In this new contribution to the New Testament Library, renowned New Testament scholar Beverly Roberts Gaventa offers a fresh account of Paul's Letter to the Romans as an event, both in the sense that it reflects a particular historical moment in Paul's labors and in the sense that it reflects the event God brings about in the gospel Paul represents. Attention to that dual sense of event means that Gaventa attends to the literary, historical, and theological features of the letter.
Throughout the commentary, Gaventa keeps in view central questions of what Paul hoped the letter might accomplish among its listeners in Rome and how his auditors might have heard it when read by Phoebe. In posing potential answers to these questions, Gaventa touches on vital themes such as the intrusion of the gospel of Jesus Christ that prompts Paul to write in the first place, what that event reveals about the situation of all creation, how it relates to both Israel and the Gentiles, and what its implications are for life in faith.
The New Testament Library series offers authoritative commentary on every book and major aspect of the New Testament, providing fresh translations based on the best available ancient manuscripts, critical portrayals of the historical world in which the books were created, careful attention to their literary design, and a theologically perceptive exposition of the biblical text. The contributors are scholars of international standing. The editorial board consists of C. Clifton Black, Princeton Theological Seminary; John T. Carroll, Union Presbyterian Seminary; and Susan E. Hylen, Candler School of Theology, Emory University.
In his epistles, Paul at various points uses maternal imagery to talk about his apostolic labors, sometimes actually referring to himself as a mother. For example, Paul writes that he must behave like a nurse caring for her own children. Later, he writes, he is in labor again and must continue to nurse his fellow Christians with milk. These images, though known among earlier generations of Christians, today remain largely both unacknowledged and unexplored in thinking about Paul and his work. In Our Mother Saint Paul, Beverly Gaventa retrieves these images, explores their significance for understanding apostolic ministry, and demonstrates how they point beyond their original contexts and offer unique perspectives for understanding Paul's thought as well as the larger, cosmic understanding of the gospel.
Despite her prominence in the Christian narrative, Mary has largely been neglected within the Protestant church. Recent interest in such issues as feminism, spirituality, parenting, and ecumenism, however, force a serious reexamination of Mary's place in Protestant faith. In Blessed One, widely respected Protestant scholars seek to answer three basic questions: who is Mary? how does Mary's story intersect with contemporary life? and what does Mary teach us about God? This thoughtful and highly accessible book will be of great interest to all engaged in the debates of the contemporary church, Protestants and Roman Catholics alike.
Contributors include Nancy Duff, Beverly Roberts Gaventa, Joel Green, E. Elizabeth Johnson, Cheryl Kirk-Duggan, Nora Lozano-Diaz, Daniel Migliore, Bonnie Miller-McLemore, Cynthia Rigby, and Katherine Sakenfeld.
In this lucid account of Jesus' mother, Gaventa emphasizes a literary approach, addressing in turn: Matthew, Luke-Acts, John, and the second-century work, Protevangelium of James. In a style accessible to students and general readers, the author also provides scholars with much to ponder.
Romans 5-8 revolve around God's dramatic cosmic activity and its implications for humanity and all of creation. Apocalyptic Paul measures the power of Paul's rhetoric about the relationship of cosmic power to the Law, interpretations of righteousness and the self, and the link between grace and obedience. A revealing study of Paul's understanding of humanity in light of God's apocalyptic action through Jesus Christ, Apocalyptic Paul illuminates Romans 5-8 and shows how critical this neglected part of Romans was to Paul's literary project.
Among his many contributions to New Testament studies, Donald Juel was perhaps best known for his treatment of the ending of Mark's Gospel. He saw the open-endedness of Mark as powerfully unsettling for the reader who desires to tame and predict God's actions. In this series of essays, edited by Beverly Roberts Gaventa and Patrick Miller, theologians begin with Juel's own work and reflect on the unsettling in the context of their own work.