck on Revelation. Michael Wyschogrod on Election, Stanley Hauerwas on Creation, Robert Jenson on Reconciliation, and Henri de Lubac on the Church. These ecumenical conversations not only set Barth's thinking in greater relief but serve to demonstrate its continuing theological fruitfulness. The book concludes by examining Barth's wider significance for the church in our time.

This work represents the attempts of several major scholars to respond to the historical problems presented throughout the biblical testimony and their description of what this means for reading scripture. Walter Brueggemann, for example, has written a wonderful article on various historical problems within the book of Genesis, beginning with Von Rad's and Noth's use of source criticism and his own understanding of how historically dissimilar texts can function within scripture. This book honors the work and life of Gerald Sheppard, who broke ground in biblical studies by describing what it means to read the Bible as Jewish and Christian Scripture. It distinguishes between the original historical dimensions of the text or mere redaction levels of tradition history and what Sheppard regarded as the "Scriptural Form" of the biblical testimony. It provides new and fresh ways for describing scripture as both a human testimony and also divine revelation. The Bible as a Human Witness to Divine Revelation provides examples of how major scholars have responded to the limits of the older-modern criticisms within the framework of still applying a variety of historical criticisms and paying attention to the later formation and context of the biblical book. It also helps readers understand how to hear "the word of God" through biblical text that are filled with historical dissimilarities or even contradictions. The book shows scholarly examples that respond to crises of both the pre-modern and modern eras as unfinished projects because pre-modernity tended to ignore the human dimensions of scripture and modernity tended to limit its inquiry only to that single dimension