Ladd's magisterial work on New Testament theology has well served scores of seminary students since 1974. Now this comprehensive, standard evangelical text has been carefully revised by Hagner to include an update of Ladd's survey of the history of the field of New Testament theology, an augmented bibliography, and an entirely new subject index.
In this magisterial synthesis, Paul A. Rainbow presents the most complete account of the theology of the Johannine corpus available today. Both critical and comprehensive, this volume includes all the books of the New Testament ascribed to John: the Gospel, the three epistles and the book of Revelation.
Biblical contributors express an oral stage engaging Christianity within a properly basic communal worldview similar to Alvin Plantinga advocates. This approach includes a communal Christian application of common sense realism within a worldview and rhetoric similar to Hillite Pharisaism. Each biblical contributor provided vivid testimony using rabbinic language and thought forms. For example, Jewish-Christian midrash re-appropriates Old Testament quotes and narrative in a new performative pesher manner to present Jesus as the Christ. Moving beyond the word studies of biblical epistemologists, Pharisaic-rabbinic Judaism use of biblical revelation, mystical vision, dream, or audible divine voice frame mystical empiricism similar to William Alston. Non-foundational realism facilitates a communal resilient oral tradition similar to the rabbinics. Additionally, Luke-Acts extensively engages Hellenistic historiographic method and the concept of "witness." When multiple interpretations occur concerning miracles, epistemic dualistic non-foundational Lockean epistemology emerges to contribute to the authority of communal kingdom testimony. Occasionally, this Lockean approach adds an internal transformation much as Jonathan Edwards modified Locke to set forth his religious affections as a divine virtue epistemology confirming the authentic narrow way through Peircean pragmatism. This internal knowledge provides self-referential confirmation for a personal relationship and filial knowledge. Each of these expressions of knowledge fosters an ultimate Kierkegaardian commitment to the Trinitarian Christian God.
This work examines Thomas Forsyth Torrance's concern for the modern re-entrenchment of dualism as it has negatively affected the Christian faith and the realist knowledge of God in Christ. Additionally, an analysis is made of Torrance's program to faithfully restore theological thinking, theological science, and true objectivity out of the Christocentric-Trinitarian self-disclosure of God via the modern return to critical realist epistemology in the physical sciences (e.g., Einstein, Polanyi). The study concludes with a critical examination of the adequacy and completeness of Torrance's endeavor (the problem of residual dualism) in the light of his own theological and redemptive concerns.
The bestselling author of Misquoting Jesus, one of the most renowned and controversial Bible scholars in the world today examines oral tradition and its role in shaping the stories about Jesus we encounter in the New Testament—and ultimately in our understanding of Christianity. Throughout much of human history, our most important stories were passed down orally—including the stories about Jesus before they became written down in the Gospels. In this fascinating and deeply researched work, leading Bible scholar Bart D. Ehrman investigates the role oral history has played in the New Testament—how the telling of these stories not only spread Jesus’ message but helped shape it. A master explainer of Christian history, texts, and traditions, Ehrman draws on a range of disciplines, including psychology and anthropology, to examine the role of memory in the creation of the Gospels. Explaining how oral tradition evolves based on the latest scientific research, he demonstrates how the act of telling and retelling impacts the story, the storyteller, and the listener—crucial insights that challenge our typical historical understanding of the silent period between when Jesus lived and died and when his stories began to be written down. As he did in his previous books on religious scholarship, debates on New Testament authorship, and the existence of Jesus of Nazareth, Ehrman combines his deep knowledge and meticulous scholarship in a compelling and eye-opening narrative that will change the way we read and think about these sacred texts.
Professor Pollard attempts to show how the early Church interpreted the Gospel of John and its witness to the person of Christ. The two paradoxes implicit in John's theology - the distinction between the Father and the Son in the unity of the Godhead, and the divinity and humanity of Jesus Christ - were developed in varying ways and the resultant heresies arose from attempts to deny one element or the other in each paradox. In their refutation of the heresies, on the other hand, the Fathers struggled to keep both elements of the paradoxes in equipoise. The different traditions came into conflict in the controversy which raged around the figure of Arius and his supporters in the fourth century, of which the climax came in the debate about the views of Marcellus of Ancyra.
Throughout Christian history, the Gospel of John's distinctive way of presenting the life, works, teachings, death, and resurrection of Jesus have earned it labels such as "the spiritual Gospel" and "the maverick Gospel." It has been seen as the most theological of the four canonical Gospels. In this volume Richard Bauckham, a leading biblical scholar and a bestselling author in the academy, illuminates main theological themes of the Gospel of John. Bauckham provides insightful analysis of key texts, covering topics such as divine and human community, God's glory, the cross and the resurrection, and the sacraments. This work will serve as an ideal supplemental text for professors and students in a course on John or the four Gospels. It will also be of interest to New Testament scholars and theologians.
The fifth book of the New American Commentary Studies in Bible & Theology series, That You May Know closely examines the theme of eternal salvation in 1 John. No other New Testament book speaks as frequently and explicitly to the believer's confidence in everlasting life. The epistle writer grounds his reader's assurance of salvation on the person and work of Jesus Christ and demonstrates that the believer's lifestyle serves as a vital corroborating support for that assurance. This gives the commentary's author Christopher Bass an opening to further discuss John's emphasis on living righteously and what it truly means to be born of God. Users will find this an excellent extension of the long-respected New American Commentary series.
