The Murray Transfiguration

The Gospel accounts of the transfiguration of Jesus continue to puzzle the average reader. The purpose of this book is to address some of the perplexing issues surrounding the event, and to explain the significance of the transfiguration, particularly in Matthew's Gospel. It demonstrates that Matthew's account of the event is to be seen in the context of first-century controversy between Christians and Jews about Jesus and Moses, with the Jews emphasizing Moses' greatness and Matthew portraying the transfiguration within Moses-Sinai categories and also in terms of the enigmatic Son of Man figure in Daniel 7. Possible influence of the transfiguration event is also seen elsewhere, particularly in 2 Corinthians 3 and 4, where, the author argues, Paul uses his Damascus road experience as a counter to his opponents' emphasis on the law and Peter's witness to Jesus' transfiguration.

Echoing Aeschylus's tragedy "Prometheus Bound," Damian Westfall's new novel "Bennett's Cow-Eyed Girl" is a meditation on self-destruction, creativity, regret and emotional paralysis. Set during one rainy night in a darkened cramped apartment, "Bennett's Cow-Eyed Girl" depicts the story of three characters. Murray Brater, a writer in his mid-fifties who is writing a dictionary of nonexistent words. Dell, Murray's twentysomething hapless assistant who does nothing but sleep. And Mr. Shreck, an aging novelist with a ten year case of writer's block, who dreams of writing an English epic in dactylic hexameter. Searching for self-discovery Murray finds nothing but regret. Searching for inspiration, Mr. Shreck finds nothing but plagiarism. Searching for nothing, Dell finds what could be meaning.

"The episode of the Transfiguration of Jesus plays a key role in the narrative of the Synoptic Gospels. Peter and his fellow Apostles have just acknowledged Jesus to be Israel’s long-awaited Messiah, and have been shocked by Jesus’ immediate prediction of his coming passion and death. Now Peter, James and John are allowed to share an extraordinary vision, marking him out as truly God’s own Son, radiant with divine glory. Early Christian commentators and preachers recognized the crucial importance of this incident for Christian faith and discipleship, as pointing in advance to the power of the cross and resurrection of Christ. The liturgical feast of the Transfiguration, anticipating that of the Exaltation of the Cross by forty days, came to be celebrated in the Eastern and Western Churches, beginning in the seventh century; yet since at least the third century, theologians have reflected on the significance of this event for the life of faith. This volume brings together, in a new translation, a comprehensive collection of homilies on the Transfiguration of Christ from the Greek Patristic and Medieval Church, from Origen in the third century to St. Gregory Palamas in the fourteenth. Together they form a profound and moving set of meditations, from many perspectives and in many voices, on “the light of the recognition of the glory of God in the face of Christ” (II Cor 4.6), and on its importance for our lives"--

Each volume takes a book of the New Testament and goes through the text in great detail, relating the contents to the life and worship of the early Christian communities.