C. Clifton Black
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3 Dimensional Jesus
$30.00Add to cartIn A Three-Dimensional Jesus, Clifton Black offers a fresh, critically sympathetic reading of the New Testament’s first three Gospels: Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Intelligent and accessible, conversational and whimsical, this volume helps readers consider the questions that are basic to the Synoptic Gospels’ interpretation. Black addresses their literary genre and origins; portrayals of the figure of Jesus and other central characters; the relationships among these three books; and the social, political, and religious worlds from which they emerged and to which they were addressed. Individual chapters on each Gospel highlight their likely audiences, literary structures, and primary theological themes. Throughout, Black’s presentation is clear and engaging, making use of topical sidebars, charts, and illustrations as well as wit and good humor to draw readers into these Gospels’ interpretations. The volume also includes such original features as conversations with other well-established scholars, which help the reader appreciate a range of perspectives on topics like the historical Jesus and the Gospels’ depiction of women, and interviews of experts on these Gospels’ afterlife in the history of Christian thought, sacred music, fine art, and preaching.
A Three-Dimensional Jesus is a concise, approachable study of the New Testament’s first three Gospels viewed from multiple angles–historical, sociological, literary, theological–with attention paid to their history of interpretation. In as much, Black invites readers to better understand and appreciate the Synoptics, while guiding them to learn even more
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Lords Prayer
$55.00Add to cartC. Clifton Black provides a thorough analysis of the most famous prayer in the Christian church, the Lord’s Prayer. He begins with an impressionist painting of how the ancients prayed during Jesus’ time in order to set the context for understanding the prayer he taught his disciples. Throughout the book, Black systematically interprets the rich meanings of each part of the Lord’s prayer. Additionally, he includes an overview of Christian thought on the Lord’s Prayer from early church mothers and fathers like Tertullian and Teresa of Avila to modern theologians like Karl Barth. Uniquely, this book is an academic study of the Lord’s Prayer with a focus on the rhetorical culture from which it developed as well as the theological, literary, and historical meanings of the prayer itself.
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Rhetoric Of The Gospel (Expanded)
$42.00Add to cartWhile most books on biblical rhetoric focus primarily on the epistles, this volume from prominent scholar C. Clifton Black considers the variety of rhetorical critical approaches now being applied to the Gospels (including Luke-Acts). This updated edition takes into account recent research since the first volume was published in 2001 and features two brand new chapters. Black provides an overview of the different forms of rhetorical criticism, with examples from the Gospel of John; studies of characterization in Matthew and Luke; an analysis of classical rhetorical criteria found in Mark and Luke-Acts; and an analysis of the rhetoric of the parables with implications for contemporary preaching.
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Mark : NRSV
$30.99Add to cartMark’s genius lies, not in telling a story about Jesus, but in creating conditions under which the reader may experience the peculiar quality of God’s good news. The Evangelist hurries one along breathlessly, “immediately,” making sure that the reader lurches with the characters into one pothole after another. “What is this new teaching” that consorts with the flagrantly sinful, turning the pious homicidal, intimates into strangers, and mustard seeds into “the greatest of all … shrubs”?
Jesus’ closest adherents, the Twelve, are among the most muddled. Who can blame them? They ask for an obscure parable’s interpretation and receive an answer even more confounding. They are told to feed thousands with next to nothing. Their boat almost capsizes while their teacher sleeps. As they oar in rough waters, the teacher strides the waves intending to bypass them. Putting the reader in the same boat, Mark structures conversations with Jesus that make little sense, if any. The Twelve are craven, stupid, self-serving, and disobedient: meet the average Christian. Besides, “their hearts were hardened.” Who hardens hearts? God. Should not God’s Messiah lift the burdens of those following him? What kind of Christ heads to a cross, handing his disciples another for themselves. “Do you not yet understand?” from the Introduction
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Mark : Images Of An Apostolic Interpreter
$25.00Add to cartWhat do we know about the author of the Second Gospel? Using a variety of critical lenses—historical, literary, and theological—Black examines the images of Mark that emerge from the New Testament and the early church fathers. His comprehensive investigation culminates in a fresh appraisal of the enigmatic evangelist.