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In the subsistence agricultural social context of the Hebrew Bible, children were necessary for communal survival. In such an economy, childrens labor contributes to the familys livelihood from a young age, rather than simply preparing the child for future adult work. Ethnographic research shows that this interdependent family life contrasts significantly with that of privileged modern Westerners, for whom children are dependents. This text seeks to look beyond the dominant cultural constructions of childhood in the modern West and the moral rhetoric that accompanies them so as to uncover what biblical texts intend to communicate when they utilize children as literary tropes in their own social, cultural, and historical context.

Was Esther uniquean anomaly in patriarchal society? Conventionally, scholars see ancient Israelite and Jewish women as excluded from the public world, their power concentrated instead in the domestic realm and exercised through familial structures. Rebecca S. Hancock demonstrates, in contrast, that because of the patrimonial character of ancient Jewish society, the state was often organized along familial lines. The presence of women in roles of queen consort or queen is therefore a key political, and not simply domestic, feature.

Memory and Covenant applies new insights into the meaning and function of social memory to analyze the two major religions of the Pentateuch (D and P) and their relationship to one another. Ellman shows that for the deuteronomic tradition, memory is an epistemological and pedagogical means for keeping Israel faithful to its God and Gods commandments, even when Israelites are far from the temple and its worship. The pre-exilic priestly tradition, however, understands that the covenant depends on Gods memory, which must be aroused by the sensory stimuli of the temple cult.

Melvin traces the emergence and development of the motif of angelic interpretation of visions from late prophetic literature (Ezekiel 4048; Zechariah 16) into early apocalyptic literature (1 Enoch 1736; 7282; Daniel 78). Examining how the historical and socio-political context of exilic and post-exilic Judaism and the broader religious and cultural environment shaped Jewish angelology in general, Melvin concludes that the motif of the interpreting angel served a particular function. Building upon the work of Susan Niditch, Melvin concludes that the interpreting angel motif served a polemical function in repudiating divination as a means of predicting the future, while at the same time elevating the authority of the visionary revelation.

At the heart of the biblical myth of chosenness is the idea that God has blessed a people to be a blessing to others. It is a mission of solemn responsibility. The six British and American thinkers examined in this study embraced the myth of chosenness for their countries, believed that the liberties they enjoyed were inherently tied to their Protestant faith, and that it was their mission to protect and spread that faith, and its democratic fruit, at home and abroad.

Key to a theology of scripture are the important issues of history, consciousness, rhetoric, and how theology functions in relation to interpretation of Christianitys religious texts. Seeking to address a critical problem in theology and the interpretation of scripture raised by modern historical consciousness, Ben Fulford argues for a densely historical and theological reading of scripture centered in a Christological rubric.

This book offers a critical analysis and reinterpretation of Karl Barths theology of culturethe least studied aspect of his workrevealing his significance for contemporary work in theology of culture by applying his approach to the study of popular culture and entertainment. Grounding the study in Barths eschatology, which proves more amenable to secular culture than other models, DeCou shows that Barths approach recognized that the freedom of theology is qualified by the freedom of the Word and the freedom of secular culture. Barth therefore offers a middle way for evaluating and analyzing culture and religious forms. This book thus opens up a new avenue of interpretation of Barth and applies the insights of Barths theology in fresh ways to the structures of contemporary culture and its products.

What does the history of Christian views of economic life mean for economic life in the twenty-first century? Here Daniel Finn reviews the insights provided by a large number of texts, from the Bible and the early church, to the Middle Ages and the Protestant Reformation, to treatments of the subject in the last century. Relying on both social science and theology, Finn then turns to the implications of this history for economic life today. Throughout, the book invites the reader to engage the sources and to develop an answer to the volumes basic question.

By setting traditions and thinkers such as Zoroaster, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Gautama Buddha, Confucius, Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle side by side, we are able to see more clearly the questions with which they struggled, their similarities and differences, and how their ideas have influenced religious thought down to our day.

"John C. Yoder examines political culture and behavior in the book of Judges. Although the Deuteronomistic editor portrayed the "judges" as moral champions, the men and women of valor were preoccupied with the problem of gaining and maintaining political power. They were ambitious, at times ruthless; they might be labeled chiefs, strongmen, or even warlords in today's world. They used violence, patronage, and the control of the labor and reproductive capacity of subordinates as well as other strategies that did not require the constant exercise of force such as using their association with YHWH to advance their political, economic, or military agenda."--

In this important project, Charles Tieszen provides a collection of primary theological sources devoted to the formational period of Christian-Muslim relations. This work provides introductions to authors along with representative selections in English translation. It is arranged according to the themes that emerge as Christians and Muslims encounter one another in this era. The result is a resource that offers students a better grasp of the texts early Christians and Muslims wrote about each other and a better understanding of the theological themes that are pertinent to Christian-Muslim dialogue today.

What are Christians praying when they pray the Lords Prayer, and what relationship does it have with Jesus own context? Jeffrey B. Gibson disputes the view that Jesus prayer was derived from Jewish synagogal prayers. Understanding its intent requires understanding Jesus purpose in calling disciples as witnesses against this generation. In context, the prayer was not eschatological and was not aimed at calling down into the present the realities of the age to come. Rather, it was meant to protect disciples from the temptations of their age.

Can faith as trusting God make a difference? Absolutely--by relieving our anxiety over self-justification and the need to scapegoat others. When we discover we don't justify ourselves because God has justified us, we become free. What Sin Boldly! points to is the presence of the crucified and living Christ in the human soul, placed there by the Holy Spirit. And this becomes transformative. Sin Boldly! provides an experiential analysis of the contrast between self-justification and justification by God. Those among us with fragile souls are anxious, and we shore up our anxiety with walls of self-justification that victimize those whom we scapegoat. Those among us with broken souls have lost the very moral universe that makes any kind of justification possible, and this usually leads to anomie and suicide. We must pose the question: how can the gospel of grace provide transformation for both fragile and broken souls? After an exposition of the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification, this book proposes the following answer: trusting in the God of grace relieves anxiety and provides a divine vocation that transcends our moral universe with the promise of forgiveness, renewal, and resurrection.

Writing Theologically introduces writing not just as an academic exercise but as a way for students to communicate the good news in rapidly changing contexts, as well as to discover and craft their own sense of vocation and identity. Most important will be guiding students toward a distinctive theological voice that is particularly attuned to the contexts of writer and audience alike. In a collection of brief, readable essays, this volume, edited by Eric D. Barreto, emphasizes the vital skills, practices, and values involved in writing theologically.

This systematic theology begins from the treatise De Deo Uno and develops the dogma of the Trinity as an expression of divine unicity, on which will depend creation, Christology, and ecclesiology. The Invisible God must be seen and known in the visible. In this way, God and Gods relation to creation are distinguishedbut not separatedfrom Christology, the doctrine of perfections from redemption. In the end, the transcendent beauty who is God can be known only in worship and praise.

Recent interest in the person and work of James of Jerusalem and in the community he led has sometimes put the apostle Paul in a negative light--a reversal of the more usual pattern in Protestantism. Rather than exaggerating the opposition between these two figures, V. George Shillington seeks to understand them both without prejudice. Examining what can be reconstructed of both men and their respective missions from our sources read critically, Shillington concludes that the tension between those missions indicates a conflict between different politics of identity.

Revision of the author's thesis (doctoral)--Southern Methodist University, 2010 under title: Perichoretic eternality: God's relationship to time in Karl Barth's Church dogmatics.

In Defense of Doctrine is an apologetic for the ongoing, constructive theological task in Protestant and Evangelical traditions. It suggests that doctrinal development can be explained as a hermeneutical phenomenon and that insights from hermeneutical philosophy and the philosophy of language can aid theologians in constructing explanatory theses for particular theological problems associated with the facts of doctrinal development. Joining the recent call to theological interpretation of Scripture, Putman provides a constructive model that forwards a descriptive and normative pattern for reading Scripture and theological tradition together.

The Second Vatican Council ended in December 1965, but Vatican II is still happening in the global church. Catholicism has always had a universal claim, but the globalization of Catholicism as a truly world church became part of Catholic theology only thanks to that gatheringdecided by St. John XXIIIof bishops, theologians, lay observers, ecumenical representatives, and journalists. Vatican II is the most important event in church history after the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation, and it is the key to understanding Catholicism and its inner tensions today.

"Is there evidence for a distinct 'wisdom tradition' in ancient Israel? Mark R. Sneed redefines the wisdom literature as a loosely cohering collection of books that educated scribal apprentices in moral instruction. Sneed discusses the data for scribal culture and pedagogy in the ancient Near East, suggesting that wisdom literature was meant to complement, not to compete with, other modes of literature in the Hebrew Bible. The result is a surprising new picture of the authors and tradents of the wisdom literature"--

From the beginning, the Westminster Confessions position on assurance has been a subject of controversy. In this exciting new work, Jonathan Master considers the Westminster Confessions statements on assurance as a position of consensus among a diversity of viewpoints. By tracing how the idea was expanded and modifiedeven by the documents own authors!in very distinct ways, the work highlights the importance of the understandings flowing out of Westminster and raises important questions about confession and doctrinal freedom in the growing Reformed tradition.

Decades after the Holocaust, many assume that the churches in Germany resisted the Nazi regime. In fact, resistance was exceptional. The Deutsche Christen, or German Christians, a movement within German Protestantism, integrated Nazi ideology, nationalism, and Christian faith. Marrying religious anti-Judaism to the Nazis racial antisemitism, they aimed to remove everything Jewish from Christianity. For the first time in English, Mary M. Solberg presents a selection of German Christian documents. Her introduction sets the historical context. Includes responses critical of the German Christians by Karl Barth and Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

Why does God permit evil and suffering? This question, known as the problem of evil in theological and philosophical circles, has perennially vexed Christian theology. Academic studies on the problem of evil, however, have failed to move the conversation forward in recent years. In this volume, designed for students and scholars alike, Mark S. M. Scott traces the major models and motifs in Christian explanations for evil (called theodicies) and argues for a thorough rethinking of the problem of evil and theodicy based on distinctly Christian theological criteria and resources.