becoming

the trail of a family becoming

Juvenilization of Christianity

I couldn’t agree more with Bergler’s diagnostic. My hope is that his remedies will live up to that.

Interview with Thomas Bergler on his book The Juvenilization of American Christianity.

[link: EerdWord]

Goldingay’s OT for Everyone

I just realized that Goldingay has been writing the For Everyone commentary series with Westminster John Knox, on the OT. The series is of course made famous by NT Wright with his conversational style and use-to-access format.

[link: CBD]

RT France’s NICNT Matthew

RT France’s new commentary on Matthew for the NICNT series is out. Check it out!

France’s book Jesus The Radical was the first book that brought me out of the “cute baby Jesus” understanding from children Sunday school. That was almost 20 years ago…..

Just give me (one more) Jesus…

Okay, just to make everybody even more confused, here comes the Jesus of Pope Benedict XVI (Ratzinger), adding to the pile of "Jesus-es" of Sanders', Borg's, Crossan's, Dunn's, Wright's, Theissen's….. and the list goes on…..

And it seems the words of caution from Bauckham continues to linger in the air:

There is a very serious problem here that is obscured by the naive historical positivism that popular media presentations of these matters promote, not always innocently. All history — meaning all that historians write, all historiography — is an inextricable combination of fact and interpretation, the empirically observable and the intuited or constructed meaning. In the Gospels we have, of course, unambiguously such a combination, and it is this above all that motivates the quest for the Jesus one might find if one could leave aside all the meaning that inheres in each Gospel's story of Jesus. One might, of course, acquire from a skeptical study of the Gospels a meager collection of extremely probable but mere facts that would be of very little interest. That Jesus was crucified may be indubitable but in itself it is of no more significance than the fact undoubtedly so were thousands of others in his time. The historical Jesus of any of the scholars of the quest is no mere collection of facts, but a figure of significance. Why? If the enterprise is really about going back behind the Evangelists' and the early church's interpretation of Jesus, where does a different interpretation come from? It comes not merely from deconstructing the Gospels but also from reconstructing a Jesus who, as a portrayal of who Jesus really was, can rival the Jesus of the Gospels. We should be under no illusions that however minimal a Jesus results from the quest, such a historical Jesus is no less a construction than the Jesus of each of the Gospels. Historical work, by its very nature, is always putting two and two together and making five — or twelve or seventeen.

Jesus and the Eyewitnesses, p.4

[HT: Jim, Chris

明道:重讀士師記

各位報讀了士師、路得記的弟兄姊妹,適逢今期明道以《士師記》為題,所以特以專載,希望對各位有幫助:

主題:重讀士師記 (all pdf files)

另外,孫寶玲《啟示錄》註釋—萬王之王,亦已上架, 值得留意!

新書:啟示錄

 明道社的新書總給人驚喜,一系列與啟示錄有關的研讀剛剛推出,值得留意!

聖經精讀叢書
啟示錄──波浪濤唱凱歌

作者:曾思瀚  
譯者:吳瑩宜

作者簡介

曾思瀚博士於英國雪菲大學取得哲學博士,主修聖經研究。現任教於海外神學院,並常任北美中華福音神學院客座教授,也在2006年以訪問學者身分 應邀往南非自由邦大學及印尼Bandung神學院講學。曾博士的著述包括《歷久常新的生命故事──約翰福音人物研究》,以及本社出版的《士師記──人民任 意而行的時代》等。

學者推薦

楊克勤博士.美國迦勒福音神學院新約教授
曾思瀚博士的啟示錄釋經書,是一本兼具深度 學術性與高度可讀性的著作。不論是學者或平信徒,都可以發現他的著作立論周全,不但富有啟發性,並且適切時代。我很欣賞曾博士為讀者提供的經文解讀方式。 他為讀者展現整體性詮釋聖經文本的方法論,使啟示錄的大圖畫得以保存,因此讀者能夠由宏觀的角度來明白啟示錄的精義。書中簡明扼要地討論各種解讀啟示錄的 角度及其背景,幫助讀者明白,為甚麼啟示錄這卷書長久以來遭受許多誤解及濫用。

試讀) 

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明道研經叢書66
啟示錄──萬
主之主

作者:孫寶玲

作者簡介

孫寶玲博士,美國南方浸信會神學院哲學博士,現任香港浸信會神學院副教授。研究範圍包括約翰文學和宣講學。近年著作有《約翰福音文學註釋》、《從聖經到宣講:學人與學道》、《此時此道》、《宣講之道:經文到講章之旅》等。

啟示錄的語言具有生發創造和建立的能力,不是客觀、抽象、疏離、冷漠、概念式的約化言說。想像式語言藉著視覺語言的表述,使讀者從日常 生活裡驚覺那理所當然的權勢,其實並沒有終極的能力。想像式語言為讀者揭示那久為忽略的啟迪和意義,它解除讀者先入為主的思念。只是對這種語言的特色和限 制不知就裡者,不是曲解誤會,就是貶抑否定。另一方面,讀者可以從固有的事物裡瞥見亮光,更清楚地認識世界的本相,甚至因為洞見而活出生命。如此,啟示錄 的文字特色就不是難以解釋的謎團,亦非難以洞悉的密碼了。

試讀

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「新視野釋經叢書」(New Cambridge Bible Commentary)──《啟示錄》

作者:威瑟林頓(Ben Witherington III
譯者;陳又華

將於今年6月出版。

試讀

New books worth mentioning

Michael Bird of Euangelion has a new book coming out called The Saving Righteousness of God: Studies on Paul, Justification and the New Perspective (Carlisle, UK: Paternoster, 2007). Looking at the endorsements from all camps, it seems to be a very interesting read, especially for those who are so confused about what NPP (and its criticisms) is all about.

Also, as mentioned before, Gordon Fee's Pauline Christology: An Exegetical-Theological Study is out as well (sample chapter here). A must-read!

幾則關於新書的消息

幾則關於新書的消息:

  1. 美國麥種傳道會翻譯了著名新約學者I. Howard Marshall於2004的重頭之作New Testament Theology: Many Witnesses, One Gospel 。洋洋七百多頁中(中文版比英文少十多頁),Marshall逐卷逐段分析新約內容並它們的神學重點。
    • 「新約神學基本上就是宣教的神學。」這本久所企盼的新約神學,是作者浸淫新約研究領域數十年的集大成,顯露出作者對新約文獻的嫻熟、清晰的思路、流暢的表達,不時透過現代人熟悉的比喻,將新約真理做出淺顯易懂的介紹。
    • 現代的趨勢強調新約聖經各書卷之間的差異性是無法調和的,但本書並未屈從於這樣的趨勢,反而主張確實可能存在綜合的新約神學。從福音書與使徒行傳開始,繼 之以保羅的每一卷書信,然後焦點轉向約翰著作,最後查考希伯來書和其他的一般書信,馬歇爾不斷停下來比較各組書卷之間的異同,評估各種的觀點。從而逐漸建 立起綜合性的新約神學,歸納出整本新約聖經的中心論題。
    • 在這個研究的過程中,作者清楚地凸顯出新約書卷個別的見證。每一卷書,作者都逐段而精簡扼要地介紹重點,然後是該卷書主要的中心論題,以及這個論題是如何 鋪陳的。因此,這本書也可以作為新約聖經的導論,是個人研經不可多得的工具書。英文版問世以來,已經迅速成為神學院與教會成人主日學標準的教科書,適用於 新約導論、新約神學、與新約信息等課程。
    • 試讀本可按這裡。我只能說,2004年尾的新書能在2006年出中文版,麥種的效率真利害!
  2. 香港明道社與劍橋大學出版社合作,取得 New Cambridge Bible Commentary這套聖經註釋叢書的中文版翻譯及出版權,正物色到合適的翻譯人才,將原著的精髓帶給中文讀者。
    • 英文版編輯包括: Bill T. Arnold, James D. G. Dunn, Michael V. Fox, Robert P. Gordon, Judith M. Gundry-Volf, Ben Witherington III
    • NCBC系列的釋經書相當注重近代研究的成果。 當中包括「修辭鑑別學」(rhetorical criticism)、社會學上對經文的分析(social scientific study), 敘事體鑑別學(narrative criticism)。系列中Keener所寫的《林前》、《林後》亦是我常用的參考。
  3. 英文方面,叫人引頸期待的當然是前Regent榮休新約教授Gordon FeePauline Christology: An Exegetical-Theological Study[Jan 2007]。以思路清晰、有系統和極仔細的釋經見稱的Fee,這次討論保羅的基督論,肯定會是繼他十多年前討論保羅的聖靈論後又一份量之作!
  4. 另外,個人最期待的首推是Richard BauckhamJesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony[Nov 2006]。這部將要逆轉西方新約神學研究的重要研究,是要推翻「福音書是個別地方教會信仰描述的結果」的講法,而力陳福音書是目擊證人的見證。【若你以為這是不證自明的話,你是錯過了整個近代新約研究的假設和共識】。你要明白,在西方聖經研究界中,我可以斷言,若不是他是Richard Bauckham,所寫的這個題目是根本沒有學術界的聽眾的:它就是如此大膽的一個題目。而若然Bauckham的立論是正確的話,整個新約研究方向可能會有一重要的paradigm shift!