Böcker i Princeton Theological Monograph-serien

Was Jesus a public figure? A political figure? Yes, according to Luke's gospel, Jesus was a Christ who was both public and political. Recent developments in the theory and practice of the study of space have provided tools to classify ancient social-spatial spheres with greater nuance and depth. A broad survey of literary and archaeological resources in the ancient world, as well as an in-depth look at Plutarch's Political Precepts and Philostratus's Life of Apollonius, reveals that the familiar dichotomy of public and private does not suffice to describe the Hellenistic-Roman milieu that shaped the author and audience of the third gospel.This study employs social-spatial analysis to explore how Luke uses the power of place to portray Jesus frequently engaging the unofficial public sphere and local politics, specifically in 18:35--19:43--the public healing of the blind beggar, the unexpected impact of Zacchaeus's hospitality, the political implications of the parable of the king and his subjects, and the publicity and politics of Jesus' entry into Jerusalem. The result is an illuminating look at the overall spatial character of Luke's gospel, the development of Christianity in the latter half of the first century, and the role of place in contemporary Christianity.

Too often the negative characterization of "others" in the biblical text is applied to groups and persons beyond the text whom we wish to define as the Other. Otherness is a synthetic and political social construct that allows us to create and maintain boundaries between "them" and "us." The other that is too similar to us is most problematic. This book demonstrates how proximate characters are constructed as the Other in the Acts of the Apostles. Charismatics, Jews, and women are proximate others who are constructed as the external and internal Other.

Martin Luther and Buddhism: Aesthetics of Suffering carefully traces the historical and theological context of Luther''s breakthrough in terms of articulating justification and justice in connection to the Word of God and divine suffering. Chung critically and constructively engages in dialogue with Luther and with later interpreters of Luther such as Barth and Moltmann, placing the Reformer in dialogue not only with Asian spirituality and religions but also with emerging global theology of religions.""After reading I put this book down with great surprise and decided to encourage students and anyone interested in theology in Europe, America and Asia to urgently and repeatedly read it."" --Jurgen Moltmann, Professor Emeritus at the University of Tubingen.""Dr. Chung is engaged in a deeply theological reflection about Buddhism and Protestantism. His work is original and profound."" --John B. Cobb, Jr., Ingraham Professor Emeritus at the Claremont School of Theology ""Of all the ''turns'' in Luther studies, the turn to Asia, so eloquently and powerfully heralded by Paul Chung, might end up being the most significant one both ecumenically and theologically. As a scholar fully conversant with both the best of Western and Asian traditions, Dr. Chung is uniquely qualified for helping us read not only in Buddhist context but also in a wider contextual and global horizon. This is the direction of international systematic-hermeneutical theology for the third millennium!"" --Veli-Matti Karkkainen, Professor of Systematic Theology, Fuller Theological Seminary, and Docent of Ecumenics, University of Helsinki.""The primary goal of interreligious dialogue is mutual creative transformation. For this reason alone, Martin Luther and Buddhism deserves the attention of both Christians and Buddhists."" --Paul O. Ingram, Professor Emeritus, Pacific Lutheran University""The book on Martin Luther and Buddhism by Paul Chung is a fascinating attempt to develop an emancipation theology of religions in the Asian context of poverty and suffering as well as of religious plurality."" --Ulrich Duchrow, Professor of Systematic Theology, University of Heidelberg ""Paul S. Chung''s response to the challenge of religious pluralism is bold, timely, and provocative, as he engages Buddhism in Asia--with its notion of dukkha (suffering)--Luther''s theology of the cross, and Karl Barth''s accent on the universal reign of Jesus Christ."" --Winston D. Persaud, Professor of Systematic Theology, Wartburg Theological Seminary""Bringing together Luther''s theology with Buddhist understanding as embedded in Asian culture is a huge challenge. Dr. Chung takes on this challenge with a far-ranging breadth of knowledge and creative insight, especially for interfaith dialogue."" --Karen L. Bloomquist, Director for Theology and Studies at the Lutheran World Federation and Adjunct Professor of Theological Ethics, Wartburg Theological Seminary Paul S. Chung is Assistant Professor of Lutheran Witness and World Christianity at Wartburg Theological Seminary in Dubuque, Iowa.

This work is a fresh, unusually lucid approach to Christian theology and interfaith dialogue from India. Its basic aim is to examine ""the Christian consciousness of God''s work in history""--redemption history within the entire history of the world. It uses Christian Faith by Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768-1834) as its main text, so as to view this theme ""in a reversed order from the way it is presented there."" This approach, which centers on God''s ""new creation"" in Christ, leads to an incisive understanding of Christianity''s relation to other modes of faith. Throughout, Dr. Kunnuthara compares the thought of another Indian Christian leader steeped in Hindu thought, Pandippedi Chenchiah (1886-1959), to enable renewed interfaith dialogue across a wide spectrum.""Abraham Kunnuthara has written a well conceived and creative book, offering a reading of the Christian Faith that presents its theology ''in reverse''--beginning not from the Introduction but from the theme of redemption in Christ as presented later in Part Two. This strategy opens novel access to the Christological and historical character of Schleiermacher''s dogmatics, insofar as it highlights the point that Christian consciousness of God''s work in history is identical with God''s work in Jesus. The book is an insightful achievement. I will recommend it to students as a solid resource for engaging Schleiermacher.""--Thomas E. Reynolds, author of The Broken Whole: Philosophical Steps Toward a Theology of Global Solidarity ""Kunnuthara innovatively and skillfully crosses boundaries in order to profoundly illuminate Christian experience of divine providence. He creatively works between Indian and Western Christianity, between academic and practical theological discourses, and between doctrinal and experiential starting points. This carefully written book convincingly demonstrates the power of cross-cultural examination of doctrines to enlarge and to refine Christian faith''s self-understanding.""--Catherine L. Kelsey, Dean of the Chapel and Spiritual Life, Iliff School of Theology and author of Thinking About Christ with Schleiermacher and Schleiermacher''s Preaching, Dogmatics, and Biblical Criticism""As the advisor of Kunnuthara''s research, I am happy to commend his work as an Indian professor who is involved in East-West dialogue. He examines Schleiermacher as a bridge to understanding other ways of faith. Using Chenchiah as well, he enables dialogue that is necessary in the contemporary world.""--Lanier Burns, Dallas Theological SeminaryAbraham Varghese Kunnuthara is an East-West trained theologian from the Marthoma Church in South India. He teaches at the Union Biblical Seminary in Pune, Maharashtra, India, a major graduate school serving many smaller denominations there, including those of the lower castes.

Description:Bathsheba is undeniably a minor character in the biblical plotline, appearing in only four chapters in Samuel and Kings combined, and even therein saying and doing very little. Thus she is often ignored or mentioned merely parenthetically. When Bathsheba has been considered, she has been depicted in a myriad of ways on the spectrum from helpless victim to hapless seductress. In fact, with so many different interpretations of her throughout the centuries, it is easy to find oneself asking, along with the anonymous informant in 2 Sam 11:3, ""Isn''t this Bathsheba?""This study argues that while she is a minor character, Bathsheba is complex and positive, and shows development from when she first appears in Samuel to when she fades out of the story in Kings. Koenig compares close and careful reading of Bathsheba in the Masoretic Text with the story as it appears in the versions of the Septuagint, the Peshitta, and the Targum of Jonathan. In those versions, Bathsheba''s characterization as a complex, generally positive individual and as a character who shows development remains consistent with the Masoretic Text: not in spite of the changes from the Hebrew into Greek, Syriac, and Aramaic, but because of them. This study also considers how Bathsheba is portrayed in early Jewish interpretations from Josephus, the Talmud, and rabbinic Midrash. Even there, the portrayal of Bathsheba is rich and positive. Studying Bathsheba''s character has implications for a broader understanding of how texts are read, how meanings are gathered, and how characters are built.Endorsements:""Was the biblical Bathsheba an evil seductress who manipulated her way from wife of Uriah to powerful queen mother alongside King David and Solomon? Or was Bathsheba simply an innocent, naïve, and helpless victim controlled by more powerful men? Sara Koenig''s insightful Isn''t This Bathsheba? argues persuasively that neither view captures the full, complex, and changing biblical presentation of Bathsheba''s character. Koenig''s reading offers a rich and compelling study of an often neglected and misunderstood woman.""--Dennis OlsonPrinceton Theological Seminary""For many readers, David''s larger-than-life personality can easily overshadow Bathsheba. Yet, through an incisive study of one of the Hebrew Bible''s most famous stories, Koenig brings Bathsheba to life in all her depth and complexity. Koenig''s fascinating book reminds us that minor biblical characters are only as flat and uninteresting as our interpretations of them.""--Jeremy SchipperTemple University ""A minor but very well-known character in the biblical story, Bathsheba''s place as a complex and evolving figure in the account of David and Solomon is uncovered in a wide-ranging and fulsome manner. Koenig delves deeply into the biblical text to make us aware of dimensions often missed in a quick reading of the Bathsheba texts. She also widens the picture to include ways in which from the earliest days the tradition has both followed and departed from the story as it first comes to us. I know of no treatment of this biblical woman that compares with what we have in Sara Koenig''s masterful and learned presentation.""--Patrick D. MillerPrinceton Theological SeminaryAbout the Contributor(s):Sara M. Koenig is Assistant Professor of Biblical Studies at Seattle Pacific University.

Description:This essay on Søren Kierkegaard and economic matters from a theological perspective is well grounded in the Dane''s journals. In these writings, the late nineteenth-century thinker shows his solidarity with rural residents (90 percent of the population) and urbanite menial workers. Topics include the option for the poor; the ideology of impotence; the denouncing of a competitive society; the correlation of wealth and poverty; media, church, university, and theater as social institutions shaping reality; Christendom; and the retribution doctrine.A Vexing Gadfly develops the theological themes within the timeframe of ""Golden Age Denmark"" (1800-1860), which includes the period of Denmark''s colonial activities. The historical approach adds flesh to the bones of abstract thought and ahistorical doctrines. Contrary to common belief, Kierkegaard did articulate economic issues through structural categories such as the age, the pyramid, the building, the external revolution, ""the Fire Chief,"" and his diagnosis of society. Ironically, the domestication of Kierkegaard''s economic thought took place from the time of his death on November 11, 1855. His eulogy took place at the most important church of the country, the Church of Our Lady in Copenhagen; his burial at Assistens Cemetery was with full pomp; and by 1971, his statue joined the select club of Mynster, Martensen, Grundvigt, et al., as they surround the wealthy Marble Church.Endorsements:""Finally! After decades of reading and interpreting Kierkegaard as the solitary--and somewhat eccentric--knight of faith, Pérez Álvarez calls our attention to a different Kierkegaard, one deeply engaged in the economic and social issues of his time. In presenting a hitherto discounted and almost unknown Kierkegaard, this book not only corrects much of our traditional understanding, but also leads one to wonder why in the twentieth century we became so enamored with what was clearly a truncated view of the great Danish theologian.""--Justo L. González, author of A History of Christian Thought""A Vexing Gadfly is an extraordinary presentation of the radical economic, social, and political views of the later Kierkegaard as he prophetically and vehemently castigated the nineteenth-century Danish church, state, and their theology and ideology. Dr. Eliseo Pérez-Álvares captures Kierkegaard''s penetrating critique of the social-economic oppression of the marginalized with its relevance for contemporary theology. The cutting irony of a nineteenth-century Dane becomes a powerful voice through a twenty-first-century liberation theologian.""--Mark Thomsen, Lutheran School of Theology at ChicagoPérez-Álvares presents us with a Kierkegaard that is little known: a theologian connected to his time of profound social changes, which takes the side of poor people and produces keen theological reflections regarding economy. Our time is also marked by crises and economic changes that affect the lives of millions of persons. What does Christian theology have to say to the world today? This book is a valuable contribution in the elaboration of this response.--Jung Mo Sung, author of Desire, Market and ReligionAbout the Contributor(s):Eliseo Pérez-Álvarez is Associate Professor of Contextual Theology and Praxis at the Lutheran Seminary Program in the Southwest in Austin. He is the author of We Be Jammin: Liberating Discourses from the Land of the Seven Flags, The Gospel to the Calypsonians: the Caribbean, Bible and Liberation Theology, and Comentario de Marcos

Description:Christians have sometimes professed that the church ought to be ""in the world but not of it,"" yet the meaning and significance of this conviction has continued to challenge and confound. In the context of persecution, Christians in the ancient world tended to distance themselves from the social and civic mainstream, while in the medieval and early modern periods, the church and secular authorities often worked in close relationship, sharing the role of shaping society. In a post-Christendom era, this latter arrangement has been heavily critiqued and largely dismantled, but there is no consensus in Christian thought as to what the alternative should be. The present collection of essays offers new perspectives on this subject matter, drawing on sometimes widely disparate interlocutors, ancient and modern, biblical and ""secular."" Readers will find these essays challenging and thought-provoking.Endorsements:""''Let the Church be the Church!'' In early ecumenical debates, this was a guiding principle. Churches tried to define a new, critical role in society, after having failed to speak up for victims of violence and injustice. Descendents of the Radical Reformation--represented in this volume--confront us with that challenge anew. In dialogue with philosophy, history, sociology, and even the arts, a political theology for an exilic church (or exile-church) is inspired. This holds the potential to make a real difference--and renew the church''s self-understanding.""--Fernando EnnsThe Vrije Universiteit AmsterdamAbout the Contributor(s):Paul G. Doerksen is assistant professor of theology at Canadian Mennonite University. He is the author of Beyond Suspicion: Post-Christendom Protestant Political Theology in John Howard Yoder and Oliver O''Donovan (Wipf & Stock, 2010).Karl Koop is professor of history and theology at Canadian Mennonite University. He recently published Confessions of Faith in the Anabaptist Tradition, 1527-1660 (2006).