Theology: Spirituality: Apostolic Age 37-100 - Pauline Writings and Synoptic Narratives

This latest addition to the Fortress Social-Science Commentaries on New Testament writings illuminates the values, perceptions, and social codes of the Mediterranean culture that shaped Paul and his interactions —both harmonious and conflicted — with others. Malina and Pilch add new dimensions to our understanding of the apostle as a social change agent, his coworkers as innovators, and his gospel as an assertion of the honor of the God of Israel.

The apostle Paul is a controversial figure, both admired and reviled. His letters have influenced creeds and dogmatic statements, but he is also accused of turning the "simple" gospel that Jesus preached into a complex dogmatic system. Furthermore, on the authority of Paul, women have been given second place in church and society for many centuries. The "apostle to the Gentiles" has sometimes been a source of inspiration, but he has more often than not been a stumbling block when Jews and Christians meet.This book tackles all of these and other issues surrounding Paul and presents him for the widest possible audience. With his enviable gift for clear and popular writing, C. J. den Heyer here takes on a particularly difficult task and shows great mastery in offering a detailed portrait of one of the most controversial figures in the ancient world.C. J. den Heyer is Professor of New Testament at the Theological University of the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands.>

This book is a study of Paul's response to the financial help he received from the church in Philippi while he was a prisoner in Rome. It examines Philippians 4.10-20 in the light of Greek and Roman practices and language regarding the exchange of gifts and favors in society. Dr. Peterman concludes that "gift exchange" or "social reciprocity" permeated every level of society in Paul's day, and that Paul's seemingly ungracious response was an attempt to create a new, Christian attitude to gifts and to giving.

Keith Nickle provides a revised and updated edition of a well-respected resource that fills the gap between cursory treatments of the Synoptic Gospels by New Testament introductions and exhaustive treatments in commentaries. In a clear and concise manner, Nickles explores the major issues of faith that influenced the writers of the Gospels. The Synoptic Gospels is helpful for classroom or personal use.

In A Man Attested by God J. R. Daniel Kirk presents a comprehensive defense of the thesis that Jesus in the Synoptic Gospels is best interpreted as an idealised human figure rather than divine. Counterbalancing the recent trend toward early high Christology in such scholars as Richard Bauckham, Larry Hurtado, and Simon Gathercole, Kirk here thoroughly unpacks the humanity of Jesus as understood by Gospel writers whose language is rooted in the religious and literary context of early Judaism. While not totally denigrating divine Christologies, Kirk argues that idealised human Christology is the best way to read the Synoptic Gospels, and he explores Jesus as exorcist and miracle worker within the framework of his humanity. With wide-ranging exegetical and theological insight that sheds startling new light on familiar Gospel texts, A Man Attested by God offers up-to-date, provocative scholarship that will have to be reckoned with.