Vines Intertwined: A History of Jews and Christians from the Babylonian Exile to the Advent of Islam
by Leo Duprée Sandgren
Hendrickson, Peabody, Mass., 2010. 838 pp. $34.95. ISBN 978-1-59856-083-1.
The study of Jewish/Christian history in antiq-uity is experiencing a renaissance. Textual witnesses and archaeological sites are being re-evaluated and revisited. As a result, Sandgren asserts, the relation-ship between Jews and Christians has shifted from a “mother/ daughter” paradigm to one better described as “siblings.” He recog-nizes that Judaism and Christianity were not formed in isolation and are what they are because of each other, and provides a compre-hensive generation-by-generation political history of the Jews from the fall of the First Temple and the Babylonian exile through the rise of Christianity out of Judaism, to the point where both are fully defined against each other at the start of the Middle Ages. This thick volume is accompanied by a CD that contains the entire book as a searchable PDF.
Evoking Lament
edited by Eva Harasta and Brian Brock
T & T Clark, London, 2009. 228 pp. $44.95. ISBN 978-0-567-03390-1.
Lament, a central part of the biblical prayer tra-dition, is prayer that does not resign itself to the inevitable, but expresses one’s vulnerability to the suffering of the world. This volume of essays contends that lament merits recovery and a central place in Christian theology and worship, but needs to be accounted for within a systematic understanding of prayer. Twelve European theologians uncover both the problems and possibilities with the church’s appropriation of lament.
The Gospels and Christian Life in History and Practice
by Richard Valantasis, Douglas K. Bleyle, and Dennis C. Haugh
Rowman and Littlefield, Lanham, Md., 2009. 314 pp. $34.95. ISBN 978-0-7425-5922-6.
This book approaches the four canonical Gospels as handbooks for religious formation through communal practices. It focuses on the communities that produced each gospel, the dynamic energy each gospel displays for creating and sustaining community life, the different interpretations of the person of Jesus, and the different systems of organization and leadership each gospel promulgated.
Paul Unbound: Other Perspectives on the Apostle
edited by Mark D. Given
Hendrickson, Peabody, Mass., 2010. 210 pp. $24.95. ISBN 978-1-59856-324-5.
This collection of essays provides the advanced undergraduate, graduate student, or interested layperson with an introduction to a wide range of recent approaches to Paul that are relevant to, yet go beyond, traditional theological and historical concerns. Eight contributors explore the interface between the Pauline letters and contemporary interests of the academy, such as empire, economics, ethnicity, patronage, gender, issues, rhetoric, and power, in addition to more traditional Pauline subjects.
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