In addition to lucid introductions to each of the New Testament writings, this book offers a comprehensive survey of approaches to biblical studies, historical and cultural backgrounds, the historical Jesus, the rise of the resurrection faith, and attention to extracanonical materials. 63 illustrations. 3 charts. 6 maps.

Russell Pregeant's Engaging the New Testament (1995) has provided a rich interdisciplinary New Testament introduction for upper-level and graduate students; incorporating numerous methodsliterary, historical, psychological, theological, and social-scientific, and critically perceptive introductions to each of the New Testament writings. Encounter with the New Testament adapts the best features of that textbook for beginning undergraduate students; surveying approaches to biblical studies, historical and cultural backgrounds, the historical Jesus, and the rise of the resurrection faith...

The Bible can be hazardous to ones health if it is read with faulty expectations. Writing with insight, compassion, and wit, Russell Pregeant shows that reading the Bible without interpretation is impossible; the right question is which assumptions are most appropriate to the Bible and our reasons for taking it up.

For the Healing of the Nation offers a serious look at the social and political climate in the United States from a biblical perspective, emphasizing race and ""otherness,"" economics and the environment, and institutional violence (war and capital punishment). An autobiographical thread traces the journey of a white male coming of age in the mid-twentieth-century Deep South as his evolving faith leads him to painful breaks with inherited values and standard views on controversial issues. Critical not only of both major political parties but also of centrist compromises between Right and...