T T Clark Handbook To The Historical Paul

The T&T Clark Handbook to the Historical Paul gathers leading voices on various aspects of Paul's biography into a thorough reconsideration of him as a historical figure. The contributors show how recent trends in Pauline scholarship have invited new questions about a variety of topics, including his social location, his mode of subsistence, his cultural formation, his place within Judaism, his religious experience and practice, and his affinities with other religious actors of the Roman world. Through careful attention to biographical detail, social context, and historical method, it seeks to describe him as a contextually plausible social actor. The volume is structured in three parts. Part One introduces sources, methods, and historiographical approaches, surveying the foundational texts for Paul and the early Pauline tradition. Part Two examines key biographical questions pertaining to Paul's bodily comportment, the material aspects of his career, and his religious activities. Part Three reconstructs the biographical portraits of Paul that emerge from the letters associated with him, presenting a series of “micro-biographies” pieced together by leading Pauline scholars.

Divided into 3 parts, this handbook provides a wide-ranging survey and analysis of the Christian Church. The first section addresses the scriptural foundations of ecclesiology; the second section outlines the historical and confessional aspects of the topic; and the final part discusses a variety of contemporary and topical themes in ecclesiology. Compiled and written by leading scholars in the field, the T&T Clark Handbook of Ecclesiology covers a range of key topics in the context of their development and importance in each stream of historic Christianity and the confessional traditions. The contributors cover traditional matters such as creedal notes, but also tackle questions of ordination, orders of ministry, and sacraments. This handbook is extensive enough to provide a true overview of the field, but the essays are also concise enough to be read as reference selections.

This ground-breaking volume examines the presentation and role of children in the ancient world, and specifically in ancient Jewish and Christian texts. With carefully commissioned chapters that follow chronological and canonical progression, a sequential reading of this book enables deeper appreciation of how understandings of children change over time. Divided into four sections, this handbook first offers an overview of key methodological approaches employed in the study of children in the biblical world, and the texts at hand. Three further sections examine crucial texts in which children or discussions of childhood are featured; presented along chronological lines, with sections on the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible, the Intertestamental Literature, and the New Testament and Early Christian Apocrypha. Relevant not only to biblical studies but also cross-disciplinary scholars interested in children in antiquity.

Exploring the key documents, authors and themes of Early Christian traditions, this volume traces the vital trajectories of emerging distinctive Christian identity in the Graeco-Roman world. Special attention is given to the coherent growth of Christian faith in connection with worship, alongside the crucial transformation of Christian life and doctrine under the Christian Emperors. As well as offering a chronological development of the Early Church, the book examines the interaction between Christian worship and faith. In addition, readers interested in systematic theology can refer to chapters on the roots of some significant theological notions in Christian Antiquity, also with reference to ancient philosophy. Issues addressed include: · Distinctiveness of the Christian identity during the first centuries · Diversity of communities and their theologies · Connection between faith and worship · Transition from the persecuted minority to triumphant Church with Creeds · History of early Christian thought and modern systematic theology

Offering not only state-of-the-art introductions from Biblical, historical, and constructive theologians, this volume also fosters an inter-disciplinary and cross-confessional conversation, reclaiming the idea of election as a central notion for any retelling of the biblical narrative. Several essays explore the variety of ways in which election is spoken about in the Scripture, drawing on research from the last twenty years that offers a more sophisticated framework than the traditionally theological categories of “elect” and “reject”. The historical part of the volume covers new analyses of Medieval and post-Reformation Catholic and Protestant debates on predestination, while the book's constructive part contributes to contemporary conversations on the relationship between Trinity, Christology, and election, the development of a post-supersessionist understanding of Israel's chosenness, as well as voices from contextual struggles in South America, Palestine, and South Africa.

Combining the insights of many leading New Testament scholars writing on the use of social identity theory this new reference work provides a comprehensive handbook to the construction of social identity in the New Testament. Part one examines key methodological issues and the ways in which scholars have viewed and studied social identity, including different theoretical approaches, and core areas or topics which may be used in the study of social identity, such as food, social memory, and ancient media culture. Part two presents worked examples and in-depth textual studies covering core passages from each of the New Testament books, as they relate to the construction of social identity. Adopting a case-study approach, in line with sociological methods the volume builds a picture of how identity was structured in the earliest Christ-movement. Contributors include; Philip Esler, Warren Carter, Paul Middleton, Rafael Rodriquez, and Robert Brawley.

This handbook explores Thomas F. Torrance's importance in modern theology, with each contribution bringing Torrance's deep and nuanced insights to a broad range of contemporary theological concerns. The contributors to this volume present cutting-edge Torrance scholarship for a new generation, which will enable readers to see the timely significance of Torrance for today. Comprising both contexts and dogmatics, these essays not only introduce key themes in Torrance's extensive published writings – including his work on the Trinity, ecumenism, incarnation, atonement, and eschatology - but also provide fresh interpretations fully conversant with theological problems facing the church in the world today. Designed as both a guide for students and a reference point for scholars, this handbook thoroughly explores the frameworks of key debates related to Torrance's theology, while also suggesting fresh interpretative strategies concerning his thought.

This textbook offers a systematic introduction to eschatology. The first part introduces the historical approaches to eschatology. The second part concerns the reasons for eschatological statements in light of important aspects of the doctrine of God and Christ. The third part is devoted to different concepts of the relationship between eternity and time, space and infinitude as well as the question of what is good, true and beautiful. Using a thematic structure, the multiple different approaches and concepts of modern eschatology are clearly presented, and illuminated by the perspective of the classical teachings on the Last Things; which are ultimately brought together in a synthesis. This is an important contribution to a crucial part of the study of systematic theology.