Biblical theology

Review: Hidden But Now Revealed

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hidden-but-now-revealed

Hidden But Now Revealed, G. K. Beale and Benjamin L. Gladd. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2014.

Summary: A study of the word mystery in scripture, particularly considering its use in the Old Testament book of Daniel, and how nearly all New Testament usages connect back to this book, and show the once hidden but now revealed realities surrounding the person of Christ, his kingdom, and the inclusion of the Gentiles.

“Mystery” means quite a number of different things, and often, when we read passages in the Bible that refer in some way to mystery, we read those into the text. In other instances, it is the practice to read into the New Testament usage of mystery the uses of this term in the pagan religions of surrounding cultures.

Beale and Gladd in this book understand mystery as something that was once hidden but had now been revealed, or will be revealed. What they do in this book is study all the instances where the word occurs in scripture, primarily in Daniel in the Old Testament, some in inter-testamental Judaism, and in the canonical New Testament books of Matthew, Romans, 1 Corinthians, Ephesians, Colossians, 2 Thessalonians, 1 Timothy, and Revelation. They devote a chapter to each of these, exegeting the text, and in the case of the New Testament books, showing the echoes or connections back to Daniel in almost every use–often in parallels in word usage and meaning, as well as in the elaboration or fuller development of that meaning. Each chapter includes conclusions that summarize the biblical theology of mystery in that book. Many of the chapters also have excurses on special issues related to the text of a particular book.

The final chapters consider the theme of mystery in the New Testament even where the word does not occur, the contrast between the esoteric character of pagan mystery religions and the open character of the biblical proclamation of the mysteries revealed in Christ. A conclusion then ties together the theology of mystery found throughout scripture, showing how so much was revealed in the incarnation, life, death, and resurrection and cosmic rule of the Son of God. There is the mystery of the already-not yet kingdom and the inclusion of the Gentiles. Most of all is the mystery of the cruciform work of Christ, how the victory of Christ and salvation and the conquest of Satan occurred through the death of Jesus.

One of the bonuses of this book was the concluding appendix on “The Cognitive Peripheral Vision of the Biblical Authors.” Have you ever noticed how some of the passages cited as prophecies of Christ, seem to mean something very different in their Old Testament context? It seems that the New Testament authors interpret these to mean something very different from what they meant in their original context. Beale and Gladd argue that this reflects a type of “peripheral vision.” The contextual meaning in the Old Testament is the equivalent of the focal point in one’s vision. They would contend, and show evidence from different shadings of meaning within the same Old Testament books, that authors may mean and comprehend more than their explicit intention in a particular passage, such that the appropriation of these passages by New Testament writers falls within their “cognitive peripheral vision.” I’m not sure I buy it yet, but it is an intriguing idea to explore further.

Overall, I thought this was an example of doing biblical theology at its best from a conviction that one may trace both continuity and discontinuity between the testaments but can look for coherence in the whole. They work from exegesis, to summary of the theology of mystery in each book of scripture, to a synthesis of the theology of mystery found in scripture as a whole. Their close, careful study requires the reader’s full attention, but if followed leaves one with a new sense of the wonder of what has been revealed in the coming of Christ, as well as the glories we may yet anticipate.

 

Review: Paul’s New Perspective

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new-perspective

Paul’s New Perspective, Garwood P. Anderson. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2016

Summary: Argues that both the traditional Protestant perspective and the New Perspective on Paul are each partly right, based on the idea that Paul’s ideas on salvation developed as he wrote over a period of time and addressed different circumstances.

If you follow the discussions in biblical theology at all closely (something of a personal idiosyncrisy), you may be aware that since the work of E. P. Sanders over thirty years ago (and followed by contributions and modifications by James D. G. Dunn and N. T. Wright, among others), there has been what is called the “New Perspective on Paul (NPP),” It argues that the Traditional Protestant Perspective (TPP), traced back to Luther with its focus on justification not by works of the law but by grace through faith, is a mistaken reading of Paul. Beginning often with the book of Galatians, these proponents argue that “works of the law” are the defining boundary markers of God’s covenant with the Jews that kept Gentiles outside the covenant promises of God. These proponents contend that Paul’s emphasis is that by  faith (or the faithfulness of God through Christ), Gentiles are included in God’s covenant and part of God’s family apart from the boundary markers defined by the Jewish law. Those from the TPP fire back that this ignores the argument of Romans as well as passages like Ephesians 2:8-9 that focus on works more broadly, and for a forensic idea of justification where the righteousness of Christ is imputed by faith to those who believe.

Paul’s New Perspective could be a game-changer in this discussion. Garwood P. Anderson argues that the “contradictory schools of Pauline interpretation are both right, just not at the same time.” What Anderson contends against advocates of these contrary schools is that a static understanding of Paul’s thought is not the best way to understand the Pauline corpus as a whole, but that Paul’s thought developed over time and that a developmental understanding (not that Paul changed his mind) best explains the aspects of the Pauline corpus that each perspective has difficulties explaining.

The book divides into three parts. Chapters 1-3 explore the landscape of the discussion between the two perspectives as well as more recent post-NPP contributors. As part of this, in chapter 2 he considers three key passages in which Paul is seemingly uncooperative with either perspective: Philippians 3:1-11, Romans 3:21-4:8, and Ephesians 2:1-22.

In chapters 4 and 5, Anderson then contends for a particular itinerary of Paul’s ministry and the writing of his letters that lends itself to his thesis. He would contend for both an early date, and southern setting for the letter to the Galatians, next the Thessalonian and Corinthian correspondence, followed by Romans. He believes Romans is not Paul’s last work but that Philippians as well as the contested letters to Philemon, Colossians, Ephesus, and the Pastorals followed and are genuinely Pauline. While a number of critics would dissent, there is critical support for this chronology and Pauline authorship and Anderson briefly outlines the basis for these judgments, which are critical to his contention that a significant enough period of time elapsed in the writing of the Pauline corpus for Paul’s understanding of the salvation wrought by Christ to develop toward the vision of cosmic reconciliation (carefully delineated by Anderson) apparent in Colossians and Ephesians.

Chapters 6 through 8 then turn to an exegesis of the relevant passages following this developmental chronology, followed by a concluding chapter summarizing his argument. In these he shows particularly how the New Perspective gets Galatians more or less right on “works of the law” but that Paul’s use of “works” in later letters is not equivalent but reflects a developing understanding of the grace of God apart from human effort. He also argues that, while important, justification is not the center of Paul’s understanding of salvation, that the language of reconciliation informs this, and that perhaps most central is the idea of union with Christ.

I’ve tried to summarize in several hundred words a detailed argument that runs to nearly 400 pages in Anderson’s book and thousands of pages of writing over the years. No doubt I’ve glossed over many matters in both his and others’ scholarship. What I appreciated in this work is an effort to listen to the whole canonical Pauline corpus rather than to force it onto the Procrustean beds of either the old or new perspectives, either by ignoring uncooperative passages or dismissing books as pseudo-Pauline. What he proposes is not a compromise between the two perspectives, a via media, but rather a different way of conceptualizing Paul’s emerging perspective on salvation that allows for the intellectual growth of core convictions in a coherent and non-contradictory fashion.

Anderson speaks of having “friends” in both “camps.” I hope that his effort to articulate a “third way” will not result in “unfriendly fire” from both sides but rather promote the kind of theological reconciliation that would seem to be the fruit of the reconciliatory work of Christ, of which he writes, that enriches for all our grasp of the great salvation that is ours in Christ. I found that true for myself in the reading of this work, and trust it will be so for others.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher . I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

Review: The Good Shepherd

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the-good-shepherd

The Good Shepherd, Kenneth E. Bailey. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2014.

Summary: A study of the theme of the good shepherd beginning with Psalm 23 and considering consecutively eight other passages in which this theme is found.

We lost a giant of biblical scholarship this spring (2016) with the passing of Kenneth E. Bailey. Raised in the Middle East, he taught New Testament in Egypt, Lebanon, Jerusalem, and Cyprus. He brought to his scholarship an intimate knowledge of Middle Eastern culture, Arabic works, and the scriptures that shed fresh light on everything from the Nativity to the dearly loved Psalm that many of us memorized as children and have clung to in our darkest hours, Psalm 23.

Beginning with Psalm 23, Bailey considers eight other passages in the Old and New Testaments in which the theme is f0und of the shepherd and the sheep. These include Jeremiah 23:1-8, Ezekiel 34, Zechariah 10:2-12, Luke 15:1-10, Mark 6:7-52 (the feeding of the 5,000), Matthew 18:10-14,  John 10:1-18, and 1 Peter 5:1-4. Bailey contends that in these ten dramatic elements recur in most of these passages:

  1. The good shepherd.
  2. The lost sheep (or lost flock)
  3. The opponents of the shepherd
  4. The good host(ess?)
  5. The incarnation (promised or realized)
  6. The high cost the shepherd sustains to find and restore the lost
  7. The theme of repentance/return
  8. Bad sheep
  9. A celebration
  10. The end of the story (in a house, in the land, or with God)

Bailey then exegetes each passage. Over and over he finds a “ring” or chiasmus structure in these passages and draws out the meaning of the passage cameo by cameo. Along the way, his background knowledge of the Middle Eastern setting of these passages comes in as he describes the skittishness of sheep, who will only drink at still pools of water, the mace-like rod of the shepherd with which he fights off wolves and other predators, repentance as a willingness to be found, and the supreme risk of the shepherd in John 10, who of his own volition lays down his life for his sheep. I loved this description of the good shepherd:

     “The good shepherd ‘leads me’; he does not ‘drive me.’ There is a marked difference. In Egypt where this is no open pasture land I have often seen shepherds driving sheep from behind with sticks. But in the open wilderness of the Holy Land the shepherd walks slowly ahead of his sheep and either plays his own ten-second tune on a pipe or (more often) sings his own unique ‘call.’ The sheep appear to be attracted primarily by the voice of the shepherd, which they know and are eager to follow” (p. 41).

One often doesn’t think of the shepherd theme in the miracle of the feeding of the 5,000. Bailey draws out both the contrast with the evil banquet of Herod at which John the Baptist was beheaded, which precedes this miracle, and the counter-cultural statement of the feeding of the 5,000, in the green grass, by the Sea of Galilee, where the people eat their fill and are led in paths of righteousness. In contrast to decadent Herod, Jesus reveals himself as the Good Shepherd of Israel.

Likewise, I and many others have puzzled over the shepherd leaving the ninety-nine for the one lost sheep. Yes, sheep are valuable. Yet so are the ninety-nine. But what would it mean to the ninety-nine, Bailey asks, that the shepherd went after the lost one? It meant that should they get lost, the shepherd would search for them as well. Every sheep mattered.

This is both good scholarship and good devotional reading that leads one to praise the Great Shepherd and to aspire to be a good shepherd to the extent that God gives that opportunity. I do not know if there are further works of Bailey’s that will be published posthumously. But in this final major publication Bailey sums up a life of devotion and fine scholarship in a book that is a gift to the church and her shepherds.

Review: Eschatology

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eschatology

Eschatology, D. Jeffrey Bingham and Glenn R. Kreider (eds.). Grand Rapids: Kregel Academic, 2016.

Summary: A compendium of essays on the future hope of Christians reflecting a dispensational premillenialist perspective.

Craig A. Blaising is a biblical theologian whose roots are in the Baptist tradition. He has taught at three southern seminaries in the U.S. and is known for his work in what is called “progressive dispensationalism.” This volume of essays, a survey of scholarship around the “last things” was compiled in honor of his 65th birthday and certainly reflects this theological tradition at its best.

Discerning what theological persuasion the writers were coming from, I thought, “O.K. here we go, prophecy charts and predictions that our conflict with ISIS is the prelude to Armageddon.” There is none of that in this book. Instead, what I found was good scholarship seeking to be faithful to scripture and relatively wide-ranging in discussing the history of eschatology through church history and the implications of this all for the church, organized into a comprehensive survey that I would suggest reflects the best of dispensational premillenialism.

After introductory essays that include a biography and curriculum vita of Blaising, the book is organized into four sections:

  1. The Doctrine of the Future and Its Foundations
  2. The Doctrine of the Future in the Bible
  3. The Doctrine of the Future in the History of Christian Thought
  4. The Doctrine of the Future and Christian Ministry.

Hence, the collection moves from theological foundations to biblical theology, to historical theology, and to pastoral and practical theology.

The first section includes a fine essay by Stanley D. Toussaint on the concept of hope and the profound basis the prophetic passages offer for hope that sustains endurance and joy. Then Charles C. Ryrie and John D. and Stefana Dan Laing address the eclipse of attention to the prophetic scriptures having to do with our future hope and the impact this has in the life of the church.

The next section explores the doctrine of the future in each part of scripture, essentially doing the spade work to construct a biblical theology from the whole of scripture about our future hope. It was interesting to see the historical books in scripture discussed by Gregory Smith, exploring the implications of the Davidic covenant and its statements about David’s, and Israel’s, distant future hope. If you want to find arguments for a future hope for Israel as a national entity, you will find it among this and other articles in this section.

Section three turns to historical theology with articles beginning with the early fathers and concluding with contemporary European theology, capped off by David Dockery’s article on Millenialism in Contemporary Evangelical Theology, which gives one of the best explanations I have seen of a-, post-, and pre-millenial positions. It was interesting that while several essays concerned Reformed, Anabaptist, and Baptist theology, there was no treatment of eschatology in Wesleyan theology, and a mere subsection of the Contemporary European Theology devoted to Catholic theology.

The final section turns to pastoral and practical concerns. J. Denny Autry discusses the place of eschatological concerns in both preaching and pastoral care. For my money, the book should have ended with R. Albert Mohler’s essay of contemporary challenges. Stephen Blaising’s contribution on the doctrine of the future and the marketplace felt like an add-in to include Blaising’s son in the collection. Mohler concluded his essay with these words, that should have ended the book:

     “The rapid disappearance of cultural Christianity in our own time will mean that Christians may soon find themselves in a situation similar to that of the early church in Rome. Preaching the Lordship of Christ and biblical eschatology rooted in the arrival of God’s kingdom will be considered culturally and politically subversive. Proclaiming a biblical eschatology that heralds the message “Jesus Christ is Lord” will lead to direct confrontation with the culture.

“While the disappearance of cultural Christianity is a cultural disaster, it is also a theological gain. It is disastrous for society because it will destroy a worldview most conducive to human flourishing. A post-Christian culture will be a very inconvenient place to raise your children, minister the gospel, or speak in the public square. Yet, at the same time, the evaporation of cultural Christianity may prove a theological gain for the church. Our lives and beliefs will only make sense if indeed Jesus Christ is Lord and our hope is not bound up in the city of man, but in a city to come. From a gospel witness perspective, that is a very convenient place to be.”

This quibble with the order and selection of these last essays aside, I would commend this collection, along with Dr. Blaising’s own work if you seriously wish to take the measure of dispensational premillenialist eschatological thinking today. This probably could be used as a basic textbook, or at least supplemental text in theology courses in Christian colleges and seminaries sympathetic with the dispensational premillenialist position. Rather than being about prophecy charts and sensational predictions, it is about the substance of Christian hope concerning the future of every believer, the church, Israel, and the world.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

Review: Covenant Economics

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Covenant Economics

Covenant Economics: A Biblical Vision of Justice for All, Richard A. Horsley. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2009.

Summary: A biblical study of how God’s covenant with Israel, including the New Testament appropriation of that covenant was intended to shape economic life and justice for Israel and “assemblies” in the New Testament era, with application to modern economic life and the “covenant” our government has with its people.

Richard Horsley begins this study with an interesting contention: that the founding documents of the United States articulate a kind of covenant between government and people that has not only political but economic implications and obligations around our “life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness.” There were frequent references to this in early discourse but a growing disconnect with the growth of giant corporations and multi-national interests in the more recent past and present. With these changes has come an erosion of a “covenant commitment” to economic justice for all.

In this book, Horsley frames an argument for economic justice based on another covenant, that of God with Israel. He begins by contrasting the covenant life of Israel with the imperial civilizations, which were often oppressive of the economic interests of their people. God’s covenant with Israel, he demonstrates concerns not just religious life but protects the economic interests of the people with various provisions from gleaning, to debt forgiveness and no-interest loans, to reversion of the land to its original owners in the Jubilee year. In the books of the Prophets, he shows that a significant theme of the prophets were the breaches of economic justice as Israel’s kings acted like the kings of surrounding nations and the rich unjustly expanded their holdings at the expense of fellow Israelites.

Horsley then considers the New Testament and finds in the teaching of Jesus extensive material that subverts the Roman domination and priestly oppression under which the Jews lived. In doing so, Jesus appropriates the covenant economics of Israel to this new situation as he calls for mutual sharing and blesses the poor. After considering particularly Mark and Luke, he turns to the communities the Apostle Paul was in touch with, as well as those addressed by the Gospel of Matthew, showing that these “assemblies” were not just liturgical bodies but organized around economic principles of mutual care as a kind of “counter-culture” in a Roman dominated world, albeit one still under Roman rule. His concluding chapter then considers the implications of covenant economics in scripture to how the contemporary church orders its own economic life and engages economic injustices in the broader society.

The value of this work is that it is a biblical study of the economic material in scripture, often overlooked in overly spiritualized and privatized readings of scripture. His challenges of Christians to disengage from the economic captivities of our contemporary society and to stand against economic injustices are welcome and important words.

At the same time, it felt at times that Horsley reduced the teaching of scripture to economics, or at least did not relate this teaching to other themes that might strengthen his case. For example, relating economics to soteriology may emphasize the basis of a “non-zero sum game” approach to economics in the grace of God who gives lavishly and undeservedly to his people. Similar, the lack of a connection of economics to eschatology severs a tie of economics to the just order that will pertain in the new creation, that motivates the pursuit of economic justice now.

I also wonder about both the historicity of the purported covenant in American history, and also the equation of a covenant between a government and its people with a covenant between God and his people. Does this feed into the strain of American exceptionalism that is foreign to a kingdom of people of every nation, tribe and tongue? I don’t think this was Horsley’s intent, but I could see the material being appropriated in this way.

Horsley writes this book for an adult education context. It is readable and provides good explanations of any technical matters. Each chapter includes questions that may be helpful for both individual reflection and group discussion. The work can definitely open eyes to the economic teaching of scripture, and used by a theologically-informed leader could be useful in helping a group wrestle with what economic faithfulness as followers of Christ might look like.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher via a pre-publication e-galley through Edelweiss. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

Review: Neither Complementarian nor Egalitarian

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Neither Complementarian Nor Egalitarian

Neither Complementarian nor Egalitarian, Michelle Lee-Barnewall. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2016.

Summary: Argues on the basis of the biblical texts for a reframing of the discussion of the relationship of men and women from one of power versus equality  to one that focuses on the elements in the biblical texts around reversal, inclusion, unity and service.

In the mouthful that is the title to this book lies a heated, sometimes hurtful, occasionally constructive intramural discussion in the evangelical community about how men and women relate to each other in the church and in marriage. Complementarians argue for gender distinctives that are complementary, for some form of male headship, female submission in marriage and that certain roles of leadership in the church are open only to men. Egalitarians argue that the best way to understand the biblical texts is that in creation and redemption, men and women are equal at the foot of the cross, that all roles of leadership are open to both in the church and that husband and wife mutually submit to each other as equals. Both “sides” contend that they are being faithful to the teaching of scripture.

I’ve watched this debate go on through my adult life, although rarely have scholars on one side or the other of this discussion reached out to see if there is some way the two positions can be reconciled. Over time, some have moved to a “soft” complementarian position, while egalitarians have been open to explore distinctives of gender while avoiding any form of hierarchy in marriage or church. What has troubled me is that the discussion has often been framed around authority or rights and hasn’t explored questions of servanthood, inclusion, and the kind of mutual care that ought characterize communities shaped by the crucified and risen Christ.

Michelle Lee-Barnewall has been troubled by this as well and thinks that part of the reason for the impasse to which we’ve come is that the discussion has been framed around categories of roles, authority, and rights that may draw more from contemporary culture that the biblical narratives and that there may be a perspective inherent in the narratives that is missed because of the framing questions we ask.

The first part of the book reviews the evangelical history of women. She breaks this into three periods, the first of which is around the turn of the 20th century when women were significantly involved in many social and mission causes, the focus being on doing one’s duty where needful. The second was a period of retreat, after the turbulence and separation of World War II, emphasizing the role of women in the home and in child-rearing. This transition, in the post-civil rights and feminist era to a focus on equal rights for women, with others holding to a more traditional role, that in contemporary discussion has been framed as complementarian.

The second part of the book turns to biblical theology and the biblical text to develop themes that might reframe the discussion. First she considers the idea of the kingdom of God and the emphases on unity and corporate identity, and on the great reversals of power, including the exaltation of the lowly and the humbling of the exalted. She then goes on under the theme of unity to explore the idea of inclusion and whether this is a better way to understand the place of women than either complementary roles or equal rights, that women are welcomed in Jesus circle and shared in and were included in the blessing of Pentecost. She also explores the radical teaching about leadership as servanthood, or even slavery, which radically upturns for both men and women, the hierarchies of the New Testament period.

In the latter part of this section, she considers two passages, Genesis 2-3, and Ephesians 5:21-33. In Genesis 2-3 she notes particularly the one flesh instructions to Adam and how in his disobedience, this is broken as he blames Eve, even though it is to Adam that God first addresses himself. She does note how the relationship originates in Adam, through whom Eve is given life and named, and yet the focus, she contends is not his authority or precedence but his leaving, cleaving, becoming one flesh with her. In Ephesians, while the man is indeed “head” (and the meaning of this can be debated) there is no command to exercise authority but rather to love and give oneself, with the husband and wife relationship demonstrating the union between Christ and church.

Lee-Barnewell does not take a “side” in this discussion, even in conclusion. She advocates instead for a different kind of discussion. She suggests that the rhetoric used to characterize the “other” as “feminist” or “patriarchal” is not helpful. Rather than answer the question of what women can or cannot do, she believes these other biblical themes are crucially important as foundations for any constructive discussion, and for reaching a place informed more by scripture than culture for all concerned.

My fear with a book like this is that it will either be disregarded or attacked by advocates on either side of this discussion, and especially by complementarians. I do think the upshot of her “reframing” would be to support the position of egalitarians, albeit with a different spirit. Yet I think this is an important book, as are similar books around questions of origins and the Genesis text, in reframing the discussion by changing the kinds of questions we ask of the biblical text, indeed in trying to listen to the text and let it deliver us from our own cultural captivities. That might even have the effect of bringing us together in the inclusive, unifying ways Lee-Barnewell envisions.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

Review: God Dwells Among Us

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God Dwells Among Us

God Dwells Among Us, G. K. Beale and Mitchell Kim. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2014.

Summary: A study of the theology of the Eden-temple of creation as an expression of God’s purpose to have a dwelling place with humanity and the development of this theme throughout scripture, under-girding the mission of the church.

Good biblical theology works up from the data of particular books of scripture to develop themes that run through the whole of scripture. It helps us both hear the testimony of particular writers to a particular time, and the harmony of witness through time, and calls us to join the chorus with the worship and service of our lives. This book is good biblical theology that does all of these things.

The book arises from Mitchell Kim’s pastoral ministry, particularly a seven week sermon series based on the work of G.K. Beale in The Temple and the Church’s Mission in the New Studies in Biblical Theology series. Kim, with Beale’s co-authorship, expand this series into a survey of this theme suitable for an adult lay audience. They begin with the idea of the garden of Eden as God’s dwelling place with his image-bearers, and his intention that they would expand Eden to fill the whole earth through their offspring. Although the fall of the first couple means this purpose to extend the Eden-temple to the whole earth could not be fulfilled in the way God originally intended, we see this working out in the patriarchs with Noah once again being fruitful and multiplying after the flood, God dispersing the nations at Babel and the promise to Abraham and the response of Abraham and later Jacob in building altars throughout Canaan as types of “sanctuaries” as God begins to make a great nation.

After the deliverance of the nation from slavery in Egypt, God establishes a “tabernacle” in the wilderness, which Kim and Beale call the Eden dwelling place “remixed in the context of sin.” There is both the Holy of Holies, and provision for sin by which the people of God may approach and live in God’s Holy presence. The tabernacle, and the later temple image the cosmic temple, and the restoration of the temple, the future temple that will fill the earth.

The second Jerusalem temple never fulfills these purposes in itself, which only the coming of Jesus does; the temple that will be destroyed and raised up, signalling the coming of God’s new creation extending to the nations. This is accomplished in and through the church, the body of Christ and the temple of his Spirit, extending the new Eden-creation to the ends of the earth, even as it looks for the consummation of this purpose in the return of Jesus, establishing the new heavens and the new earth.

The penultimate chapter asks the telling question, “Why Haven’t I Seen This Before?” The authors cite four reasons. One is that very different cosmology of the biblical writers from our naturalistic cosmos disconnected from any spiritual realities. Second is that rarely is the Bible treated as a unity, a canonical whole. We look at particular books but rarely at the witness of the whole (and some who do only emphasize the discontinuities). Third is that we are unfamiliar with the use of typology. Finally, we think of “literal” fulfillment only in physical terms, when in scripture, the “true” temple is the heavenly one of which the earthly temple is only a shadow.

The final chapter returns to the idea of the mission of the church as those through whom the new creation Eden-temple is being extended to the ends of the earth. This is a call to sacrifice, and to ministry empowered by the word of God and prayer. It was here, even as I found myself saying “Amen” to these foundational aspects of the church’s life and witness, that I also found myself struggling with the very “spiritual” feel that seemed to ignore how the church’s social witness and care for creation also herald the coming Eden-temple of the new creation, portrayed in Revelation as a garden-city.

Aside from this quibble, I appreciated this book as a model of the kind of teaching that can, and I think, ought to be done in the setting of the church that helps people grasp the Big Story of which we are a part, and how we in fact have a part in advancing the plot that is life-affirming and embracing. Such teaching is rich fare that fuels both worship and work in a way that the “fast food” diets of many of our churches cannot sustain, as many of our most vibrant churches are learning.

 

 

Review: With the Clouds of Heaven

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With the Clouds of Heaven

With the Clouds of Heaven (New Studies in Biblical Theology), James M. Hamilton, Jr. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2014.

Summary: A true study of the biblical theology of Daniel, including its structure, key themes, how the book influences both early Jewish literature and the New Testament, and how it connects to key themes throughout scripture.

In this book, James M. Hamilton, Jr. sets out to give us an evangelical biblical theology of the book of Daniel. He begins by assuming a canonical approach to the book of Daniel, that Daniel would have had access to most of the works that preceded his, and he contends, against a significant part of the scholarly community for dating Daniel in the exile, and not in the Maccabean period of the second century B.C.

Working from these assumptions then, Hamilton sets out first to consider Daniel’s contribution to the Old Testament picture of the history and future of the world, which is one that reflects the literary structure of exile and return, with the critical piece of the four kingdoms, the coming of the Son of Man, and the end of days including the 70 weeks. He considers the visions of Daniel 2-4, 7-8, and 10-12 and their meaning, the beastly powers that attempt to stamp out the people of God against which the faithful are to stand in hope. He then discusses the seventy weeks, with the persecution of the faithful and the ultimate victory of the son of man. With that he turns to the various heavenly figures throughout Daniel and considers which may be equated with the son of man, and actually determines that none can be definitively equated with him.

Chapters 7 to 9 then explore how the book of Daniel influenced early Jewish literature, the New Testament other than Revelation, and finally the use of and fulfillment of Daniel in Revelation. Hamilton argues that not only the language but also the structure of Revelation parallels that of Daniel.

I thought the final chapter the most interesting as Hamilton considers Daniel as part of the big story of all of scripture, considering the parallels of Daniel with Joseph in Egypt, Nehemiah, Esther, Jehoiachin, and finally Jesus. Daniel’s life is a type as intercessor, one who “rises from the dead” and his message with the four kingdoms, during the last of which the kingdom of the son of man comes, in the sixty ninth week, as it were. Hamilton sees the seventieth week as divided into the first half, a long period of growth and witness, and a final tribulation the last three and a half days (a shorter time he argues) before the final victory of the son of man and the resurrection of the dead.

Whether or not one agrees with all of Hamilton’s conclusions, what is most valuable in this book is the careful work in the structure and theology of Daniel, the appropriation of Daniel in later literature, and the place of Daniel within the canon of Scripture. Furthermore, Hamilton draws out Daniel’s vision of history that is of great encouragement to faithfulness as kingdom advance is met with beastly resistance and brutal opposition. Daniel’s faithful witness and prophetic word call us to a faithful witness that looks one way or the other to the Lord for deliverance from the lion’s mouth, and for the final restoration of all things.

This is a wonderful resource for the student of scripture who wants to understand more deeply the inter-textual connections between Daniel and the rest of scripture. It is a valuable resource to those who would teach or preach this book and a good complement to any commentary in understanding the “big picture” of Daniel.

 

Review: Johannine Theology

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Johannine TheologyJohannine Theology, Paul A. Rainbow. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2014.

Summary: A comprehensive treatment of the Johannine corpus that assumes a common source and explores the theology of these books in light of the major relationships between persons divine and human, and of those persons with regard to the church and the world.

Of the books that have been written . What Paul Rainbow has done in this volume is to summarize some of the most significant scholarship and questions in this area of biblical theology. A basic assumption of the book is a common authorship of the Gospel and Epistles of John and the Apocalypse (Revelation). Rainbow adopts as his “working assumption” that the Apostle John is the common author of these texts. In fact, one of the later discussions in the book argues strongly that John was a churchman and not a sectarian, against the “Johannine sectarian” approach to this corpus.

Rainbow takes the interesting approach of delineating the theology of this corpus as a theology of personal relationships, and he synthesizes the teaching of all parts of the corpus under these headings. Following his introduction in chapter 1 where he outlines approaches to Johannine theology and scholarship, including his own, he follows this plan, which he summarizes in chapter 10, which considers the relationship of the church to the world:

“God the Father (chap. 2) loves God the Son eternally (chap. 4) and is united to him by God the Spirit (chap. 6). He also loves the world that he made, despite its rebellion toward him (chap. 3). He sent his Son to show his love supremely by making propitiation for the world’s sin on the cross (chap. 5). The Son, on returning to glory, sent the Spirit to indwell his disciples (chap. 6) so that they might abide in the Son, both individually (chaps. 7-8) and corporately (chap. 9) until he comes again (p. 399).

There are times where the reading of this work is heavy going when the author is summarizing passage after passage as it contributes to a particular theme. My suggestion here is that such material is probably most helpfully read by looking up the passages and giving careful thought and reflection to their import. What is clear is that this process often leads to insight on the part of the author who may “zoom out” with insights on the relations of the divine persons, discussions of the procession of the Spirit and the controversy of churches East and West, a defense of propitiation, the blessedness of eternal life and union in Christ, the life of abiding in Christ, and the nature of the Church and its relationship with a World that often hates the followers of Christ as it does Christ.

What is interesting is that rather than provide a separate chapter on “eschatology” the author weaves eschatological concerns throughout the book, as he considers the relation of the Triune God to a fallen world, explores the redemptive work of Christ, the hope of the believer, and the mission of the Church. This is consistent with his approach that integrates consideration of The Apocalypse with the rest of the Johannine material, rather than bracketing it off to itself.

One comes away from this work with the sense of having sat with someone who has soaked deeply in the Johannine material and seen connections most of us may miss in our readings or studies of the separate books. More than simply biblical study, however, this is truly biblical theology in the sense that it works from the biblical material to explore what this material discloses of the character and workings of God, and how humans may indeed relate to him and to one another through Christ. Rainbow’s careful and extensive study lays out a banquet for any who will come to the table!

Review: The Theology of the Book of Isaiah

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Theology of IsaiahThe Theology of the Book of Isaiah, John Goldingay. Downers Grove, InterVarsity Press, 2014.

Summary: Taking the book of Isaiah as a whole and as it would have been read by its first readers, Goldingay both considers the theologies present in each major section of Isaiah, and traces the theological themes emerging from the book as a whole.

I wish I had this book a few years ago when I was teaching Isaiah in an adult ed class at my church. Isaiah’s 66 chapters encompass a sweeping vision extending from the reigns of Ahaz and Hezekiah to the post-exilic destiny of Israel and the nations. Most of the commentaries on Isaiah are multi-volume or lengthy single volume works. What makes this a great resource is that it is both a concise work and yet gives the reader a good grasp of the framework of the book and key theological themes, crucial to understanding the book. What is also refreshing is that rather than pursuing the endless discussion of “how many Isaiahs are there?” he simply deals with the book as we have it, “the book called Isaiah”.

Goldingay notes what many of us who have taught Isaiah have seen–this is no ordinary book of sequential narrative or discourse. Rather it is a collection of prophecies occurring over an extended period of time. Goldingay contends that this collection can be considered as five or six “collages” that make up the book: Chapters 1-12; chapters 13-27 (or a separate collage of 24-27); chapters 28-39; chapters 40-55; and chapters 56-66. The first part of the book then delineates the major theological themes to be found within each “collage”.

The second part of the book explores the theology that emerges from “the book called Isaiah” as a whole. The themes he explores, each in a short chapter are:

  • Revelation: Words of Yahweh mediated through human agents
  • The God of Israel, the Holy One, Yahweh Armies
  • Holy as Upright and Merciful
  • Israel and Judah
  • Jerusalem and Zion Critiqued and Threatened
  • Jerusalem and Zion Chastised and Restored
  • The Remains
  • The Nations
  • The Empires and Their Kings
  • Divine Sovereignty and Human Responsibility
  • Divine Planning and Human Planning
  • David
  • Yahweh’s Day

One thing that the reader should be aware of is that Goldingay does not read Isaiah in light of the New Testament but as its first readers would have considered it, which is actually careful scholarship and interpretation controlled by what is found within the book itself. This is most evident in his discussion of the “servant” passages, which he treats in terms of Israel, the prophet, and eventually Cyrus. I think he is right in the sense that these were in fact the only interpretive options that would have made sense to the first readers. Yet, this seems to evade the question of who in fact fulfilled this–neither Israel, Isaiah, nor Cyrus completely do so. The question the Ethiopian eunuch asks Philip recorded in Acts 8:34 reflects this enigma: “About whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?”

One of the most significant insights comes in his discussion, which recurs at several points of holiness as uprightness and mercifulness (mispat and sedaqa). He writes at one point:

“Mispat and sedaqa thus suggests the faithful exercise of power in community. People with power control resources; they will therefore make sure that ordinary people can share in resources such as land and food. People with power do control decision making in court, which meets at the city gate; they will see that judicial decisions are made in a fair way. People with power control what happens in community worship; they will make sure that it is offered in a way that is faithful to Yahweh.” (p. 22-23)

Israel in Isaiah’s day, and the church in our own have rarely worked with such a comprehensive vision of holiness, and we see that this is both Israel’s problem, and the realization of this vision, Yahweh’s intention. Goldingay’s approach teases out important themes like this, and Yahweh’s ultimate intention not only for Israel but the nations that might often be missed.

I would commend this book for anyone looking for a concise treatment of this book, including those, like me, who might be attempting to teach “the book called Isaiah” in an adult ed setting. Yet there is also the academic depth to make this an assigned text either in a seminary level course on Isaiah, or a wider survey of the prophets.