Books in the Emerging Scholars series

"Innovation within Tradition is an exploration of the meaning and implications of Joseph Ratzinger's biblical interpretation of the women of salvation history. Mary Frances McKenna argues that Ratzinger's work, through his development and refinement of the church's tradition, brings the important role and significance of the female characters of Scripture to the fore by placing them at the heart of Christian faith. Explicating the pope emeritus's concept of a 'female line in the Bible, ' which has a profound impact on the meaning and interpretation of the women of salvation history, the volume shows that this concept illustrates the practical value and creative nature of his approach to theology and biblical interpretation. Pivotal to the argument are questions around the findings on the notion of person, feminist theology, salvation history, and Mary, as well as the use of history in theology and biblical interpretation and the potential for the continuing development and deepening of the church's comprehension of the meaning of revelation. The book advances a constructive approach, in coordination with these questions, for a Trinitarian theology of society, addresses old theological issues anew, and provides a starting point for an interdenominational understanding of Mary"--Back cover.

A Free Corrector evaluates Colin Gunton's treatment of Augustine's legacy on the Trinity and the doctrine of creation.

Much of the contemporary discussion of the Jesus tradition has focused on aspects of oral performance, storytelling, and social memory, on the premise that the practice of communal reading of written texts was a phenomenon documented no earlier than the second century CE. Brian J. Wright overturns that premise by examining evidence that demonstrates communal reading events in the first century. Wright disproves the simplistic notion that only a small segment of society in certain urban areas could have been involved in such communal reading events during the first century; rather, communal reading permeated a complex, multifaceted cultural field in which early Christians, Philo, and many others participated. His study thus pushes the academic conversation back by at least a century and raises important new questions regarding the formation of the Jesus tradition, the contours of book culture in early Christianity, and factors shaping the transmission of the text of the New Testament. These fresh insights have the potential to inform historical reconstructions of the nature of the earliest churches as well as the story of canon formation and textual transmission.

Revision of author's thesis (Ph. D.)--Wheaton College, 2016.

Theological anthropology often brings psychology to bear on the contingent nature of human existence in relationship to God. In this volume, Sally Stamper articulates one modern trajectory of theological recourse to psychology. . .

Revision of the author's thesis (Ph. D.)--Princeton Theological Seminary, 2013 under title Forensic Apocalypticism of a Reformed Order: Karl Barth's Exegetically Grounded Doctrine of Justification.

A Visible Witness presents a fresh, innovative perspective on Protestant theology in Latin America liberation theology. The volume underscores the common theological interests to the Roman and Catholic traditions: the praxical nature of theology, Christology, and soteriology. It also highlights how key Protestant theologians challenged Protestant theology in Latin America to develop a Trinitarian hermeneutic for Christology in order to see the work of salvation as the work of the triune God, and to relate Christology and pneumatology in ways that fundamentally shape the praxis of the church.

How did the powers work in the Pauline community? Robert Ewusie Moses argues that Paul's conception of the powers is best understood through examining the practices he advocates for the early believers. In this detailed study, Moses shows that Paul believed certain practices guarded believers from the dominion of the powers while others exposed humans to the powers of darkness. Moses traces the distinct function of power-practices in each of Pauls letters and draws illuminating comparisons with traditional African religious practices.

Rupturing Eschatology is Eric Trozzos constructive retrieval of Luthers theology of the cross seeking to establish a contemporary Lutheran and emerging account of the cross, silence, and eschatology. The book explores Luthers early theology of the cross and divine hiddenness in concert with the work of the Lutheran mystical tradition and modern Lutheran theology. Trozzo argues for an account of divine possibility oriented around a contemporary theology of the cross marked by reclamation of the biblical and mystical practice of silence as the space that creates hope.

Since the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, scholars have traced out the rich and complex traditions of biblical interpretation in Second Temple Judaism. Little attention has been given to Psalm 80, however. Andrew Streett demonstrates that this psalm, which combines the story of Israel as a vine ravaged by others with hope for a son of God who will restore the peoples fortunes, became a rich trove for eschatological hope.This study traces interpretations of Psalm 80 through many texts and argues that the psalm was an important biblical text through which early Christians understood the Christ event.

Revision of author's thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oxford, 2012 under title The spirit of God and the Christian life: a constructive study of Karl Barth's pneumatology with special reference to his incomplete doctrine of redemption.

Revision of author's thesis (Ph. D.)--Loyola University, Chicago, 2011 under title The figure of Adam in Rom 5:12-21 and 1 Cor 15:21-22, 45-49: the new creation and its ethical and social reconfigurations.

James C. Scotts discussion of hidden transcripts of defiance or resistance among subordinate groups has been taken up by scholars who claim to detect elements of defiant transcripts in biblical texts. In Rumors of Resistance, Amanda C. Miller uses Scotts theory to explain tensions within the narrative of the Gospel of Luke. Miller concludes that Lukes audience would have been challenged to resist the dominant values of Roman imperial culture even as the narrative framework of Luke partially obscures that transcript.

Seng-Kong Tan argues that human participation in the divinea classical theological axiom most notably associated with the Eastern Orthodox traditionis a central theme in the theology of Jonathan Edwards. This notion, Tan contends, is a defining motif for the entire systematic sweep of Edwardss theology, and it serves to focus and determine the contours of Edwardss thought. Fullness Received and Returned situates Edwardss theology within the folds of the classical theological tradition, while arguing that Edwardss is a unique and creative form of Reformed theology.

Biblical scholars have often contrasted the exegesis of the early church fathers from Syrian Antioch against that of the school of Alexandria. The Antiochenes have often been described as strictly historical-literal exegetes in contrast to the allegorical exegesis of the Alexandrians. Patristic scholars now challenge those stereotypes, some even arguing that few differences existed between the two groups.

Mark A. Jason offers a detailed investigation of the place of repentance in the Dead Sea Scrolls, addressing a significant lacuna in Qumran scholarship. Normally, when the belief system of the community is examined, "repentance" is usually taken for granted or relegated to a peripheral position. By careful attention to key texts, Jason establishes the importance of repentance as a fundamental way of structuring and describing religious experience within the Qumran community. Repentance was important not only for entry into the community and covenant but also for daily governance and cultic activities, and even for authenticating understanding of the end times. Jason shows, then, that repentance was a central and decisive element in shaping that community's identity and undergirded its religous experience from the start. Further, comparison with relevant texts from the Apocrypha and pseudepigrapha shows that the Qumran community represented a distinctive penitential movement in Second Temple Judaism.

Pamela Shellberg shows that Luke's use of the language of "clean" and "unclean" has particular first-century medical connotations that make it especially powerful for expressing his understanding of the universal salvation prophesied by Isaiah and by Jesus. Shellberg traces how the stories of Jesus' cleansing of leprous bodies in the Gospel become the pattern for the divine cleansing of Gentile hearts throughout Acts, and one of Luke's primary expressions of the means of God's salvation and favor through the dissolving of distinctions between Jew and Gentile.

In failing to take the sacramentality of the word of God seriously, the preaching of the church has suffered negative consequences, particularly failing to bring about divine participation with Jesus corporeal humanity in his living word. In order to recover this sacramental reality, this volume argues that one should consider the annunciation to Mary as the paradigm of the corporeal Christ taking up residence in the flesh of his hearer and delivering the fullness of the Godhead.

Throughout the course of his theological career, Jrgen Moltmann has been interested in the ecclesial and societal consequences of systematic theology and what each doctrine means for our life in this world. The Transformative Church explores these concerns in Moltmanns major texts and highlighting themes relevant for a transformative ecclesiology. Patrick Oden constructs a substantive transformative ecclesiology embedded in this world: we are to become in the church who we are to be in this world, whole in Christ so as to be a messianic people in any context.

Revision of the author's PhD thesis at the University of St. Andrews.--Acknowledgements.

Narrators of the Hebrew Bible generally allow their stories to proceed while relying on characters and dialogue to provide necessary information. Paris calls attention to when the story teller breaks frame to provide information or direct reader understanding, preventing undesirable construals or interpretations of the story. After surveying the phenomenon in the Hebrew Bible and other ancient Near Eastern literature, Paris focuses on the Deuteronomistic History. Paris argues that attention to narrative obtrusion offers an entry point into the world of the narrator and redefines aspects of narrative criticism.

This dissertation intervenes in Reformed readings of the doctrine of providence, particularly around Barths critical interpretation of the tradition stemming from Calvin and Schleiermacher. Kim argues that while Barth advances the discussion, his reading of Calvin is significantly hampered by his challenge to Schleiermacher. Kim provides an extensive reading Calvins writings, demonstrating that Calvin is more concerned with the Christological basis and Christian meaning of providence than Barths theology recognizes; as well, Schleiermachers theological construction problematizes aspects of Barths reading.

There has been a distinct tendency in modern scholarship to underestimate Luthers teaching on love by overemphasizing his teaching on justification. Calling this tendency into question, Sun-young Kim advances the thesis that Luthers teaching on faith and love operates as the overriding thematic pair in the dynamics of Christ and the lawstructurally and conceptually undergirding the 1535 Galatians commentary. The research situates itself in the landscape of Luther scholarship via a special attention to Finnish Luther scholars and scholarship. Luther on Faith and Love argues that in the discussion of proper righteousness and holiness, Luthers redefined love emerges in harmony with faith. His views on Christian freedom, the Christ-given law of love, the twofold way of fulfilling the law, and his Christological premises demonstrate the logical rationale for reintroducing love. This love, designated as a fruit of faith, is incarnated in three major relations: love toward God, toward others, and toward self.