Encountering The Parables In Contexts Old And New

"The contributors to this book pursue three important lines of inquiry into parable study, in order to illustrate how these lessons have been received throughout the millennia. The contributors consider not only the historical and material world of the parables' composition, and focusing on the social, political, economic, and material reality of that world, but also seek to connect how the parables may have been seen and heard in ancient contexts with how they have been, and continue to be, seen and heard. Intentionally allowing for a "bounded openness" of approach and interpretation, these essays explore numerous contexts, encounters and responses. Examining topics ranging from ancient harvest imagery and dependency relations to contemporary experience with the narratives and lessons of the parables, this volume seeks to link those very real ancient contexts with our own varied modern contexts"--

The contributors to this book pursue three important lines of inquiry into parable study, in order to illustrate how these lessons have been received throughout the millennia. The contributors consider not only the historical and material world of the parables' composition, and focusing on the social, political, economic, and material reality of that world, but also seek to connect how the parables may have been seen and heard in ancient contexts with how they have been, and continue to be, seen and heard. Intentionally allowing for a “bounded openness” of approach and interpretation, these essays explore numerous contexts, encounters and responses. Examining topics ranging from ancient harvest imagery and dependency relations to contemporary experience with the narratives and lessons of the parables, this volume seeks to link those very real ancient contexts with our own varied modern contexts.

The contributors to this book pursue three important lines of inquiry into parable study, in order to illustrate how these lessons have been received throughout the millennia. The contributors consider not only the historical and material world of the parables' composition, and focusing on the social, political, economic, and material reality of that world, but also seek to connect how the parables may have been seen and heard in ancient contexts with how they have been, and continue to be, seen and heard. Intentionally allowing for a “bounded openness” of approach and interpretation, these essays explore numerous contexts, encounters and responses. Examining topics ranging from ancient harvest imagery and dependency relations to contemporary experience with the narratives and lessons of the parables, this volume seeks to link those very real ancient contexts with our own varied modern contexts.

Reading the Bible in Australia invites reflection about how the Bible matters to Australia. Contributors probe intersections between vital debates about Australian identity (who we have been, are, and aspire to become) and the Bible, bringing a range of perspectives to critical themes--indigeneity, colonization, and migration; landscape, biodiversity, and climate; gender and marginality; economics, ideology, and rhetoric. Each chapter explores the past and present influence of a biblical text or theme. Some offer fresh contextually and ethically informed readings. All interrogate the wider outcomes of reading the Bible in different ways. Given the tragic consequences of how it has been used historically, and sometimes still is, some Australians would exclude the Bible and its interpreters from public debate. Yet, as Meredith Lake's The Bible in Australia demonstrates, "a degree of biblical literacy--along with critical skill in evaluating how the Bible has been taken up and interpreted in our history--can only help Australians grapple well with the choices Australia faces." Love it or hate it, there is no getting around the reality that the Bible, and how it is read, still matters.

The essays in this volume are an expression of appreciation of Wendell Lee Willis, who recently retired after a distinguished career as a classroom teacher, colleague, and scholar. Current and former colleagues have written to advance Wendell’s research interests in the various contexts of early Christianity, particularly in the apostle Paul, New Testament ethics, and ecclesiology. Essays include discussions of issues related to Paul's correspondence with the church in Corinth and the depiction of Paul in Acts, Jesus’s parables, meals, and the religious and socio-political world in which Christianity arose.

The Power of Parables documents the surprising ways in which Jewish and Christian parables bridge religion with daily life. This 2019 conference volume rediscovers the original power of parables to shock and affect their audience, which has since been reduced by centuries of preaching and repetition. Not only do parables enhance the perspective on Scripture or the kingdom of heaven, they also change the sensory regime of the audience in perceiving the outer world. The theological differences in their applications appear secondary in view of their powerful rhetoric and suggest a shared genre.

This volume brings together scholars of both the Old and New Testaments to discuss three areas of methodological interest in respect of the use of the Old Testament in the New (OT/NT). It begins with an interdisciplinary conversation into insights that OT/NT scholars might glean from other related disciplines and approaches. The subsequent essays consider the notion of an Old Testament text's 'context', and how contemporaneous authors such as Philo or the Qumran community conceived of, and attended to, the concept. The contributors then turn their focus to the criteria that can/should be used for determining Old Testament allusions or echoes, and the legitimacy for so doing, particularly responding to the work of Richard Hays. The volume closes with a fresh proposal for OT/NT methodology, along with a concluding reflection on the collected essays.

This volume contributes to the study of the identity of Jesus, focusing on how he was originally perceived both by his contemporaries and in the earliest Christian writings. The essays include studies of methodology, archaeology, background, individual gospel perspectives, gospel relationships, intertextuality in the gospels, the earliest reception of the Jesus tradition in the post-Easter writings of the New Testament, and the missiological and pedagogical implications of Jesus' teaching. John Nolland is the reason for this volume, and his important writings on the gospels are its backdrop. The contributors, who include N.T. Wright, Craig Evans, Darrell Bock, Rainer Riesner and Roland Deines, pay tribute to Nolland's work and ideas, by drawing on his writings, and by exploring questions and issues close to his heart.