10 minute read
Biblical Studies
The Beatitudes through the Ages
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Rebekah Eklund
Foreword by Dale C. Allison Jr. A reception history of the Beatitudes, om the rst century to the present day
“It is not an overstatement to describe Rebekah Eklund’s book as stunning. Clearly wri en. Delightful to read. Erudite while being open-hearted and openhanded. I learned something new (and old) on every page. is will become the new standard work on the Beatitudes.” — JONATHAN T. PENNINGTON
author of The Sermon on the Mount and Human Flourishing
“Like a scribe trained for the kingdom of heaven, Rebekah Eklund brings out of the treasures of the Beatitudes what is new and what is old. Her impressive reception history a unes the heart and mind to interpret these o -quoted and well-loved Scriptures with the very virtues they seek to inculcate: humility and wisdom, including a discerning appreciation for the theological and ethical concerns these texts raise.” — MARIANNE MEYE THOMPSON
Fuller Theological Seminary
“Rebekah Eklund’s heart is large, and her imagination broad; her eye for detail is sharp, and her curiosity winsome; her energy to pursue an unlikely hypothesis is generous, and her patience to unearth an esoteric source unending; her passion for truth is relentless, and her joy in Christ’s upside-down kingdom infectious. Blessed are those who read every word of this book and treasure it: for the glory and playfulness of God’s good future are theirs.” — SAMUEL WELLS
vicar of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, London
“Hardly anyone has done such extensive and thorough research on the Beatitudes as Rebekah Eklund. She has provided insight on the biblical text and a wide purview on the impact of the Beatitudes throughout the centuries. In the process, with each Beatitude she provides a walkthrough of church history, an exercise in devotion, and an invitation to consider the nature of Scripture, the tensions in interpretation, and the signi cance of the Beatitudes for living. If you are studying the Beatitudes, you will nd real and impressive help here.”
— KLYNE R. SNODG SS
author of Stories with Intent: A Comprehensive Guide to the Parables of Jesus
Rebekah Eklund is associate professor of theology at Loyola University Maryland, where she teaches Scripture, theology, and ethics. She is the author of Jesus Wept: e Signi cance of Jesus’ Laments in the New Testament and coauthor, with Samuel Wells and Ben Quash, of the second edition of Introducing Christian Ethics.
978-0-8028-7650-8 | Jacketed Hardcover | 352 pages | $35.00 US | $46.99 CAN £27.99 UK | Available
Voices from the Ruins
Theodicy and the Fall of Jerusalem in the Hebrew Bible Dalit Rom-Shiloni
“Voices from the Ruins is a descriptive theology of the traumatic events of a period in the history of Israel—the Babylonian conquest of Judah and the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple—that a ected Judean/Jewish history and thought forever a er. Rom-Shiloni presents a thorough methodological and masterful discussion of various biblical texts that relate to these events, constructs a tapestry of the topics raised, and uncovers the di erent—o en antagonistic—views which allowed doubt and erce protest yet still persisted in taking part in the talk about God.”
— SA JAPHET
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
“ e fall of Jerusalem is the pivotal event in the history of ancient Judah. It triggered a plethora of theological interpretations that became very in uential for the formation of the Hebrew Bible. In this wide-ranging study, Dalit Rom-Shiloni vividly and meticulously describes di erent biblical approaches to theodicy and develops a descriptive theology of Hebrew Bible texts om the sixth century BCE.”
— KON D SCHMID
University of Zurich
“Everyone interested in the theology of the Hebrew Scriptures will bene t om Rom-Shiloni’s magisterial work. Taking on the thorniest theological problems presented in the Scriptures, she adroitly acknowledges prior contributions even as she makes her own compelling argument for how to think about God and trauma and the traditional problem of theodicy. How we think about God ma ers for how we live, and Rom-Shiloni is an able guide to thought-provoking new ways of doing so.”
— JACQUELINE E. LAPSLEY
Princeton Theological Seminary
“ e subject of this wonderful book—the justice of God—is as timely today as it was in the biblical period. A er developing a amework for descriptive Hebrew Bible theology, Rom-Shiloni explores a large variety of biblical texts, highlighting the many biblical views concerning theodicy and the multivocal voices of the Bible more generally. Her exploration of the implications of the di erent metaphors used of the biblical God in these contexts is especially enlightening.”
— MARC ZVI BRE LER
Duke University
Dalit Rom-Shiloni is associate professor of Hebrew Bible at Tel Aviv University, Israel. She writes extensively on Hebrew Bible theology, group-identity con icts, and the formation of sixth-century BCE literature. Rom-Shiloni serves as editor-in-chief of the Hebrew-language journal Beit Mikra: Journal for the Study of the Bible and Its World and is the initiator and editor-in-chief of the Dictionary of Nature Imagery of the Bible project.
978-0-8028-7860-1 | Hardcover | 580 pages | $70.00 US | $94.99 CAN | £55.99 UK Available May 2021
Interpreting Paul
THE CANONICAL PAUL, VOLUME 2 Luke Timothy Johnson
With the contextual framework in place from volume 1 of e Canonical Paul, Luke Timothy Johnson now probes each of the thirteen biblical letters traditionally a ributed to the apostle Paul in a way that balances respect for historical integrity with a ention to present-day realities. In doing so, Johnson reforges the connection between biblical studies and the life of the church, seeking to establish once again the foundational and generative role that the thirteen le ers of Paul have had among Christians for centuries.
“Interpreting Paul usefully brings together all the major essays (some reprints, some new) Luke Timothy Johnson has wri en on Paul. e thoughtful and o en delightfully independent take on current issues in Paul for which Johnson is known is fully on display in these essays. While not a ‘Pauline theology’ in the usual sense of that phrase, the volume provides a breathtakingly broad scope of comment on many of the key issues in the apostle’s theology.” — DOUGLAS J. MOO
Wheaton College
“All great scholars have a clear and distinctive view about the people, texts, and topics about which they write. is is indisputably true for Luke Timothy Johnson, who rightly insists on the importance of religious experience in understanding who Paul was, what he cared about most deeply, and how that reverberates throughout all of his le ers.” — JOHN T. FITZGE LD
University of Notre Dame
Luke Timothy Johnson is the Robert W. Woodru Professor Emeritus of New Testament and Christian Origins at Candler School of eology, Emory University. He won the 2011 Grawemeyer Award in Religion for his Among the Gentiles: GrecoRoman Religion and Christianity. Johnson’s many other books include e Revelatory Body; Brother of Jesus, Friend of God; and e Writings of the New Testament.
978-0-8028-2466-0 | Jacketed Hardcover | 624 pages | $60.00 US | $80.99 CAN £48.99 UK | Available May 2021
Jesus, the New Testament, and Christian Origins
Perspectives, Methods, Meanings Dieter Mi ernacht and Anders Runesson, editors
Foreword by David E. Aune An introduction to the New Testament in its historical context, with an overview of interpretative approaches and exegetical exercises
“Panoramic in scope, sensitive in exposition, richly informed by illustrative detail: Jesus, the New Testament, and Christian Origins o ers the reader a wonderful introduction both to the eld of New Testament Studies and to the ancient world om which its texts sprang.” — PAULA FREDRIKSEN
author of From Jesus to Christ: The Origins of the New Testament Images of Christ
“A remarkable synthesis that deserves to become a ‘pull-down’ book for biblical scholars, theological students, and pastors.” — CARL R. HOLLADAY
Emory University
“Classroom reader, comprehensive encyclopedia, exegetical handbook, and more, this engaging, up-to-date volume a ends to issues that ma ered both in antiquity and today, including Jewish-Christian relations, gender and sexuality, the Roman Empire, and the means by which texts and interpretations become authoritative. A splendid achievement.” — AMY-JILL LEVINE
Vanderbilt University
CONTRIBUTORS
Håkan Bengtsson, Samuel Byrskog, Ismo Dunderberg, Bengt Holmberg, Jonas
Holmstrand, Marianne Bjelland Kartzow, omas Kazen, Dieter Mi ernacht, Birger
Olsson, Samuel Rubenson, Anders Runesson, Anna Runesson, Hanna Stenström,
Kari Syreeni, Mikael Tellbe, Lauri urén, Håkan Ulfgard, Cecilia Wassén, Tommy
Wasserman, Mikael Winninge, Karin Hedner Ze erholm, and Magnus Ze erholm.
Also available: VOLUME 1 of The CANONICAL PAUL
Constructing Paul
Luke Timothy Johnson
978-0-8028-0758-8 | Jacketed Hardcover | 375 pages | $50.00 US Dieter Mi ernacht is professor of New Testament and early Christianity at Lutheran eological Seminary, Hong Kong. Anders Runesson is professor of New Testament at the University of Oslo, Norway.
978-0-8028-6892-3 | Hardcover | 800 pages | $65.00 US | $87.99 CAN | £52.99 UK Available
Joseph Sievers and Amy-Jill Levine, editors A multidisciplinary appraisal of who the Pharisees were, what they taught, and how they have been understood and depicted throughout history
For centuries, Pharisees have been well known but li le understood—due at least in part to their outsized role in the Christian imagination arising from select negative stereotypes based on the Gospels. Yet historians see Pharisees as respected teachers and forward-thinking innovators who helped make the Jewish tradition more adaptable to changing circumstances and more egalitarian in practice. Seeking to bridge this gap, the contributors to this volume provide a multidisciplinary appraisal of who the Pharisees actually were, what they believed and taught, and how they have been depicted throughout history.
The topics explored within this authoritative resource include:
• the origins of the Pharisees • the meaning of the name “Pharisee” • Pharisaic leniency, relative to the temple priesthood, in judicial ma ers • Pharisaic concerns for the Jewish laity • Pharisaic purity practices and why they became popular • the varying depictions of Pharisaic practices and beliefs in the New Testament • Jesus’s relationship to the Pharisees • the apostle Paul and his situation within the Pharisaic tradition • the question of continuity between the Pharisaic tradition and Rabbinic Judaism • the reception history of the Pharisees, including among the rabbis, the church fathers, Rashi, Maimonides, Luther, and Calvin • the failures of past scholarship to deal justly with the Pharisees • the representations, both positive and negative, of the Pharisees in art, lm, passion plays, and Christian educational resources • how Christian leaders can and should address the Pharisees in sermons and in
Bible studies
Following the exploration of these and other topics by a team of internationally renowned scholars, this volume concludes with an address by Pope Francis on correcting the negative stereotypes of Pharisees that have led to antisemitic prejudices and nding resources that “will positively contribute to the relationship between Jews and Christians, in view of an ever more profound and fraternal dialogue.”
CONTRIBUTORS
Luca Angelelli, Harry A ridge, Vasile Babota, Shaye J. D. Cohen, Adele Yarbro Collins, Philip Cunningham, Deborah Forger, Paula Fredriksen, Yair Furstenburg, Massimo Grilli, Susannah Heschel, Angela La Delfa, Amy-Jill Levine, Hermut Löhr, Steve Mason, Eric Meyers, Craig Morrison, Vered Noam, Henry Pa arumadathil, Adele Reinhartz, Jens Schröter, Joseph Sievers, Ma hias Skeb, Abraham Skorka, Günter Stemberger, Christian Stückl, and Randall Zachman. Joseph Sievers has taught Jewish history and literature of the Hellenistic period at the Ponti cal Biblical Institute since 1991. In addition, he served as director of the Cardinal Bea Centre for Judaic Studies at the Ponti cal Gregorian University from 2003 to 2009. He has published several books and many articles, primarily in the areas of Second Temple history (especially Flavius Josephus) and Christian-Jewish relations. His abiding interest in the Pharisees was rst expressed in an article titled “Who Were the Pharisees?” (1991).
Amy-Jill Levine is the University Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies and the Mary Jane Werthan Professor of Jewish Studies at Vanderbilt University. Her numerous publications include e Misunderstood Jew: e Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus, Short Stories by Jesus, e Gospel of Luke (with Ben Witherington III), e Jewish Annotated New Testament, e Bible with and without Jesus: How Jews and Christians Read the Same Stories Di erently (with Marc Bre ler), and Sermon on the Mount: A Beginner’s Guide to the Kingdom of Heaven.
978-0-8028-7929-5 | Hardcover | 464 pages | $54.99 US | $73.99 CAN | £44.99 UK Available December 2021
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