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While, for many, the old and destructive controversy as to whether the Bible is to be taken literally has long since been resolved, modern research and scholarship has progressed far beyond this debate. The point of the research has not been to destroy the credibility of the Bible but rather to understand Scripture better. In the process many popular and traditional certainties have fallen by the wayside. Scholars doubt that Moses led the Israelites across the Red Sea or into the Sinai; that David is the author of the Psalms, or indeed that Solomon was even wise. These and dozens of other illusions are being stripped away -- and more will surely follow. Beyond this there are the larger contradictions which exist between the law and spirit of the Old and New Testaments. The modern believer needs both to know of these findings and put them into a perspective which will enhance rather than diminish understanding of the Scriptures.
From the beginning of the New Testament era, there have been disputes over what individual passages meant, who wrote them, when they were written, and whether certain sayings could be directly attributed to Jesus. McKenzie's aim is not to destroy the credibility of the New Testament, but rather to enhance belief by allowing it to rest on a foundation freed from various manmade illusions and historically inaccurate assumptions that modern biblical research has discovered from both internal and external evidence about the writings. Father McKenzie takes on a variety of topics -- the real Jesus and the Son of man; gospels and gossip; the roles of Peter and Paul; divorce; the resurrection; the meaning of the Apocalypse -- to name but a few, in this highly informative look at key themes and episodes of the New Testament.
Cynicism has become almost a cliché. It pervades the culture and defines the age--and threatens to derail faith. Andrew Byers identifies the primary factors in the church that inspire disillusionment rather than faith, but he goes beyond that to help struggling cynics channel their frustrations into the redemptive vocations found in the Bible: the prophet, the sage, the tragic poet. These all find their fulfillment in Jesus, and he in turn inspires cynics from the apostle Paul to you and me to embrace our saintly calling--hopeful realism.
By thoroughly investigating every aspect of theology to be found in the Old Testament, Father McKenzie offers a total theological statement of this timeless record. The theology of the Old Testament, he writes, has to be the study of the reality of Yahweh. The Old Testament is the sole literary witness to that reality as the record of the experience of Israel. Seven categories outline the book: cult, revelation, history, nature, wisdom, political and social institutions, and the future of Israel. Together, these categories provide a pathway to God that is far more complete than that which can be experienced by any individual. For McKenzie, the Hebrew scriptures are to be understood as the independent record of the early Israelite community's experience with God, rather than as a prelude to or forecast of the New Testament.
Reality and Illusion in New Testament Scholarship is a basic introduction to the theory of interpretation and theory of history for New Testament readers, students, and scholars. It offers an entry into the thought of the late, great Bernard Lonergan on insight and judgment, subjectivity and objectivity, horizons and changes of horizon, alienation and ideology. It focuses on what it takes to measure up to the literature of the New Testament. Book jacket.
In many of his books, John L. McKenzie has confined himself to the exposition of one theme. Here is a chance to encounter his thinking on a wide variety of biblical topics--a first-rate sampling of McKenzie at large. Besides the title chapter, he focuses on (among others) such intriguing subjects as The Real Jesus, The Real Mary, The State in Christian Perspective, War and Peace in the New Testament, Myths in the Bible, The Book of Revelation--and concludes with The Bible: A Progress Report. The Bible does not so much give answers as lead to answers. It puts the right questions directly in a form which does not permit evasion. It confronts us with challenges to action which are urgent. McKenzie does well to dig out and squarely state the hard questions which the Bible presents to the modern world.
McKenzie offers practical ideas on how lay persons can read and study the Bible, discussing best translations and best ways to approach difficult texts. With an appreciation for continuities between Old and New Testaments, he presents patterns, such as God's self-revelation as love, which thread throughout the Bible. The author also reveals insights into the Personality of Christ, emphasizing that Jesus was truly a man as well as God, experiencing the full range of human emotion. Finally, the book engages the place of sex in the Bible, and current trends within contemporary Catholicism.
Hotaling describes how Muhammad created the first Islamic state. He was an innovative general and diplomat who respected women's rights. Hotaling draws the stunning conclusion that if the Prophet were alive today, he would be an American. Hotaling explains, "Just as he did in the heat of persecution, embattled leadership and war, he would have stood up today for his principles, debated and negotiated with his rivals, tolerated their ideas until he could win them over . . . and fought in the open." Here is the amazing story of how Muhammad's followers conquered half the world, exceeded early Christian Europe in the arts, sciences, and government and won the bloody battles of the Crusades. Hotaling traces the path of Islam to modern times and the spread of Islamic Revivalism spurred by the Iranian Revolution. He reveals its connection to the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. With compelling precision, he uncovers alternatives to an impending cataclysmic clash of civilizations.
"North American Christianity stands at a major crossroads. Hundreds of thousands of believers have begun to lose interest in apostolic Christianity: the faith of the Scriptures, the great witnesses and teachers of the faith, and the major creeds and confessions of Christianity. The challenge? Theological progressivism. A Grand Illusion exposes the dangers and contradictions of theological progressivism, revealing its North American, secular and elitist assumptions. It offers a full throttle defense of authentic Christianity. And it exposes the dim future of progressivism. If you are tempted by progressivism, if your church or family members are starting to lean progressive, or if you simply need reassurance that apostolic faith is the real deal, read this book"--Back cover.
The controversial Bible scholar and author of The Evolution of Adam recounts his transformative spiritual journey in which he discovered a new, more honest way to love and appreciate God’s Word. Trained as an evangelical Bible scholar, Peter Enns loved the Scriptures and shared his devotion, teaching at Westminster Theological Seminary. But the further he studied the Bible, the more he found himself confronted by questions that could neither be answered within the rigid framework of his religious instruction or accepted among the conservative evangelical community. Rejecting the increasingly complicated intellectual games used by conservative Christians to “protect” the Bible, Enns was conflicted. Is this what God really requires? How could God’s plan for divine inspiration mean ignoring what is really written in the Bible? These questions eventually cost Enns his job—but they also opened a new spiritual path for him to follow. The Bible Tells Me So chronicles Enns’s spiritual odyssey, how he came to see beyond restrictive doctrine and learned to embrace God’s Word as it is actually written. As he explores questions progressive evangelical readers of Scripture commonly face yet fear voicing, Enns reveals that they are the very questions that God wants us to consider—the essence of our spiritual study.