Why So Slow? The Advancement of Women

Why So Slow? The Advancement of Women
by Virginia Valian
421 pages
Publisher: The MIT Press (February 5, 1999)

• Author (x)
  
• Virginia Valian: Professor of Psychology and Linguistics at CUNY Graduate School and Hunter College, specializing in "cognitive psychology, especially language acquisition"
• Perspective: Raised to believe success would come with hard work and that true, valid arguments would win the day, Valian began to notice subtle, even negligible, differences in how lower status persons were treated in discussion. After reading a monograph by Geis, Carter, and Butler, she began to see how the accumulation of subtle discrimination slowed movement from lower to higher status in academe and beyond. Therefore, her book is for her as much as for her readers.
• Organization of the Book: Following a preface by the author, laying out the biographical context for the work, and a Note on Method and Scope, are fourteen chapters. The Table of Contents shows no groupings.
• Chapter 1 previews and overviews the subject of gender differences.
• Chapters 2-3 cover biological and developmental issues.
• Chapters 4-5 show the limits of hormonal explanations of sex differences.
• Chapter 6 offers a cognitive explanation for gender schemas.
• Chapter 7 shows gender schemas at work among adult men and women in their mutual misperceptions fo reality.
• Chapter 8 shows how accumulated expectations shape our view of self.
• Chapter 9 shows how they shape our interpretations of success and failure.
• Chapter 10 shows how gender schemas dlow down earnings and/or advancement for women in the professions and Chapter 11 shows the same for women in academia.
• Chapter 12 considers the issue of whether inequality is inequity and concludes that it is not inequity and that "attaining a happy medium...requires changing gender schemas" (276).
• Chapter 13 reviews legal remedies, citing and describing various cases, and Chapter 14 suggests remedies "to nullify the negative professional consequences of gender schemas and to equalize men's and women's ability to accumulae advantage" (303).
• Intention (xii; 1)
• to clarify the subtleties of gender schemas
• to increase awareness of gender schema
• to instill sufficient outrage while not taking it personally
• to lay out the merits of the case
• to "make the invisible...that fair and accurate evaluations of men and women will become possible" (i)
• to include data from psychology, sociology, economics, and biology
  

Tag: books

Women's Ways Of Knowing: The Development Of Self, Voice, And Mind

Women's Ways Of Knowing: The Development Of Self, Voice, And Mind 10th Anniversary Edition
by Mary Belenky (Author), Blythe Clinchy (Author), Nancy Goldberger (Author), Jill Tarule
288 pages
Publisher: Basic Books; 10 Anv edition (January 8, 1997) (Author)

• Authors (back cover)
• Mary Field Belenky: consultant on human development; associate research professor at the University of Virginia
• Blythe McVicker Clinchy: professor of psychology at Wellesley College
• Nancy Rule Goldberger: psychology faculty at The Fielding Institute in Santa Barbara
• Jill Mattuck Tarule: professor and dean of the college of education and social services at the University of Virginia
• Perspective: All four authors come from the perspective of student development. All four decided to embody egalitarianism in the research and writing process and to learn from and trust the voices of the women they interviewed.
• Organization of the Book: After a new preface (reflecting back on the process of research, writing, and dissemination after ten years) and the original preface (laying out in short, the intention and methods), Women's Ways of Knowing moves to an introduction (detailing the mentods and intellectual setting of the study). The bulk of the work is divided into two parts.
• Part one uses William Perry's epistemological categories as a framework to understand the interviewee's perspectives on knowing.
• Part two runs the categorized perspectives through the contexts of family and academy.
• Intention (xxv, 3)
• to "describe the ways of knowing that women have cultivated and learned to value"
• to "describe the multitude of obstacles women must overcome in developing the power of their minds"
• to "desribe five different perspectives from which women view reality and draw conclusions about truth, knowledge, and authority"
  

Tag: books

Through the Labyrinth: The Truth About How Women Become Leaders

Through the Labyrinth: The Truth About How Women Become Leaders
by Alice H. Eagly (Author), Linda L. Carli (Author)
336 pages
Harvard Business School Press; illustrated edition edition (October 16, 2007)

• Authors:

• Alice H. Eagley: professor and department chair of psychology and faculty fellow in the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University
• Linda L. Carli: associate professor in psychology at Wellesley; her research focuses on gender, influence, and leadership
• Perspective: The book comes from a need to explain why, though the glass ceiling has been shattered, so few women are in positions of leadership.
• Organization of the Book: Following the preface and acknowledgements, the book is divided is divided into eleven chapters. Groupings are not given, though there appears to be a movement from general to specific and from present situation to future possibility.
  
• Chapters 1-2 lay the groundwork, unpacking the idea of the glass ceiling and summarizing women's progress.
• Chapters 3-7 discuss and critique forces considered responsible for the presence of women and predominance of men in leadership.
• Chapters 8-10 discuss how women negotiate the labyrinth.
• Chapter 11 wraps up the book and looks to the future.
• Intention (ix)
• to ask why women have been excluded
• to uncover the skills needed to negotiate the labyrinth
• to help readers understand leadership by men and women and the possibility of gender equality
  

Tag: books

Living Jesus: Learning the Heart of the Gospel
By Luke Timothy Johnson
Harper San Francisco
© 1999
210 pages

Purpose: “I have written this book for people who, like me, find much of what is called spirituality too far removed from traditional Christian faith, and much of what is written about Jesus too little concerned with the transformation of human freedom” (preface).

Part 1: The Truth that is in Jesus

• He is the Living One
• Learning Jesus through tradition
• He Bodies forth whose glory is past change
• The process of learning Jesus
• The living Jesus and the revelatory text
• Paul’s witness to Jesus

Part 2: Jesus in the Gospels

• One person in four Gospels
• Jesus in Mark’s Gospel
• Jesus in Matthew’s Gospel
• Jesus in Luke-Acts
• Jesus in John’s Gospel
• The Continuing Mystery

Resources:
Index


Tag: books

Spiritual Formation as if the Church Mattered: Growing in Christ through Community
by James C., Wilhoit
Baker Academic (2008)
Paperback, 240 pages

Purpose: "This book is not so much about reversing a trend but about a call to intentionality about our formation and to repentance about how we have tried to engineer formation more than we have prayerfully opened our lives and our churches to God's grace" (p 14).

• Ch1 (Formation Through the Ordinary): Spiritual formation occurs in all of life, as God works through the truth of the gospel to form his people according to his ways.
• Ch2 (Curriculum for Christlikeness): Spiritual formation to Christlikeness requires participating with God in concrete practices that train us for regular life in the way of Jesus.
• Ch3 (Foundations of Receiving): We have a deep thirst that drives us toward God and a deep brokenness that drives us to be satisfied with less; only openness to the fact and work of God's grace exposes our misdirected thirsts and our individual and corporate brokenness.
• Ch4 (To Foster Receiving in Community): Individual and corporate practices of openness to God train us for receiving in community, which in turn, trains us for openness to God.
• Ch5 (Foundations of Remembering): Our perception of God's holiness and our own sinfulness determines our perception of the cross/grace, which in turn determines the amount of transforming grace received.
• Ch6 (To Foster Remembering in Community): Remembering occurs as individuals and communities participate in content and experiences, learning God and his ways for regular life, returning to these lessons in a circular manner.
• Ch7 (Foundations of Responding): Spiritual formation involves teaching and training the people of God so they might naturally respond in ways that communicate grace through love and service.
• Ch8 (To Foster Responding in Community): Spiritual formation is fostering a community climate that encourages love for and grace toward God and others as natural responses.
• Ch9 (Foundations of Relating): Spiritual formation is the by-product of life lived in loving worship of our Lord and Head and in loving service to our siblings and neighbors.
• Ch10 (To Foster Relating in Community): Spiritual formation happens in intentional and reflective, yet natural, relationship with God and others.

Resources:
Appendix: Assessment Questions
Notes
Scripture Index
Subject Index

Tag: books

Reimagining Church: Pursuing the Dream of Organic Christianity
by Frank Viola
David C. Cook (2008)
Paperback, 272 pages

Grammar read results: grabbing the ideas

Purpose: To give a biblical, spiritual, theological, and practical account for viable church life outside the institutional church, so that Christ may again be central in his church.

Introduction (Toward a New Kind of Church): The non-New Testament structure of the institutional church is the base of its ineffectiveness; only reimagining New Testament church from the ground up will work.

• Ch1 (Reimagining the Church as an Organism): As an organism, the Church carries the DNA of the triune God; the expression of that
• Ch2 (Reimagining the Church Meeting): While church planting (apostolic), evangelistic, and decision-making meetings are
• Ch3 (Reimagining the Lord's Supper): The Lord's Supper, as intended in Scripture, is a theologically-rich, celebratory meal,
• Ch4 (Reimagining the Gathering Place): Meeting in homes expresses the nature of church.
• Ch5 (Reimagining the Family of God): The church is a familial community, not a business.
• Ch6 (Reimagining Church Unity): The only true unity is in Christ alone; maintaining it takes struggle and commitment.
• Ch7 (Church Practice and God's Eternal Purpose): What church does here ought to correspond to God's mission (as revealed in key passages: Genesis 1-2; Revelation 21-22; Ephesians; Colossians)
• Ch8 (Reimagining Leadership): New Testament leadership is functional and communal, not positional and hierarchical.
• Ch9 (Reimagining Oversight): Elders model, watch out for, and care for the church.
• Ch10 (Reimagining Decision-Making): The whole church makes decisions by dialogue and consensus, seeking the mind of Christ.
• Ch11 (Reimagining Spiritual Covering): Only God has authority over his people.
• Ch12 (Reimagining Authority and Submission): Whole Body authority and mutual subjection among persons mirror the love and mutuality within the Trinity.
• Ch13 (Reimagining Denominational Covering): Denominational covering is not only unnecessary, but also harmful.
• Ch14 (Reimagining the Apostolic Tradition): The apostolic tradition, found in the New Testament, consists of normative beliefs and practices, and is authoritative today.
• Ch15 (Where Do We Go from Here?): Given a biblical understanding of church, organic church is the only viable, bio

Resources
Appendix: Objections and Responses about Leadership
Bibliography
Notes

Tag: books

Quantum Theory: A Very Short Introduction
by John Polkinghorne
Oxford University Press, USA (2002), Edition: 1st, Paperback, 128 pages

Grammar read results: grabbing the ideas

Title: History, Methods, and Meaning in Quantum Theory

Subtitle: Telling the Story and Describing the Beauty of Quantum Physics to the Non-Mathematician

• Chapter 1: (Classical Cracks) A series of discoveries concerning the natures of light and the construction of the atom at the end of the 19th century undermined the certainty of classical physics and paved the way for quantum physics.
• Chapter 2: (The Light Dawns) Further investigations into the wave nature of light let to quantum theory and quantum logic, in which false, true, and maybe are all possible.
• Chapter 3: (Darkening Perplexities) Issues raised by the probabilistic nature of quantum physics and the apparent collapse into determinism upon measurement may lead to the next shift in quantum theory.
• Chapter 4: (Further Developments) The exploration and exploitation of quantum theory in the mid-twentieth century has solved some sticky questions, led to real world solutions, and opened the door to additional discovery.
• Chapter 5: (Togetherness) The EPR paradox shows that an ontological connection is made when two particles interact, such that, despite spatial distance, a change in one particle immediately causes a change in the other.
• Chapter 6: (Lessons and Meanings) If quantum theory is an increasingly clear picture of the way things actually are, then our ways of knowing and determining truth go well beyond the objective and empirical.
  

Tag: books

Introduction to Christian Education and Formation: A Lifelong Plan for Christ-Centered Restoration
by Ronald T. Habermas
256 pages
Zondervan (2008), Hardcover

Author: Ronald Habermas is the McGee Chair of Biblical Studies and Christian Formation at John Brown University; in this book he works with ten collaborators.

Intention: To offer a pathway for the reader to be interrupted by God by offering a work that blends the voice of one author with many collaborators, inviting the reader in to strengthening/integrating interactions, and provides help to readers as they navigate through their divine interruptions (15-16).

Structure: Building from broad foundational issues to concrete application, this work is divided into three parts.

--to be inserted when the book is returned by the borrower--

Resources

• Short biographies of the contributors
• Select bibliography
• Scripture index
• Subject index
• Chapter end notes
• Ample charts, tables, and diagrams to help the reader grasp the ideas
• Online resources: 50 page personal responses workbook, 300 PowerPoint slides, 250 pages of additional appendixes
  

Tag: books

Wisdom and Eloquence: a Christian paradigm for classical learning
by Robert Littlejohn and Charles T. Evans
224 pages
Publisher: Crossway Books (April 12, 2006)

Authors

• Littlejohn has 25 years of experience in K-12 education and higher education, both in teaching and administration.
• Evans "serves of a boart that represents the interests of schools before the Texas State Legislation" (back of book).

Intention: To offer an apologetic, historical overview, and how-to manual to professional educators (and collaterally to parents) for a Christian liberal arts education.

Structure: The book is organized into an introduction and ten chapters. The first four chapters discuss the idea and goals of liberal education. Chapters 5-8 lay out the general content and practices and chapters 9-10 discuss implementation.

Resources

• Appendix A Message to parents
• Appendix B The Liberal Arts Tradition in the Public Square: A Historical Apologetic for the Liberal Arts
• Appendix C The Aligned Community: Purpose and Planning
• Notes
• Bibliography
  

Tag: books

The Lost Virtue of Happiness
by J. P. Moreland and Klaus Issler
219 pages
Publisher: NavPress Publishing Group (February 5, 2006)

Authors

• J. P. Moreland is the Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Talbot School of Theology, Biola University; from wikipedia "(born 1948), better known as J. P. Moreland, is an American philosopher, theologian, and Christian apologist. He is currently Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Talbot School of Theology at Biola University in La Mirada, California. He received a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Southern California"
  
• Klaus Issler is Professor of Christian Education and Theology at Talbot School of Theology, Biola University; from talbot.edu "holds degrees in education, theology, and philosophy, and specializes in Christian spirituality, Jesus the master teacher, formation of Christian character, and the philosophy and theology of Christian education. He teaches primarily in the Ph.D. in Educational Studies program."
  

Intention: To unpack and practice the truth that "Christianity is an aesthetic religion (a faithful pursuit of the glory of God) whose transforming power is tapped by regular and rigorous discipline and self-denial done in constant dependence on the filling and power of the Holy Spirit" (39).

Structure

1. Today's confusion about happiness
2. Gaining happiness by losing your life
3. Forming a tender, receptive heart
4. Forming a thoughtful mind stayed on God
5. Forming a trusting will that risks with God
6. Embracing the hiddenness of God
7. Defeating two hardships of life: anxiety and depression
8. Cultivating spiritual friendships

Resources

• Questions for Group Discussion for each chapter
• End notes
  

Tag: books

The Spirit of the Disciplines - Reissue: Understanding How God Changes Lives
by Dallas Willard
288 pages
Publisher: HarperOne (December 7, 1990)

Author: Professor and past director of the School of Philosophy at the University of Southern California; from wikipedia "(September 4, 1935 - ) is an American philosophy professor and author born in Buffalo, Missouri. His work in philosophy has been primarily in phenomenology, particularly the work of Edmund Husserl. His more popular work has been in the area of Christian spiritual formation, within the various expressions of historic Christian orthodoxy." Willard's website.

Intention: to show that Christians can become like Christ by following his overall style of life, to "clarify and exemplify realistic methods of human transformation" (ix).

Structure: The book is divided into eleven chapters and an epilogue.

• Chapters one through six clarify spiritual life as embodied existence and explain how the body is a resource for spiritual formation.
• Chapters seven and eight provide further explanation of the nature and history of spiritual disciplines.
• Chapters nine through eleven explain some specific disciplines and make the case for their practice leading to transforming our world.
• The book concludes with an epilogue that points the reader to a life of obedience out of love.

Resources

• Appendix I: Jeremy Taylor's Counsel on the Application of Rules for Holy Living
• Appendix II: Discipleship: For Super Christians Only?
• Bibliography
• Indexes: Name, Subject, and Scripture
• Chapter end notes (reference and explanatory)
  

Tag: books

Created in God's Image
by Anthony A. Hoekema
275 pages
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company (July 1994)

Author: 1913-1988; professor of systematic theology at Calvin Theological Seminary, Grand Rapids, MI; from wikipedia "Hoekema was born in the Netherlands but immigrated to the United States in 1923. He attended Calvin College (A.B.), the University of Michigan (M.A.), Calvin Theological Seminary (Th.B.) and Princeton Theological Seminary (Th.D., 1953). After pastoring several Christian Reformed churches (1944-56) he became Associate Professor of Bible at Calvin College (1956-58). From 1958 to 1979, when he retired, he was Professor of Systematic Theology at Calvin Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids, Michigan."

Intention: Expositional, biblical study of "the nature and destiny of human beings, focusing on the creation of men and women in the image of God" (original, powerless, renewed, and perfected).

Structure: the book is divided into twelve chapters.

• Chapter one deals with the doctrine of man and its importance.
• Chapter two defines man as a created person and explains the significance.
• Chapters three through five are a biblical, historical, and theological discussion of the image of God.
• Chapter six looks at the question of self-image from a theological-biblical perspective.
• Chapters seven through ten exposit the origin, spread, nature, and restraint of sin.
• Chapter eleven discusses the structure of thehuman as whole person, working through the issues of trichotomy, dichotomy, and psychosomatic unity, and ends with with practical implications.
• Chapter twelve concludes the work with a discussion of human freedom in relation to divine sovereignty.

Resources

• Bibliography
• Indexes: Proper Names, Subjects, Scripture
• Footnotes (reference and explanatory)
  

Tag: books

"Two Kinds of Righteousness" (~1519)
Martin Luther: Selections from his Writings
Edited with an Introduction by John Dillenberger
Anchor Books, 1962

Thesis: The two forms of righteousness--alien and proper--are intimately connected and necessarily sequential.

I. Alien righteousness is ours because, by grace through faith, Christ himself is ours. This alien righteousness is the source of our proper righteousness.

II. Proper righteousness is the fruit of alien righteousness and is a manner of life that imitates Christ (Phil 2:5-6) our of love for Christ.

Tag: books

Practicing theology : beliefs and practices in Christian life
Edited by Miroslav Volf and Dorothy C. Bass
265 pages
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company (October 2001)

Editors
Miroslav Volf was born in Croatia in 1956. He has studied at Evangelical-Theological Faculty, Zagreb; Fuller Theological Seminary, and University of Tubigen. He is the Henry B. Wright Professor of Systematic Theology at Yale Divinity School and Director of the Yale Center for Faith and Culture. (Sources: back cover of book and Wikipedia entry; see also curriculum vitae (pdf))

Dorothy C. Bass "directs the Valparaiso Project on the Education and Formation of People in Faith, a Lilly Endowment project based at Valparaiso University that develops resources to help contemporary people live the Christian faith with vitality and integrity in changing times" (source).

Intention: Being of the conviction that "our thinking about God and our way of living should go hand in hand," the editors and authors intend this book to explicate and embody "an approach to theology that arises from those convictions" (p 2).

Structure: After an introduction by Bass, the book's twelve chapters are divided into four sections, as follows

• Embracing a way of life (ch 1-2)
• Engaging in ministry (ch 3-8)
• Becoming theologians (ch 9-11)
• Serving a way of life (ch 12, written by Volf)

Resources:

• Footnotes
• List of Contributors

=====================
Summary Outline of:
"A Theological Understanding of Christian Practices"
by Craig Dykstra and Dorothy C. Bass
(detail bullets removed for length 062408)

Thesis: a systematic and theological way of thinking about the Christian Practices (CPs) that incarnate a way of life consistent with and in response to God's gracious gift of life abundant involves theologians and practitioners in the formation of an individual and corporate way of life that is whole, connected, and transforming.

I. Three depictions of baptism in film (Tender Mercies, Romero, and The Godfather) show CPs to play a crucial, transforming role in a Christian way of life.

II. CPs offer an efficient and sufficient means for careful, theological reflection on a distinctively Christian way of life, and lived across time and culture.

III. CPs are deeply human, carried out in the context of and in response to God's gracious gift of life abundant, resulting in the formation of a way of life that incarnates God's will and work.

IV. The way of life abundant, constituted by CPs that are expressed in daily life and theological thought, is definitional of Christianity.

=====================
Summary Outline of:
"Attending to the Gaps between Beliefs and Practices"
by Amy Plantinga Pauw

Thesis: The gap in belief's nurturing influence on behavior and behavior's stimulating influence on belief opens and closes in the context of the grace of God and the affective and communal dimensions of human personhood.

I. Affective and communal aspects exert a profound influence on the degree and manner of the influences between belief and behavior.

II. The story of Jonah is a stark example of the shaping influence of the affective dimension.

III. The length and breadth of practice in community exerts a powerful correcting/corrupting influence on the belief-behavior complex.

IV. The largest hurdle to and greatest hope for closing the belief-behavior gap is a change in the heart's desire.

=====================
Summary Outline of:
"Beliefs, Desires, Practices, and the Ends of Theological Education"
by L. Gregory Jones

Thesis: The Christian formation of leaders with integrated beliefs, desires, and practices takes place on the pilgrimage through the overlapping contexts of church, seminary, and society and by means of the interrelated functions of catechesis, critical reflection, and faithful living.

I. A first step in repairing/redeeming ineffective/absent Christian formation is recognizing the necessary interrelatedness of catechesis, critical reflection, and faithful living.

II. Currently, churches have abdicated from their role in catechesis, seminaries have prioritized information over formation, and the Church in general suffers a grave disconnect from society.

III. Ancient catechetical practice well illustrates the interrelatedness of beliefs, desires, and practices in Christian formation.

IV. The seminary can implement the lessons from ancient catechetical practice and respond to the current situation by prioritizing formation, by providing remedial shaping of desires and practices, and by reaching outside the seminary through church- and community-based lay academies.

=====================
Summary Outline of:
"Theology for a Way of Life"
by Miroslav Volf

Thesis: Theology as "critical and methodologically disciplined reflection" on God and his work/will serves the way of life abundant an dis most properly and effectively accomplished from within this way of life.

I. There is an intimate and necessary relationship between beliefs (some ritually enacted as sacraments) and practices.

II. Christian beliefs define practices as Christian and form the normative moral space in which such practices take place. Beliefs are what practices are.

III. Christian beliefs inhere in Christian practices. Practices are what beliefs do.

IV. Beliefs are primarily a narration of God's action and practices are human resonances with that divine action.

V. Right practice usually leads to right belief and makes right understanding more likely.

VI. God himself is ultimate and adequate. Canonically founded beliefs about him and his work ground Christian practices. An adequate theology explains God, is concerned with disputed beliefs, fits with itself, and exists in relation to other beliefs and disciplines.

VII. Adequate theology serves a way of life and does so by reflecting on God himself, the source and end of this way of life.

=====================
Tag: books

Systems Thinking, Systems Practice
Peter Checkland
John Wiley & Sons (1993) 330 pages

Author: Peter Cleveland is Professor of Systems (emeritus) in the Department of Management Science at Lancaster University Management School (UK). His research interests include "Systems thinking and its relation to real-world problem solving, especially in relation to the creation of information systems" (link). Other books include Learning for Action: A Short Definitive Account of Soft Systems Methodology and its Use, for Practitioners, Teachers and Students, Soft Systems Methodology in Action, and Information, Systems and Information Systems.

Intention: To "develop an explicit account of the systems outlook... to develop ways of using systems ideas in practical problem situations... to modify both the systems outlook and hte way of using systems ideas as experience was gained... [and] to reflect on the interaction systems thinking and systems practice in order to draw conclusions which will allow future theory to benefit from practice and future practice from theory" (xi-xii).

Structure: The book contains an introduction followed by three parts.

• "Part I: Systems Thinking--the systems movement in the context of science" offers systems thinking (involving emergence+hierarchy and communications+control) as a solution to the inability of traditional science (reductionism, repeatability, and refutation) to solve real world problems.
• "Part II: Systems Practice--action research to establish the use of systems concepts in problem solving" explains hard systems thinking and soft systems thinking, compares the two, and describes systems thinking in action.
• "Part III: Conclusion" fleshes out the implications of systems practice and summarizes 'systems-based methodology for tackling real-world problems, and incidentally for exploring social reality" (20).

Resources

• Appendix 1: Building Conceptual Models
• Appendix 2: A Workbook for Starting Systems Studies
• Bibliography
• Glossary
• Name Index
• Subject Index

Also, helpful diagrams are found throughout the book.


Tag: books

Hermeneutics: Principles and Process of Biblical Interpretation
Henry A. Virkler
Baker Academic (1995), Paperback, 264 pages

Author: Henry A. Virkler was Associate Professor of Psychology at the Psychological Studies Institute in Atlanta, GA. He earned a Master of Arts at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and a Ph.D. at Georgia State University. He specializes in the integration of theology and psychology.

Intention: To provide a text, written by a theologian, that translates "hermeneutical principles into practiced exegetical steps" (11).

Structure: The book chapters are grouped into four major sections, covering general matters, practical steps, special literary methods, and end matters.

• General matters
• 1-Introduction to Biblical Hermeneutic
• 2-The History of Biblical Interpretation
• Practical Steps
• 3-Historical-Cultural and Contextual-Analysis
• 4-Lexical-Syntactical Analysis
• 5-Theological Analysis
• Special Literary Methods
• 6-Similes, Metaphors, Proverbs, Parables, and Allegories
  
• 7-Types, Prophecy, and Apocalyptic Literature
• End Matters
• 8-Applying the Biblical Message: a proposal for the transcultural problem
• Epilogue: The Task of the Minister
• Summary

Resources

Each chapter begins with learning objectives and ends with a summary. Most contain "Brain Teasers" to help students work through the information and "Suggestions for Further Reading."

Three appendixes provide topical annotated bibliographies.

• Hermeneutics from Various Theological Viewpoints
• Readings on Revelation, Inspiration, and Inerrancy from a Variety of Theological Perspectives
• Bibliography on Sensus Plenior

The work ends with a General Bibliography, a Subject Index, and a Scripture Index.

Reviews
by Vern S, Poythress

Tag: books

The Kingdom of God in 20th-Century Interpretation
Ed. Wendell Willis
Hendrickson Publishers
(C)1987
208 Pages

Editor: Willis is Associate Professor at Abilene Christian University. According to his faculty page, "Wendell earned his bachelor's degree from Midwestern State University in 1965. He received his master's degree from Abilene Christian University in 1967, his B.D. from Vanderbilt in 1969 and his Ph.D. from Southern Methodist University in 1981."

Authors in this work:
M. Eugene Boring
John J. Collins
Paul Donfried
W. Emory Elmore
Eldon Jay Epp
Ron Farmer
Everett Ferguson
Richard H. Hiers, Jr.
Robert Hodgson, Jr.
J. Ramsay Michaels
Robert O’Toole, SJ
Dale Patrick
B. T. Viviano, OP
Amos N. Wilder (foreword)
Wendell Willis

Intention: To present a thematic presentation on the topic of "Kingdom of God," allowing common reflection upon the topic.

Structure: The book is a collection of essays.

• The Discovery of the Eschatological Kingdom: Johannes Weiss and Albert Schweitzer (Willis)
• Pivotal Reactions to the Eschatological Interpretations: Rudolf Bultmann and C. H. Dodd (Hiers)
• Mediating Approaches to the Kingdom: Werner Georg Kummel and George Eldon Ladd (Epp)
• Linguistic Approaches to the Kingdom: Amos Wilder and Norman Perrin (Elmore)
• The Kingdom of God in the Old Testament (Patrick)
• The Kingdom of God in the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha (Collins)
  
• The Kingdom of God in the Qumran Literature (Viviano)
• The Kingdom of God and the Historical Jesus (Michaels)
• The Kingdom of God in the Gospel of Matthew (Farmer)
• The Kingdom of God in Mark (Boring)
• The Kingdom of God in Luke-Acts (O'Toole)
• The Kingdom of God in the School of St. John (Hodgson)
• The Kingdom of Gos in Paul (Donfried)
• The Kingdom of God in Early Patristic Literature (Ferguson)
  

Resources: each chapter has either footnotes or endnotes. No indexes are provided.

Tag: books

The Kingdom of God in the Teaching of Jesus in 20th Century Theology
Mark Saucy
Word Publishing
(C) 1997
406 Pages

Author: PhD from Fuller Seminary; Professor at Talbot School of Theology, Biola University; Director of Talbot's extension program at Kyiv Theological Seminary; formerly missionary for 13 years with SEND in Kyiv, Ukraine.

Intention: To "use the findings from the study of the Kingdom in the last generation to fund yet another venture in understanding the Kingdom of God in Jesus' teaching."

Structure: After an introduction covering the procedures and limitations of the study and the recent trends in Kingdom studies, the book is divided into four parts and nine chapters.

Part 1: Foundations for the study of the Kingdom since 1960
Ch 1: Issues in the interpretation of the Kingdom of God prior to 1960

Part 2: NT trends since 1960
Ch 2: The non-apocalyptic Kingdom of the New Hermeneutic and the New Literary Criticism
Ch 3: The non-apocalyptic Kingdom of the Regnum Christi
Ch 4: The social-economic Kingdom of the Third Quest
Ch 5: The Apocalyptic Kingdom

Part 3: Systematic Presentation of the Kingdom since 1960
Ch 6: The political theology of the Kingdom in Jurgen Moltmann
Ch 7: The Kingdom in Latin American Liberation Theology
Ch 8: The Kingdom in Roman Catholicism, the World Council of Churches, and Evangelicalism

Part 4: Contribution to the Study of the Kingdom
Ch 9: The Kingdom of God in the Teaching of Jesus (M. Saucy's view)

Resources: copious footnotes; bibliography, three indexes (Scripture, Author, and Subject)

Tag: books

The Kingdom of Christ: The New Evangelical Perspective
Russell D. Moore
Crossway Books, Wheaton, IL
(C) 2004
320 Pages

Author: Dean of the School of Theology and Senior VP for Academic Administration of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He also serves as Executive Director of the Carl F. H. Henry Institute for Evangelical Engagement.

Intention: To look at the Kingdom through the "prism of evangelical political action" in order to call evangelicals to "shape our identity by our convictions about the Kingdom of God in Christ" and to begin confronting the kingdoms of this world with the proclamation, Jesus is Lord.

Structure: After an introduction that clarifies the tone of and purpose for the book, there are four chapters and a conclusion.

Ch 1--An uneasy conscience in the naked public square: evangelical theology and evangelical engagement.
Ch 2--Toward a Kingdom eschatology: the Kingdom as already and not yet
Ch 3--Toward a Kingdom soteriology: Salvation as holistic and Christological
Ch 4--Toward a Kingdom ecclesiology: the Church as Kingdom community

A conclusion wraps up the work, discussing the promise and the failure of evangelical theology.

Resources: 83 pages of extensive end notes, bibliography, general index, and Scripture index.


Tag: books

The Coming of the Kingdom
by Herman Ridderbos
Tr. H. de Jongste, Ed. Raymond O. Zorn
Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company
(C) 1962
556 Pages

Author: (1909-2007) Professor of New Testament Studies, Theological Seminary, Kampden, The Netherlands (1943-??)

Intention: To show that the Kingdom of God is the central theme in Jesus' message (xi) by studying the text of the gospels (xxxii).

Structure: The work is composed of an introduction and ten chapters. The introduction surveys Kingdom of God discussions in the 20th century. Chapters are grouped into six sections.

The general character of the Kingdom.

• I----The Background
• II---John the Baptist and Jesus

The Kingdom has come

• III--Fulfillment
• IV---The provisional character

The Gospel of the Kingdom

• V----The basic motif
• VI---Salvation
• VII--The commandments

VIII-The coming of the Kingdom and the Church
IX---The coming of the Kingdom and the Lord's Supper
X----The future of the Kingdom of Heaven

Resources: Three indexes: Subjects, Authors, Scripture References; endnotes for introduction and all chapters.

Tag: books

Jesus and the Kingdom of God
by G. R. Beasley-Murray
460 pages
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company (January 1986)

Author: "[P]rofessor of New Testament 1973-1980, was born on October 10, 1916 in London, England... Minister in Ashurst Drive Baptist Church in East London. He guided the church through the tumultuous times of the Second World War and led it in sustained evangelistic mission to a broken country... From 1973 to 1980 he served as James Buchanan Harrison Professor of New Testament at Southern. While at the seminary, Beasley-Murray was able to resume his writing career, which had fallen dormant during his tenure at Spurgeon’s College. He was the author of a number of works on the New Testament, most notably Baptism in the New Testament and The Book of Revelation (New Century Bible Commentary.) Beasley-Murray died on February 23, 2000 in Brighton, England."

Organization: The work is divided into three sections (The coming of God in the Old Testament, The coming of God in the writings of Early Judaism, and The coming of God in the teachings of Jesus). The third section is by far the longest (267 pages versus 33 and 32 for the first two sections). There are two excurses (the Date of the Similitudes of Enoch and The Relation of Jesus to the Kingdom of God in the Present). There are a number of reference sections, including 72 pages of endnotes (keyed by note number and page), a 16 page bibliography, and two indices (authors and Scripture references).

Intention: "This work is offered as a contribution toward clarifying this element [of the kingdom] in the teaching of Jesus and its implications for the question of who Jesus is. The length of this work is a reflection of the complexity and profundity of the instruction of Jesus... Prolonged meditation on the teaching of Jesus concerning the theme that dominated his life produces a remarkably consistent image. To provide an opportunity for such attention to Jesus is the aim of this book" (Beasley-Murray, x).

Tag: books

ChurchNext
By Eddie Gibbs
InterVarsity Press (2000), Paperback

Author: Eddie Gibbs is the Donald A. McGavaran Professor of Church Growth at Fuller.

Organization: The book is divided into nine distinct chapters. Each chapter discusses a key area in which the church needs to “undergo transforming transitions” because of current cultural change.

• From living in the past to engaging the present
• From market driven to mission oriented
• From bureaucratic hierarchies to apostolic networks
• From schooling professionals to mentoring leaders
• From following celebrities to encountering saints
• From dead orthodoxy to living faith
• From attracting a crowd to seeking the lost
• From belonging to believing
• From generic congregations to incarnational communities

Each chapter ends with suggestions for implementation.

Intention: to begin a conversation as to how the church might traverse this transition and remain true to its message and mission.

Tag: books

An Emergent Theology for Emerging Churches
By Ray S. Anderson
InterVarsity Press (2006), Paperback

Author: Anderson received his PhD at the University of Edinburgh. He is senior professor of theology and ministry at Fuller Theological Seminary.

Organization: The book divides into ten distinct chapters. Each chapter discusses a contrasted pair:

• Theology not geography
• Christ not just Christology
• Spirit not just spirituality
• Right gospel not just right polity
• Kingdom living not kingdom building
• Work of God not just word of God
• Law of love not letter of Law
• Community of the Spirit not just gifts of the Spirit
• Mission not just ministry
• Church ahead of us not just church behind us

Intention: To offer an emergent narrative theology to the Bible-teaching, Bible-reading community that is the emerging church, with the goal of helping to answer the question, what is the emerging church all about?

Tag: books

The Emerging Church
By Bruce Larson and Larry Osborne
Waco, Tex., Word Books [1970] 160 p.

Authors: Osborne is an ordained Presbyterian minister with a BD from McCormick Theological Seminary. He is Executive Director at Faith at Work. Larson is an ordained Presbyterian minister with a BD from Princeton Theological Seminary. He is President of Faith at Work.
(from the flap of the 1970 book...likely changed :-) ...I may update it later)

Organization: The book is divided into five parts, each having two chapters. Part one, Defining Goals, challenges churches to weed out inadequate goals and develop authentic goals. Part two, Discovering Resources, challenges churches to move from secondary resources like size, location, building, and leadership to primary resources like divinity and humanity. Part three, Developing Strategy, challenges churches to set aside strategies devised for immediate needs or historical nostalgia, and to develop strategies that recruit, train, and equip spiritual pioneers. Part four, Discerning Opportunities, challenges churches to seek diligently for opportunities to speak and to consider carefully the stories of other churches and adjust accordingly. Part five, Dreaming Dreams, challenges churches to nurture their capacity for change and to look forward to what God is doing and how the church might participate.

Intention: To challenge churches to discover the “new thing” God is doing and find their own “authentic form, life-style, and purpose” within it.

Tag: books

Emergingchurch.intro
By Michael Moynagh
256 pages
Publisher: Monarch Books (June 1, 2005)

Author: author of Changing World, Changing Church.

Organization: The book is divided into eight chapters. Chapter one introduces and describes the emerging church and related concepts and expressions. Chapter two, Seven Faces of God, describes values that might underpin emerging churches. Chapter three, “New world, new church,” places the significance of emerging church upon the fact of changing culture. Chapter four, “talking strategic sense,” places the practicality of EC on the fact of changing culture. Chapter five, “U-church for an I-world,” discusses EC’s potential to subvert consumerism. Chapter six, “Church! Get me out of here!,” describes EC’s challenge for Christians to rethink “church.” Chapter seven, “down to the local,” details some practical steps for local churches. Chapter eight, “fast-tracking new church,” offers suggestions for denominations and “streams” to respond to the challenge (33).

Intention: To inform those who want to know more, to “tease out the implications” for those who understand, and to encourage those who want to get started.

See the related, though not connected, website: emergingchurch.info

Tag: books

The Church in Emerging Culture
Edited by Leonard Sweet
272 pages
Publisher: Zondervan/Youth Specialties (October 1, 2003)

Authors: Andy Crouch, Michael Horton, Frederica Matthewes-Green, Brian D. McLaren, and Erwin Raphael McManus.

Organization: After an introduction essay in which Sweet introduces the metaphors of garden, park, glen, and meadow, the book is divided into five essays (one by each contributor). Interspersed throughout each contributor essay are conversational comments by the other contributors. At the end of each essay, the author of the essay puts forth a rejoinder to the comments. The conversation in this book takes up what H. Richard Niebuhr started in Christ and Culture, considering the Christian faith along two axes: change in method and change in message. There is at least one contributor in each of the four quadrants.

Intention: To consider from four distinct perspectives three crucial questions:
What should the church look like today?
What should be the focus of the message?
How should it present that message?

Tag: books

The Radical Reformission
By Mark Driscoll
208 pages
Publisher: Zondervan (October 1, 2004)

Author: founding pastor of Mars Hill Church (Seattle) and Acts29 Network. Early participant in Leadership Network and the birthing of Emergent Village. No longer involved.

Organization: Two parts: Each seven chapters in the two parts consists of four sections: remember, repent, redeem, and reflect. (1) Loving your Lord through the gospel and (2) Loving your neighbor in the culture. The first part insists on following Jesus as the core of what it is to be Christian. The gospel is the story and explanation of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. Our kindest gift to people is to connect them to Jesus and his people. The second part begins to equip the reader to enter the culture, proclaiming Jesus and clarifying his truth.

Intention: To inspire readers to enter the world’s culture in order to proclaim Jesus, envisioning Kingdom culture (189); to challenge readers to stay close to Jesus, who is the only way to stay free from the world, the flesh, and the Devil (189); and to examine theologically and practically the themes of gospel and culture.

Tag: books

Emerging Churches
By Eddie Gibbs and Ryan Bolger
352 pages
Publisher: Baker Academic (December 1, 2005)

Authors: Eddie Gibbs is the Donald A. McGavaran Professor of Church Growth at Fuller. Ryan Bolger is assistant professor of church in contemporary culture at Fuller.

Point of View: Eddie has been researching and teaching “church renewal, leadership, and evangelization” for over thirty years. He is from the UK, and was ordained in the Church of England. Ryan is a participant in new paradigm churches, has been part of emerging church leadership in Southern California, and is a native of Los Angeles (8).

Organization: After describing current culture and the emerging church, Gibbs and Bolger guide their readers through nine missiologically significant characteristics of the emerging church leaders interviewed during the research:

1. Identifying with Jesus
2. Transforming secular space
3. Living as community
4. Welcoming the stranger
5. Serving with generosity
6. Participating as producers\
7. Creating as created beings
8. Leading as a body
9. Merging ancient and contemporary spiritualities.

Intention: To identify the essential practices of emerging churches in the US and UK in order to enable and encourage conversation with and among the emerging generations of Christians.


Tag: books

The Emerging Church
By Dan Kimball
272 pages
Publisher: Zondervan (March 1, 2003)

Author: Dan Kimball is one of the pastors of Vintage Faith Church in Santa Cruz. He is part of the emerging church. Kimball espouses “Vintage Faith,” a return to the “vintage values of the original Christian church and teachings of Jesus.”

Organization: After an introduction that makes a case for the emerging church and sets out caveats for understanding it, Kimball discusses theology and praxis. Part 1 deconstructs the current situation down to causes and theological essentials. Part 2 reconstructs church by suggesting practical ideas for implementing the essential theology of missional church.

Intention: To inform his readers about the situation of post-Christendom and a biblical Christian response to this situation, and to inspire his readers to be the kind of Christians who have a reputation of faith and an “outward missional focus” (16).

Tag: books

They Like Jesus but not the Church
By Dan Kimball
272 pages
Publisher: Zondervan (March 2007)

Author: Dan Kimball is one of the pastors of Vintage Faith Church in Santa Cruz. He is part of the emerging church. Kimball espouses “Vintage Faith,” a return to the “vintage values of the original Christian church and teachings of Jesus.”

Organization: After an introduction in which Kimball challenges pastors and leaders to stand up and transform their ministries into missions, he leads his readers through three parts. Part One describes the changing culture and the necessity of going outside the church to meet those who like Jesus. Part Two describes the various perspectives of those who like Jesus but not the church. Part Three challenges the church to respond in a way that maintains its identity as the body of Christ and creates bridges.

Intention: To make his readers uncomfortable, to encourage self-examination, and to inspire a hope and confidence in God that compels them to mission.

Tag: books

Soul Graffiti
By Mark Scandrette
272 pages
Publisher: Jossey-Bass (April 20, 2007)

Author: Director and cofounder of ReIMAGINE (a center for spiritual formation in San Francisco), founding member of SEVEN (a monastic community), minister-writer-spiritual teacher for 15 years, and senior-fellow with Emergent Village. (from backflap)

Point of View: Urban, peer learning, intense learning, whole life Christianity, ministry with-to-by.

Organization: The book is divided into four parts. The parts flow from four phrases in Mark 1:14-15.

Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel."

Part One explores Jesus as proclaimer. Part Two explores “the time has come.” Part Three explores “the kingdom of God is at hand.” Part Four explores “repent and believe.” The book integrates conversation and praxis throughout.

Intention: To address the question of how to live the kingdom—the way of Jesus—in wholeness and community. He approaches theological questions from a whole life, whole self perspective.

NOTE: I've finally posted that summary I promised.

Tag: books

Reclaiming the Center
Edited Millard J. Erickson, Paul Kjoss Helseth, Justin Taylor
368 pages
Publisher: Crossway Books (November 9, 2004)

Editors: Erickson is a Distinguished Professor of Theology at Western Seminary. Helseth is Associate Professor of Christian Thought at Northwestern College. Taylor is Director of Theology and Executive Editor of Desiring God.

Point of View: The movement-mood known as post-evangelicalism (among a host of other names) both requires and deserves critical and respectful engagement.

Organization: The book is divided into five parts. Part One introduces post-evangelicalism and its primary voices (Grenz, Olson, Webber, and McLaren), provides an overview of this work, and critiques Renewing the Center. Part Two critiques post-evangelicalism on philosophical grounds. Part Three critiques its theological method. Part Four critiques its historiography. Part Five looks ahead to what ought to happen after modernism and postmodernism.

Intention: To debate and dialogue, denounce and describe, and to critique and learn from post-evangelicalism in order that readers might be equipped to navigate into the post-post-modern world.

Tag: books

The Mission-Shaped Church
By the Mission-Shaped Church Working Group of the Church of England
192 pages
Publisher: Church House Pub. (October 2007)

Authors: a working group of the Church of England’s Mission and Public Affairs Council (ix). The working group consists of eleven officials (bishops, vicars, directors, archdeacons, rectors, secretaries, and team leaders).

Point of View: Realizing that the Church of England parochial system was no longer fully effective, the working group recognized the need for a variety of ecclesial approaches (xi), also known as “fresh expressions.”

Organization:

• Chapter 1 describes England’s changing culture.
• Chapter 2 narrates changes since the 1994 publication of Breaking New Ground, in which church planting was first recognized as a valid mission endeavor.
• Chapter 3 defines church planting and its significance.
• Chapter 4 describes several fresh expressions.
• Chapter 5 explicates a theology of a missionary church.
• Chapter 6 offers principles and methodologies.
• Chapter 7 describes a framework by which the church planting aspirations of Breaking New Ground might be realized.
• Chapter 8 offers recommendations flowing from the insights and experiences described in Mission-Shaped Church.

Intention: To have Mission-Shaped Church studied/discussed at all levels of the Church of England and such groupings to be encouraged to respond appropriately (x).


Tag: books

Remembering Our Future
Edited by Andrew Walker and Luke Bretherton
224 pages
Publisher: Paternoster (August 1, 2007)

Editors: Andrew Walker is Professor of Theology and Education at King’s College London and an ecumenical canon of St. Paul’s Cathedral (back cover). Dr. Luke Bretherton is Lecturer in Theology and Ministry, Convener of the Faith and Public Policy Forum and D.Min. Programme Director at King’s College London (back cover).

Point of View: Fad-driven, one dimensional spirituality is useless. Connection with historical Christianity and evangelical heritage is needed.

Organization: Ten related, yet independent essays by eight different authors. These essays are the fruit of an informal seminar on Deep Church.

Intention: To “inform and nourish the emergence of a truly deep church, on that is both saturated in the wisdom of the communion of saints and speaking forth the startling newness of the gospel of Jesus Christ” (xx).


Tag: books

Missio Dei
By Fred Peatross
116 pages
Publisher: Cold Tree Press (June 15, 2007)

Author: leader in a traditional church in Huntington, WV; former church planter in the Ukraine; living as a missionary to America; self-proclaimed renegade.

Point of View: The attractional view of mission misses the ways of Jesus and does not fulfill his mission.

Organization: There are two parts (deconstruction and reconstruction). The various chapters are organized under these two.

Deconstruction

• Attractional and Missional—the current culture demands a missional stance
• Forging New Gospel Communities—the missional church is polar opposite with the attractional, yet might influence the attractional to engage culture and transform into mission

Reconstruction

• Evolution of an Emerging—movements begin with conversation; emergent may become a movement, but either way, it has influence
• Missional Mechanism for the Attractional Church—an invitation to perpetually change and train
• Think Globally, Act Neighborly—indigenous, designed space; evangelism as a process involving ordinary attempts; cater to one niche
• The Importance of Perception—be friends; be friendly; be regular; be honest
• Determined—this transformation is a long journey; stay committed and travel together

Intention: To make the case for and show a way for attractional churches to become missional churches.


Tag: books

Inside the Organic Church: Learning from 12 Emerging Congregations
by Bob Whitesel
154 pages
Publisher: Abingdon Press (August 2006)

Scan Results

Author: "author, professor and speaker on the organic emerging church, non-profit management and church growth. He is Associate Professor in the College of Graduate Studies at Indiana Wesleyan University"

Organization: The book is divided into three general sections. The first section contains the conclusions (yes, the conclusions) and an overview of the author's journey. The second section contains twelve chapters. Each chapter describes an organic (emerging) church via five movements: First Encounters, Dashboard (people, place, etc), A Fusion of Rhythms, An Interview with my Tour Guides, and What Every Church Can Learn. The final section contains two concluding chapters. Chapter 13, Nurturing an Organic Congregation, suggests a series of four seasons through which a leader might nurture an organic congregation. Chapter 14, Final Postcards, contains Whitesel's acknowledgments.

Intention: To help the emerging church and their parent churches to "understand how the Holy Spirit is leading his church to growth and health" (xxi).

Tag: books

THE OUT OF BOUNDS CHURCH?
by Steve Taylor
176 pages
Publisher: Zondervan/Youth Specialties (February 1, 2005)

Scan Results

In this book, Steve Taylor reports back from the emerging edge of the church and explores the issues biblically, traditionally, and culturally.

The book is divided into four parts: Culture Shapers, Emerging Firestarters, Emerging Mission, and In Advance. In each "part," Taylor has placed one or more postcards, posing various questions followed by a chapter discussing each postcard.

Tag: books

Reading on the Run

by J. Robert Clinton
140 pages
Publisher: Barnabas Publishers (January 30, 1987)


If you read for research or if you must read a lot, this book is a must. He offers six reading methods that vary by depth:

1. scan (determine potential value)
2. ransack (search for new ideas on a known subject)
3. browse (detailed reading of an extended portion)
4. pre-read (serious understanding of an entire book)
5. indepth (detailed evaluative read)
6. study (comparative reading of various books)

Tag(s): booksreading

See CC License

THE STUDY OF THEOLOGY : from biblical interpretation to contemporary formulation

by Richard A. Muller
238 pages
Publisher: Zondervan Publishing Company (February 11, 1991)

SCAN RESULTS

Richard Muller was Professor of Historical Theology at Fuller Theological Seminary when he wrote The Study of Theology. He is now P. J. Zondervan Professor of Historical Theology at Calvin Theological Seminary. He is a specialist in post-Reformation dogmatics, but has written on a wide variety of topics.

The book has four sections.

• The Study of Theology: Issues and Problems discusses the fourfold curriculum as an interpretive structure for moving from exegesis to contemporary formulation.
• The Theological Disciplines: Biblical and Historical Foundations offers an interpretive path through biblical/historical to contemporary formulation.
• The Theological Disciplines: Contemporary Statement and Practice offers systematic theology as the methodological comprehension of contemporary and constructive disciplines.
• The Unity of Theological Discourse suggests that the unity of theology includes objective disciplines and subjective involvement.

In this book, Muller intends...

• "to discuss the interpretation or hermeneutical implications of the fourfold curriculum" (xi),
• "to present a case for its structure" (xi),
• "to argue the essential unity of the disciplines in their service to the church" (xi), and
• to present a view of theology that respects tradition and integrates it into the contemporary context (xvi).

More later...(really)

Tag: books

An Emergent Manifesto of Hope
Edited by Doug Pagitt and Tony Jones
320 pages
Baker Books (April 1, 2007)

SCAN RESULTS

Doug Pagitt earned an MA at Bethel Seminary. He is pastor of Solomon's Porch in Minneapolis, MN and is the author of Preaching Reimagined, Church Reimagined, and BodyPrayer.

Tony Jones earned an MDiv at Fuller Seminary and is a PhD student at Princeton. He is the national director of Emergent Village (EV) and author of Postmodern Youth Ministry, The Sacred Way, Divine Intervention, and more.

Both editors have been involved EV since before its inception. They are practitioners, thinkers, friends, and conversationalists.

The book opens with an introduction by Tony Jones, giving some background and setting the stage for the remainder of the book. The body of the text is divided into five parts: A People of Hope, Communities of Hope, A Hopeful Faith, A Hopeful Way Forward, and Hopeful Activism. Each part is introduced by either Doug or Tony. The book ends with an afterword by Doug Pagitt.

Doug Pagitt and Tony Jones intend to communicate and extend the friendship that is EV. This book is intended to be a good, meaning it is a product of EV, it is to be a discussion starter, it is--hopefully--desirable for its own sake, and it is filled with essays that provide good ground for growing. This text is intended to put forth the hopes and dreams of some of the voices in EV and, with God's good grace, be fodder for a good legacy.

NOTE: current study requirements prevent me from reading this book--and, yes, I'm quited bummed. It goes now to the summer reading pile--which pile is getting quite large.

Tag: books

MATTHEW: FROM BIBLICAL TEXT TO CONTEMPORARY LIFE
The NIV Application Commentary
by Michael J. Wilkins
1008 pages
Publisher: Zondervan (July 1, 2003)

Spring 2007 reading...more later

SCAN RESULTS

Mike Wilkins earned his Ph.D. from Fuller Theological Seminary. He is the dean of faculty and professor of New Testament Language and Literature at Talbot School of Theology. Wilkins has had a 25-year relationship with Matthew's gospel. He has a passion for allowing God's Word to change us.

The commentary begins with eighteen pages of introduction, followed by an outline of the gospel and a bibliography. Each 'Text and Commentary' section contains the text from the NIV, Original Meaning, Bridging Contexts, and Contemporary Significance.

Wilkins intends to guide the readers through Matthew's written reflections, so that they might understand Matthew's theological intentions for his community and might allow Matthew's insights to penetrate their souls and lives.

Tag: books

Word Biblical Commentary Vol. 33a, Matthew 1-13, 483pp
Word Biblical Commentary Vol. 33b, Matthew 14-28, 568pp
Donald A. Hagner
Nelson Reference
(December 7, 1993; November 22, 1995)

Spring 2007 reading...more later

Tag: books

THE THEOLOGY OF THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW
by Ulrich Luz
180 pages
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (June 30, 1995)

Spring 2007 reading...more later

SCAN RESULTS

Ulrich Luz is a professor of New Testament Studies at the University of Bern. Luz holds Matthew to be primarily story and thus shapes his theology accordingly (even to inserting systematic sections much as Matthew inserts Jesus' direct discourses).

Chapter one covers theological issues relating to the structure, literary context, and provenance. Chapters two through eight cover theological issues arranged as related to each section (1:1-4:22; 5-7; 8:1-11:30; 12:1-16:20; 16:21-20:34; 21:1-25:46; 26-28). Chapter nine concludes by looking at Matthew's relation to Jesus, Paul, Church history, and Christians today.

Luz intends to provide a programmatic survey of Matthew by tracing his theological themes across this particular story of Jesus.

UPDATE 020507 scan results added

Tag: books

WHAT ARE THEY SAYING ABOUT MATTHEW?
A Revised and Expanded Edition
Donald Senior, C.P.
144 pages
Publisher: Paulist Press; Rev Exp edition (January 1, 1995)

Spring 2007 reading...more later

SCAN RESULTS

Donald Senior has a doctorate in New Testament Studies from University Louvain (Belgium) and professor of New Testament at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. He is a biblical scholar, writer, and teacher.

Chapter 1: Settings
Chapter 2: Sources and Structure
Chapter 3: View of Salvation History
Chapter 4: Use of the Old Testament
Chapter 5: Attitude to the Law
Chapter 6: Christology
Chapter 7: Discipleship and Church

Senior intends to present the "most crucial, the most comprehensive, and the topics that can give the reader a sense of how contemporary scholarship views Matthew's gospel." The author allows the surveyed authors to speak for themselves.

UPDATE 020507 scan results added

Tag: books