Holiness: Rabbinic Judaism and the Greco-Roman World
Hannah K. Harrington
Religion in the First Christian Centuries. Routledge, New York, 2001. 242 pp. $27.95. ISBN 0-415-14987-8.

This study considers the rabbinic Jewish concept of holiness by comparison with other notions of the sacred in the Greco-Roman world.

Other Ways of Reading: African Women and the Bible
Edited by Musa W. Dube
Society of Biblical Literature, Atlanta, 2001. 264 pp. $24.95. ISBN 1-58983-009-1.

This collection offers reflections on African women's ways of reading and readings of specific biblical texts.

Ancient Israel's Faith and History: An Introduction to the Bible in Context
George E. Mendenhall
Westminster John Knox, Louisville, 2001. 284 pp. $29.95. ISBN 0-664-22313-3.

This textbook traces Israel's faith and identity from its formative period with Moses and the exodus through the establishment of kingship and the loss of nationhood through the exile. A final chapter presents Jesus as a reformer and renewer of Israel's faith.

Style & Structure in Biblical Hebrew Narrative
Jerome T. Walsh
Liturgucal Press, Collegeville, 2001. 205 pp. $19.95. ISBN 0-8146-5897-0.

Walsh discusses structures of organization, disjunction, and conjunction in the Hebrew Bible (such as symmetry, repetition, inclusion, and hinges) and shows how they may be used to gain deeper understanding of the texts.

Called by Stories: Biblical Sagas and Their Challenge for Law
Milner S. Ball
Duke University Press, Durham, 2000. 271 pp. $17.95. ISBN 0-8223-2524-1.

Written by a lawyer, this book argues that the practice of law is guided not only by reason and empirical methods but also by the experience of narrative.

The Prophetic Imagination
Walter Brueggemann
Second edition. Fortress, Minneapolis, 2001. 151 pp. $16.00. ISBN 0-8006-3287-7.

Brueggemann's classic work is available in a new edition, with updated text, notes, and bibliographies, as well as a new preface and a "postscript on practice."

Genesis
John E. Hartley
New International Biblical Commentary. Hendrickson, Peabody, 2000. 393 pp. $11.95. ISBN 0-85364-722-4.

This commentary emphasizes the flow of the narrative, providing additional historical and bibliographic information in "Additional Notes" after each section.

Exodus
Waldemar Janzen
Believers Church Bible Commentary. Herald Press, Scottdale, 2000. 512 pp. $24.99. ISBN 0-8361-9134-X.

This commentary, written with both ministers and laypeople in mind, emphasizes the question of allegiance that is at the heart of the Exodus story.

Handbook on the Historical Books
Victor P. Hamilton
Baker Academic, Grand Rapids, 2001. 557 pp. $32.99 (cloth). ISBN 0-8010-2257-6.

Hamilton describes the events of these biblical texts and discusses their theological significance.

Psalms, Part 2, and Lamentations
Erhard S. Gerstenberger
Forms of Old Testament Literature. Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 2001. 565 pp. $45.00. ISBN 0-8028-0488-8.

In keeping with the aims of the series, this volume focuses on the form, structure, genre, and setting of the texts it aims to explicate.

Matthew, Poet of the Beatitudes
H. Benedict Green
JSNTSup 203. Sheffield Academic Press, Sheffield, 2001. 350 pp. $80.00 (cloth). ISBN 1-84127-165-9.

Green argues that the Beatitudes are a carefully constructed poem, written in Greek, and showing the creative skill of the evangelist in reflecting on scripture and Jesus' proclamation of the kingdom of God.

Jerusalem and Parousia: Jesus' Eschatological Discourse in Matthew's Gospel
Jeffery A. Gibbs
Concordia Academic Press, St. Louis, 2000. 272 pp. $25.99. ISBN 0-570-04288-7.

This reflection on Jesus' teachings on the end times, as recorded in Matthew's Gospel, demonstrates the importance of these words to the evangelical mission of the church.

Mark
Timothy J. Geddert
Believers Church Bible Commentary. Herald Press, Scottdale, 2001. 456 pp. $24.99. ISBN 0-8361-9140-4.

In this commentary the author of Mark is seen as no mere compiler of traditions but a careful theologian, telling the Jesus story so as to challenge readers and hearers to follow Jesus "on the way."

Mark
Edwin K. Broadhead
Readings: A New Biblical Commentary. Sheffield Academic Press, Sheffield, 2001. 163 pp. $57.50 (cloth). ISBN 1-84127-188-8.

This brief commentary stresses the experience of reading, at each step considering "The Story Thus Far" to help readers see how the whole coheres.

Jesus the Man: An Introduction for People at Home in the Modern World
Marvin Cain
Polebridge, Santa Rosa, 1999. 194 pp. $18.00. ISBN 0-944344-79-8.

Written for scientists and engineers, this introduction to the historical Jesus is intended to help modern people understand him as he was.

Paul on Trial: The Book of Acts as a Defense of Christianity
John W. Mauck
Thomas Nelson, Nashville, 2001. 236 pp. $14.99. ISBN 0-7852-4598-7.

This book asserts that Acts was a legal brief written to defend Paul in Rome. Today's readers, the author suggests, can learn how to defend their faith by following Acts' example.

The New Jerusalem in the Revelation of John: The City as Symbol of Life with God
Bruce J. Malina
Zacchaeus Studies: New Testament. Liturgical Press, Collegeville, 2000. 100 pp. $11.95. ISBN 0-8146-5938-1.

This brief study of the two concluding images of Revelation, the celestial city and the cosmic Lamb, includes a helpful reflection on what the image of the "city" would have meant to Mediterraneans of the first century.

Faith in the Living God: A Dialogue
John Polkinghorne and Michael Welker
Fortress, Minneapolis, 2001. 151 pp. $16.00. ISBN 0-8006-3434-9.

In dialogue form, these scholars engage questions of faith in God, Christ, and the Spirit, and reflect on the search for understanding.

Nothing Greater, Nothing Better: Theological Essays on the Love of God
Edited by Kevin J. Vanhoozer
Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 2001. 223 pp. $23.00. ISBN 0-8028-4902-4.

God's love, one of the most important doctrines of Christian faith, is the subject of these nine theological essays and a sermon.

What In the World Is God Doing?: Re-imagining Spirit and Power
Lee E. Snook
Fortress, Minneapolis, 1999. 171 pp. $17.00. ISBN 0-8006-3154-4.

Snook points to the understanding of the Spirit as power, with reference to both American and African contexts.

The Clarity of Scripture: History, Theology & Contemporary Literary Studies
James Callahan
InterVarsity, Downers Grove, 2001. 272 pp. $17.99. ISBN 0-8308-1584-8.

What does it mean to claim that the Bible is "clear"-and if this is so, why are parts of it hard to understand? Callahan seeks to answer these questions both historically and theologically for today's readers.

God's Call: Moral Realism, God's Commands and Human Autonomy
John E. Hare
Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 2001. 132 pp. $14.00 (cloth). ISBN 0-8028-3903-7.

Hare seeks to mediate between moral realism and moral expressivism, drawing upon John Duns Scotus and Immanuel Kant.

Saving Jesus from those Who are Right: Rethinking What it Means to be Christian
Carter Heyward
Fortress, Minneapolis, 1999. 275 pp. $22.00. ISBN 0-8006-2966-3.

Heyward's response to the "Christian Right" is to re-evaluate what "right relation" to Jesus means, emphasizing nonviolence, creativity, and the power of love.

An Evolving Dialogue: Theological and Scientific Perspectives on Evolution
Edited by James B. Miller
Trinity Press International, Harrisburg, 2001. 544 pp. $40.00. ISBN 1-56338-349-7.

Both theologians and biologists are contributors to this volume, which includes historical, philosophical, and theological perspectives on evolution.

Echo of the Soul: The Sacredness of the Human Body
J. Philip Newell
Morehouse, Harrisburg, 2001. 168 pp. $17.95. ISBN 0-8192-1874-X.

Newell repudiates the tendency of much of the Christian tradition to devalue the human body, arguing that it is, rather, the dwelling place of God.

Jewish Law in Gentile Churches: Halakhah and the Beginning of Christian Public Ethics
Markus Bockmuehl
T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 2000. 336 pp. $49.95 (cloth). ISBN 0-567-08734-4.

This investigation argues that a traditional halakah for Gentiles was used by New Testament authors as a foundation for their ethics.

Christian Contradictions: The Structures of Lutheran and Catholic Thought
Daphne Hampson
Cambridge University Press, New York, 2001. 323 pp. $59.95 (cloth). ISBN 0-521-45060-8.

Reflecting on the 1999 Catholic/Lutheran "Joint Declaration," Hampson notes where Catholicism and Lutheranism have incompatible systems of thought, and points to Kierkegaard as one who holds together some of these disparate elements.

The Binding of God: Calvin's Role in the Development of Covenant Theology
Peter A. Lillback
Texts and Studies in Reformation and Post-Reformation Thought. Baker, Grand Rapids, 2001. 331 pp. $24.99. ISBN 0-8010-2263-0.

Contrary to popular views, Lillback demonstrates that Calvin's thought left room for the development of a covenantal understanding of theology.

God's Being Is in Becoming: The Trinitarian Being of God in the Theology of Karl Barth
Eberhard Jungel
Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 1986/2001. 142 pp. $28.00 (cloth). ISBN 0-8028-4295-X.

Previously published in English as The Doctrine of the Trinity, the original German work has been completely retranslated for this publication.

Sacred Choices: The Right to Contraception and Abortion in Ten World Religions
Daniel C. Maguire
Sacred Energies. Fortress, Minneapolis, 2001. 160 pp. $13.00. ISBN 0-8006-3433-0.

Each of the religious traditions here surveyed is investigated for positive views on sexual pleasure and willingness to practice birth control.

Health, Healing and God's Kingdom: New Pathways to Christian Health Ministry in Africa
W. Meredith Long
A Billy Graham Center Monograph. Regnum, Irvine, Cal., 2000. 288 pp. $24.95. ISBN 1-870345-36-3.

Many Africans who have access to Christian health ministries also use traditional African health practices. Long seeks to show how these two pathways can merge, focusing on God as Healer.

Encountering God: Christian Faith in Turbulent Times
Andrew Purves and Charles Partee
Westminster John Knox, Louisville, 2000. 177 pp. $15.95. ISBN 0-664-22242-0.

This introduction to doctrine shows the relevance of Christian doctrines to day-to-day experience.

Beyond Nice: The Spiritual Wisdom of Adolescent Girls
Patricia H. Davis
Fortress, Minneapolis, 2001. 131 pp. $15.00. ISBN 0-8006-3256-7.

Davis shares both her own insights and the voices and stories of adolescent girls as she demonstrates the role of religion and spirituality in shaping girls' identities.

Good Taste, Bad Taste, and Christian Taste: Aesthetics in Religious Life
Frank Burch Brown
Oxford University Press, New York, 2000. 312 pp. $35.00 (cloth). ISBN 0-19-513611-X.

How do Christians incorporate the arts in worship without either elitism or kitsch? Brown explores these questions, offering a constructive, ecumenical approach to artistic taste and aesthetic judgment.

Gifted By Otherness: Gay and Lesbian Christians in the Church
L. William Countryman
Morehouse, Harrisburg, 2001. 176 pp. $16.95. ISBN 0-8192-1886-3.

This book affirms the spirituality of lesbian and gay persons and argues that their "otherness" is a gift to the church at large.

The Minister's Manual 2002
Edited by James W. Cox
Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, 2001. 455 pp. $21.95 (cloth). ISBN 0-7879-5003-3.

This resource includes complete sermons, liturgical and worship aids, and other resources appropriate for preachers and worship planners.