Richard A. Horsley

A Lot of the Way Trees Were Walking

Arts & Literature

“Buy this book! You will keep these poems close at hand, returning to them again and again. Read the whole Gospel of Mark--aloud--without distraction of devices and duties. Do it again. Then read some of these poems--again undistracted by devices--and in some other quiet time read more, or the same ones, again. Kittredge will lead you into immersion in the Gospel, into probing, puzzling, questioning, fresh encounters, flashes of new insight. . . . Working through the Gospel with the provocation of these poems will be a continuing process: revealing and unveiling.”

Ancient Judaism and Christian Origins

Biblical Studies & Commentaries

“One of the innovative leaders in this revolutionary rethinking of esoteric apocalypses, testaments, and legends, Nickelsburg presents in concise form a broad synthetic picture of the results of the last generation of burgeoning scholarship on the way we read and understand the wide variety of ancient Jewish literature. As one of the few scholars who commands a thorough knowledge of these important Jewish texts, he pulls together a rich range of references relevant to the main traditional topics of investigation and explores their implications for serious reinterpretation of the variety of movements that developed into early Christianity.”

Creation and Ecology

Biblical Studies & Commentaries

“This is an excellent, well-conceived, very timely book in every way. Simkins brings together (1) a deep and thorough critical knowledge of biblical texts, including the historical contexts, perspective, and agenda of whole books as well as the function of particular passages; (2) a clear history of the development of the climate crisis and how it has been interrelated with the development of capitalism and theories of political economy that have rationalized both; (3) incisive criticism of the severely problematic neoliberal ideology that still prevails in public discourse; and (4) a remarkable critical grasp of how the political economy evident in biblical texts provides resources for imagining an alternative to the relentless growth inherent in capitalism that is driving the climate crisis. A must-read for clergy, students, laity, and all climate activists.”

Currents in the Interpretation of Paul

Biblical Studies & Commentaries

“These essays continue Neil Elliott’s usual wide-ranging and comprehensively critical analysis and discussion of Paul’s gospel in the controlling political-economic context of the ancient Roman Empire. Again and again Elliott offers insights into the implications of Paul’s counter-imperial letters for struggles against the empire of global capitalism and its neoliberal ideology by secular Marxist philosophers as well as by theologians and churches. This collection of articles exposes the problems with standard misunderstandings of Paul and provides additional indications that Elliott is this generation’s most profound and challenging interpreter of Paul.”

Economics and Empire in the Ancient Near East

Biblical Studies & Commentaries

“This volume brings together substantial articles by scholars who have critically explored the economic dimension of biblical texts and the historical contexts they reflect and address. The articles cover several of the aspects that are necessary as the basis for a comprehensive critical exploration of ‘biblical economics’ that has been missing in ‘biblical’ scholarship and interpretation. . . . These articles form the basis for ever more comprehensive and precise understanding of political-economic-religious contexts that biblical texts address.”

Empire, Economics, and the New Testament

Biblical Studies & Commentaries

“Drawing together evidence from archaeological sites such as Pompeii, social science models, and various pictures of ancient economic relations, Peter Oakes imagines how a diversity of people in early churches would have responded to the gospel of Paul and related messages of Christ in the Roman imperial world. Impressive in its range, this collection is highly suggestive for interpretation of texts and the social-economic situation of those addressed.”

For I Was Hungry and You Gave Me Food

Biblical Studies & Commentaries

“Wilson offers solid, multifaceted research and analysis of access to food, which was particularly problematic for the majority of the people in the Roman Empire. In this illuminating context she presents a clear narrative interpretation of Matthew's concern that the hungry have food.”

From Patmos to the Barrio

Biblical Studies & Commentaries

“The Virgin of Guadalupe, a figure revered in Mexican and Latina culture, has explicit roots in the woman of Revelation 12. But Sanchez's brilliant account goes further, to show how Spanish imagery of the Virgin was subversively transformed into a powerful symbol of indigenous resistance — and to shed light in turn on how ancient subject people as well transformed imperial myth into counter-imperial symbol. This beautifully illustrated book is an important contribution to current postcolonial interpretation and to the struggles of marginalized peoples against their continuing colonization by the ongoing pursuit of American 'Manifest Destiny.'”

From Text to Performance

Biblical Studies & Commentaries

“From Text to Performance presents a set of suggestive new essays on various key issues in performance of texts, including how a text-in-performance can have a powerfully moving impact on a community of listeners. The essays offer several sensitive insights into the significant differences between literary criticism deeply rooted in print culture and the emerging performance criticism that considers the effects of performed texts on the audience.”

Healing Affluenza and Resisting Plutocracy

Biblical Studies & Commentaries

“Ched Myers is the most astute and profound reader of the Scriptures of this generation! Again and again, he discerns previously unseen connections and implications. In his reading of Luke, he shows the way to practice Sabbath Economics in a world suffering from affluenza. This book is a continuous inspiration to reengage in personal and collective economic organization and action.”

Insights from Reading the Bible with the Poor

Ethics, Culture & Social Issues

“This is no armchair academic speculation. Crystal L. Hall draws from her lived experience of being embedded with the poor in their struggle against the devastating and demeaning impact of local capitalist enterprises. She has learned firsthand how to listen to the voices of the poor in order to know how to facilitate the reading of biblical texts to evoke insights into particular people’s struggles for justice and to insist on their rights and humanity. Scholars and teachers have much to learn from her direct engagement and informed insightful critical reflection. This is liberative praxis.”

Jesus' Parables Speak to Power and Greed

Biblical Studies & Commentaries

“Many of Jesus’ parables tell short stories about a wealthy and powerful lord manipulating a poor peasant or laborer or servant. Ford juxtaposes these stories with the wealthy and powerful fossil-fuels execs and capitalist corporations who deny the climate catastrophe of which they are the prime agents. Applying these parables helps us discern the disguised malevolence of power and privilege.”

Liberating Biblical Study

Ethics, Culture & Social Issues

“Here is another remarkable idea of Norman Gottwald coming to fruition in a combination of biblical vision, creative imagination, and public action. Every section of the book is a provocative juxtaposition of critical analysis by engaged biblical scholars, incisive insights of social activists, and compelling expressions of poets and artists . . . A highly stimulating start, send-off, and celebration for the Center and Library for the Bible and Social Justice.”

Memory, Memorization, and Memorizers

Biblical Studies & Commentaries

“Sienaert’s excellent translation of Marcel Jousse could not be more timely. It comes just as interpreters of Jesus are recognizing that form criticism was a misunderstanding of oral tradition modeled on written texts. Lecturing at the Sorbonne, etc. from 1931 to 1957, Jousse rebelled against the dominant “algebraicized,” hyper-disciplinized academic print-culture. This selection of his lectures opens up his groundbreaking (re-)discovery of concrete interactive oral culture and communication sustained by memory and mimesis. He finds this exemplified by Ieshua, who was deeply imbued with the popular Aramaic Palestinian-Galilean culture behind the oral-derived Targums.”

Orality and Literacy in Early Christianity

Biblical Studies & Commentaries

“For twenty years Pieter Botha has been doing foundational research on the communications media of the ancient world . . . I have repeatedly returned to his articles, learned from them again, and cited them often. Finally, we have Botha's important articles collected and easily accessible in this book.”

Property and Riches in the Early Church

History & Biography

“This is a good, concise survey of the most important texts from diverse sources on this issue, from Amos to Cyprian.”

Reality, Grief, Hope

Ethics, Culture & Social Issues

“Walter Brueggemann is widely appreciated as the most insightful and compelling interpreter of the Bible as it bears on current social and religious crises. Here he discerns how the arrogant American exceptionalism of `God's new Israel' has been powerfully informed by the biblical ideology of God's chosen people and the exceptionalism of the ancient Jerusalem elite. . . . Reality, Grief, Hope is timely, prophetic, and very well done.”

Social and Economic Life in Second Temple Judea

Biblical Studies & Commentaries

“Adams presents a suggestive, largely synchronic survey of salient themes, such as family roles, financial exchange, commercial interests, and occupations (farmers, merchants, potters, scribes), citing a wide range of references, from the prophets to rabbinic rulings and Hellenistic Jewish texts. The book is a model of scholarly research, with extensive references to recent as well as older secondary literature.”

Subversive Meals

Biblical Studies & Commentaries

“The Passover meal was a celebration of liberation from the ancient Egyptian empire. So if the Lord's Supper continued the tradition of the Passover celebration, as Streett contends, wasn't it a celebration of liberation from the Roman empire? Alan Streett has connected the dots in a careful, step-by-step analysis and argument. For those loyal to a Lord who transcended Caesar as Lord, the Supper quickly became the central ceremony of their cohesive communities, which collectively formed an alternative, anti-imperial society.”

The Arrogance of Nations, paperback edition

Biblical Studies & Commentaries

“This is a remarkable book. A sophisticated practitioner of rhetorical criticism, Neil Elliott also brings to Romans knowledge of Roman imperial ideology and its constraining effects on subject peoples and critical awareness of the imperial ideology and practices of the United States as well. His remarkable analysis makes Romans jump alive as never before. Under Elliott's discerning eye, Paul's most important letter becomes a challenge to North Americans' privileged position as the beneficiaries of empire.”