Description: ""We offer this collection as a token of our affection and admiration of our friend and colleague James Weldon Thompson. . . . His studies of the letter to the Hebrews and of Paul in their intellectual contexts (especially Middle Platonism) have contributed significantly to the ongoing quest for placing the New Testament in its socio-intellectual setting. Although his publications in this area date back more than thirty years, his best work is occurring now, and we may anticipate path-breaking contributions ahead. His more recent work on preaching and pastoral care in Paul both...

The study of the eighth-century prophets has experienced major changes over the past five decades. In these articles, published during a time when traditional methods of reading these texts gave way to new interests and approaches, John Willis addresses some of the major challenges facing interpreters of the prophetic works as coherent books. The careful attention to detail in the biblical texts themselves and in the history of scholarship shown in these essays offers a helpful model for scholars seeking to understand the ancient texts and appropriate them for new conditions.

""In Old...

These twenty-two meditations on the songs, prayers, and stories of the Bible invite readers to imagine themselves as part of a world in which human beings may fully live into their sufferings and joys as part of a vibrant while still critically searching faith in God. Here we see prophets and poets, as well as ordinary men and women, embrace the realities of life without apology or fear. Each meditation opens with the author's fresh translation of the biblical text and concludes with a prayer that seeks the critical edge of faith as an active stance toward human existence. The movement from...