Healing Violent Men: A Model for Christian Communities

by David J. Livingston

Fortress, Minneapolis, 2002. 129 pp. $17.00. ISBN 0-8006-3251-6.

This book’s subject matter is rarely acknowledged by faith communities, much less discussed. Livingston does both and challenges others to do the same. His claim is that while intimate violence is detestable, we must talk about it and understand its causes, dynamics, and perpetrators. Only then can we devise solutions for ending it. Understanding includes recognizing how American society and churches often legitimate and perpetuate violence. It also involves recognizing that violent men are rarely “monsters” with no redeeming value, but rather are persons with both virtue and vice who have chosen to exploit the latter by acting in perverted and destructive ways. While intimate violence is never condoned, there are reasons (biological, psychological, and socio-cultural) men behave violently. Livingston believes that violent men can learn to understand what drives them to violence and to choose non-violent ways of treating others, especially those with whom they are most intimate.

Equally important is the role Christian communities must play in understanding and ending intimate violence. Violent men must be held responsible for their actions, morally and legally, but must also be invited to reconciliation within the faith community. Appealing to the “deep symbol” of reconciliation in Christianity, Livingston’s “model” for healing draws on biblical images, first century Jewish and early Christian practices, and especially a Thomistic notion of reconciliation that includes contrition, confession, satisfaction, and absolution. Livingston stresses that reconciliation should neither be confused nor conflated with reunion, and that reconciliation goes father than mere forgiveness in its concern for healing all parties alienated from one another. It demands “loving acceptance,” but equally, “demanding responsibility” on the part of offenders (p. 82). Moreover, reconciliation must occur on individual, interpersonal, and communal levels, meaning it is never merely a private affair. It also necessarily includes the attempt to bring the offender to awareness that he is loved by God and others so that he may also love appropriately. Livingston’s plea is for Christian communities to offer compassion, advocacy, and protection to the violated, but also to recognize the obligation to care for perpetrators of si

, as difficult as the latter may be. Only then does the church fulfill its calling.
This substantial, courageous, and ambitious book is clearly written and accessible. I recommend it to anyone concerned with understanding and alleviating intimate violence, and who takes seriously Christ’s call to reconciliation. My only criticism concerns Livingston’s distinction between “constructive” and “destructive” violence (pp. 38–39). The former is described as “the tradition’s” acceptance of violence employed to defend “the innocents against aggressors,” including self-defense, “just war,” and “revolution.” Not all segments of “the tradition” would embrace this distinction. If reconciliation is a Gospel demand, many of us would argue that so too is rejecting violence in any form.

Allan Hugh Cole, Jr.
Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary
Austin, Texas

Joshua

by Jerome F. D. Creach

Interpretation. John Knox, Louisville, 2003. 135 pp. $22.95 (cloth). ISBN 0-8042-3106-0.

The author seeks to uncover the active relevance of Joshua for the theology and faith of the Christian church. Joshua should not be perceived as a problem book to be ignored, but as a resource for lively preaching and teaching. Attention is given to plot, structure, and theology rather than to matters of historical reconstruction or the history of the composition of the text. The claims made by Joshua about God’s role in history are more important than the historicity of the events reported. By discussing connections to other biblical texts, insights from modern interpreters, and traditional Christian and Jewish interpretive viewpoints, this commentary gives useful guidance for preachers and teachers. Not surprisingly, more attention is paid to chapters 1–12 and 23–24 (conquest and admonition) than to chapters 13–22 (geographical description).

Creach faces the challenging features of Joshua head on. He seeks to provide modern readers with ways to understand these texts sympathetically, but refuses to justify the book’s blatant violence, war at God’s command, and annihilation of the Canaanites. He points out that elements within Joshua itself critically resist any simplistic call for violence or justification for aggressive warfare. The ban confessed that all victory belonged to God and sought to minimize the dangers of seduction by the Canaanite environment. Positive themes are emphasized: God’s zeal and sovereignty, obedience to God’s gracious gift of law, the unity of the people, the survival of Rahab and the Gibeonites, and God’s gift of rest in the land. The exposition of the Rahab story is characteristic. It takes seriously the irony and sexual innuendo of the narrative, the shrewdness with which Rahab deals with the spies, and her perceptive confession of faith. She parallels the virtuous woman of Proverbs 31:10–31.

This volume opens up helpful directions for understanding an undervalued biblical book and achieves the purpose of the Interpretation series: “to meet the need of students, teachers, ministers, and priests for a contemporary expository commentary” (p. v).

Richard D. Nelson
Perkins School of Theology
Dallas, Texas

Character & Scripture: Moral Formation, Community, and Biblical Interpretation

edited by William P. Brown

Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 2002. 440 pp. $34.00. ISBN 0-8028-4625-4.

This collection of essays brings together a preeminent group of biblical scholars, theologians, and ethicists around the question of the relationship between the interpretation of Scripture and the moral formation of reading communities. The book is divided into three sections: the first shorter section offers three helpful essays on what is meant by “character ethics” in the context of reading Scripture (more a “shared outlook than an established methodology,” as the editor observes in the Preface [p. xi]). The second and longest section contains essays interpreting particular biblical texts or traditions (in both Old and New Testaments); and the last short section is titled simply “Practice,” with three essays on the relation of character ethics to worship, ecology, and moral education.

Two features make this an outstanding collection. First, the authors represented (luminaries including C. Clifton Black, William P. Brown, Walter Brueggemann, Ellen T. Charry, Stephen E. Fowl, Terence E. Fretheim, L. Gregory Jones, Patrick D. Miller, and Carol Newsom, among others) are precisely those scholars most able to address the complex relationship between biblical interpretation and the formation and transformation of particular reading communities, including, of course, congregations. Secondly, these scholars are committed to the constructive interpretation of Scripture for the upbuilding of the church, a commitment that can no longer be assumed in scholarly guilds, if it ever could be. For the most part the trend now in biblical studies is to examine the ways that communities of interpretation shape the reading of Scripture, often to the detriment of various other communities. While not denying the significance of this issue, this volume attends to the dynamic process of formation as it moves in the opposite direction: how does Scripture constructively act upon us, shaping our moral character?

Jacqueline E. Lapsley
Princeton Theological Seminary
princeton, new jersey

Genesis

by David W. Cotter, O.S.B.

Berit Olam. Liturgical, Collegeville, 2003. 366 pp. $49.95 (cloth). ISBN 0-8146-5040-6.

In this excellent contribution to the Berit Olam series, David Cotter, a Benedictine monk and priest, focuses on the final form of Genesis, using narrative analysis to produce what he considers to be the first commentary to read “the entire book as a story” (p. xxiv). The volume is peppered with helpful references to literature, Jewish readings, and ancient Christian interpretations. While there are occasional insights or novelties in the discussions of literary structure (like attending to all four generations in Genesis 12–50), Cotter’s strength is his theological analysis. This aspect of the book will be most helpful to pastors and teachers.

Genesis is about the saving nature of God. Hence, Cotter focuses not on primeval history and patriarchs but on love as God’s motivation and the basis for both stability and God’s growth and development in relationship. God rescues the women and children that Abraham is willing to endanger or to dispose of and then tests Abraham’s willingness “to throw away sons so easily” (p. 143). From the encounter in Genesis 22, God learns “that Abraham can love another alongside God, that even divine love means relationship and not possession” (p. 178), so God stops issuing commands. The Jacob story is not about human transformation but “divine perseverance,” as God attempts “to save a relationship with the one who fights with him” (p. 258). With regard to Joseph’s family and elsewhere, Cotter observes “God will not be involved in the evil that people choose to do” (p. 257), so God is silent when humanity acts against God’s will. Nevertheless, God does act on behalf of some women, because God is particularly “committed to saving women trapped inside relationships that hinder them” (p. 129). The God of Genesis saves—breaching solitude for intimacy.

Beverly J. Stratton
Augsburg College
Minneapolis, Minnesota

Lamentations

by Dianne Bergant

Abingdon, Nashville, 2003. 144 pp. $20.00. ISBN 0-687-08461-X.

Bergant has a talent for writing graceful, non-technical commentaries that convey the essence of modern scholarship in an accessible way. Here she eschews an historical approach, declining to speculate on the historical context of the book except for what the book itself conveys; and the book itself conveys precious little, except that Jerusalem was destroyed. Bergant concentrates instead on the literary aspects of Lamentations. This is in many ways a good choice for Lamentations, whose poetry is excruciatingly moving, but the lack of any contextualization (reminiscent of New Criticism) tends to deprive the interpretation of some depth.

The Introduction covers typical topics like the acrostic structure of four of the chapters and the other poetic features; a discussion of the book’s genre, canonization, and placements in the Bible (different in Jewish and Christian Bibles); and a brief consideration of historical matters. Especially welcome are her comments on voice and on metaphor. There is no translation, although the nrsv is the principal translation of reference for the series, Abingdon Old Testament Commentaries. The commentary proceeds along three tracks: literary analysis, exegetical analysis, and theological and ethical analysis. The first two sections address the literary structure, style, and meaning. The last section draws out the theological implications and contains applications of the message for today’s world, as does the Conclusion (pp. 137–139). Bergant draws comparisons and lessons for today’s reactions to destruction, suffering, retribution, and theodicy. Pastors will find here good material for sermons.

The scholarship is good but largely derivative, although the sources are generally not noted (in keeping with the format of the series), except for a listing in the Bibliography. This omission will bother scholars; but then the series is not directed primarily at scholars.
A commentary inevitably invites disagreement over specific interpretations. I found myself agreeing with Bergant often but not always. I cite two examples where I disagree. Bergant declares that the “uncleanness on her skirts” in 1:9 is menstrual blood, which she conflates with sin (p. 41). This is a common misunderstanding. The impurity is actually one resulting from a sexual offense, sexual promiscuity, not menstruation.

The phrase “king and priest” in 2:6 leads Bergant to speculate on what the reference might be. She concludes that the king refers to David, who brought the Ark to Jerusalem (p. 63). She forgets, however, that there was a real king, a political leader, in Jerusalem at the time of its destruction. Perhaps more historical contextualization would have helped here.
These critiques aside, Bergant has provided an informed and readable entrée into the book of Lamentations. She has done a service in synthesizing a large amount of recent scholarship and presenting it in a palatable way.

Adele Berlin
University of Maryland
College Park, Maryland

Speaking Jesus: Homiletic Theology and the Sermon on the Mount

by David Buttrick

Westminster John Knox, Louisville, 2002. 230 pp. $19.95. ISBN 0-664-22602-7.

In Speaking Jesus Buttrick makes contemporary homiletical sense of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount (Matt 5–7). The book considers exegetical matters of source and redaction (Q, Lukan parallels, etc.), historical background, and rhetorical force, as well as the problems Jesus’ sermon poses homiletically today. Bracketing the homiletical exegesis is an important theological issue: reconciling Matthew’s commitment to an ethic of “more-so” righteousness (e.g., the ethical intensification represented by the so-called “Antitheses” of Matt 5:21–48) to God’s justifying grace. The result is classic Buttrick, except “more so.”

Certainly Buttrick’s exegetical skill is something those familiar with his writing would expect. He works his way deftly through contemporary Jesus Seminar scholarship, but relies also on both well-known commentaries on Matthew’s Gospel: Betz, Davies, Allison, Guelich, Hare, Luz, and Strecker. Yet Buttrick does add something “more” unexpected when he turns to matters of homiletic theology. In these sections, Buttrick reflects theologically on a text, sometimes explaining and engaging it, and at other times challenging or correcting it (e.g., Matthew’s occasional penchant for transactional forgiveness, “if you forgive, God will forgive you”). But then comes the real “more so” of his book: Buttrick offers his own sermons followed by careful critiques. How rare is it that preachers get to see master homileticians not only model how they move from text to sermon, but actually reflect critically on the homiletical results!

Consequently, I recommend the book heartily. Granted, the opening chapters are less focused than others, and the reliance on the Jesus Seminar scholarship occasionally distracts rather than illumines. Yet the body of Buttrick’s exegetical and homiletical efforts more than makes up for it—especially the sections entitled “the Antitheses” and “Ask, Seek, Knock.” Speaking Jesus is an in-depth resource for homiletical exegesis, but like Matthew’s own demanding ethic, “more so.”

David Schnasa Jacobsen
Waterloo Lutheran Seminary
Ontario, Canada

What Did Jesus Do? Gospel Profiles of Jesus’ Personal Conduct

by F. Scott Spencer

Trinity Press International, Harrisburg, 2003. 279 pp. $19.95. ISBN 1-56338-392-6.

Whether a person brandishes “What Would Jesus Do?” bracelets or dismisses the pop slogan as a misguided or jejune question, nevertheless most regard Jesus as some kind of model for how to live. Spencer, a New Testament scholar, wants discussions about Jesus’ role in ethical discourse to take careful account of the ways that the Gospel narratives depict Jesus interacting with others within the social matrices of his time. Written in a vivacious tone, this book focuses not on Jesus’ ethical teachings but on his actions as a moral agent. It offers a composite yet complex portrait of the biblical Jesus as one who, in his conduct, urgently participates in a life of service to others, while in the process openly contravening many values and conventions of his society.

Spencer explains what Jesus’ activities reveal about him as a person in relationship to others and to the world, examining his regard for family members and familial identity; friends and associates in ministry; physical matters pertaining to purity, diet, sexuality, and pain; material wealth; work, vocation, and expressions of service; and public virtues of honesty, humility, and dignity. Analyzing what Jesus does in relative isolation from what he says makes for a peculiar and difficult project, but the author manages it well. Spencer never entirely divorces Jesus’ spoken and enacted communication; occasional comparisons of Jesus’ sayings and dealings highlight the rhetoric inherent to both kinds of expression.

Readers find basic articulations of the need to understand Jesus’ and the Gospels’ historical contexts to grasp the significance of his activity on others’ behalf, and Spencer tours the relevant landscapes skillfully. Even when skipping quickly throughout the four evangelists’ accounts, he generally respects differences they exhibit. He likewise resists any impulse to condense Jesus’ behavior into one-dimensional summaries. For example, some Gospels suggest that Jesus displays self-discipline in embracing suffering, but elsewhere he indulges his body in settings of table fellowship. This balance permits a glimpse of a Jesus whose actions reflect certain moral tensions and ambiguities, eluding such simplistic labels as “revolutionary” or “ascetic.” The appreciation for subtlety allows the book to convey a portrait of Jesus that is realistic in its complexity. Spencer rightly expects the Gospels not to offer a handbook for ethical living in any century, but to serve as primary conversation partners in Christians’ efforts to think deeply about how Jesus was remembered within his cultural context and how his followers might live accordingly and faithfully in theirs.

Matthew L. Skinner
Luther Seminary
Saint Paul, Minnesota

Preaching the Gospel of John: Proclaiming the Living Word

by Lamar Williamson, Jr.

Westminster John Knox, Louisville, 2004. 342 pp. $24.95. ISBN 0-664-22533-0.

Williamson provides preachers and teachers in the church a valuable resource on the fourth Gospel. The book is organized as a commentary, progressing through the Gospel in successive sections. Each section of the discussion is divided between “Exploring the Text” and “Preaching and Teaching the Word.” In the first he offers comments on the text, its structure, language, setting, and theology. The second explores contacts “with life today that may stimulate reflection in preparing a sermon or lesson plan” (p. xii). A glossary of terms appears at the end of the book; each term in the glossary is printed in bold print the first time it appears in the book.

Williamson does an excellent job of writing what is essentially a brief but reliable commentary for pastors and teachers without what he calls “dumbing down.” The suggestions for preaching and teaching are quite specific and precisely sketched out, and for the most part I found them very helpful. Williamson is careful to keep readers sensitive to both the similarities and differences between John and the Synoptics and discourages us from reading the Johannine stories through the lenses of the Synoptics.

An important part of this thorough book is an “Afterword” in which Williamson discusses a number of special problems in the interpretation of John. Here he deals with the issue of the Jews in John in a careful and honest way. Equally important is a section on the exclusive claims of the Johannine Jesus which he concludes by declaring, “No interpreter is authorized to preach the exclusive claim of Jesus in such a way as to judge the faith of anyone else” (p. 312). Finally, he discusses the authority of the Gospel of John for today’s Christian.

Clearly Williamson is a competent, if somewhat conservative, scholar and interpreter of John who freely uses his Reformed tradition in appropriate ways. If I have a criticism of Williamson's book, it is that he does not (to my knowledge) offer an attempt to understand the meaning of the cross in the fourth Gospel and to distinguish it from other New Testament view, but that is picking at the edges of a great and useful book which I heartily recommend.

Robert Kysar, emeritus
Emory University
Atlanta, Georgia

The First Christian Historian: Writing the “Acts of the Apostles”

by Daniel Marguerat

SNTSMS 121. Translated by Ken McKinney, Gregory J. Laughery, and Richard Bauckham.

Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2002. 299 pp. $60.00 (cloth). ISBN 0-521-81650-5.
The book, largely a translation of the author’s previous work in French, presents a detailed exegetical treatment of Acts amplified by judicious use of post-modern theory peppered with observations from Ricoeur, Isser, and Barthes. The first two chapters relate expressly to the book’s title. Marguerat addresses the question of genre and concludes that historiography is the “best fit for the book of Acts” (p. 30). In asking if Luke was a proper historian (p. 1), Marguerat dispenses with the positivist dichotomy between fact and fiction and adopts the position that historiography often performs out the (re)constructive task of identity formation. Luke’s purpose was to provide his audience with a better sense of their identity as Christians and to show them “who they are, where they came from and what formed them” (p. 31). He distinguishes between Greek (critical) and Jewish (confessional) historiography, and sees Acts residing at the intersection of the two. Luke’s mediating stance is not only literary but theological. Luke “seeks roots of the Church in Jerusalem, that is, in the continuation of a history of salvation that began with Israel; and on the other hand, God opens up to universality, where the Roman empire represents the framework for geographical and political expansion” (p. 76). Marguerat’s description of Acts as an “instrument of integration” is largely compelling, although not sufficiently appreciative of Luke’s critique of Roman authority.

Marguerat deftly employs a narratological approach for understanding Lukan theology. He demonstrates how Luke expresses his theology through the complex narrative that works itself out in the interplay of similarities and dissimilarities and the tension between continuity and rupture. Using this method he plots the unfolding of a dynamic theological discourse as it relates to the portrayal of God and the Spirit “who builds the Church . . . and gives it its unity” (p. 128). Marguerat shows how appreciating the narrative’s twists and turn can resolve enigmatic features, such as the role of Jews. He also focuses on three stories, the deaths of Ananias and Sapphira, the conversion of Paul, and Paul’s arrival in Rome, demonstrating how repetition, silence, and ambivalence contribute to the creation of Lukan theology.

The book presents a welcome addition to the study of Lukan theology. As such, however, the book’s title is misleading. Outside of the first two chapters, Marguerat rarely speaks about history or historiography. His insistence on understanding Luke as historian is rarely an issue later on in the book and is often compromised through frequent comparisons of Acts to non-historical works, such as the Odyssey and philosophical biographies. The book’s consistent interest in explicating the narrative theology of Acts suggests “the first Christian theologian” as a more appropriate title.

Gary Gilbert
Claremont McKenna College
Claremont, CAlifornia

Perspectives Old and New On Paul: The “Lutheran” Paul and His Critics

by Stephen Westerholm

Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 2004. 508 pp. $35.00. ISBN 0-8028-4809-5.

This book is an expansion of Westerholm’s 1988 Israel’s Law and the Church’s Faith: Paul and His Recent Interpreters. Westerholm presents a detailed defense of the “Lutheran” reading of Paul against the “New Perspective,” and he does so with remarkable insight, wit, and humor. His study is divided into three sections. In the first, Westerholm sketches how Paul was interpreted by Augustine, Luther, Calvin, and Wesley. This is a significant improvement over the first incarnation of this book, where Westerholm had only a 9-page discussion of Luther to preface the modern debate. Westerholm shows that Luther’s reading of Paul is not simply “Lutheran” but belongs to a broad stream of western theological tradition.

In the second section, Westerholm offers a masterful review of the last century’s varied scholarly perspectives on the Law and righteousness in Paul’s letters. Westerholm displays a rare gift for presenting the work of others in clear and engaging ways, and he does so with such fairness that the reader may be surprised later in the book to learn how deeply Westerholm disagrees with some of these readings of Paul. It would, of course, be possible to expand such a review of scholarship virtually without end. However, there are several prominent figures whose absence is noticeable, and given the focus of this study on the viability of the “Lutheran” Paul, I particularly missed discussion of Roman Catholic scholars such as Joseph Fitzmyer.

In the third section, Westerholm presents his own reading of Paul’s theology. Crucial here is his distinction between Paul’s use of “dikaiosyne” to mean “ordinary righteousness” (doing what one should do) and Paul’s use of the same word to mean “extraordinary righteousness” (God’s gracious declaration in the face of universal human failure to actually do “ordinary righteousness”). Against the advocates of the New Perspective, Westerholm argues that Paul’s statements regarding “works of the law” are not about covenant boundary markers such as circumcision but about “ordinary righteousness,” and that “justification by faith” is not primarily about covenant membership for Gentiles but about “the acquittal of the heretofore sinful” (p. 277). In this, Westerholm argues that Luther largely understood Paul’s point correctly: “Paul’s primary objection to the notion that those who would be declared righteous must submit to the Sinaitic regime lies in his insistence that human beings are sinners who do not, and cannot, do the good that the law demands of its subjects. It may fairly be said that Augustine, Luther, Calvin, and Wesley all saw that point and gave it due emphasis” (p. 444).

Although Westerholm has added a chapter in which he looks at each of the undisputed letters in turn in an effort to summarize his evidence and to place the salient passages in their epistolary contexts, he still has largely neglected the specific rhetorical and social issues shaping each of the letters in favor of a more theologically abstract and synthetic presentation of Paul. Despite that shortcoming, this is a defense of the “traditional” reading of Paul that neither pastors nor teachers should ignore, on whichever side of the traditional/New Perspective divide they find themselves. This book will not end the debate, but it should push advocates of the New Perspective either to consider again that “badges of covenant membership” may not be the only thing Paul writes about under the phrase “works of the law,” or to argue with greater clarity why such an interpretation is not correct. This book also shows how the more traditional reading of Paul can incorporate insights from the New Perspective without itself being overthrown.

Brian Peterson
Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary
Columbia, South Carolina

Augustine’s Commentary on Galatians: Introduction, Text, Translation, and Notes

by Eric Plumer

Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2003. 312 pp. $80.00 (cloth). ISBN 0-19-924439-1.

Galatians is the only book of the Bible on which Augustine wrote a complete and formal commentary. It is also the only book to receive similar attention from all the other ancient Latin commentators, including Marius Victorinus, Ambrosiaster, Jerome, and Pelagius. Eric Plumer exploits this coincidence of attention nicely by analyzing the interrelations of these church fathers so as to address not only the usual scholarly questions of influence and originality, but also to clarify Augustine’s purpose in writing.

Remarkably, while Augustine deferred to the erudition of Jerome’s earlier commentary, he did not wish to imitate it and probably reacted against Jerome more than he used him. Augustine particularly objected to Jerome’s account of Peter’s rebuke by Paul in 2:14 as “play acting,” fearing that the authority of Scripture would collapse if one of its authors were proved to be a liar. The contrast with Jerome also reveals Augustine’s purpose as less technical than pastoral and subtly polemical. His design was to cultivate community among the monks and other Christians by showcasing Paul not only as an antidote for doctrinal threats of the day, but also as a model of humility in the art of reproof and correction: “nothing proves that a man is spiritual like his handling of another’s sin” (p. 221).

Along with the first English translation of Augustine’s commentary on Galatians (with Latin text on facing pages), Plumer has also provided a valuable introduction, albeit twice as long as Augustine’s own work. Plumer has tried to make Augustine accessible to both specialists and students and generally succeeds, though at the cost of layering fairly basic information about Augustine with some protracted analyses of Augustine’s relationship to his predecessors. The prose of the introduction is clear and good-natured, and the translation favors readability.
Although the price will discourage many, Plumer’s introduction and notes make for an excellent field guide to Augustine’s dual role as pastor and exegete.

John L. Thompson
Fuller Theological Seminary
Pasadena, California

Ancient Judaism and Christian Origins: Diversity, Continuity, and Transformation

by George W. E. Nickelsburg

Fortress, Minneapolis. 2003. 264 pp. $23.00. ISBN 0-8006-3612-0.

This is a “must-read” book for students, educated lay people, pastors, and scholars. Nickelsburg addresses the question of how understandings of both Judaism and Christian origins have been changed by the very extensive investigation of Judaism in the Greco-Roman period conducted over the last fifty years or so. Responsible for this extensive scholarly investigation are factors such as the discovery of the Dead Sea scrolls and other archaeological material (including the rediscovery of other Jewish texts in the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha), new methods from literary criticism and social-scientific approaches, university religious departments with a less explicit Christian agenda, and a post-Holocaust world.

In the book’s six chapters, Nickelsburg examines scripture and tradition, Torah and the righteous life, God’s activity on behalf of humanity, agents of God’s activity, eschatology, and social contexts and settings. A conclusion elaborates important historical and theological implications for understanding both Judaism and Christian origins. Emphases on the importance of grace and faithfulness, the context of covenant, the joy and challenges in living the gift of the diversely-interpreted Torah, the importance of justice and mercy, the diverse spectrum of “anointed” and nonmessianic agents with various tasks, great diversity in eschatological understandings, and the constant negotiation of difficult and troubled circumstances are among some of the elements of an emerging picture that differs significantly from many standard (and now outdated) presentations of first-century Judaism in Christian understandings. Old stereotypes like legalistic Judaism, the absence of grace and mercy, monolithic and universal messianic expectations, dead ritual, and divine absence are exposed as utterly unsustainable constructions. Instead, he offers a picture of diversity and vibrancy among Jewish and Christian traditions, significant continuity in both Jewish and Christian traditions, as well as transformation of traditions and practices with changing perspectives, experiences, and cultural locations.

Nickelsburg performs the invaluable contribution of making available the answers, uncertainties, and unresolved questions of paradigm-shifting scholarship that has extensive implications for reading the New Testament. Anyone leading Bible studies or preaching NT texts must read and absorb this book. With appropriate study, it will impact their preaching and teaching, and remove unsustainable (and often negative) presentations of first-century Judaism. That will be an enormous contribution.

Warren Carter
Saint Paul School of Theology
Kansas City, Missouri