Christianity, Wild Turkey, and Syphilis

Church History, 2006

Indonesia which also has allowed me to study abroad for a few years. RS January 1993 'Bloan uses the terms J or E pragmatically, that is, only in order to compare and analyze the literariness of the stories of these authors with the attention particularly on J. 2Harold Bloom, Ruin the Sacred Truths: Poetry and Belief fran the Bible to the Present, 1989, p. 9. 3Blom, ibid., p. 4.

Scottish Journal of Theology, 1997

Jewish Quarterly Review 100 (2010): 139-152, 2010

The Bible and Critical Theory, 2010

This is an impressive collection of 49 essays by 50 contributors including the four editors and it covers a period from the late 7th century (Caedmon) to the mid-20th century (T.S. Eliot). It is restricted to authors in the British canon (see p. 6). There are apparently no plans for Wiley-Blackwell to publish matching volumes for other English speaking countries or for literature in other languages. Most of the contributors are from British and American universities and there are two independent scholars included. Following three essays on the Bible and literature in general the book is divided into five parts according to historical periods in English literature: Medieval, Early Modern, Eighteenth Century and Romantic, Victorian and Modernist. Each part comprises a general introduction followed by a varying number of essays on individual authors, groups or genres. The latter two comprise 15 chapters and are exemplified by titles such as 'The Medieval Religious Lyric', 'Early Modern Women', 'Sensation Fiction' (late 19 th c.), 'Decadence' and 'The Great War Poets', the final essay in the collection. These chapters often discuss lesser known authors such as Mary Pope and Anna Trapnel (17 th c.; pp. 175-76) and give an overview of a period. The individuals treated are all stars in the British literary firmament. Readers will certainly question, as I have, why some writers are included and others not-for example, why a chapter on Christina Rossetti and no chapter on Keats? My concern is not with these issues of canon and who is in and not in the collection, but with the richness and diversity of the material, both the literature itself and the presentations in this volume. However, there is no mention of authors of any period who do not engage or use the Bible in any fashion in their work leaving the impres-BOOK REVIEWS

Review of Biblical Literature, 2019

Description: This book offers two things in particular: first, these are papers that have been commented on and re-worked in the context of a set of lively sessions from (International) SBL conferences from 2012 to 2014 (Amsterdam, St. Andrews, Vienna). Second, they offer an insight into the origins of the discipline as one which became conscious of itself in the early modern era and the turn to history and the analysis of texts, to offer something exegetical and synthetic. The fresh wind that the enterprise received in the latter part of the twentieth century is the focus of the second part of the volume, which describes the recent activity up to the present "state of the question" The third part takes a step further to anticipate the way forward for the discipline in an era where "canon"--but also "Scripture" and "theology"--seem to be alien terms, and where other ideologies are advanced in the name of neutrality. Biblical Theology will aim to be true to the evidence of the text: it will not always see clearly, but it will rely on the best of biblical criticism and theological discernment to help it. That is the spirit with which this present volume is imbued. Subjects: Methods, Theological Approaches, Biblical Theology

Rivista Biblica, 2024

Reform and counterreform: dialectics of the Word in …, 1994

Religion and Theology, 2005

churches are renamed and there are quite a few 'Community Churches' these days -not to mention churches that follow the example of 'Willow Creek' and introduce 'cell churches' in their congregations. Christianity in the US has indeed become the trend-setter. But whether this is good for Christianity is another question. Chapter 4 discusses four issues that are important in the future development of Christianity. These issues are (1) the threat of fundamentalism; (2) the relationship between Christianity and Islam; (3) the future of ecumenism; and (4) English as the lingua franca of global Christianity. Chapter 5 concerns the future of Christianity. I cannot find any fault with McGrath's predictions that Roman Catholicism, Pentecostalism, Evangelicalism and Eastern Orthodoxy will grow. However, he does not discuss the possibility of a new reformation within Western Christianity. The last chapter discusses the issue of academic theology challenging the ideas of ordinary Christians. This, according to McGrath, is not good for the life of the church. Theology should support the ideas of ordinary Christians. Theology should not be practised for the sake of theology itself. It should be for the sake of the church. I was a bit baffled by this chapter. According to me, those theologians who discuss the untenability of the traditional doctrines are playing the type of role that McGrath assigns to 'organic theologians', but he himself does not recognise them as such. It is a fact that these scholars are mostly biblical scholars and not systematic theologians. McGrath wrote the following in the preface to his book: 'All is not well in the household of faith of the west, supremely the mainline Protestant denominations.' The book gives a good overview of this crisis and should be read by all who are interested in the future of Christianity. But, do not expect to learn something about the new reformation and the role that biblical scholars the world over are playing at this movement.