Description: The church is one of the most intriguing and significant institutions on earth. Because its essence and character are so widely misunderstood, this is a timely book. The church is not a mere human institution, though it is made up of human beings in community. Its roles and responsibilities are momentous, but all the elements of its organization came about as the church developed and attempted to fulfill its divine mandate, not as forms given at its founding. These papers from a Bingham Colloquium at McMaster Divinity College treat the church ""then"" in studies of the church in...

Description: How did a first-generation Jewish messianic movement develop the momentum to become a dominant religious force in the Western world? The essays here first investigate the roots of God's mission and the mission of his people in the Old Testament and Second Temple Judaism, specifically in the Psalms, Isaiah, and Daniel. The contributions then discuss the mission of Jesus, and how it continued into the mission of the Twelve, other Jewish believers (in the Gospels, General Epistles, and Revelation), and finally into Paul's ministry to the Gentiles documented in the book of Acts and...

A Coherent Pauline Theology of Gender

Respected New Testament scholar Cynthia Long Westfall offers a coherent Pauline theology of gender, which includes fresh perspectives on the most controverted texts. Westfall interprets passages on women and men together and places those passages in the context of the Pauline corpus as a whole. She offers viable alternatives for some notorious interpretive problems in certain Pauline passages, reframing gender issues in a way that stimulates thinking, promotes discussion, and moves the conversation forward. As Westfall explores the...

Although the cry for justice in human society is an important theme in the Bible, in many church and academic circles action for and discourse about social justice is carried on without a thorough exploration of this theme in Scripture. This volume brings together chapters by experts in the various sections of the Old and New Testaments to give a full spectrum of what the Bible has to say about social justice, and to point to ways forward for Christians seeking to think and act in harmony with God in pursuing social justice in the world today. ""This book is unique: in it, noted biblical...