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Reviewed by Vern Ratzlaff

        This is an old book, but it remains a treatment of a New Testament concept that is not dated.  ‘Conscience’ (suneidysis) is a primary Pauline theme. (It appears 31 times in the New Testament writings, 21 times in Paul himself, 11 times in 1 Corinthians alone.)  It is not found in the LXX, which means that the NT writers who use the term adopted the word and its usage not from the Hebrew world of ideas but from the Hellenistic.

        Conscience is the reaction of the whole person to his own wrong acts (p 113).  Paul introduced the concept into the Christian vocabulary.  He does not claim it as a part of revelation, but accepts it as a universal experience among people with a limited validation (p 113).  Plutarch called ‘conscience’ an ‘ulcer’, a painful thing, an extremely resistant area that never ceases to wound and goad (p 47).  Its function is to protect the individual from harm, physical and moral; pain will rouse the individual to maintain good and safe behaviour (p 53).

        Conscience does not say what should be done, but that the individual sees a moral decision that should be followed based on other criteria.  Nature by Itself cannot say what should be done but that the moral action (the ‘right thing’) should be followed.  Such an approach to the moral life gives the church five duties (p 128): to be a healthy environment (the concept of formation), to influence the secular environment, to present reassured moral options to see Jesus’ life as an example, to follow right habits.

        The book is a good treatment of the process of moral choice, and a powerful example of how the early church interacted with the larger culture.

Vern Ratzlaff is a pastor and professor of historical theology at Lutheran Theological Seminary in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.

Reviewed by Vern Ratzlaff

        Grimsrud does a double theological treatment: of penal theory and of atonement theory.

        Penal theory: The difference between retributive and restorative approaches to retaliatory justice.

        Atonement: Are we made right with G-d by the amount of pain to inflict to ‘atone’, to make good, the difference between us and G-d?  Are we condemned to suffer G-d’s anger unless G-d’s disposition toward us is changed?  Does G-d require sacrificial violence?

        Does the Bible provide us with a model of the need to respond to violence with violence (retribution)?  Or does the bible provide a model of how violence must be dealt with in a way that ends the violence cycle—a restorative model, a G-d who orders the cosmos in terms of mercy? (p 27)

        Grimsrud sketches the ‘primal story line’ of the OT, the message of key prophets, and the teaching and example of Jesus, as portraying salvation as a simple act of G-d’s mercy.  These biblical sources assume a G-d who does not first need to be persuaded by human acts to make whatever provisions are necessary for salvation (healing, reconciliation) to occur.  All of these OT sources present salvation as being free from ‘retribution’ (p 28).  ‘Salvation is not centred on Jesus’ death as a necessary prerequisite to salvation to be made available; dynamics of justice are restorative and not retributive.’ (p 226).  Jesus lived and taught mercy, not retribution.

        Salvation is found in G-d’s mercy, not in Jesus’ death.  Jesus’ death reveals the emphasis of the Powers (temple, culture, empire) as they resist Jesus’ embodiment of G-d’s mercy.  Justice and salvation need to be looked at in the language of peace, respect and reconciliation, not on retribution and violence.

Vern Ratzlaff is a pastor and professor of historical theology at Lutheran Theological Seminary in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.

Reviewed by Vern Ratzlaff

        Wuthnow, professor of sociology at Princeton, claims that congregational drop in donations, voluntary and personal involvement are the result of a spiritual  crisis, caused in large part by clergy failure to address the vital relationship between faith and money, work, stewardship and economic justice.

        Quoting from clergy and laity interviews in sixty Protestant and Catholic congregations, parishioners often feel the church does not care about what they do from Monday to Friday.

        Wuthnow points to attempts to challenge members to think differently about matters of faith and finance.  Churches are being influenced by the cultural milieu in which we live (p ix).  Of primary interest is a 64-item congregational interview guide that he used in congregational analysis (p 247ff).  Clergy need to continue to emphasize stewardship and its centrality to the life of faith (p 105), featuring its theological significance rather than simply as common sense middle class virtues.

        Wuthnow spends a chapter on strategies for survival to bring together stewardship and spiritual perspectives:  to engage the congregation in ministry to the broken people of society, to move beyond middle class perspective; to initiate small groups for greater accountability; to encourage megachurch dynamics; to strength the  program churches (membership of 200 – 500).

        Wuthnowe’s attention is focused on clergy and their role in finance; this does not recognize the crucial changes in pastoral training and the churches changing role in society (the temptation to Constantianize the church; eg what are the implications for pastoral care in a culture where clergy training is increasingly on-line.  A new perspective is needed that goes beyond fiscal probity.

Vern Ratzlaff is a pastor and professor of historical theology at Lutheran Theological Seminary in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.

Reviewed by Vern Ratzlaff

        Vermes, professor of Jewish studies in Oxford University, sketches Jesus’ thought and action based on the synoptic gospels. The book is based on the recognition of Jesus within the earliest Gospel tradition, prior to Christian theological speculation, as a charismatic prophetic teacher and miracle worker, the Galilean whose ethical teaching stood him head and shoulders above the known representatives of the reality of spiritual personality (p 5).

        Methodologically, Vermes treats the New Testament as one particular vector on the general map of Jewish cultural history.  Vermes has a threefold investigation:  Jesus’ relationship to the living Judaism of his age, the idea of G-d as King and Father, and the difference between the Jewish religious and historic ecclesiastical Christianity.

        The most outstanding feature in Jesus’ attitude, Vermes claims, is an all abounding concern with the ‘ultimate purpose of the law not as a juridical entity but as a religious ethical reality, revealing what he thought to be the right and divinely ordained behaviour towards men and towards G-d’ (p 41,45).  ‘The core of Jesus’ religion is not Torah observance, not a search for purity, but the divine king’s single criterion will be whether or not a person imitated him in his deeds of love’ (p 204), ‘extended a loving hand to the distressed’, and recognizing that loving one’s neighbour includes also one’s enemies.’

        ‘The magnetic appeal of the teaching and example of Jesus holds out hope and guidance to those outside the fold of organized religion, for all who yearn for a world of mercy, justice and peace’ (p 215).

Vern Ratzlaff is a pastor and professor of historical theology at Lutheran Theological Seminary in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.

Reviewed by Vern Ratzlaff

        What does it mean to be Christian today?  For Borg, there is a way of seeing Christianity that makes persuasive and compelling sense of life—a way of seeing reality, a way of seeing G-d.  An earlier understanding of Christianity makes belief difficult.  This earlier way of being Christian views the Bible as the unique revelation of G-d, emphasizes its literal meaning and sees the Christian life as centred in believing now for the sake of salvation later.

        The second way of seeing Christianity has been developing over the past century, but the two ways share central convictions: the reality of G-d, the centrality of the bible, the importance of a relationship with G-d as known in Jesus, and our need (the world’s need) for transformation.  Both ways emphasize the importance of a personal relationship with G-d.

        Borg calls us to an ‘unending conversation’ between these two ways (what the Apostles’ Creed calls ‘the communion of saints’)—the awareness that we are neither the first nor the only ones.  Borg advances three affirmations as foundational for being Christian:  the reality of G-d, the utter centrality of the Jesus, the centrality of the Bible.

Borg writes compellingly about each of these affirmations.  E.g., we see the bible as sacred as the result of a historical process, not as the consequence of its divine origin.  ‘To be Christian means to be in a primary continuing conversation with the Bible as foundational for our identity and vision’ (p 47).

        He uses the concept of metaphorical language as truth (eg the stories of Noah, Tower of Babel).  Borg does a good treatment of atonement theory (p 92 ff), identifying five interpretations of the cross as found in the New Testament.

Vern Ratzlaff is a pastor and professor of historical theology at Lutheran Theological Seminary in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.

Reviewed by Vern Ratzlaff

        Emeritus Professor of New Testament Languages and Literature at the U of Nottingham, Casey stresses the need to see Jesus against the background of first century Judaism, to see the historical Jesus as Jewish.  Further for Casey, the reconstruction of the Aramaic sources of the synoptic gospels is an essential step in understanding Jesus against the background of his own culture.

        (While Casey carefully points out implications for exegesis of an Aramaic background, he does not do so in a way that negates the value of the exercise for a lay reader who does not have fluency in Greek, Hebrew or Aramaic.)

        Of special interest is the framework of Jewish apocalyptic (cf Albert Schweitzer).  Casey sketches the quest for the historical Jesus, from Schweitzer to Crossan, looking at the contribution of form criticism, and Jewish NT experts such as Vermes, Meier and Sanders; he has some cutting remarks about the Jesus seminar (p 20).  He comments that the oldest documents are the synoptic gospels (at least Mark and Q) but apocryphal gospels also need consideration (and Casey’s Appendix includes them—eg Gospel of Mary, Gospel of Thomas).

        Key for Casey in terms of understanding Jesus is to attempt to develop the Aramaic backgrounds of the synoptics, and he has a fascinating chapter on key Aramaic quotations in the gospels (p 108) (Mk 5:41, Jn 4:5; Lk 11:42,13:31).  Casey also emphasizes the rivalry between Galilee and Judea and has a fascinating chapter on Christological terms (eg ‘Son of Man’, ‘Son of G-d’, p 353 -399). 

        Casey provides us with careful exegetical treatment of the Jesus story, with special emphasis on the Aramaic cultural and linguistic backgrounds.

Vern Ratzlaff is a pastor and professor of historical theology at Lutheran Theological Seminary in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.

Reviewed by Vern Ratzlaff

        It’s an older book but of current relevance.  It is a contextual picture of Jesus, understood in the context of Judaism and the local, social and political history of his time.  The Historical Jesus details the sources for our knowledge about Jesus, and explores the historical and social context of Jesus and his activity.  It’s a book that not only summarizes the ways in which Jesus is studied, but the results of that study and the process by which a fuller picture of Jesus emerges. 

        At 642 pages it’s a large volume that contains not only study of the Christian canon but of the apocryphal gospels and other relevant material.  The book is wondrously inclusive and dialogical, giving key components of the biblical material.  Eg geographical and social framework (Galilee), the activities and preaching of Jesus (including a section on the women around Jesus), concept of the Kingdom of G-d, Jesus’ miracles and parables, Jesus’ ethics, the Passover, the risen Jesus and the beginnings of Christology.

        A key section deals with the Last Supper—was it a Passover meal?  The book grapples with key issues of exegesis and history, but in a way that looks at the major issues, not at arcane concepts of interpretation.

        A treatment that both summarizes the theological continuum of issues and  details the exegetical faithfulness to the text.

Vern Ratzlaff is a pastor and professor of historical theology at Lutheran Theological Seminary in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.

Reviewed by Vern Ratzlaff

        The victims of war are not only the soldiers, but women, children and the elderly, and the biblical record invites us to contemplate how violence affects the weakest members of society, and even the enemy.  It would have been significant if the Hebrew bible would have included descriptions of how Yahweh’s holy wars might have felt for a Philistine child.

        But violence was part of daily life in the first century.  The idea that Jews in Jesus’ day were primarily concerned with matters of dogmatic theology does not reflect cultural reality.  The pressing needs of most Jews of the period had to do with liberation from oppression, from debt, from Rome.

        Between Herod’s death and the first destruction of Jerusalem in 70CE, Israel ‘was convulsed by repeated religious revolts, by violent messianic movements, political assassinations, insurgency and counter-insurgency warfare’ (p 23).  The options tempting a poor but religiously devout Palestinian young man in the West Bank or Gaza Strip were the realities that confronted Jesus, a young Jewish carpenter.  The gospels suggest that Jesus was repeatedly tempted to embrace the agendas and tactics of several competing theological-political movements.

        The political significance of Jesus’ kingdom and values emerge in sharp relief from the Jewish options of Herodians and Sadducees, sectarian withdrawal (Essenes), political activists (Pharisees), zealots (violent revolution) (p 23-29).

        Jesus called not for a ‘spiritual kingdom somewhere up in the sky’ but on  earth, a new community centred on economic justice (the Jubilee year), equality of all within the community, non-violent enemy love: a fifth way of reflecting G-d’s options in society.  Osborne opts for an anarchy that refuses to maximize the state’s primacy; ‘we must restore the image of G-d in man by defending human life and continue to pray’ (p 155).

        A powerful treatment of the Jesus-way, drawing on the life stories of Garrison, Bonhoeffer and Ellen White as models.

Vern Ratzlaff is a pastor and professor of historical theology at Lutheran Theological Seminary in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.

Reviewed by Vern Ratzlaff

        We sometimes imagine the New Testament milieu consisting of contented farmers and jolly fishing families who gave up a few hours of words to hear the message of a religious teacher speaking about the deeper meanings of life.  It is more accurate to say that ‘desperation, deprivation and resentment characterized the lives of most people in Galilee and Judea’ (p 24).

        Hunger was prevalent in first century Palestine. King points out that the parables are grounded in socio-economic, spiritual and political realities that challenged the status quo and confronted the powers, principalities and system.  ‘It was dangerous for Jesus to talk about the kingdom of G-d in a land ruled by an emperor who commanded legions of troops.  It would have been a safer option to speak about the family of G-d or the age of the Spirit’ (p 6).

        Most of the people who heard his stories lived on the margins, contending with hunger, poverty and a growing sense of resistance to the Kingdom of Rome and its religious puppets.

        Jesus used parables, King reminds us, to cast the vision of an alternative kingdom which offered personal and social transformation.  ‘The parables critiqued the social conditions of first-century Galilee and Judea.  G-d was not content with the economic inequities that left Lazarus dying outside the gate of a rich man.  Nor was G-d content that rich men enjoyed dinner parties while the poor and physically challenged suffered from hunger. Nor did he look favourably on the occasion in which men abandoned the righteous cause of a marginalized woman.

        Jesus the story teller had a restless discontent with the structures and dominant discourse of his time.’ (p 168, 169).  That was then. ‘Today the power of the empire is exercised through finances, technology, resource extraction and regulation of information’ (p 172).

Vern Ratzlaff is a pastor and professor of historical theology at Lutheran Theological Seminary in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.

Reviewed by Vern Ratzlaff

        Meeks, of the Department of Religious Studies, Yale University, explores a fascinating range of studies embracing social theory, history and literature, from the figure of the androgyn to New Testament pictures of Christianity’s separation from Jewish communities.

       (Androgyn:  myth of a bisexual progenitor of the human race, using metaphors of clothing symbolism, spiritual marriage, even baptism; ‘there is no longer male nor female’ cf. Galatians 3:28.  Androgyny.)

        A major theme dealt with by Meeks is the discussion of roles of women in the Christian congregations.  He lists the women who were leaders and patrons in the early churches, who shared Paul’s struggles.  ‘There are a number of signs that in the Pauline school women enjoyed a functional equality in leadership roles that were unusual in Greco-Roman society as a whole and quite astonishing in comparison with contemporary Judaism’ (p 20).

        The early Paul (eg 1 Cor 12) does not deny women the right to engage in charismatic leadership’ (p 22).  Meeks tellingly points out ‘that the most normal and startlingly ways of talking about Jesus—precisely the language that would lead the church later to define its great, complex creedal formulae about Christ’s divine and human nature and the doctrine of the Trinity—first appears in the records as poetry’ (p xxvii).

        A wonderful treatment of the early church’s beliefs and faith, a faith that will embrace rather than fear a certain kind of skepticism.  ‘Faith can never rest easily with the necessary skepticism of a good historian but the two need not be enemies’ ( 261).

Vern Ratzlaff is a pastor and professor of historical theology at Lutheran Theological Seminary in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.