Johannine Faith and Liberating Community
Johannine Faith and Liberating Community

Author: David Rensberger

Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press

Published: 1988-01-01

Total Pages: 176

ISBN-13: 9780664250416

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Building on recent developments in biblical studies, David Rensberger explores new avenues of interpretation of the Fourth Gospel made possible by the rediscovery of its social and historical settings. He looks to the first generation of readers and considers the range of meanings the Gospel might have held for them. He sees that behind the "spiritual" there is the possibility of social and even political interpretations. He discusses the relation of John's Gospel to liberation theology and to contemporary questions on the role of the church in the world.

Re-presenting the Johannine Community
Re-presenting the Johannine Community

Author: Yak-hwee Tan

Publisher: Peter Lang

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 244

ISBN-13: 9780820497334

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Re-Presenting the Johannine Community: A Postcolonial Perspective explores the characterization of the Johannine community in the Farewell Discourse of the Fourth Gospel from a postcolonial perspective. The community is scrutinized with the lens of an integrated literary-rhetorical and ideological-postcolonial approach. The disciples emerge as both the «Self», insofar as they resist an imperial reality represented by the «world», and the «Other», with respect to Jesus and the Father. As such, far from immutable and bland, the Johannine community is portrayed as chameleonic and engaged in an emerging strategy of resistance.

Beyond Agreement
Beyond Agreement

Author: Scott Steinkerchner

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 205

ISBN-13: 1442206438

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Beyond Agreement addresses the thorny question of how to make interreligious dialogue productive when the religious differences are so large that finding common ground seems unlikely. The book offers a way to think about interreligious dialogue that allows people to stay committed to their own truth as they have come to know it while being open to learning from other religions.

Jesus and the Stigmatized
Jesus and the Stigmatized

Author: Elia Shabani Mligo

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2011-08-01

Total Pages: 475

ISBN-13: 1608997065

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Biblical scholars often read the Bible with their own interpretive interests in mind, without associating the Bible with the concerns of laypeople. This largely undermines the contributions laypeople can offer from reading the Bible in their own contexts and from their own life experiences. Moreover, such exclusively scholarly reading conceals the role of biblical texts in dealing with current social problems, such as HIV/AIDS-related stigmatization. Hence, the lack of lay participation in the process of Bible reading makes the Bible less visible in various common life situations. In this volume Elia Shabani Mligo draws on his fieldwork among people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) in Tanzania, selects stigmatization as his perspective, and chooses participant-centered contextual Bible study as his method to argue that the reading of texts from the Gospel of John by PLWHA (given their lived experiences of stigmatization) empowers them to reject stigmatization as unjust. Mligo's study shows that Christian PLWHA reject stigmatization because it does not comply with the attitude of Jesus toward stigmatized groups in his own time. The theology emerging from the readings by stigmatized PLWHA, through their evaluation of Jesus' attitudes and acts toward stigmatized people in the texts, challenges churches in their obligatory mission as disciples of Jesus. Churches are challenged to reconsider healing, hospitality and caring, prophetic voices against stigmatization, and the way they teach about HIV and AIDS in relation to sexuality. Churches must revisit their practices toward stigmatized groups and listen to their voices. Mligo argues that participant-centered Bible-study methods similar to the one used in this book (whereby stigmatized people are the primary interlocutors in the process) can be useful tools in listening to the voices of stigmatized groups.

Women, the Family, and Policy
Women, the Family, and Policy

Author: Esther Ngan-ling Chow

Publisher: SUNY Press

Published: 1994-06-07

Total Pages: 312

ISBN-13: 9780791417867

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The authors highlight how structural circumstances in countries with various degrees of industrialization are associated with specific policies. The analyses of women’s experiences reveal the variety of ways in which private patriarchy in families combines with public patriarchy in economies and states to create a system of domination which subordinates women. The authors detail how gender is constructed under specific political, economic, and cultural circumstances, and seek to understand how state policies with differing sensitivities to women’s issues have produced mixed outcomes for women and their families in the process of economic development.

Designs for the Church in the Gospel of John
Designs for the Church in the Gospel of John

Author: R. Alan Culpepper

Publisher: Mohr Siebeck

Published: 2021-07-16

Total Pages: 800

ISBN-13: 3161602625

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The essays in this volume, which span four decades, represent sustained reflection on the historical setting, narrative devices, and theology of the Gospel of John. Methodologically, the essays develop a narrative-critical approach to the Gospel, producing insights that have implications for historical and theological issues. Thematically, many of the essays explore the Gospel's ecclesiology, especilly its vision for the church and its mission. As a collection, this volume provides an introduction to the Fourth Gospel, analyses of major issues (including John's anti-Judaism, relationship to 1 John, irony, imagery, creation ethics, evil, and eschatology), and in-depth exploration of key texts, especially John 1:1-18, 2:20; 4:35-38; 5:1-18; 5:21-30; 10:1-18; 12:12-15; 13:1-20; 19:16-30; 20:19-23; and chapter 21.

Religious Rivalries in the Early Roman Empire and the Rise of Christianity
Religious Rivalries in the Early Roman Empire and the Rise of Christianity

Author: Leif E. Vaage

Publisher: Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press

Published: 2010-10-30

Total Pages: 265

ISBN-13: 155458809X

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Religious Rivalries in the Early Roman Empire and the Rise of Christianity discusses the diverse cultural destinies of early Christianity, early Judaism, and other ancient religious groups as a question of social rivalry. The book is divided into three main sections. The first section debates the degree to which the category of rivalry adequately names the issue(s) that must be addressed when comparing and contrasting the social “success” of different religious groups in antiquity. The second is a critical assessment of the common modern category of “mission” to describe the inner dynamic of such a process; it discusses the early Christian apostle Paul, the early Jewish historian Josephus, and ancient Mithraism. The third section of the book is devoted to “the rise of Christianity,” primarily in response to the similarly titled work of the American sociologist of religion Rodney Stark. While it is not clear that any of these groups imagined its own success necessarily entailing the elimination of others, it does seem that early Christianity had certain habits, both of speech and practice, which made it particularly apt to succeed (in) the Roman Empire.

The Riddles of the Fourth Gospel
The Riddles of the Fourth Gospel

Author: Paul N. Anderson

Publisher: Fortress Press

Published: 2011-04

Total Pages: 312

ISBN-13: 1451415559

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Paul Anderson, a leading scholar of the Fourth Gospel, provides an introductory textbook, crafted for a semester course, which leads students through literary, historical, and theological aspects of the Fourth Gospel's most vexing puzzles. Traditional, historical-critical, and literary-critical approaches are deftly introduced and their limitations evaluated; questions of the Gospel's authorship, composition, relationship to the Synoptics, and origins in particular historical experiences are succinctly addressed; and distinctive Johannine perspectives on Jesus, the church, and the world are discussed.

The Cry of the Earth and the Cry of the Poor
The Cry of the Earth and the Cry of the Poor

Author: Kathleen P. Rushton

Publisher: SCM Press

Published: 2020-07-10

Total Pages: 205

ISBN-13: 0334059070

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Focused around the lectionary readings from the Gospel, "The Cry of the Earth and the Cry of the Poor" suggests that far from being a Gospel which sits at a safe remove from every day life, it can in fact be preached as an urgent call to hear the voices of the oppressed in our world.

Jesus and the Gospels
Jesus and the Gospels

Author: John T. Carroll

Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press

Published: 2016-10-01

Total Pages: 327

ISBN-13: 1611646898

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After two millennia, Jesus remains as fascinating and compelling a figure as ever, not only for Christian communities but also for countless others in diverse contemporary cultures. In this fresh introduction to Jesus and the Gospels, prominent scholar John T. Carroll offers a thoughtful reading of the four Gospels, paying close attention to narrative structure and rhetorical strategies, with an appreciation of the contexts that shaped and continue to shape their interpretation. Informed by the best recent scholarship, Carroll's clear and accessible presentation examines the connections between the Gospels and contemporary life and the challenges these narratives might present to twenty-first century readers. Introductory students will appreciate the use of call-out boxes throughout the book that highlight important points and themes. This engaging volume will introduce Jesus and the Gospels to a whole new generation of readers in the culturally and religiously plural world of today. Instructor and Student Resources Available! Visit jesusandthegospels.wjkbooks.com to find resources for instructors, including a sample syllabus; questions for study, reflection, and discussion; and maps and images that can be incorporated into presentation materials. In addition to teaching materials, resources for students include chapter summaries, flash cards, study questions, and fast facts.