Böcker av Christopher Rowland

This two-volume collection of essays on the Bible and social justice, liberation theology, and radical Christianity by Christopher Rowland addresses the question raised by Gustavo Gutierrez about how we can speak of God as a loving parent in a world that continues to be so inhumane. These essays by an esteemed New Testament scholar represent intellectual interests of a lifetime as he integrated exegesis of the New Testament texts in their first-century contexts and located their interpretations within the quests for meaning and significance that exist within contemporary society. These essays represent mostly the latter concern--exploring Christian Scripture, which has informed the lives of men and women down the centuries--as they interpret both contexts, and in doing so make a significant contribution to contextual theology that should be heard by the inhabitants of both contexts. The first volume of Speaking of God in an Inhumane World includes essays on liberation theology and radical Christianity; the second volume focuses primarily on radical Christianity and includes reflections on Gerrard Winstanley, William Blake, William Stringfellow, and others.

The Open Heaven offers a comprehensive discussion of Jewish apocalyptic literature and themes in the Second Temple period and in early Christianity. In it there is a sustained challenge to the widespread view that apocalypticism is a form of eschatology, and, it has been widely recognised as a significant contribution to the discussion of apcocalypticism in religion since it was first published twenty years ago.By concentrating on the revelatory character of apocalyptic texts ratherthan their diverse contents the author suggests that it is this aspect of the literature which best enables us to understand their distinctive religion. The book offers a sustained argument for the iew that apocalyptic literature is primarily about the disclosure of heavenly wisdom which offers recipients an understanding of life in the present. He also suggests that there ma be some evidence to support the view that apocalypses include reports of visionary experience. The approach to apocalypticism in early Christianity stresses the importance of the visionary element as a decisive element in the history of Christa origins.

This important book provides a sampling of liberation theology's use of biblical texts, relating it to the "standard" methods of interpretation in Europe and America. Divided into four sections, the book sets out contemporary readings of the parable of Jesus influenced by a liberationist perspective; identifies the biblical and theoretical...

Christianity began with the conviction that the old order was finished.

All those beguiled by the work of William Blake recognise the importance of the Bible for his poetic genius, whether as an object of criticism, or an inspiration. This book attempts to locate Blake within the broad spectrum of Christian biblical interpretation, orthodox, heterodox, and radical.

The context and approach of readers have been underestimated in Biblical Exegesis. The Biblical text is credited with an abstract quality that lifts its words above time and space, above human contingencies. This book looks at the interpretations, and how certain subjects have been understood within them, including homosexuality and marriage.