Outside The Camp

Outside the Camp is a powerful prophetic perspective of the changing landscape of the church, providing a breath of fresh air and much needed encouragement to believers. With insight from Scripture, through dreams, a vision, and a personal journey of humility, Colin heralds “He makes winds his messengers” (Psalm 104:4). There is an age-old resistance to these winds. Are you with the winds or resisting them? Here is a compelling summons for believers to go to Jesus and be with him “outside the camp” (Hebrews 13:13).

Johnson's study of Hebrews is unusual in adopting a social-scientific analysis. By examining the implicit sociological data in the Epistle to the Hebrews, and locating the implied society within the context of the larger Graeco-Roman world, he concludes that the author of Hebrews advocates an ideal society that is both more open to outsiders and more willing to assimilate fully new members than was first-century ce hellenistic Judaism. According to the group/grid paradigm developed by Mary Douglas, the implied society can be categorized as +weak' group/'weak' grid, in contrast to +strong' group/'strong' grid Hellenistic Judaism. The critique of the levitical system in Hebrews can be seen as supporting the author's advocacy of that implied open society.

The second annual St. Andrews Conference on Scripture and Theology brought leading biblical scholars and systematic theologians together in conversation, seeking to bridge the growing gap between these disciplines. Reflecting the convergence of the Old Testament s cultic theology, Hellenistic ideas, and early Christian thinking, the epistle to the Hebrews provides a perfect foundation for this fruitful dialogue. / The contributors examine a number of key theological themes in the letter to the Hebrews: the person and nature of the Son, his high-priestly work, cosmology, the epistle s theology of Scripture, supersessionism, the call to faith, and more. Unlike many modern treatments, this substantial volume considers Hebrews in both its ancient context and against our modern backdrop. / Edward Adams, Loveday Alexander, Harold W. Attridge, Richard Bauckham, Markus Bockmuehl, Daniel Driver, Douglas Farrow, Trevor Hart, Richard B. Hays, Stephen R. Holmes, Morna D. Hooker, Edison M. Kalengyo, Mariam J. Kamell, Bruce L. McCormack, Nathan MacDonald, I. Howard Marshall, R. Walter L. Moberly, Carl Mosser, Mark D. Nanos, Nehemia Polen, John Polkinghorne, Ken Schenck, Oskar Skarsaune, Daniel J. Treier, John Webster, Ben Witherington III, Terry J. Wright.

The camp is nothing if not diverse: in kind, scope, and particularity; in sociological and juridical configuration; in texture, iconography, and political import. Adjectives of camp specificity embrace a spectrum from extermination and concentration, to detention, migration, deportation, and refugee camps. And while the geographic range covered by contributors is hardly global, it is broad: Chile, Rwanda, Canada, the US, Central Europe, Morocco, Algeria, South Africa, France and Spain. And yet—is to so characterize the camp to run the risk of diffusing what in origin is a concentration into a paratactical series of “identity particularisms”? While The Camp does not seek to antithetically promulgate a universalist vision, it does aim to explore the imbrication of the particular and the universal, to analyze the structure of a camp or camps, and to call attention the role of the listener in the construction of the testimony. For, by naming what cannot be said, is not every narrative of internment and exclusion a potential site of agency, articulating the inner splitting of language that Giorgio Agamben defines as the locus of testimony: “to bear witness is to place oneself in one’s own language in the position of those who have lost it, to establish oneself in a living language as if it were dead, or in a dead language as if it were living.”

Solidly theological, amply historical, thoroughly ecumenical, and remarkably current, Orlando Costas' 'Christ Outside the Gate' is the most succinct, yet comprehensive analysis of the missiological issues facing the church and the churches that has appeared in many years."" --Alan Neely, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Wake Forest Learning and passion come together in Christ Outside the Gate to make it an outstanding contribution to missiology."" --Gabriel Fackre, Abbot Professor of Christian Theology, Andover Newton Theological School You have in your hands a new way of seeing missions--North America as a receiving country, the marginalized as the subject as well as object of missions, world evangelization with one foot in Melbourne and one foot in Pattaya. Few authors blend together so effectively so many worlds--evangelism and scholarship, northern hemisphere and southern hemisphere, sociology, and theology."" --Harvie M. Conn, Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia Costas may well be or is on his way to becoming the ablest missiologist alive."" --Jorge Lara-Braud, Director, Council on Theology and Culture, Presbyterian Church in the U.S. Costas writes from the background of an Hispanic Evangelical, but goes far beyond the normal concerns of that tradition. In a series of far-ranging essays, he deals with virtually every aspect of the contemporary missiological debate in a manner that is usually balanced and always provocative. While some readers will violently question his views at certain points, all will be stimulated and challenged to think more deeply and participate more effectively in the total world mission to which God has called His Church."" --Paul E. Pierson, Fuller Theological Seminary 'Christ Outside the Gate' offers us a perspective of missions that focuses on the transition from paternalism to the contextualization of the Gospel."" --Oscar I. Romo, Director, Language Missions Division, Southern Baptist Convention Costas writes from the viewpoint of those who live on the periphery of society. He challenges Christians of all denominations to a renewed understanding of the Christ who 'suffered outside the gates.'"" --John T. Boberg, Catholic Theological Union, Chicago Orlando E. Costas is also the author of 'Liberating News', 'The Integrity of Mission', and 'The Church and Its Mission'.