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The Five Gospels
| | <P> <B>* Did Jesus claim to be the Messiah<BR> * Did he promise to return and usher in a new age<BR> * How did Jesus envision the kingdom of God<BR> * Did he commission his disciples to convert the world and establish a church</B> <P> <I>The Five Gospels</I> answers these questions in a bold, dynamic work that will startle traditional readers of the Bible and rekindle interest in it among secular skeptics. In 1985 the Jesus Seminar, a distinguished group of biblical scholars led by Robert W. Funk and John Dominic Crossan (co-chairs), embarked on a new assessment of the gospels, including the recently discovered Gospel of Thomas. In pursuit of the historical Jesus, they used their collective expertise to determine the authenticity of the more than 1,500 sayings attributed to him. Their remarkable findings appear in this book. <P> Each saying attributed to Jesus is color-coded and presented in a completely new translation of the Greek and Coptic texts. In the judgment of the Jesus Seminar: <P> * only those sayings that appear in red type are considered by the Seminar to be close to what Jesus actually said; <P> * the words in pink less certainly originated with Jesus; <P> * the words in gray are not his, though they contain ideas that are close to his own; <P> * the sayings that appear in black have been embellished or created by his followers, or borrowed from common lore. <P> According to the Seminar, no more than 20 percent of the sayings attributed to Jesus were uttered by him. <P> This book contains illuminating commentary and notes on the text of the gospels and rigorously explores the historical and literary factors behind the Seminar's findings. The enlightening introduction by Robert W. Funk, founder of the Jesus Seminar, sums up two hundred years of gospel scholarship and provides a rare insight into the workings of the Seminar. <I>The Five Gospels</I> is a major work of biblical scholarship that gives new dimensions to the historical Jesus. | |
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The God We Never Knew: Beyond Dogmatic Religion to a More Authentic Contemporary Faith
| | Answering the many "spiritual" questions left unaddressed by such popular historical bestsellers as a<I> A History of God </I>and<I> God: A Biography,</I> renowned author Marcus Borg reveals how to embrace an authentic contemporary faith that reconciles God with science, critical thinking and religious pluralism. <P>How to have faith--how to even think about God--without having to stifle modern rationality is one of the most vital challenges facing contemporary religion. In providing a much-needed solution to the problem of how to have a fully authentic yet fully contemporary understanding of God, Borg--author of the bestselling <I> Meeting Jesus Again for the first Time</I>--traces his personal journey. He leads readers from the all-powerful and authoritarian God of his (and their) childhood and traditional faith to an equally powerful but dynamic image of God that is relevant to contemporary seekers and more biblical and spiritually authentic. Borg shows how the modern crisis of faith is itself rooted in delusion--misinterpretation of biblical texts and of God's true nature--and challenges readers to a new way of thinking about God. He opens a practical discussion about how to base a relationship with the divine both immanent and transcendant, here and now, always and everywhere. <P>Arguing that the authentic Judeo-Christian tradition is that God's being includes the whole world, Borg persuasively shows how this understanding accounts for the whole variety of human religious experience. Ultimately, he introduces readers to a way of thinking about God who is "right here" all around them, rather than distant and remote. This understanding is more intellectually and spiritually satisfying and allows readers to reclaim a stronger sense of God's presence. | |
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All of the Women of the Bible
| | <i>All the women of the Bible</i> offers a rich biographical perspective on evey female figure in scripture -- including the famous, the little-known, and even the unnamed. In more that 300 engaging and insightful portraits, Edith Deen brings alive the saints and sorceresses, queens and servants, mothers and daughters, wives and widows whose profound influence is felt through-out the Bible. </p>"You can almost trace light and darkness in the Bible by the women themselves,"she writes. "Hannah, praying mother of Samuel, gave birth to a son who became the first great Hebrew prophet. And, of course, there was the mother of Jesus. On the other hand, Jezebel and Herodias were vile influences, the first tearing apart the northern kingdom of Israel, the second causing John the Baptist to be beheaded."</p>Combining thorough detail with a lively and dramatic narrative, All of the Women of the Bible portrays the real women behind the Biblical stories and shows how, in their human struggles and triumphs, they are very much like the women of today. With each major biography identified by Bible chapter and verse and prefaced by a key passage of scripture, this is an ideal resources for teachers, Bible students, preachers, and writers, as well as anyone who wants to learn what it was really like to be a woman in Biblical times.</p> | |
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A Harmony of the Gospels: New American Standard Edition
| | This resource encourages a deeper understanding of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ by harmonizing the accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John so as to assemble as many details as possible into a chronologically meaningful sequence. | |
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The Moral Vision of the New Testament: Community, Cross, New Creation, A Contemporary Introduction to New Testament Ethics
| | A leading expert in New Testament ethics discovers in the biblical witness a unified ethical vision -- centered in the themes of community, cross and new creation -- that has profound relevance in today's world. Richard Hays shows how the New Testament provides moral guidance on the most troubling ethical issues of our time, including violence, divorce, homosexuality and abortion. <P> "Hays' passionately written book, with its bold agenda, has neither peer nor rival." --Leander E. Keck, Winkley Professor of Biblical Theology, Yale Divinity School <P> "There are few people I would rather read for the actual exposition of the New Testament than Richard Hays. This book is filled with wonderful readings that not only inform us about how to think better about the so-called 'problem of the relation between the New Testament and ethics' but, even more, speak of how our lives should be lived in the light of Christ's cross.<B> -</B>Stanley Hauerwas<B>, </B>Gilbert T. Rowe Professor of Theological Studies, Duke University Divinity School <P> "Richard Hays has succeeded brilliantly in bringing New Testament studies, contemporary theology, and ethics into a deeply reflective conversation... Hays' point is that the New Testament norms the Christian life, and, with the help of imagination and metaphor, can address the moral conflicts of our time." --Ellen T. Charry,<B> </B>Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University <P> "This book isn't just a breath of fresh air. It's a hurricane, blowing away the fog of half-understood pseudo-morality and fashionable compromise, and revealing instead the early Christian vision of true humanness and genuine holiness. If this isn't a book for our time, I don't know what is." --N. T. Wright<B>, </B>author of <I>The New Testament and the People of God</I><P> | |
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HarperCollins Bible Commentary - Revised Edition
| | <P>The Bible -- sacred scripture, literary classic, historical document. No matter how it is viewed, it remains the basis of much of Western culture. This fully revised edition of the <i>HarperCollins Bible Commentary</i> is the most up-to-date reference book of its kind for understanding and interpreting the meaning of the Bible. The accessible and highly readable format sets a new standard for excellence.</P><P>The Commentary covers all of the Hebrew Bible, as well as the books of the Apocrypha and those of the New Testament, and thus addresses the biblical canons of Judaism, Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, and Protestantism. its innovative format covers the books of the Bible in three ways:</P><P><LI>General essays setting the literary, cultural, and historical context for the entire Bible<LI> Articles introducing major sections of the Bible<LI>Commentaries on the individual books themselves by the finest contemporary biblical scholars</P><P><i>The HarperCollins Bible Commentary</i> is unprecedented in its clarity, organization, and insight into the Bible. Helpful cross-references to its companion, the <i>HarperCollins Bible Dictionary,</i> mean that readers will have all they need to explore the riches of the Scriptures for years to come.</P><P>Every section of the Commentary offers concise and authoritative guidance that will enable the reader to return to the text equipped to understand and appreciate the Bible more fully. Each of the eighty-three contributors to this splendid volume is a leading expert in his or her field and a member of the Society of Biblical Literature. They have produced a volume that belongs in homes, schools, houses of worship, and libraries -- wherever there is a Bible.</p><P>General editor James L. Mays is the Cyrus McCormick Professor of Hebrew and the Old Testament Emeritus at Union Theological Seminary in Richmond, Virginia. He has served as president of the Society of Biblical Literature and is a widely respected author and editor.</P> | |
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Understanding the Old Testament (5th Edition)
| | <P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" soNormal><B></B> Presents a study of the Old Testament by interweaving historical, archeological, literary, and religious perspectives. The book traces the story of the people of Israel from the Exodus in the time of Moses through the dawn of the Common Era. <B></B> It considers the importance of literary criticism and other methods for understanding the literature of ancient Israel; treats the latest archaeological discoveries that illuminate the Old Testament period. </P> | |
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