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This study puts the thought of Evagrius Ponticus, a fourth-century theologian, into dialogue with modern cognitive science in regard to the topic of evil, specifically moral evil. Evagrius, in his writings about prayer and the ascetic life, addressed the struggle with personal moral evil in terms of the eight «thoughts» or «demons.» These «thoughts» were transmitted by John Cassian to the Western church, and later recast by Gregory the Great as the Seven Deadly Sins. Though present understandings of evil appear to differ greatly from those of Evagrius, his wisdom concerning the battle against evil may prove to be of great help even today. Using the work of Pierre Hadot to recover Evagrius's context, and the work of Paul Ricoeur to discuss how we construct descriptions and myths of evil, Evagrius is brought into dialogue with the cognitive sciences. Using current research, especially the work of Eugene d'Aquili and Andrew Newberg, this study reveals the contemporary relevance of Evagrius' approach to combating evil. In addition, the interdisciplinary study of patristics and cognitive science opens the pathway to a better understanding between Christian tradition and the modern sciences.

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When the New Testament was read publicly, what effect did the performances have on the audience? In Delivering from Memory, William Shiell argues that these performances shaped early Christian paideia among communities of active, engaged listeners.
Using Greco-Roman rhetorical conventions, Shiell's groundbreaking study suggests that lectors delivered from memory without memorizing the text verbatim and audiences listened with their memories in a collaborative process with the performer. The text functioned as a starting place for emotion, paraphrase, correction, and instruction. In the process, the performances trained and shaped the character of the reader and the formation of the audience. The lector's performance functioned as a mirror for the audience to examine themselves as children of God.
These conventions shaped the ways lectors performed Jesus. Just as the New Testament reflects many titles for Jesus, so the canonical form of the Gospels offers many ways Jesus was performed in the ancient world. By interpreting through the eyes of performance, we join a conversation that has existed since the formative stages of the Christian movement. By performing with the ancient audience, we shape the character of reader and audience through the emotions, rhetorical figures, and memories in the text. We raise new questions about audiences in the ancient world and interpret stories through the ears of performance.

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Paul's letter to Titus is one of the most neglected letters of the New Testament. Many have contended that it is an incoherent letter devoid of a theological message and purpose. This study proposes otherwise, presenting an entirely new structure for Titus that demonstrates how the theme «Exhort and Reprove to Commendable Works according to the Hope of Eternal Life» unfolds through the chiastic structures in the letter. Jeon not only demonstrates the unity of the letter but also invites the reader to explore other ways chiasms can be used to enhance New Testament interpretation. Any intrigued by Titus, and the Pastoral Letters as a whole, will discover herein a unique approach to the letter and a fresh and invigorating interpretation of its underlying message.

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Christology: How Do We Talk about Jesus Christ Today? explores key questions that concern those who struggle to reconcile today's world with the faith and witness of centuries of Christianity. How do we talk about Jesus in a world that demands inclusivity and shies away from ideologies and doctrines of any kind? What does it mean to talk about Jesus in theological terms? Driving this book is the nature and core of the Christian witness, which acts like a GPS, guiding the reader through the terrain of a modern theological discussion of Christ.

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Dennis Horton highlights the shape and function of the death-and-resurrection motif by applying William Freedman's criteria of a literary motif to the Acts narrative. By analyzing the statements about death and resurrection together with the examples of this messianic pattern among the experiences of major and minor characters, the motif becomes clear. This central theme then becomes intensified through contrast with a secondary motif, that of death and decay. Death and Resurrection provides a clear example of a biblical motif and how it develops and functions within the narrative, serving as a valuable guide for future studies of biblical motifs. The work also supplies a needed balance between the extremes of past and present Lukan scholarship by considering the combined effect of suffering and renewed life within a single motif. Both the statements and actions of the characters reveal the importance of the two elements for Lukan theology and soteriology. The function of the motif derives from its usage within the narrative and proves insightful for gaining a better understanding of the aesthetic quality of the story while simultaneously showing how the narrator skillfully wields the motif to provide encouragement to the followers of «The Way,» to issue a warning to would-be persecutors, and to deliver an evangelistic message to potential converts such as the «God-fearers.» The messianic pattern of death and resurrection becomes a heuristic tool that the narrator carefully applies to create a potent motif with a multifaceted message for a growing and often suffering Christian community.

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Theologies of Power and Crisis provides a case study for Eric Wolf's research directive to better comprehend the interplay of cultural (webs of meaning) and material (webs of power) forms of social life. More specifically, the book demonstrates how theological discourse and practice engage with historical and material relations of power. It has been normative to speak of power in terms of political and economic processes and theology in terms of interpretive and symbolic experiences. This work breaks new ground by linking theological ideas with political-economic processes in terms of the structural relations of power. Ethnographically, this research investigates the theological processes of Hong Kong Chinese Christians during a period of significant social change and crisis, precipitated by the return of Hong Kong to China in 1997. It shows how local Christians and Christian institutions mediated the significant regional, national, and transnational forces of political-economic change by connecting theological practice to the structural relations of power. The Christian response was a contested process closely intertwined with the broader contested processes of social organization. This study develops an understanding of Christianity that goes beyond ecclesiastical hegemony to encompass struggles over human practice, meaning, and representation in relation to the changing political-economic context. These findings implicate religious ideas and practice as significant to an understanding of social inequalities and powerlessness by connecting ideologies to material conditions. Christian ideas may be used to legitimize an oppressive social order or they may be used to liberate those who are oppressed. Issues related to the policies and practice of development should take seriously the role of religious beliefs and practices.

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Where Is the Church? Martrydom, Persecution, and Baptism in North Africa is an overview of North African Christianity from the second to the fifth century. Beginning with the African martyrs, Ronald D. Burris investigates the idea of how «church» was defined in North African Christianity through the understanding of water baptism, martyrdom (baptism in blood), and key theological concepts such as origo or conscientia. In addition to baptism and ecclesiology, this work investigates the social, political, and economic issues that were germane to the shaping, hardening, and eventual condemnation of those beliefs as expressed by the North African Christians, called the Donatists. Morevoer, this work seeks to explain why so many North African Christians were drawn to that group. They were drawn to the Donatists because the latter more closely represented the tradition of the early African martyrs, Tertullian, and their beloved hero and martyr, Saint Cyprian.

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Where did the old social barriers break down at the coming of Christianity? In homes. Where did practice join theology to break down the division between rich and poor or Jew and Greek, so that they ate together? In the hospitality of house church hosts and hostesses. What happened to the barrier between slave and free? Gone when they prayed together. The intense reserve between men and women? Dissolved as hosts and hostesses served the friends who entered their door. Paul saw this, admired and praised the house church leaders, and planned on homes to grow the gospel.

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Is much of Christian education in America distinctly Christian? Ron Hoch and David Smith say, «No.» Instead it is guilty of having adopted an ideology and methodology that strips it of the right to call itself Christian and the ability to fulfill a truly Christian mission. The authors claim that the fundamentally humanistic ideology of the West conditions and controls much of what is labeled «Christian» education. By talking about the need to integrate faith and learning, focusing on teaching methodology, and operating schools in virtually the same way as government-run schools, many Christian academics betray captivity to the dogma that humans are the measure of all things and need to do what God has already done. As a result, much of what controls the conversation and practices in Christian academia echoes the humanistic arrogance of the West, and offers no substantive alternative to it. In Old School, New Clothes, Hoch and Smith issue a call for Christian academics to own up to their own confession–that all reality was created and integrated by God, damaged by sin, and has already been reintegrated in and by Jesus. Thus the emphasis in Christian education ought not to be what Christian educators are doing to redeem the culture, but on what God is bringing to the Church in order to redeem sinners. Only by recognizing that all human knowledge claims in every sphere are inherently theological and that God is truly seen in and experienced through knowledge of all things, will a distinctly Christian education be forged. Christian education must primarily emphasize the reintegration or redemption of teachers brought through right knowledge of Jesus that comes through every subject discipline and expressed in a life balanced on Sabbath, work, and family.

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Did the Jesus of St. Luke's Gospel come to heal the brokenhearted (4:18)? Did Mark's Jesus call his disciples to prayer and fasting (9:29), and did he cry from the cross, «My God, my God, why have you persecuted me?» (15:34). Did St. Paul write to the Romans that God works all things together for good for those who love him (8:28)? Did the author of Hebrews declare that Jesus died apart from God (2:9)? These statements are found in the manuscript tradition of the New Testament, but are not included in our standard printed editions or translations. Peter Rodgers argues that these and other textual variations should be reconsidered. After reviewing ten important verses using the traditional areas of text-critical inquiry (manuscript evidence, internal criteria such as style, and transcriptional probabilities), Rodgers turns our attention to important but neglected narrative features indicated by quotations, allusions, and echoes of the Old Testament. These references to the story told in the Scriptures of Israel shed new light on the passages considered, offering fresh material and greater perspective for making judgments about the original text.

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