What was the original purpose of the Gospel of Matthew? For whom was it written? In this magisterial two-volume commentary, Walter Wilson interprets Matthew as a catechetical work that expresses the ideological and institutional concerns of a faction of disaffected Jewish followers of Jesus in the late first century CE. Wilson's compelling thesis ......
An authoritative handbook on Jesus, his world, the outcomes of his life, and the quests to locate him in history. The Jesus Handbook is an indispensable reference work featuring essays from an international team of renowned scholars on the significance and meaning of the life of Jesus of Nazareth. Rooted in historical-critical methodology, it ......
Theological education is for whole communities, not just individuals. Urban ministry reaches across the city's socioeconomic, ethnic, generational, and faith boundaries. All should be able to gather at the table and find God's peace. How can theological education in the city further this goal? Maria Liu Wong addresses this question through the ......
The Self-Emptying of Christ in Scripture and Theology
Seventeen distinguished scholars from the fields of biblical studies, historical theology, and systematic theology engage with the past and present significance of the doctrine of kenosis--Paul's extraordinary claim in Philippians 2 that Jesus Christ emptied and humbled himself in obedience on his way to death upon the cross. In the "Christ-hymn" ......
A leading theologian's concise guide to the beliefs, commitments, and practices of Christianity. What do Christians believe? But also, what do they do? And feel? With decades of experience teaching the essentials of Christian faith, Douglas Ottati still finds these questions--and more like them--dynamic and compelling. In Living Belief, he ......
"Above all, Romans is a letter about Spirit-enabled participation and transformation in Christ and his story, and thus in the mission of God in the world." This commentary engages the letter to the Romans as Christian scripture and highlights the Pauline themes for which Michael Gorman is best known-participation and transformation, cruciformity ......
The book of Lamentations is one of the most vivid representations of grief and trauma in the Hebrew Bible. Written in the wake of the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonian Empire, it is comprised of five poems of twenty-two stanzas each, in a manner of tight formal unity unparalleled by any other work in the Scriptures. In this volume, widely ......
Meditations on ordinary life as part of a larger story "We human beings are creatures of time and space," writes Frederick Bauerschmidt. "We have no choice but to find ourselves at a particular place in a particular moment." Fortunately, as Christians, we worship a God who became embodied and lived among us--the timeless Word who became the ......
Reframing religious diversity through the stories of Cain, Ishmael, and Esau The way we read the Bible matters for the way we engage the pluralistic world around us. For instance, if we understand the book of Genesis as narrowly focused on primary characters like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, we'll miss the larger story and end up with the ......
