Recent

        Harrison believes religions should engage in syncretism, the blending of religion, incorporating wisdom from one religion into another. Syncretism can bend to creative transformation in many fields—religious, practical, ethical, ecological and political. He gives several examples where syncretism was a good phenomenon and when the opposite was evident. Eg, synchretism is a helpful description when religions grow, a strength that comes from the melding of viewpoints.

        Christianity has grown and developed by incorporating insights and rituals from traditions as diverse as Judaism, Greek and Roman thought and European folk religions’ (p 7). We all live in mixed religious contexts—no amount of historical digging will enable us to reach some sort of pure religious uninfluenced by other traditions’ (p 17).

        Syncretism is a good thing when particular statements are more consistent with the data, when the new statement is genuinely helpful in our world, when it sustains and even expands some important part of the religious convert. He points out that synchronicity of Buddhism and Taoism (p 97), of Islam and Greek thought (p l06), Christianity and the ancient Celtic forms (p 115-124). (Here he makes a sad mistake: it was Theodosius, not Constantine, who made Christianity the empire’s official religion (p 117). An example where syncretism has not been helpful is in the prosperity gospel, a syncretism that emphasizes self interest over communal interest (p 131).

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

        Armstrong’s book is not a theology of Pauline thought but a biographical treatment of key events in his life that affected his theology and related to the historical issues of his social experiences. Eg, what were the major issues in Antioch? In Corinth (especially)?

        Armstrong’s attention to the biographical details of Paul’s work helps us to see better what personal issues focused on matters of faith. It is a sketch of early church life. Paul was a diasporan Jew; of the 13 letters attributed to Paul in the New Testament, seven are usually seen as authentically Pauline, while the remaining six tried to reduce Paul’s radical teachings to make them more acceptable to the Greco-Roman world.

        These later writers insisted on women’s subservience to men, on slaves being obedient to masters, and spiritualized Pal’s concept of the power and principalities (p 13). But Paul’s radical stance remains on some issues that are relevant today. One, he was an opponent of the structural injustice of the Roman Empire. Two, he tried to transcend barriers of ethnicity, class and gender (pp 13,14). I found Armstrong’s chapter dealing with the Corinthian opposition particularly helpful in understanding what early ecclesial life was like.

        Paul’s passionate identification with the poor is unheeded by those Christians who preach the Prosperity Gospel. His determination to eradicate the ethnic and cultural prejudices that divide us from one another, his rejection of boasting based on a spurious sense of privilege. We would do well to heed Paul’s warning to the ‘strong’ who intimidate the weak with their overbearing certainty (cf Kaveny’s Prophecy Without Contempt).

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

        Sample, professor church and society in St Paul School of Theology, Kansas City, holds that many Americans live and work in an oral culture, drawing on the folklore of their family and community, and suggests how pastors can better deal with questions of morality and social change by people who think in terms of communal relationships rather than in the abstract methodology used in academic settings and theoretical discourse.

        An oral culture makes use of proverbs, lives by story telling and emphasizes relationships. ‘An issue will be considered in terms of the family and communal ties. Social change will need to be grounded in relationships and religious beliefs will be understood much more in relational than discursive ways (p 5).

        Pastoral care recognizes the need for storytelling, gatherings, giving and receiving gifts, call things into question, class solidarity and eschewal of the political process. Sample presents a listing of eleven indigenous practices for a contextual ministry (p 72).

        Undergirding this analysis is Sample’s emphasis on the need to recognize the use of encoded language (‘words mean more than they say’ p 76), and he identifies three phrases: born again, washed in the blood of the Lamb, heaven, that are part of oral culture and how such phrases can be more helpfully incorporated into pastoral care.

        A helpful treatment of making pastoral communication more relevant for people more in tune with oral culture.

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

        It’s an old book, but it remains one of the best sources of ancient inter-testamental Jewish history (the first German edition came out in 1940!). Foerster gives quick snapshots of Jewish social cultural and religious developments from the first major exile (587 to Babylon) to the occupation of Palestine by Romans in Jesus’ time.

        This summary of life of the Jewish community under Babylonian, Persian, Syrian, Greek and Roman forces shows the strength of the Jewish community in maintaining their religious and cultural identity in the face of nationalistic oppositional forms. Foerster also summarizes major Jewish initiatives (the Essene community of the Dead Sea Scroll family, the Pharisees, the Zealots) and the role of the Hasmonean dynasties (Herod and his sons). Chapters briefly sketch the Palestine of Jesus’ time (Roman administration, the social system, the economic situation). Of special interest is his summary of Messianism and its relation to Torah.

        Foerster does a good summary of G-d’s mercy and grace; ‘Judaism cannot let go of the divine compassion’ (p 221). And his brief reference to Jamnia underscores the role that the Jamnia conclave played in granting insight and strength to the community (particularly with reference to the canon) after the shock of the 70 CE war and the destruction of the temple. ‘Even after Rom’s victory the expectation of its imminent fall and the hope of Israel’s elevation remained as strong as ever’ (p 115). A good book deserving continuing attention.

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

        Vermes, professor Jewish studies at Oxford, attempts to consider Jesus, the primitive church and the New Testament as part of first century Judaism and seeks to ream them as such rather than through the eyes of a theologian conditioned and subconsciously influenced by two millennia of Christian belief and church directives

        The Greek New Testament is a ‘translation of the genuine thoughts of the Aramaic thinking and speaking Jesus, a translation not just into a totally different language, but also a transplantation of the ideology of the gospels into the completely alien and cultural and religious environment of the pagan Graeco-Roman world’ (p 3).

        A key example is ‘Son of G-d’, in Hebrew or Aramaic a metaphor of ‘a child of G-d’, whereas in Greek addressed to Gentile Christians grown up in a religious culture filled with gods, sons of god, the NT expression tended to be understood literally as a ‘Son of G-d’, as source of the same nature of G-d. Vermes also demonstrates how differing descriptions of Jesus are found in the NT writings eg messiah figure or stranger from heaven, lamb of G-d (John), son of G-d and universal redeemer of mankind (Paul), prophet, lord and Christ (Acts), charismatic healer, teacher and eschatological enthusiast (synoptic gospels).

        Vermes points out the shock of incipient cannibalism in the eucharist (p 292). A summary of pesher (interpretation) is also very helpful (133,168,230,231,270). A clear exposition of the different emphases of Jesus the Jew.

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

        Vermes, Professor Jewish Studies at Oxford, expounds all the sayings which Jesus supposedly uttered, in an attempt to rediscover the genuine religious messages preached and practised. Jesus’ doctrinal and moral statements are focused on minor literary categories: narrative and commands, controversy stories, words of wisdom, parables, biblical quotations, payer, Son of Man sayings, sayings about the Kingdom of G-d, and eschatological rules of behaviour (all statements of Jesus are commented on by category, and reduced to a listing in the appendix). Eg ‘the Beatitudes are precious pearls from the point of view of both piety and property’ (p 312); here Vermes also adds a Beatitude from the Gospel of Thomas to his canonical base

        Vermes adds brief summarizing statements. Three questions dealing with contradictory statements are considered carefully (eg did Jesus intend to address only Jews or did he expect the gospel to benefit the entire non-Jewish world (p 376)? The shape of Jesus’ theology is sketched: the role of faith, the efficacy of prayer, the fatherhood of G-d, need to become like children, a new concept of the family, healing and exorcism, use of hyperbolical speech (p 390-396). Of interest is Vermes’ summary of Jesus’ religion: the kingdom of G-d, the observance of Torah, the eschatological piety of Jesus, the prayers of Jesus, the G-d of Jesus.

        The book is a good treatment of basic New Testament theology that takes seriously the oral and canonical traditions.

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

        A literary critic, Bloom examines the character and personality of Jesus and of Yahweh (the deity of the Hebrew bible). An interesting side-view compares the order of books in the Hebrew bible and the Christian bible (Old Testament), and comments on the difference in a canon that ends with Chronicles (history) rather than with Malachi (prophet).

        Bloom is interested in comparing two very different divine names, Jesus Christ and Yahweh (p 92), their narrative characterizations and dramatic juxtaposition (p 93). Documentation for traditional views of Jesus is lacking: ‘there is no history, only biography’ (p 42). The American Jesus has been shaped by romantic wishing; ‘he promises greater dreamlike happiness, compounded of emancipated selfishness, and an inner solitude that names itself as true freedom’ (p 104).

        ‘Gnostic sayings of Jesus in the Gospel of Thomas ring more authentically,(p 18) than those in the synoptic gospels. His rejection of the oral tradition requires some sort of reader decisions; on this point he is at odds with Geza Vermes and Bauckham. He dismisses the Trinity as poetry (p 98).

        Bloom develops an analysis of faith that challenges this more conservative reader, but articulates the issues clearly and invites me to ensure that I understand and articulate carefully. ‘Will Yahweh yet make a covenant with us that he both can and will keep?’

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

        Wright maintains that the church has sold short the story of Jesus, and avoided the challenge of Jesus’ central claims and achievements. We have reduced the kingdom of G-d to private piety; the victory of the cross to comfort for the conscience. Simply Jesus re-examines from a basically conservative perspective the textual background of the New Testament writings, attempting to see the relationship between first century Jewish culture and history, and their implications for Jesus’ message.

        Wright uses the metaphor of three great rivers who come together, merging Jewish messianic dreams, servant perspectives, and G-d’s return to the people (p 169). ‘Instead of the frantic pressure to defend the identity of people, land and temple (cf the exilic experience), Jesus’ followers are to recover the initial vision of being a royal priesthood for the whole world’ (p 181), ‘the presence of Israel’s G-d no longer in cloud and fire, wilderness tabernacle, but in and as a Human Being Jesus himself. (p 181)

        Jesus’ kingdom is a different sort of kingdom: a kingdom without violence, a kingdom not from this world but through Jesus’ work a kingdom for this world’ (p 183) Wright deals strikingly with atonement. ‘Somehow Jesus’ death was seen by himself as the ultimate means by which G-d’s kingdom was established’ (p 185)(this is no reductionist or substitutionary atonement).

        ‘Rome was not the real enemy; the real enemy was the anti-creation forces of the Accuser.’ Jesus rules the world today not just through his people ‘behaving themselves’….Jesus rules the world through those who launch new initiatives that radically challenge the accepted ways of doing this: jubilee projects, housing trusts, sustainable agricultural projects.

        This book is a powerful call to see what it means to be ‘a kingdom for this world’.

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

        ‘The canonical gospels and the creeds are not in fact presenting the same picture’ (p 11). The creeds (eg Apostles Creed, Nicene Creed) make no mention of what Jesus did or said between his birth and his death. The creeds ignored the central theme of the four gospels; they omit the story of Jesus’ actual life and the meaning this story conveys.

        What Wright finds in the four gospels is the challenge that ‘G-d has really become king, in and through Jesus’ (p 27). And Paul repeats the theme: ‘the story of Jesus is the story of how Israel’s G-d became king. In the events concerning Jesus of Nazareth, the G-d of Israel has become king of the whole world’ (p 38).

        The key to understanding the New Testament writings is to centre on the cross that allows us to ‘take over the world not with the love of power but the power of love, when the kingdom of G-d overcomes the kingdom of the world’ (p 239).

        Key scriptures that emphasize this are the Suffering Servant songs (Isaiah) and Psalm 22. Key components of Jesus’ cross and kingdom motif are that ‘Israel is G-d’s priesthood, G-d as Saviour, Israel as a new community (‘suffering kingdom bringers’), and G-d’s confrontation with Caesar (of whatever generation. In and through Jesus, Israel’s G-d reclaims his sovereign rule over the world; this is not an excuse for triumphalism but the acceptance of a new dynamic: suffering.

        Wright presents a powerful treatment of Jesus, who is more than someone who wants us in heaven, or who is the source of nice stories. Cross and kingdom. A political theology.

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

        This is a fascinating compilation of writings of the church and government officials of the first five centuries of the CE. Why the animosity by government officials? ‘Once Christianity separated from Judaism and began converting pagans, some Romans began to suspect that Christianity had the potential of tearing the fabric of Roman society apart’ (p 4). ‘The persecutions were sporadic. The sum total of Christians who died as a result of the Roman persecutions in the era before Constantine was less than the number of Protestants who died at the hands of Charles V in the Netherlands’ (p 9). Of major significance (especially for research in John’s apocalypse) is lack of data on Domitian persecution; major attention should be paid to Trajan and Neronian persecutions (p 10).

        Of particular interest is Cook’s documentation of Christians ‘revenge’ on pagans once they had the political power (eg an 11-year old boy who is compelled to certify that he sacrificed to the gods ‘all his life’ (p 188). Pagans teaching in public institutions were not to receive public stipends (p 184). Synagogues were destroyed or converted into churches (p 287).

        Fascinating documentation of a difficult time in western thought in the transition of religious and political structures.

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