Books published by Augsburg Fortress Publishers

Here is a book that "tells it like it is" regarding what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ in today's world. It is a book that rigorously affirms the freedom of the Christian person, and just as rigorously refutes those who would restrict or negate this freedom in the name of Christian orthodoxy. The author, whose insights were shaped by the agonies of serving as a pastor during the Hitler years in Germany as well as by the discipline of years of careful research in the area of Christian origins, provides here a survey that gets to the heart of the New Testament message. He is ruthlessly honest with himself, with the New Testament, and with the church, as he strives passionately to show that Jesus means freedom - and that this has been so from the beginning.Despite its roots in the experience of the German church in the decades following World War II, Ksemann's work has a broad and enduring relevance. The crisis with which he is concerned is not uniquely that of the German church but affects Christianity throughout the world. It is his conviction that only if the church proclaims boldly the call to freedom that was the Lord's call, and lives in that freedom, can the church remain true to its Lord and of service to humanity.

What should be the Christian attitude toward money and possessions? Have our own possessions left us blind to the utopian vision of the first Christians? Is anything short of a complete renunciation of possessions a compromise with Christian teaching?In this brief and lucid study, esteemed New Testament scholar and historian Martin Hengel examines the views of property and riches to be found in the teachings of Jesus, the early Christian communities, and the church fathers down to the fourth century. He compares Christian ideals with those to be found in Judaism and ancient philosophy, and sets what was taught alongside what was achieved in practice. A final chapter summarizes the relevance of these findings for Christianity today, and an annotated reading list indicates suggestions for further study.

Blackwell explores the Passion Story in Mark 14:116:8, then offers concrete suggestions for preaching, teaching, and Bible study. He contends that "the story of the cross as contained in Mark's Passion Story provides a significant way to understand the Christian faith at large."

"This book is not only absorbingly readable but important. For its themes engage effectively with main dilemmas not only of formal theology but of current piety and witness." - Amos N. Wilder, Andover Newton Quarterly "This book is immensely valuable for its persuasive illustrations of the parabolic and metaphoric imagination. McFague attends both to the interpretive and the evaluative levels of hermeneutics. Her readings of specific parables, poems, stories, and autobiographies are insightful and relevant to her thesis that what religious language 'says' is 'conceptually imperceivable and inexpressible.'" - Mary Gerhart, Journal of the American Academy of Religion "It is at the very least a fine guide to one important direction that theological hermeneutics might take, and more than that, it testifies confidently to the presence of still unplumbed resources of the biblical word and its secular counterpart that are there for the imagination's appropriation." - Robert Detweiler, Religious Studies Review "Everyone interested in theology will be stimulated by Sallie McFague's mediating theological position and the form of thinking and discourse she espouses. Those interested in the intercourse between theology and literature will be stimulated by the way she links the two and the perceptive way she handles her literary examples. Biblical scholars will undoubtedly note her primacy of the parables as the central corpus of the biblical records. Preachers of the church will be strengthened by the concern McFague has for the Christian community and the importance of the word through the words of the preachers. With this variety of concerns, Speaking in Parables will have a deservedly wide reading and, perhaps even more important, wide discussion." - Ronald E. Sleeth, Perkins School of Theology Journal

The first nontechnical description of the principles and procedures of narrative criticism. Written for students' and pastors' use in their own exegesis.With great clarity Powell outlines the principles and procedures that narrative critics follow in exegesis of gospel texts and explains concepts such as "point of view," "narration," "irony," and "symbolism." Chapters are devoted to each of the three principal elements of narrative: events, characters, and settings; and case studies are provided to illustrate how the method is applied in each instance. The book concludes with an honest appraisal of the contribution that narrative criticism makes, a consideration of objections that have been raised against the use of this method, and a discussion of the hermeneutical implications this method raises for the church.

Professor McCarter here offers an introduction to the art and science of textual criticism for students of the Hebrew Bible. His emphasis is on the work involved in the critical evaluation of a given portion of text. His explanations of critical principles are illustrated with carefully selected examples of the textual phenomena discussed-in Hebrew, with English translations. The book concludes with unique appendices on several kinds of essential but hard-to-find information.

* Provides a simple three-step process to discover the core claim of the sermon * Helps preacher to create sermons that engage head, heart, and hand * Keyed to online sermon samples and other Web-based features

Confessional writings of the Lutheran Church and other information essential to understanding the confessions.

Over the last two decades, traditional formulations of the idea of atonement have come under heavy attack from feminist theologians and others. They argue that the traditional view valorizes suffering and encourages people to acquiesce in needless self-sacrificing, that it is unseemly to think of God as demanding suffering of his son, and that the theology of the cross needs to be rethought in light of the whole life, ministry, and resurrection of Jesus.Equally committed to the insights of the theology of the cross and feminist theology, Deanna Thompson takes up these contentious issues here in a creative and nuanced way. Her work emerges from direct engagement with Martin Luther and the Heidelberg Disputation as well as with the architects of reformist feminism. She finds surprising common ground on issues of suffering, abuse, atonement, reform, ethics, and the import of Jesus, and her book culminates in a constructive and promising feminist theology of the cross.

Tomson has written an accessible, responsible analysis of the biblical accounts of Jesus' death, demonstrating how, through compounded misunderstandings, they contributed to anti-Jewish sentiment in the early church and later history.

This insightful work examines the variety of ways that collective memory, oral tradition, history, and history writing intersect. Integral to all this are the ways in which ancient Israel was shaped by the monarchy, the Babylonian exile, and the dispersions of Judeans and the ways in which Israel conceptualized and interacted with the divine-Yahweh as well as other deities.

Romans (Augsburg Commentary on the New Testament)

When stormy trials hit us, our recollection of Jesus' faithfulness can fade as worry, anger, jealousy, fear, sickness, stress, and unforgiveness threaten to rob us of the love and hope that can be found in Jesus. And yet we can experience comfort in the womb of these stormy seasons. Pondering on the stories surrounding Jesus' life presents us with practical wisdom on how to respond to the turbulent episodes we encounter. Jesus' teachings can rejuvenate and instill within us a sense of hope in his love. If we allow him, Jesus can be enough for us, in and out of the storms of life.

An extremely modern approach on how to preach, stressing the individuality of each sermon. An aid to the experienced preacher as well as the seminary student. Choice of mode, tense, proper use of voice, words, logic, etc.-all these and more topics are treated.