LITMIR.BIZ

The Vehement Jesus composes a fresh examination and interpretation of several perplexing passages in the Gospels that, at face value, challenge the conviction that the mission and message of Jesus were peaceful. Using narrative analysis and various forms of intratextual critique in the service of a hermeneutic of shalom, the author makes the case that Gospel portrayals of the vehement Jesus are compatible with, perhaps even indispensable to, the composite canonical portrait of Jesus as the Messiah of Peace. As a result, this exploration in New Testament theology and ethics makes an invaluable contribution to the crucial conversation about the role of Jesus' life and teaching in Christian reflection on the morality of violence today.

Подробнее

This volume engages the Gospel of Matthew in full awareness of its inherently political character. Weaver situates Matthew's version of the «good news of the kingdom» squarely within the «real world» of first-century Palestine and its occupying power, the Roman Empire. The essays here focus prominently and collectively on the issues of power and violence that not only pervade the historically occupied Jewish community of first-century Palestine, but also are clearly visible throughout Matthew's narrative account. A «lower-level» reading of the Matthean text offers a bleak portrait of the overwhelming power and violence exerted by the Roman occupying authorities and their upper-echelon Jewish collaborators against the wider Jewish community of first-century Palestine. But an «upper-level»/"God's-eye" reading of Matthew's narrative consistently reveals the fundamental irony at the heart of the New Testament as a whole, of the Jesus story broadly conceived, and of Matthew's narrative account in specific. This irony overturns all humanly recognized definitions of «power» and demonstrates the astonishing «politics of God,» which defeats evident power through apparent powerlessness and overcomes violence through nonviolent initiatives.

Подробнее

Struggles for Shalom is a collection of essays by biblical scholars about peace, justice, and violence in ancient Jewish and Christian texts, written to honor the life work of Mennonite scholars Perry B. Yoder and Willard M. Swartley. In this volume, twenty-three authors–colleagues, former students, friends, and others influenced by Yoder's and Swartley's scholarship–add to the honorees' work in appreciation for their shared focus on biblical texts' lessons of peace. Specific texts and topics include Eccl 3:1-9 and time for war, Ezek 14:12-23 and God's retribution, Luke 22:31-61 and Peter's sword, the temple cleansing episodes in John 2 and Mark 11, sectarianism and violence in manuscripts from the Dead Sea, violence in creation in the Hebrew Bible, Chronicles as utopian literature, peace and violence in Paul's writings, and globalization in biblical studies. This collection is diverse and ambitious. For church and academy, and for anyone curious about what Scripture has to say about peace and violence, this book delivers focused study of peace and violence across the Testaments.
Contributors Include: Wilma Ann Bailey Jo-Ann A. Brant Laura L. Brenneman Jacob W. Elias Reta Halteman Finger Michael J. Gorman Nancy R. Heisey Paul Keim Christopher Marshall Safwat Marzouk Douglas B. Miller Ben C. Ollenburger Dorothy M. Peters David Rensberger Andrea Dalton Saner Brad D. Schantz Mary H. Schertz Steven Schweitzer Willard M. Swartley Jackie Wyse-Rhodes Joshua Yoder Perry B. Yoder Thomas R. Yoder Neufeld Paul Yokota Gordon Zerbe

Подробнее

For many of us, the connection between the ecological crisis and humanity's detachment from the land is becoming increasingly clear. In biblical terms, adam (humanity) has severed itself from the adamah (soil), and we (creation) are reaping the consequences. This collection of essays, and the conference from which it took shape, calls the church to root itself more deeply in the agrarian biblical text and ecclesial tradition in order to remember and freshly imagine ways of living on and with the land that are restorative, reconciling, and faithful to the triune God's invitation to new life in Christ. When we listen attentively to and patiently learn from the biblical text, church history, and theology, the land itself can become a conversation partner, and we are summoned to recognize that the gospel is reserved not simply for humanity, but for the whole of creation.

Подробнее