God S Holy People

Offers an integrated theological vision of the Old and New Testaments that highlights the pattern of God's work through scripture.

God calls his people to be holy. What does this mean? Holiness means belonging to God and being stamped with his character. This belonging is expressed for ancient Israel in the story of the foundational events on Mount Sinai. The idea is then developed, refined and transformed through the establishment of the priesthood, the gift of the Law, the challenge of the prophets and, in the New Testament, through the life of Christ. This book sets out these perspectives alongside each other, and considers their interplay within the canon of scripture as a whole. The result is both a biblical theology of holiness and a promising model for reinterpreting one text in the light on another.

This collection of essays addresses aspects of Christian identity formation as God’s holy people in a global context in the midst of various challenges. The contributors offer interdisciplinary explorations on what it means to live as God’s holy people in different settings and consider challenging questions from biblical, historical, theological, missiological, and pastoral perspectives.

Teaching on the sanctification of Christians using the difficult word perfection has been part of Christian spirituality through the centuries. The Fathers spoke of it and Augustine particularly contributed his penetrating analysis of human motivation in terms of love. Medieval theologians such as Bernard and Thomas Aquinas developed the tradition and wrote of levels or "degrees" of "perfection" in love. However, the doctrine has not fared so well among Protestants. John Wesley was the one major Protestant leader who tried to blend this ancient tradition of Christian "perfection" with the Reformation proclamation of justification by grace through faith. This book seeks to develop Wesley's synthesis of patristic and Reformation theology in order to consider how Christian "perfection" can be expressed in a more nuanced way in today's culture. Noble examines what basis may be found for Wesley's understanding of sanctification in the central doctrines of the church, particularly the atonement, the doctrine of Christ, and the most comprehensive of all Christian doctrines, the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. What he sets out is a fully trinitarian theology of holiness.

Focused on the Old Testament book of Leviticus, this volume in the acclaimed Preaching the Word series explores how a holy God has made enduring provision for his people to live set-apart lives and worship him.

A Holy People investigates the various ways in which Jews and Christians define their religious identity, people or community, as being holy. Keeping in mind that historical studies can offer food for thought regarding contemporary issues, the study offers a large collection of essays, relating to the biblical, patristic and medieval period and especially to the modern period. The obvious question of many in the modern world as to whether the attribute of the ‘holiness’ allows for acknowledgement of authentic religion outside the own religious community, deserves an honest answer and well-documented study: too easily the claim of holiness intertwines with claims of power, whether by rivalling groups within the religious community, by groups divided along gender lines, or on the level of territorial claims. It will be of special importance to scholars and general readers interested in an interdisciplinary approach to theology, rabbinics, history, political science, and much more.

The challenge of a seemingly genocidal God who commands ruthless warfare has bewildered Bible readers for generations. The theme of divine war is not limited to the Old Testament historical books, however. It is also prevalent in the prophets and wisdom literature as well. Still it doesn t stop. The New Testament book of Revelation, too, is full of such imagery. Our questions multiply. Why does God apparently tell Joshua to wipe out whole cities, tribes or nations? Is this yet another example of dogmatic religious conviction breeding violence? Did these texts help inspire or justify the Crusades? What impact do they have on Christian morality and just war theories today? How does divine warfare fit with Christ s call to "turn the other cheek"? Why does Paul employ warfare imagery in his letters? Do these texts warrant questioning the overall trustworthiness of the Bible? These controversial yet theologically vital issues call for thorough interpretation, especially given a long history of misinterpretation and misappropriaton of these texts. This book does more, however. A range of expert contributors engage in a multidisciplinary approach that considers the issue from a variety of perspectives: biblical, ethical, philosophical and theological. While the writers recognize that such a difficult and delicate topic cannot be resolved in a simplistic manner, the different threads of this book weave together a satisfying tapestry. Ultimately we find in the overarching biblical narrative a picture of divine redemption that shows the place of divine war in the salvific movement of God.

God calls his people to be holy. What does this mean? Holiness means belonging to God and being stamped with his character. This belonging is expressed for ancient Israel in the story of the foundational events on Mount Sinai. The idea is then developed, refined and transformed through the establishment of the priesthood, the gift of the Law, the challenge of the prophets and, in the New Testament, through the life of Christ. This book sets out these perspectives alongside each other, and considers their interplay within the canon of scripture as a whole. The result is both a biblical theology of holiness and a promising model for reinterpreting one text in the light on another.