The land was one of the most vibrant symbols for the people of ancient Israel. In the landgift, promise, and challengewas found the physical source of Israel's fertility and life, and a place for the gathering of the hopes of the covenant people. In this careful treatment, Walter Brueggemann follows the development of his theme through the major blocks of Israel's traditions. The book provides a point of entrance both to the theology of the Old Testament and to aspects of the New Testamenteven as it illuminates crucial issues of the contemporary scene. In this fully revised version, Brueggemann provides new insights, as well as updating the discussion, notes, and bibliography.

Focusing on texts in the Hebrew Bible, and using feminist hermeneutics, Phyllis Trible brings out what she considers to be neglected themes and counter literature. After outlining her method in more detail, she begins by highlighting the feminist imagery used for God; then she moves on to traditions embodying male and female within the context of the goodness of creation. If Genesis 2-3 is a love story gone awry, the Song of Songs is about sexuality redeemed in joy. In between lies the book of Ruth, with its picture of the struggles of everyday life.

Exile brought a host of physical, socioeconomic, and theological problems for Israel. Ralph Klein examines six theological traditions of exillic theology - Lamentations, the Deuteronomistic History, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Second Isaiah, and the Priestly Writing in the Pentateuch - for evidence of Israel's response to the exillic crisis. His careful study highlights the literary legacy of Israel's anxiety and stress over the loss of its temple and its king. The author points to a theological blueprint of hope for modern "exiles" in coping with challenges to faith. —- from book's back cover

The Ten Commandments and Human Rights sets out to evaluate the importance of the Ten Commandments for the life of faith today. The general thesis is that the commandments are immensely important not only for Jews and Christians, but for all persons seeking to find or to reaffirm a moral foundation for their life and for the life of their children, their religious community, and their society.The fact that the commandments are put negatively is immensely important, for it means that the community that claims these commandments and builds on them has to work out for itself the positive import of not having other gods, not worshipping idols, not profaning the sabbath, not killing and stealing, and committing adultery. Put negatively, these commitments become the groundwork for a humanly free and responsible search for the will of God for individual, family, and corporate life today and in any day. It is true that the commandments originate in ancient Israel, are central to the faith of prophets, priests, and sages, and are claimed and made foundational by Jesus for the Christian community. But these commandments also share much with, for example, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which has been presented by the United Nations for adoption by all the nations of earth. The Ten Commandments and Human Rights seeks to show how to avoid moralistic use of the Ten Commandments in religious life today while still affirming that there are absolutely foundational prohibitions that can and must guide the moral life of all peoples. The Ten Commandments need very little revision in order to become such a foundation for a free and responsible life today.

s/t: Mandate and Symbol of Faith

Diversity of The Trajectories in the Confessional Heritage (Overtures to Biblical theology) \[paperback\] Hanson, Paul D. \[Oct 01, 1982\]

In this book, James Crenshaw covers five Hebrew Bible tales in which God subjects one of his creatures to a test that amounts to considerable oppression. These are: Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac, Jeremiah's confessions, the story of Job, Ecclesiastes, and Psalm 73.

Professor Trible focuses on four variations upon the theme of terror in the Bible. By combining the discipline of literary criticism with the hermeneutics of feminism, she reinterprets the tragic stories of four women in ancient Israel: Hagar, Tamar, an unnamed concubine, and the daughter of Jephthah. In highlighting the silence, absence, and opposition of God, as well as human cruelty, Trible shows how these neglected stories—interpreted in memoriam—challenge both the misogyny of Scripture and its use in church, synagogue, and academy.

In this comprehensive and thought-provoking study, Terence Fretheim focuses on the theme of divine suffering, an aspect of our understanding of God which both the church and scholarship have neglected. Maintaining that "metaphors matter," Fretheim carefully examines the ruling and anthropomorphic metaphors of the Old Testament and discusses them in the context of current biblical-theological scholarship. His aim is to broaden our understanding of the God of the Old Testament by showing that "suffering belongs to the person and purpose of God".

In a political atmosphere where, as author William Klassen characterizes it, "hope is in short supply... within and outside the church," the twin themes of "love of enemies" and "search for peace" hardly seem compatible. Klassen maintains, however, that the two are not only consistent but also have co-existed from ancient times to the present, due in large part to the Jesus movement. Illuminating old, familiar texts as well as other that have previously been ignored, Klassen shows how people can strive for peace by following both modern figures who have gone before them as well as long-neglected biblical resources.

Book by Sakenfield, Katherine Doob

New Testament Hospitality

Book by Humphreys, W. Lee

Jesus, Liberation, and the Biblical Images for Ethics and Christology (Overtures to Biblical Theology)

First published in 1986. By examining key biblical texts, especially in Luke-Acts, Paul, John, and 1 Peter, Gaventa aims to learn what conversion and transformation mean in the context of first-century Christianity and to compare that with understandings of being "born again."

Rendtorff's approach involves an intensive interchange with international scholarship, including Jewish biblical studies, and emphasis on the question of the canon. Important themes of Old Testament theology are developed, among them revelation and history, creation and salvation history, covenant, and paradigms of exegesis.

With the waning influence of history and historical criticism as the normative context and method of Old Testament study, alternative approaches and new perspectives have appeared. These current developments, Leo Perdue points out, need not halt progress in the doing of Old Testament theology but can move the discipline in a variety of new and imaginative directions.

He puts down the mighty from their thrones, and exalts the lowly. Luke 1:52 What does the biblical tradition have to say about power? Professor Walsh tackles this complex question, providing a road map for traveling along the various routes of the tradition. He examines the world of Canaan, the origins of Israel, the reasons why the people of the covenant chose to be ruled by a human monarch, and the policies that led to the exilic experiences of Israel and the end of prophecy. Walsh illumines a powerful only in needfulness, powerlessness, and unrighteousness do we see the salvation of our God.

The status of women inthe ancient near east and in Israel—Susanna—Judith—Esther—Ruth.

Book by Moxnes, Havor

Book by

Rare book

Debates on who can be ordained and the nature of ministry itself have been issues of controversy for decades in Christian churches. Bartlett's book is a provocative addition to the growing literature that explores the biblical images and models that inform current debate, highlighting the views and challenges of the ministry in the 20th century.

Cullman's study is distinguished by its responsible exegesis and its attention to the philosophical issues so often overlooked in general books on prayer." -Sharyn Dowd, Lexington Theological Seminary Oscar Cullman offers here the first complete treatment of the New Testament doctrine and practice of prayer, a subject he refers to as "the greatest gift of grace and a difficult task to be learned." He comments on the difficulties of praying, objections to prayer, prayer and human weakness, prayer in the Synoptic Gospels, in Paul, in John, and in the rest of the New Testament. Oscar Cull mann, Professor Emeritus of the Universities of Basel and Paris, is one of the most distinguished New Testament scholars of the twentieth century. Among his influential books are Christ and Time (1951), The Christology of the New Testament (1959), and Unity through Diversity (Fortress Press, 1988).

In this exciting new Overtures volume, Dale Patrick brings a fresh approach to the question of how understanding rhetoric helps us - specifically as readers of the Bible - to understand ancient Israel's perception of how God communicates. Patrick focuses on key passages in the Hebrew Bible to demonstrate the usefulness of rhetorical the call of Moses, the Ten Commandments (as a whole). the first commandment, prophetic judgment speeches, and laments over the exile.

In Paul's epistles the crucifixion story reveals a God who is free and in no way bound by human categories or expectations. Yet God in Christ chooses to be engaged in the very depths of the human predicament. The message of the crucifixion is that God's power is manifested in weakness, not in strength. The author believes that this "weakness as strength" should be the focal point of the church's identity. However, a celebration of weakness is in complete opposition to traditional American beliefs in personal strength and a powerful church. "Ernst Ksemann ... has written on the theme \[of the cross\] most poignantly and penetratingly. Because the cross is endlessly relentless in its claim and restless in its critical voice, however, even Ksemann's rendering is not final. "Cousar's book demonstrates that we can and must move beyond even Ksemann in our own obedient act of understanding and response to the cross. ... Cousar's careful adn acute exposition shows effectively that the cross cannot be contained in such a single category, but functions as a norm and singular definitional voice on a broad range of theological, interpretive, and ethical issues."from the Editor's Foreword, by Walter Brueggemann