A masterful collection of essays in New Testament studies connecting Scripture, theology, and human life
What is the purpose of studying the New Testament, and how is it best approached? Esteemed professor C. Kavin Rowe explores these questions in sixteen incisive essays covering a range of topics, including:
• the state of New Testament studies as a field
• the relationship between historical criticism and theological reading
• interdisciplinary methodology
• comparative religion and New Testament Christianity
• truth claims of the New Testament
What unites these diverse chapters is a holistic approach to the New Testament. Against the modern tendency to separate disciplines, Rowe unites philosophy, theology, history, and biblical studies in fruitful conversation. Most crucially, he emphasizes the essential purpose of this academic work: its implications for human flourishing.
With an insightful and bold approach, Rowe’s essays should be read by anyone interested in New Testament studies. Scholars and students will find the essays in this critical volume challenging and rewarding.
Table of Contents
Contents
Preface
List of Abbreviations
Part 1: Biblical Studies and Theology
1. What If It Were True? Why Study the New Testament
2. The Kerygma of the Earliest Church
3. Biblical Studies: With Richard B. Hays
4. New Testament Theology: The Revival of a Discipline
5. The Doctrine of God Is a Hermeneutic: The Biblical Theology of Brevard S. Childs
6. What Is a Theological Commentary? With Richard B. Hays
7. For Future Generations: Worshiping Jesus and the Integration of the Theological Disciplines
8. Biblical Pressure and Trinitarian Hermeneutics
Part 2: The New Testament, Grammars of Life,
and Religious Comparison
9. Making Friends and Comparing Lives
10. A Response to Friend-Critics
11. The Art of Retrieval: Stoicism: “Parallels” and the Retrieval of a Tradition
12. God, Greek Philosophy, and the Bible: A Response to Matthew Levering
Part 3: Christianity and the Human
13. Becoming Human: Deification in the Image of Jesus Christ
14. Christianity’s Surprise: New Testament Foundations of the Human
15. Recovering Our Humanity: Interdisciplinary Inquiry and the Unity of Life
16. Christianity’s First Millennium: Reflections on Robert Louis Wilken’s Magnum Opus
Bibliography
Index of Authors
Index of Subjects
Index of Scripture
Index of Other Ancient Sources
