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The devastating thesis of this book is that there is a deadly and irreconcilable opposition between western civilization and Christianity, and that one of them must destroy the other. Throughout his more than forty years of teaching and writing, says John L. McKenzie, he felt a vague but strong discomfort -- a malaise. He finally realized that it was a deliberately unrecognized discord between what I was and the word of God which I had so long studied. My way of life and my world demanded the maintenance of a number of assumptions which the world of God compelled me to question. My way of life and my world did not permit me to ask those questions. When the questions grew to an intolerable number, this book was the only way to find comfort, the comfort which I hope is reached by at last achieving total candor. And candid John McKenzie is in this piercing analysis of the confrontation between Christianity and a world which has twisted it, softened it, rationalized it, and evaded its basic precepts.

While, for many, the old and destructive controversy as to whether the Bible is to be taken literally has long since been resolved, modern research and scholarship has progressed far beyond this debate. The point of the research has not been to destroy the credibility of the Bible but rather to understand Scripture better. In the process many popular and traditional certainties have fallen by the wayside. Scholars doubt that Moses led the Israelites across the Red Sea or into the Sinai; that David is the author of the Psalms, or indeed that Solomon was even wise. These and dozens of other illusions are being stripped away -- and more will surely follow. Beyond this there are the larger contradictions which exist between the law and spirit of the Old and New Testaments. The modern believer needs both to know of these findings and put them into a perspective which will enhance rather than diminish understanding of the Scriptures.

The Epistles, for all their disarming simplicity do not make easy reading; even in crisp, modern translations they pose a problem for the ordinary reader, no matter how interested and concerned. The exciting findings of modern biblical research compound the problem. Scholars know more with each passing year and the knowledge gap grows wider. This unique reader's guide is ideally suited to close that gap between the contemporary Christian and the Epistles. Written by the most distinguished Catholic scripture scholar of his day and designed to be read in conjunction with the New Testament it provides lucid and expert commentary and explanation. With a guide like John L. McKenzie and the option of setting your own pace -- the difficult suddenly becomes not only possible, but pleasurable.

In the composition of this book I experienced a growing conviction that the thing with which we believe we are familiar is not the New Testament; it is a conventionalized popular understanding of the New Testament. The simplicity of the New Testament can be deceptive. We have lived with it so long that its explosive power has become sweet reasonableness. I have noticed this not as a preacher but simply as a professional interpreter. It is our office to explain the text....The New Testament interpreter finds that he has the unpleasant task of liberating the text from certain encumbrances. John L. McKenzie, from the preface

Moving from Genesis through the Hebrew prophets, McKenzie has produced a moving picture of Hebrew religion produced by divine revelation. Throughout the work he confronts biblical ideas with modern thought and modern thought with biblical ideas. Themes include the Hebrew view of history, the backdrop of ancient Near Eastern religions and literary forms, and the unique role of Israel as a society governed immediately by the will of God. In short, McKenzie offers an engaging interpretation of the Old Testament which will challenge scholars and delightfully instruct the general reader.

The present collection of essays, selected by a priest-teacher and laywoman-student at Loyola University, brings together wide-ranging, mind-opening, and absorbing studies on major aspects of biblical scholarship. The volume comprises four major sections. In the first, Free Scholarship in the Church, McKenzie emerges as an articulate spokesman for freedom of intellectual inquiry within the household of the faith. Part 2, Inspiration and Revelation, are lucid, intellectually exhilarating investigations into the meaning of God's word and the historical processes from which the Bible emerged. Part 3, Myth and the Old Testament, includes probing essays that bring the reader face to face with an important and difficult subject: the attitude of the biblical man to nature and to the mythologies of his pagan neighbors. The final section, Messianism, is devoted to a study of the hopes of Israel of old and their fulfillment in Jesus Christ, along with the use of messianic passages for apologetic purposes.

McKenzie offers practical ideas on how lay persons can read and study the Bible, discussing best translations and best ways to approach difficult texts. With an appreciation for continuities between Old and New Testaments, he presents patterns, such as God's self-revelation as love, which thread throughout the Bible. The author also reveals insights into the Personality of Christ, emphasizing that Jesus was truly a man as well as God, experiencing the full range of human emotion. Finally, the book engages the place of sex in the Bible, and current trends within contemporary Catholicism.

The key to understanding the Gospels, says Father McKenzie, is to read them carefully and inquisitively, then reread them, and reread them... Perhaps never before has there been such a need for a mature Christian faith, based solidly on the scriptures, that will stand against the secularity of the times. And perhaps never before has the work of scripture scholars been so helpful in giving the ordinary reader an understanding of the scriptures that is pertinent to his or her life. McKenzie, without being polemical or technical, provides a brief and readable guide to the Gospels that will deepen and enrich Christian faith.

The question of authority has always been a lively issue within the Roman Catholic Church. While some have warned against the danger of democratizing the Church, others have warned against applying too narrowly the monarchical model which has been dominant in past centuries. Father McKenzie's thesis is that these political paradigms simply do not apply to the Church. The Christian community, he points out, is a unique society, and hence its understanding and use of authority must also be unique. McKenzie shows how Christian authority is unique by illuminating the understanding of authority that Jesus gave to the society which He founded. After a brilliant exposition of authority in the New Testament, the author traces how the Church has lost sight of these unique aspects, with a consequent erosion of both Christian authority and Christian freedom.

From the beginning of the New Testament era, there have been disputes over what individual passages meant, who wrote them, when they were written, and whether certain sayings could be directly attributed to Jesus. McKenzie's aim is not to destroy the credibility of the New Testament, but rather to enhance belief by allowing it to rest on a foundation freed from various manmade illusions and historically inaccurate assumptions that modern biblical research has discovered from both internal and external evidence about the writings. Father McKenzie takes on a variety of topics -- the real Jesus and the Son of man; gospels and gossip; the roles of Peter and Paul; divorce; the resurrection; the meaning of the Apocalypse -- to name but a few, in this highly informative look at key themes and episodes of the New Testament.

By thoroughly investigating every aspect of theology to be found in the Old Testament, Father McKenzie offers a total theological statement of this timeless record. The theology of the Old Testament, he writes, has to be the study of the reality of Yahweh. The Old Testament is the sole literary witness to that reality as the record of the experience of Israel. Seven categories outline the book: cult, revelation, history, nature, wisdom, political and social institutions, and the future of Israel. Together, these categories provide a pathway to God that is far more complete than that which can be experienced by any individual. For McKenzie, the Hebrew scriptures are to be understood as the independent record of the early Israelite community's experience with God, rather than as a prelude to or forecast of the New Testament.