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Barbara Jordan was a private woman in public spaces. She emerged from the obscurity of Houston''s segregated Fifth Ward to become the first African American Congresswoman elected from Texas since Reconstruction and a keynote speaker at two national Democratic conventions. Although her public career began in politics, she soon became known for her ethics, her vision of community, and her passion for education and public service. Jordan challenged the nation to reclaim constitutional ideals, adhere to moral principles, and commit to a pluralism that was dynamic and transformative. In her speeches she emerges as a woman who views public life as an opportunity to share the very best that the human spirit can conceive. This provocative and creative work offers the first comprehensive analysis of Jordan''s written speeches, with particular emphasis on the period that begins with the Watergate years and ends with her immigration initiatives. Ethics, public religion, and law are the three themes that predominate in Jordan''s speeches. On these themes, Jordan''s voice is heard in juxtaposition with contemporaries Audre Lorde, James Baldwin, Thurgood Marshall, Rabbi Abraham Heschel, bell hooks, and others.Barbara A. Holmes received her law degree from Mercer University and her religion degree from Vanderbilt University. She is currently Assistant Professor of Ethics and African American Religious Studies at Memphis Theological Seminary

For Paul, who imprisoned Christians, his own incarceration ironically became a way in which he understood his mission. Paul's convictions and his rhetoric were often shaped during those times when chains constrained him from travelling. By examining a wide variety of sources-such as ancient novels, dream interpretations and moral tractates-Wansink first describes prison conditions and the daily life of prisoners, in the Graeco-Roman world. Subsequent exegetical chapters focus on two epistles Paul wrote from prison: Philippians and Philemon. This book replaces a 'docetic' view of Paul's incarceration with an original insight into how prison would have shaped his interaction with the Philippians and Philemon.

What is the church, and what is essential to it particularly in a post-Christian age?In contrast to "the City", that is, the world (including the hedonism and narcissism of popular culture) that virtually all human beings now inhabit, the author calls upon the church to remember that it is "Another City" that does not compromise itself by giving allegiance to any political entity that belongs to this world.Instead, the church must have the courage to live, like Israel of old, in the diaspora as a distinct minority, remaining an uncompromising and faithful servant of God's final (though still future) triumph in the risen Christ.

Frederick Houk Borsch is Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles. He formerly taught at Princeton University where he was Dean of the Chapel and at the Church Divinity School of the Pacific where he was also Dean and President.

A study of how the spiritual life of persons is formed by the liturgy the ordered form of Christian worship, East and West, Catholic and Protestant.

Much is being written about the church, Mary Sawyer says, but established theologians and sociologists of religion typically limit their inquiries to white, establishment Christianity. Yet this is only one segment of the church. And so they miss writing about Christian community at all-for Christian community is lived community.The attention paid to white churches is uninformative and even misleading insofar as African Americans, Latina/os, Native Americans, and Asian Americans are concerned. Their experiences, in the world and in the church, are markedly different and cannot be generalized from the white population. Moreover, examining the church on the margins offers valuable insights for all churches looking to build living Christian community.This book explains expressions of the Christian religion that have survived, or are struggling to survive, the distortions caused by ignoring the church on the margins. In traditional church circles, community may refer to a gathering for food and fellowship, a Bible study class or adult forum, or charity and service to the needy. Community as lived by these Christians on the margin, however, is a group of people coming together intentionally to live the gospel values of inclusiveness, justice, and caring in order to create a transformed world.Mary R. Sawyer is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, where she also teaches in African American studies. She is the author of Black Ecumenism: Implementing the Demands of Justice and co-editor of People''s Temple and Black Religion in America.

One of the key questions that motivates scholars in New Testament studies is the Synoptic Problem-the relationship between Matthew, Mark, and Luke as they tell roughly the same story about the life and work of Jesus. For years, scholars have argued that the Gospel of Mark was the first Gospel produced, and that Matthew and Luke borrowed their materials from Mark, and a few additional sources. In Beyond the Impasse of Markan Priority, a follow-up to their Beyond the Q Impasse, David Peabody and his co-authors offer a dissenting voice, and demonstrate why they believe the Gospel of Mark is dependent on Matthew and Luke. While this argument is not a new one, this book provides the first detailed textual analysis to make the point definitively. Pericope by pericope, the authors examine and retell the story or teachings contained therein to highlight the dependence of Markan features on those of Matthew or Luke or both. This retelling is followed by observations that highlight structural, compositional, and thematic features of the pericope. The analysis concludes with a focus on literary details such as Markan additions to the texts of Matthew and Luke, Markan changes to the texts of Matthew and Luke, and evidence of fragmentary preservation of Matthew and Luke in the Markan text.David B. Peabody is Professor of Religious Studies at Nebraska Wesleyan University, Lincoln. Lamar Cope is Professor of Religious Studies and Chair of the Department of Religious Studies at Carroll College, Waukesha, Wisconsin. Allan J. McNicol is Professor of New Testament at the Institute of Christian Studies in Austin, Texas.

In this engaging collection of essays conservative and liberal theologians and scholars engage each other in a dialogue about the place of faith, the nature of history, the character of literary texts, and the purpose of theology. While some essays focus on the historical context of Jesus'' life and work, others focus on the ways in which the later Christian church established belief in the life and work of Jesus as a proof of faith. Included here are voices that question the value and meaning of Christology in a post-Holocaust world, voices that converse about Jewish and Islamic understandings of Jesus, and others that "save Jesus from those who are right." These moving essays offer a survey of the best in historical Jesus scholarship and contemporary Christology.Contributors to the volume include: James M. Robinson (Claremont Graduate University); Colin Brown (Fuller Theological Seminary); N. T. Wright (Westminster Abbey); John Dominic Crossan (Emeritus, DePaul University); Robert Funk (Jesus Seminar, Westar Institute); Jonathan Reed (University of LaVerne); John Hick (University of Birmingham); Charles Hughes (Chapman University); Richard Swinburne (Oxford University); Karen Torjesen (Claremont Graduate University); Ronald Farmer (Chapman University); Carter Heyward (Episcopal Divinity School); Didier Pollefeyt Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium); David Sperling (New York University); F. E. Peters (New York University); and Lloyd Geering (Victoria University, New Zealand).Marvin Meyer is Professor of Religious Studies at Chapman College and is the author of The Gospel of Thomas: The Hidden Sayings of Jesus, The Unknown Sayings of Jesus and other books. Charles Hughes is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Chapman College and is the author of studies on philosophy of religion and theology. For: General audiences; undergraduates; graduate students; professors

This provocative book pursues a series of questions associated with canon(s) of the Bible. How does the canon influence the meaning of the texts of which it is composed? Could texts be "liberated" from the canon, and what would this liberation do to them or to the canon? What does the biblical canon signify about its constituent texts? What does canonical status imply about texts that are included in the Bible, as well as texts that are excluded from it? How does a canon-a cultural and ideological product-influence or create ideology and culture? In The Control of Biblical Meaning, George Aichele draws deeply on the insights of postructuralist literary theory as he pursues these questions. He also engages in close readings of specific biblical and nonbiblical texts to demonstrate ways that canon controls the meanings of its texts. With dazzling skill, Aichele interrogates the form and function of canon as a mechanism that both reveals and conceals texts from its readers.George Aichele teaches at Adrian College in Adrian, Michigan. He is the author of Sign, Text, Scripture: Semiotics and the Bible and Jesus Framed and is a contributor to The Postmodern Bible.For: Advanced undergraduates; graduate students; biblical scholars; course text