During the first two centuries CE there was a common awareness that familial tensions were generated by conversion to the Christian faith. Yet studies of Christian origins have so far paid comparatively little attention to the impact of the Christian movement upon attitudes to family ties and natural kinship. Dr Barton aims to remedy this deficiency by means of a detailed study of the relevant passages in the Gospels of Mark and Matthew, where the sections relating to family concerns are studied from four different angles: form-critical, redaction-critical, literary-critical and sociological....

In these wide-ranging studies, Stephen Barton shows that Christian theology and the Christian scriptures have a vital contribution to make to contemporary wisdom about our common life. The subjects he addresses are relevant to the concerns of many people today. What he has to say about the family, sexuality, community and biblical interpretation is both informative and creative. Running through the book is the issue of the appropriate use of the Bible: how the sacred text may speak in ways which are life-giving. Stephen Barton claims that questions about the interpretation of the Bible have...

This important new book seeks to help today's readers explore what each Gospel has to offer when viewed in its own right as a classic of Western spirituality. Written in a clear, non-technical style, the fresh perspectives this work presents will open new vistas on the familiar stories about the life, teaching, and ultimate significance of Jesus.

From the very beginning, following the Christian way commonly generated tensions within families. Insiders and outsiders alike bear witness to the threat to household and family ties posed by a transfer of the believer's primary allegiance to Jesus. This study shows that the demand to subordinate family ties in response to the call of Jesus is quite intelligible in the context of beliefs and practices both in Judaism and in Greco-Roman philosophy of the first century. Such background is related to the Gospels of Mark and Matthew.

Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species has changed the landscape of religious thought in many ways. There is a widespread assumption that before Darwin, all Christians believed that the world was created some 6,000 years ago over a period of 6 days. After Darwin, the first chapters of Genesis were either rejected totally by skeptics or defended vehemently in scientific creationism. This book tells a very different story. Bringing together contributions from biblical scholars, historians and contemporary theologians, it is demonstrated that both Jewish and Christian scholars read...