Built Upon the Rock: Studies in the Gospel of Matthew
edited by Daniel M. Gurtner and John Nolland
Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 2008. 331 pp. $34.00. ISBN 978-0-8028-4563-4.
Essays by an international team of evangelical scholars address critical questions in Matthean studies. Topics include Matthew’s sources, the role of Jerusalem, the problem of anti-Semitism, Matthew’s portrayal of salvation history, Matthean ecclesiology and ethics, the relationship of Paul to Matthew and of Matthew to the OT, and more.
Mark and Method: New Approaches in Biblical Studies, Second Edition
edited by Janice Capel Anderson and Stephen D. Moore
Fortress, Minneapolis, 2008. 288 pp. $22.00. ISBN 978-0-8006-3851-1.
An updated edition of a superb overview of the range of methods used in NT interpretation, engaging the Gospel of Mark as a case study. This second edition includes a new introduction and updating of original chapters (on narrative criticism, reader-response criticism, deconstuction, feminist criticism, and social criticism), as well as new chapters on cultural studies and postcolonial criticism and a helpful glossary.
John, Jesus, and History, Vol. 1: Critical Appraisals of Critical Views
edited by Paul N. Anderson, Felix Just, S.J., and Tom Thatcher
Society of Biblical Literature, Atlanta, 2007. 346 pp. $37.95. ISBN 978-158983293-0.
Seventeen essays, reflecting the ongoing deliber-ations of an international group of Johannine and Jesus scholars (and the Society of Bibilical Literature’s John, Jesus, and History Project), critically assess the dehistoricizing of John and the “de-Johannification” of Jesus. The volume draws together an emerging consensus that sees the Gospel of John as an autonomous tradition with its own perspective in dialogue with other traditions.
The Gospel of John and Christian Theology
edited by Richard Bauckham and Carl Mosser
Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 2008. 404 pp. $28.00 ISBN 978-0-8028-2717-3
Seeking to bridge the gap between the disciplines of biblical studies and systematic theology, twenty-one distinguished scholars address a number of key issues that arise from a theological discussion of the Gospel of John: John’s dualism in our pluralist context, historicity, and testimony, the treatment of Judaism, Christology, and more.
Taking Up the Cross: New Testament Interpretations through Latina and Feminist Eyes
by Barbara E. Reid, O.P.
Fortress, Minneapolis, 2007. 263 pp. $16.00. ISBN 978-0-8006-6208-0.
Aiming to bring into dialogue real stories of women from Mexico, Bolivia, Peru, and the United States with NT ways of making meaning of Jesus’ crucifixion, this book explores five clusters of metaphor-ical interpretations of the cross, analyzing their biblical roots and how each metaphor can function both in deadly directions and in liberative ones. The metaphors and images engaged include sacrifice and self-gift, obedience, prophetic witness, healing, forgiveness, reconciliation, and birthing. Each chapter also offers an exploration of stories of biblical women who emulate the crucified Christ and provide models for contemporary women.
Off the Menu: Asian and Asian North American Women’s Religion and Theology
edited by Rita Nakashima Brock, Jung Ha Kim, Kwok Pui-Lan, and Seung Ai Yang
Westminster John Knox, Louisville, 2007. 341 pp. $49.95. ISBN 978-0-664-23140-8.
An interdisciplinary anthology generated by the network of Pacific, Asian, and North American Asian Women in Theology and Ministry (PANAAWTM), this volume showcases current Asian and Asian North American women’s theological and religious thinking and indicates directions for future scholarship. Sixteen contributors (theologians, biblical scholars, ethicists, religious educators, and activists) engage current issues such as globalization, postcolonialism, and postmodernism, and broaden religious imagination through paradigms of cross-cultural and intergenerational interactions.
A Feminist Companion to Patristic Literature
edited by Amy-Jill Levine with Maria Mayo Robbins
T & T Clark, New York, 2008. 241 pp. $44.95. ISBN 978-0-567-04555-3.
This twelfth addition to the Feminist Companion to the New Testament and Early Christian Writings series examines a number of core Patristic texts and early Christian documents from a feminist perspective. Essays by ten contributors include discussions of early Christian depictions of martyrdom, exhortations to asceticism, biblical reinterpretation, art and architecture, philosophy, and prayer.
Mission in the 21st Century: Exploring the Five Marks of Global Mission
edited by Andrew Walls and Cathy Ross
Orbis, Maryknoll, NY. 2008. 219 pp. $25.00. ISBN 978-1-57075-73-0.
Pairs of contributors address the five marks of global mission identified by the Anglican Consultative Council in 1990: proclamation, teaching, baptizing and nurture of new believers, responding to human need, transforming unjust social structures, and ecological concerns. This volume also includes notable essays on “education as mission” (Pillay) and Christian-Muslim encounter in post-Christian Western Europe (Sanneh, drawing substantively on Newbigin).
Film & Religion: An Introduction
by Paul V. M. Flesher and Robert Torry
Abingdon, Nashville, 2007. 306 pp. $25.50. ISBN 978-0-687-33489-6.
Jesus, the Gospels, and Cinematic Imagination: A Handbook to Jesus on DVD
by Jeffrey L. Staley and Richard Walsh
Westminster John Knox, Louisville, 2007. 208 pp. $19.95. ISBN 978-0-664-23031-9.
Reframing Theology and Film: New Focus for an Emering Discipline
edited by Robert K. Johnston
Cultural Exegesis. Baker Academic, Grand Rapids, 2007. 336 pp. $24.99. ISBN 978-0-800-3240-0.
The study of religious imagery in film has expanded exponentially in recent years, with a groundswell of scholarship exploring both the collusion and the clash of theology and cinema. These three books reflect recent studies.
Flesher and Torry, teachers in the field for over ten years, explore in their introduction the use of religious metaphors. Sections of the book include: 1) movies from the 1950s and the cultural climate of the Cold War; 2) cinematic portrayals of Jesus; 3) a comparison of how different movie genres treat the same metaphors; and 4) non-Christian religions and their impact on cinema, including Judaism, Buddhism, and Islam.
Staley and Walsh provide a detailed analysis of particular movies that refer to Gospel accounts of Jesus’ life. The book is designed as a resource for instructors in need of cross references between film and the Gospels in order to optimize their use of media in the classroom.
The edited volume by Johnston (based on a consultation sponsored by the Reel Spirituality Institute) brings together prominent contributors to the field of theology and film, who reflect on the past and seek to define the future of their work. Sections include: “Moving beyond a ‘Literary’ Paradigm,” “Broadening our Film Selection,” “Extending Our Conversation Partners,” “Engaging the Experience of the Viewer,” “Reconsidering the Normative,” and “Making Better Use of our Theological Traditions.” |
