Books published by Augsburg Fortress Publishers

Historical biblical criticism is bankrupt. That startling affirmation began The Bible in Human Transformation when it first appeared in 1975. Wink asserts that despite the valuable contributions of the historical-critical method, we have reached the point where this method is incapable of allowing Scripture to evoke personal and social transformation today. More than thirty years later, Wink now looks back in a new preface over the more and less humanizing developments in New Testament studies of the last few decades and renews his call for a transforming approach to biblical interpretation.

This volume provides a readable introduction to the narrative book of Ruth appropriate for the student, pastor, and scholar. LaCocque combines historical, literary, feminist, and liberationist approaches in an engaging synthesis. He argues that the book was written in the post-exilic period and that the author was a woman. Countering the fears and xenophobia of many in Jerusalem, the biblical author employed the notion of h.esed (kindness, loyalty, steadfast love), which transcends any national boundaries. LaCocque focuses on redemption and levirate marriage as the two legal issues that recur throughout the text of Ruth. Ruth comes from the despised people of Moab but becomes a model for Israel. Boaz, converted to the model of steadfast love, becomes both redeemer and levir for Ruth and thus fulfills the Torah. In the conclusion to his study, the author sketches some parallels with Jesus' hermeneutics of the Law as well as postmodern problems and solutions.

Wolff's commentary on Micah is one of the most thorough works available in English. His insightful observations on the message of the prophet make this book a standard commentary on Micah for years to come. It is highly recommended to scholars, ministers, and theological students as an indispensable aid.

Couples can make significant progress toward resolving their own problems when they receive appropriate guidance from a caring person. This book outlines five tasks focused on identity, agency, and meaning that spiritual caregivers can use to empower couples for significant change in just three to five conversations. This form of empowering guidance is a dimension of pastoral conversation rather than formal counseling. Critically integrating desert spiritual theology with empirical data about successful marriages, Bidwell advocates for mutuality and partnership within covenanted relationships, which allows partners to create an alliance strong enough to resist the forces that threaten relationshipsespecially the negative influences of criticism, contempt, defensiveness, and withdrawal.

What distinguishes the new perspective on Pauland what lies beyond it? What are scholars saying about Paul and the Roman Empire or about the intersection between feminist and postcolonial interpretation of Paul? Magnus Zetterholm provides a clear and reliable guide to these and other lively issues in the contemporary study of Paul, surveying the history of the principal perspectives on Pauls relation to Judaism and the Jewish law and showing the relationships between answers given to those questions and the assumptions scholars bring to other issues as well.

Visionary yet practical, Nessans influential book makes a persuasive case for the centrality of mission in the life of the church. Nessans model of mission-driven leadership is strongly centered on the community of faiths worship and draws unique connections between the worship life of a congregation and every aspect of the churchs ministry. Around the twin foci of congregational identity and mission, the chapters in this dynamic book provide solid theological and radical direction on the themes of worship, education, fellowship, stewardship, evangelism, global connections, and social ministry.

* Equally sensitive to theological and scientific thought * A systematic presentation of divine action in a panentheistic framework

"Ebeling is a scholar of distinction and writes on a subject of stature." -- Geoffrey Bromiley, Christianity Today "This 'introduction' to Luther's way of thinking is a series of commentaries on the main themes of Luther's thought: letter and spirit; law and gospel; person and work; faith and love; the kingdom of Christ and the world; Christian man and secular man; God hidden and revealed. The themes are introduced by aptly chosen passages from Luther's writings and they are discussed with a theological shrewdness which is born of a thorough acquaintance with Luther, the creative theologian, and an intense participation in the theological struggles of today.... This is a very suggestive and rewarding book." -- Wilhelm Pauck, Theology Today "Gerhard Ebeling will be remembered as one of the most distinguished and influential theologians of the twentieth century.... The unity among theological profundity, ethical sensitivity, human wisdom, and the refined style of his German prose constitutes a permanent intellectual treasure to be gratefully enjoyed time and again as we enter into the uncertainties of the new millennium." -- Hans Dieter Betz, The Journal of Religion "Ebeling does more than interpret and relate Luther's thought for us, he actually introduces us to Luther himself.... He furthers our understanding of both Luther and the contemporary hermeneutical issues by dealing with the way Luther grasped and spoke the word of God." -- Carter Lindberg, Interpretation

"A diligent and carefully argued exercise in the historico-critical method, Hans Dieter Betz' Essays present the Sermon on the Mount (SM) as a pre-Matthean composition coming from a Jewish-Christian community engaged in the polemical process of constructing an identity vis-á-vis mainstream Jewish (Pharisaic) groups on the one hand and emerging Gentile Christianity on the other. It is this process that prompts the SM compiler(s) to rethink and rework the inherited Jesus tradition. Since the first appearance of the Essays in 1985 - the classic Hermeneia commentary on the SM by the author would be published in 1995 - they have remained essential reading for students of the New Testament and its Hellenistic and Jewish settings. Today, the exciting new ways of reading the Sermon suggested in Betz' seminal work continue to inform our search for a fuller and clearer grasp of the multi-faceted and dynamic world of nascent Christianity, as well as the ongoing quest for the historical Jesus." -Serge Ruzer> "The perspective that unifies these essays is the assertion that the Sermon on the Mount should be recognized and studied as an independent composition that was compiled prior to its incorporation into the Gospel of Matthew... Betz argues that the Sermon on the Mount is an epitome, that is, a condensation of the teachings of Jesus, collected for the purpose of brevity and precision. Such a genre was useful, because it encouraged a follower or disciple to keep the teacher's entire system in mind." -Theology Today

* A ground-breaking treatment of the unsung women prophets of biblical tradition * Explores the prophetic trajectory in rabbinic Judaism