Reclaiming The Bible From The Enlightened

Should Christians concede ground as far as the Bible is concerned? Do the "enlightened" experts have a mortgage on the truth or can Christians simply believe the Bible in confidence. Reclaiming the Bible from the Enlightened gives each Christian confidence to believe and obey the Bible knowing that they are remaining true to their own God and Saviour. We don't have to give ground to unbelievers or feel that our minds are inferior.

The 19th century saw the rise of Biblical Criticism in German universities, culminating in Wellhausen's radical revision of the history of biblical times and religion. For German-Jewish intellectuals, the academic discipline promised emancipation from traditional Christian readings of Scripture - but at the same time suffered from what was perceived as anti-Jewish bias, this time in scholarly robes. "Reclaiming the Hebrew Bible" describes the German-Jewish strategies to cope with Biblical Criticism - varying from an enthusiastic welcome in the early decades, through modified adoption in Jewish Reform circles, to resolute rejection in the Orthodox camp. The study surveys the awareness and attitudes towards Biblical Criticism in the popular German-Jewish periodicals, and analyzes in depth the works of the first modern Jewish historian I. M. Jost (1793-1860), of the theologian S. L. Steinheim (1789-1866), and of the Reform activist Siegmund Maybaum (1844-1919).

In The Unseen Realm, Dr. Michael Heiser examines the ancient context of Scripture, explaining how its supernatural worldview can help us grow in our understanding of God. He illuminates intriguing and amazing passages of the Bible that have been hiding in plain sight. You'll find yourself engaged in an enthusiastic pursuit of the truth, resulting in a new appreciation for God's Word. Why wasn't Eve surprised when the serpent spoke to her? How did descendants of the Nephilim survive the flood? Why did Jacob fuse Yahweh and his Angel together in his prayer? Who are the assembly of divine beings that God presides over? In what way do those beings participate in God's decisions? Why do Peter and Jude promote belief in imprisoned spirits? Why does Paul describe evil spirits in terms of geographical rulership? Who are the "glorious ones" that even angels dare not rebuke? After reading this book, you may never read your Bible the same way again. Endorsements "There is a world referred to in the Scripture that is quite unseen, but also quite present and active. Michael Heiser's The Unseen Realm seeks to unmask this world. Heiser shows how important it is to understand this world and appreciate how its contribution helps to make sense of Scripture. The book is clear and well done, treating many ideas and themes that often go unseen themselves. With this book, such themes will no longer be neglected, so read it and discover a new realm for reflection about what Scripture teaches." --Darrell L. Bock, Executive Director for Cultural Engagement, Senior Research Professor of New Testament Studies, Howard G. Hendricks Center for Christian Leadership and Cultural Engagement "'How was it possible that I had never seen that before?' Dr. Heiser's survey of the complex reality of the supernatural world as the Scriptures portray it covers a subject that is strangely sidestepped. No one is going to agree with everything in his book, but the subject deserves careful study, and so does this book." --John Goldingay, David Allan Hubbard Professor of Old Testament, School of Theology, Fuller Theological Seminary "This is a 'big' book in the best sense of the term. It is big in its scope and in its depth of analysis. Michael Heiser is a scholar who knows Scripture intimately in its ancient cultural context. All--scholars, clergy, and laypeople--who read this profound and accessible book will grow in their understanding of both the Old and New Testaments, particularly as their eyes are opened to the Bible's 'unseen world.'" --Tremper Longman III, Robert H. Gundry Professor of Biblical Studies, Westmont College

Front-ranking theologians speak out on the crisis of biblical authority and interpretation in the church, focusing in particular on the adequacy of the historical-critical method of hermeneutics. The essays in this volume address from various perspectives the notorious gap between the historical­ critical approach to the study of the Bible and the church's liturgical and dogmatic transmission of biblical faith. The authors, following the central theme suggested by Brevard S. Childs's "canonical method" of biblical interpretation, argue that the historical-critical method does not suffice of itself apart from faith and the church.

This book tackles an obvious yet profound problem of modern political life: the disorientation of intellectuals and activists on the left. As the study of political history and theory has been usurped by cultural criticism, a confusion over the origins

We have long been taught that the Enlightenment was an attempt to free the world from the clutches of Christian civilization and make it safe for philosophy. The lesson has been well learned. In today's culture wars, both liberals and their conservative enemies, inside and outside the academy, rest their claims about the present on the notion that the Enlightenment was a secularist movement of philosophically driven emancipation. Historians have had doubts about the accuracy of this portrait for some time, but they have never managed to furnish a viable alternative to it-for themselves, for scholars interested in matters of church and state, or for the public at large. In this book, William J. Bulman and Robert G. Ingram bring together recent scholarship from distinguished experts in history, theology, and literature to make clear that God not only survived the Enlightenment but thrived within it as well. The Enlightenment was not a radical break from the past in which Europeans jettisoned their intellectual and institutional inheritance. It was, to be sure, a moment of great change, but one in which the characteristic convictions and traditions of the Renaissance and Reformation were perpetuated to the point of transformation, in the wake of the Wars of Religion and during the early phases of globalization. The Enlightenment's primary imperatives were not freedom and irreligion but peace and prosperity. As a result, Enlightenment could be Christian, communitarian, or authoritarian as easily as it could be atheistic, individualistic, or libertarian. Honing in on the intellectual crisis of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries while moving from Spinoza to Kant and from India to Peru, God in the Enlightenment takes a prism to the age of lights.

Women have been thoughtful readers and interpreters of scripture throughout the ages, yet the usual history of biblical interpretation includes few women’s voices. To introduce readers to this untapped source for the history of biblical interpretation, this volume presents forgotten works from the nineteenth century written by women—including Grace Aguilar, Florence Nightingale, and Harriet Beecher Stowe, among others—from various faith backgrounds, countries, and social classes engaging contemporary biblical scholarship. Due to their exclusion from the academy, women’s interpretive writings addressed primarily a nonscholarly audience and were written in a variety of genres: novels and poetry, catechisms, manuals for Bible study, and commentaries on the books of the Bible. To recover these nineteenth-century women interpreters of the Bible, each essay in this volume locates a female author in her historical, ecclesiastical, and interpretive context, focusing on particular biblical passages to clarify an author’s contributions as well as to explore how her reading of the text was shaped by her experience as a woman.

This book examines the iconography of Judith, Esther, and the Shulamite in the last decades of the nineteenth and the first two decades of the twentieth century in the works of the Polish-Jewish artists.