John M. G. Barclay

Atonement

Biblical Studies & Commentaries

“Taking a broad approach to the topic, this fine collection of essays by international experts combines close textual analysis with fascinating overviews of the diverse Jewish and early Christian discourses concerning repair of the ruptured relationship between humanity and God. Readers will find insights aplenty, and some real gems.”

Children of Laughter and the Re-Creation of Humanity

Biblical Studies & Commentaries

Foreword

(wrote the foreword)

Christian Life in the Greco-Roman City

Biblical Studies & Commentaries

“It is a brilliant idea for Jason Borges to conduct his readers on a tour of civic structures in the ancient city to explain not just their architecture but their function and social significance in everyday life. The early Christian social environment comes alive in a wholly fresh way. I thoroughly recommend this book, well-researched, clearly written, and excellently illustrated.”

Dead to Sin, Alive to God in Christ

Biblical Studies & Commentaries

“What does it mean to be a Christian? Snodgrass and Chester take us to the center of Romans to show how the gift of solidarity with the death and resurrection of Christ comprehensively restructures the self. In contrast to a Western 'gospel' of self-determination and self-realization, their precise, lucid, and deeply informed exposition of Romans 6 offers pastors and church teachers a rich engagement with Paul's gospel of grace-transformed lives ordered to the liberating power of Christ.”

Engaging Jesus with Our Senses

Biblical Studies & Commentaries

“It is not easy to write about texts and yet evoke all the bodily senses. But Jeannine Marie Hanger succeeds brilliantly where most would fail. In this vivid and engaging yet well-researched book, utilizing recent shifts in scholarship, she draws us into the rich sensory world of the Gospel narratives and encourages the use of all our senses in encountering the Word made flesh. This is an excellent resource for a fully embodied life of faith.”

Forgiveness

Theology

“Forgiveness is a complex business--both in practice and in concept. Anthony Bash guides us skillfully through these complexities and put his expertise in the New Testament to particularly good effect. This is a very welcome and highly accessible analysis of a hotly debated topic.”

Framing Paul

Biblical Studies & Commentaries

“Once again Doug Campbell sets the cat among the pigeons! Through careful argumentation, laced with a mass of radically new suggestions, he builds an original case for a ten-letter corpus of authentic Pauline letters in a historical sequence never before proposed. All Pauline scholars, whether convinced or not, will need to give this book the careful attention it deserves.”

Galatians

Biblical Studies & Commentaries

“Drawing on his extensive knowledge of Paul's social world, Peter Oakes here offers a fresh reading of Galatians that is historically secure, exegetically precise, and theologically relevant. Oakes masterfully filters the best of current scholarship in an accessible form, adding many original insights of his own. Students and scholars alike will relish this engaging exposition of Paul's most radical letter.”

Just Discipleship

Ethics, Culture & Social Issues

“The voice of Michael Rhodes is fresh, clear, and strong. With a deep foundation in theology and a strong grasp of biblical scholarship, he skillfully brings texts from across the scriptural canon to bear on contemporary issues of racial and economic justice. Writing in an accessible style with plentiful examples, Rhodes issues a timely challenge to the church to become just people in a deeply unjust world. I recommend this book highly: it is a creative and provocative invitation to embark on a journey of change.”

Justification Reconsidered

Theology

“Every student wrestling with 'justification' will be grateful for this highly engaging book. Westerholm nimbly develops the mainstream interpretation, while critiquing popular current alternatives (including those by Campbell and Wright). Here is ready ammunition for an important continuing debate.”

Newly Created Children of God

Theology

Foreword

“In recent decades, there have been several explorations of Paul’s language of ‘adoption’ (huiothesia) as his theological application of a Greco-Roman legal custom. But it is striking that Paul uses this term in relation to Israel (Rom 9:4), and this makes one wonder: what would be the resonances of this term, or of the concepts it evokes, within the Jewish tradition? Dr. Hyung-tae Kim explores this question by canvassing a broad range of Jewish sources from the Second Temple period and by careful attention to the key Pauline texts. The result is fresh and significant for all studies of Pauline theology.”

Oneself in Another

Biblical Studies & Commentaries

“These superb essays form a rich, interconnected exploration of the relational and participatory dynamics of Paul’s theology. Working at the cutting edge of scholarship, and with multiple connections to the anxieties of our age, Susan Eastman’s insights are persuasive and profound. This book is a treat, and I shall return to it often.”

Pain and Paradox in 2 Corinthians

Biblical Studies & Commentaries

“In this model of attentive, theological exegesis, B. G. White opens up the riches of 2 Corinthians. By recovering the historical context of the letter in the pain both of Paul and of the Corinthians, he rediscovers the potential of Paul's 'strength in weakness' paradox to heal the life of the church, both in first-century Corinth and today. This revised, more accessible version of White's fine research is timely and enormously welcome.”

Paul and the Giants of Philosophy

Biblical Studies & Commentaries

“We do not know how far Paul's education extended into direct literary engagement with the giants of Greek and early Roman philosophy, but that is not the point. The conversations created here do not presuppose that Paul had read Aristotle, Cicero, Epictetus, or Seneca: comparison can work very well without a genetic link. The purpose of these essays is not to prove that Paul knew this or that philosophical idea (though it is certainly possible that he did). Their purpose, rather, is to put Paul into dialogue with other people in his cultural context who thought just as deeply about many of the topics that mattered greatly to him. When we put him alongside others who thought about the same topics and who came out with sometimessimilar and sometimes startlingly different conclusions, we get a better grasp of what shapes Paul's thought and why his mind works as it does. Just as we clarify our own ideas and understand our own assumptions better when we argue them through withsomeone else, so putting Paul into discussion with a variety of conversation partners helps bring to the surface things we had never realized before. If you are anything like me, you will find here a lot of new insights on Paul that would never haveoccurred to you had you not seen Paul in this comparative perspective. Numerous times when reading these essays I have found myself thinking, 'I had never thought of that,' or 'I had never seen it that way before.' Prepare to be surprised and intrigued, and from those reactions I hope you will be led to think more clearly, more deeply, and with greater comprehension about that incessant conversationalist Paul, whose letters keep inviting us across the centuries to respond to his provocative chatter.”

Paul and the Person

Theology

Foreword

“Susan Eastman is an intellectual explorer. From the familiar terrain of Paul’s statements about humanity she has gone in search of concepts, frames of reference, and models of personhood that could help us make sense of Paul. She has traveled far, into philosophy (ancient and modern), neuroscience, and experimental psychology—mostly territory unknown to biblical scholars—and she has returned in triumph. . . . This book [gives] us rich new insight into Paul and well-conceived language with which to communicate his theology effectively today.”

Paul and the Stories of Israel

Biblical Studies & Commentaries

“At a time when 'subtexts' and 'implicit narratives' are all the rage, A. Andrew Das insists on some core scholarly virtues: rigorous method, unforced exegesis, and the careful weighing of evidence. Although many of the hypotheses advanced by others that he tests come up short, Das's argument is not simply negative. His many fruitful suggestions, alongside his wise words of caution, deserve careful attention from all readers of Galatians.”

Paul on Identity

Theology

“Can Paul speak today to a world that does not share his original theological framework? In this bold and engaging book, Troels Engberg-Pedersen answers ‘yes,’ offering an original analysis of Paul’s two-level notion of identity that resolves an impasse in Pauline studies and at the same time offers resources to address the identity dilemmas of the modern West. Clear, accessible, and provocative, this is a timely book that invites and deserves a wide readership.”

Paul the Storyteller

Biblical Studies & Commentaries

“The important controversies concerning ‘narrative substructures’ in Paul’s theology have lacked methodological rigor—until now! Heilig uses his expertise in narratology and text grammar to set this scholarly discussion on a firm footing, starting from the myriad mini-narratives explicit in Paul’s texts. The analysis may be demanding for those unfamiliar with the concepts, but the results are richly rewarding, as Heilig here charts the only plausible and secure path for future research in this field.”

Paul's "Works of the Law" in the Perspective of Second-Century Reception

Biblical Studies & Commentaries

“Through careful analysis of the textual data, Matthew Thomas argues persuasively that the early reception of Paul on 'works of the law' was far closer to the 'new perspective' on Paul than to the so-called old! This important book thus demonstrates again the value of reception-history and makes a genuinely fresh contribution to a long debate.”

Perspectives Old and New on Paul

Biblical Studies & Commentaries

“This eagerly awaited volume is a gem. After years of debate about the 'new perspective,' a debate bogged down with multiple confusions, Stephen Westerholm describes and analyzes all the main viewpoints on Paul's theology of law, grace, and justification from Augustine onward. With enviable clarity, incisive observation, and shafts of humor, Westerholm reaffirms and refines the 'old perspective' while also incorporating the strong points of the new. This is the book we all have needed, both scholars and students. It will surely help us escape the impasse in our current debates.”