Information Resources
New and Notable
Recent Publications of Interest
(List posted in July 2006)
In an effort to help interested readers keep abreast of new publications in the disciplines that lie at the heart of the work of the Institute for Christian & Jewish Studies, we offer a short list of recently-published books and brief descriptions of each book. These descriptions are not reviews: No positive or negative judgments are offered with regard to the books' contents.
New and Notable:
A Dictionary of Jewish-Christian Relations, edited by Edward Kessler and Neil Wenborn
Cross on the Star of David, by Uri Bialer
The Quest for Paul's Gospel, by Douglas A. Campbell
The Conversion of the Imagination, by Richard B. Hays
Perspectives Old and New on Paul, by Stephen Westerholm
Edward Kessler and Neil Wenborn, editors. A Dictionary of Jewish-Christian Relations. Cambridge University Press, 2005. Edward Kessler and Neil Wenborn have compiled a comprehensive dictionary of the 2,000-year-old encounter between Judaism and Christianity. This pioneering work can be used both by scholars and by interested laypeople. With contributions from more than one hundred internationally renowned scholars, this books explores and defines the events, institutions, movements, people, places, and publications that comprise the Jewish-Christian relationship, incor-porating theology, religious studies, history, Jewish studies, social and political studies, and literature. The Dictionary was compiled under the auspices of the Centre for the Study of Jewish-Christian Relations in Cambridge, England, of which Dr. Kessler is the founder and executive director. Dr. Kessler has written several works on Jewish-Christian relations, including Bound by the Bible: Jews, Christians, and the Sacrifice of Isaac. He spoke in Baltimore last November as part of day and evening programs -- Before and Beyond Nostra Aetate: The Future of Roman Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish Encounters -- co-sponsored by the ICJS and Mount Saint Agnes Theological Center for Women. Co-author
of The Dictionary of Jewish-Christian Relations is Neil Wenborn, a writer and publishing consultant, who has written several biographies and is co-editor of History Today Companion to British History.If you would like to purchase this book, click here.
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Uri Bialer. Cross on the Star of David: The Christian World in Israel's Foreign Policy, 1948-1967. Indiana University Press, 2005. Events in July 2006 would seem to demonstrate beyond doubt that recognition of the State of Israel by other nations has been one of Israel's most significant problems since its establishment in May 1948. What may perhaps be not so obvious or well known is how formidable for Israel was the problem of Christian attitudes toward the new state. Those attitudes ranged from Roman Catholic hostility and non-recognition to Protestant ambivalence and Evangelical support, and they constituted a significant dimension of Israeli foreign policy from 1948 to 1967. Based on newly declassified documents, Cross on the Star of David represents the first scholarly analysis of the effects of Christianity's stance toward Israel on Israeli policy-making. Uri Bialer, the book's author, holds the chair in International Relations -- Middle East Studies in the Department of International Relations at Hebrew University.
If you would like to purchase this book, click here.
Return to list. Books on Paul:
Douglas A. Campbell. The Quest for Paul's Gospel: A Suggested Strategy. T & T Clark International, 2005. Described as "provocative," "audacious," and "controver-sial in the best sense of the word," The Quest for Paul's Gospel is a thought-provoking addition to the emerging interpretive paradigm of Pauline studies. In this book Douglas Campbell presents the argument that traditional reliance on justification by faith or history-of-salvation models in interpreting Paul's letters serves merely to mask the coherence of his thought. Campbell shifts
the emphasis from those older models to participation
in Christ as the key that unlocks "Paul's gospel." This is not a book for the casual reader, but it is an important contribution to contemporary Pauline scholarship.If you would like to purchase this book, click here.
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Richard B. Hays The Conversion of the Imagination: Paul as Interpreter of Israel's Scripture. William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2005. This book is
a collection of essays, some preceding and others following the publication of Echoes of Scripture in the Letters of Paul. In that earlier work, Hays demonstrated the importance of attending to Paul's use of scripture in the construction of his theological vision for the church. The essays in The Conversion of the Imagination extend and strengthen this central theme of Echoes. Hays responds to critics of his earlier work and shows the development of his throught since its publication. Some of the subjects covered in this new book are Paul's christological application of Psalms, his interpretation of the Law (Torah), and the influence of the Christian Old Testament on Paul's ethical teaching and ecclesiology. The Conversion of the Imagination is a scholarly work, but it is considerably more accessible for the reader untrained in theology or Pauline studies than is Camp-bell's book (The Quest for Paul's Gospel).
Richard B. Hays is George Washington Ivey Professor of New Testament at Duke Divinity School. In addition
to Echoes of Scripture in the Letters of Paul and The Conversion of the Imagination, Hays is the author of The Moral Vision of the New Testament, The Faith of Jesus Christ: The Narrative Substructure of Galatians 3:1 - 4:11, and the Interpretation commentary on First Corinthians.If you would like to purchase this book, click here.
If you would like to purchase Echoes of Scripture in the Letters of Paul, click here.
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Stephen Westerholm Perspectives Old and New on Paul: The "Lutheran" Paul and His Critics. William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2004. Stephen Westerholm, Associate Professor of Biblical Studies at McMaster University (Hamilton, Ontario) notes in the preface that this book began as a revision and updating of his earlier book, Israel's Law and the Church's Faith: Paul and His Recent Interpreters. Westerholm's "breezy" nine-page treatment of Luther in Israel's Law was in-tended primarily to set the stage for an examination of twentieth-century scholars who attacked various aspects of Luther's reading of Paul. That earlier brief summary is greatly expanded in Part One of the current work; and examinations of Augustine, Calvin, and Wesley have been included. Part Two contains twentieth-century responses -- pro and con -- to the "Lutheran" Paul. Part Three is devoted to an examination of the historical and the "Lutheran" Paul. A cursory glance at the table of contents reveals that Westerholm has relied on rather dated material for his look at attacks on the Lutheran reading of Paul. Nevertheless, this book treats a significant issue in Pauline studies. The writing is scholarly, but not painfully so.
If you would like to purchase this book, click here.
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