"For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope." Jeremiah 29:11 How do we know God's plans for us? How do we know God leads and talks to us daily? How do we become more disciplined in our spiritual walk in order to better hear God's voice and guidance in our lives? There are no easy answers to these questions. However, when we are intentio ...
There are few more loaded words in American life than «family.» Jesus grew up in one and honored his parents in fulfillment of the commandments. But his teachings on family life stand among the most jarring things he ever said. Jesus invites serious followers to «hate» mother and father. He predicts discipleship will bring division rather than peace to family life. He completely recasts the definition of kinship as «whoever does the will of God. ...
Although the object of centuries of study, only relatively recently has Genesis 1-11 been analyzed with attention to its literary unity and theological purpose. With the latter twentieth century's increased attention to synchronic approaches, many scholars began to consider Genesis 1-11 from the perspective of a literary unity in its final form and, therefore, to consider matters of intent and theological content. Yet, in spite of these tre ...
What is history and how does it impact biblical interpretation and theology? Allegorizing History seeks to begin answering this question by arguing that conceptions of the past and the purpose(s) of history impact biblical interpretation and vice versa. Furthermore, it is shown how philosophy and theology inevitably affect the understandings and practice of historical writing, thereby making all history figural or allegorical. Famous for his Ecc ...
This volume of essays centers on the theme of doing Christian theology in the present postmodern context, a consistent theme of the teaching of John D. Castelein. The work will celebrate and honor John's years of service by representing reflections of his teaching in the thought of his students and colleagues. The essays range over such topics as theological reflections on the postmodern philosophical themes, the relations between Christian ...
What have the Psalms to do with ethics? Readers prize the Psalter for its richly theological prayers, but into these prayers are woven a variety of ethical issues. This book explores the ethics of the Psalter by examining the four portraits of the righteous person that punctuate Book I. It begins by studying these psalms as individual compositions and then employs both the canonical approach and dialogic criticism to identify the complex relatio ...
Hope Revealed sets the record straight. Revelation is not as bizarre and vindictive as many have imagined. Its message is hopeful, not pessimistic, world-affirming, not world-denying, and thoroughly congruent with the biblical emphasis on love, reconciliation, and forgiveness. Revelation invites us to drink deeply from its metaphors of promise and warning, vision and blessing. While Revelation's method and theological conceptuality are rela ...
Meditate on these things . . . The discipline of meditating day and night in the Book of the Lord (Joshua 1; Psalm 1) is a costly art, hard won in any age–perhaps even more so in today's stressful times of multi-tasking ministry and cut-and-paste computing. First hand-written in black-and-red notebooks from scraps of paper, using only a King James Bible and a Strong's Concordance, The House of God records the spiritual exercise of a ...
How are we to read the Gospels and bring them into our lives? The idea of this book is that the Gospels are not merely rules for life, or stories illustrating moral lessons, or statements of theological doctrine, but invitations to thought and conversation. The Gospels are full of problems, uncertainties, and tensions; these difficulties call upon us to engage with the Gospels in a new way: to read them, to ask questions about them, to live with ...
