Ancient Jewish and Christian Scriptures examines the writings included in and excluded from the Jewish and Christian canons of Scripture and explores the social settings in which some of this literature was viewed as authoritative and some was viewed either as uninspired or as heretical. John J. Collins, Craig A. Evans, and Lee Martin McDonald examine how those noncanonical writings demonstrate the historical, literary, and religious aspects of the culture that gave rise to the writings. They al...
How does the church understand the relation between its Scripture and its creedal formulations? No one is more qualified to address that question than Robert W. Jenson, who shows how canon and creed work together and interact and that neither is an adequate or sufficient to guide Christian faith without the help of the other. His book will enable contemporary interpreters and teachers, pastors, and laity to deal with the questions and tensions that are always present as the churc...
To answer the title question effectively requires more than the citing of a few texts; we must first acknowledge that the way to the answer is more difficult than it appears and recognize that the answer may be less straightforward than many would like. The author raises some fascinating yet vexing questions: What is worship? Is the fact that worship is offered to God (or a god) what defines him (or her) as "G/god?" What does the act of worship actually involve? The conviction tha...
We know that the early Christian church had a variety of scriptures and other source material that informed their faith and shaped their thinking. We also know that after a few centuries the church decided to keep the twenty-seven books of our present New Testament and to treat them as canonical in faith and practice. But the other books did not simply disappear. In fact, many of them remain valuable for understanding the diversity of the early Christian church and the astounding cl...
SEVENTYFIVEPERCENT>Why do religious people choose paths that lead to their deaths as martyrs? Why do some who are killed for their faith become known and revered while others do not? Gail Streete asks these important and disturbing questions in the context of early Christianity, looking at the stories of martyred women such as Thecla, Perpetua, and Felicitas-- women whose stories helped shape Christian faith for centuries, yet are all but forgotten in the modern world. Streete recl...
According to the commonly held view, early Christianity was a time of great harmony, and heresy emerged only at a later stage. To the contrary, Gerd Ludemann argues that the time from the first Christian communities to the end of the second century was defined by struggle by various groups for doctrinal authority. Drawing on a wealth of data, he asserts that the losers in this struggle actually represented Christianity in its more authentic, original form. Orthodoxy has been defined...
Archibald Hunter has thoroughly revised and updated this work. At the same time, he has preserved its outline and organization. This widely acclaimed book has already become a standard reference for teachers, ministers, college, and seminary students.
Lydia's Impatient Sisters offers a social history of the everyday life of women, setting common experiences of labor, money, illness, and resistance in the context of the Roman imperial society.Luise Schottroff relates this history to important theological topics in New Testament, such as the revelation of God and the daily life of the church. Schottroff's work demonstrates how women were embedded in their social world.
This book examines the image of the savior and the experience of salvation, two concepts that are inextricably entwined. Gail Streete asserts that Christianity set aside female images of salvation by emphasizing the maleness of Jesus. She draws on solid knowledge of the Jewish sources of Christianity and from the Greek-speaking classical world, from which Christianity assimilated so much, to show that the image of God could be seen as both male and female.The Gender and the Biblical...
This revised edition is a translation of the sixth German edition, just as the original English New Testament Apocrypha was a translation of the third German edition. The introductions to individual texts have been either completely rewritten or thoroughly revised. This book reflects current research findings. The bibliographical data in all sections has been updated as well. Some of the texts have been newly translated, some completely revised, and three completely new texts have be...
This revised edition is a translation of the sixth German edition, just as the original English New Testament Apocrypha was a translation of the third German edition. The introductions to individual texts have been either completely rewritten or thoroughly revised. This book reflects current research findings. The bibliographical data in all sections has been updated as well. Some of the texts have been newly translated, some completely revised, and three completely new texts have be...
This volume in the Library of Early Christianity series explores the early Christian movement, especially as it is described in the book of Acts, and uses information about other religions being practiced during the same time period to fill in the story of religious confliect.The Library of Early Christianity is a series of eight outstanding books exploring the Jewish and Greco-Roman contexts in which the New Testament developed.
Making use of letters--both formal and personal--that have been preserved through the ages, Stanley Stowers analyzes the cultural setting within which Christianity arose.The Library of Early Christianity is a series of eight outstanding books exploring the Jewish and Greco-Roman contexts in which the New Testament developed.
This highly accessible book discusses how the early Jewish and Christian communities went about interpreting Scripture.The Library of Early Christianity is a series of eight outstanding books exploring the Jewish and Greco-Roman contexts in which the New Testament developed.
This volume in the Library of Early Christianity examines the literary techniques that were common during the development of the New Testament, and how these techniques influenced Scripture.The Library of Early Christianity is a series of eight outstanding books exploring the Jewish and Greco-Roman contexts in which the New Testament developed.
This anthology of gospel literature contains texts that are not a part of the New Testament but are of great importance for the study of Christian origins. Containing some of the writings from the Nag Hammadi library, these sixteen texts constitute what remains of the non-canonical Gospels from the first and second centuries. They transmit sayings of Jesus and relate stories about Jesus.
