J. Christiaan Beker
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New Testament : A Thematic Introduction
$17.00Add to cartThis book reflects J. Christiaan Beker’s experience of more than twenty years of teaching an introductory course in New Testament. In distinction from a history-of-religions ap proach, he aims at allowing the theological thrust of the New Testament to become transparent for today’s readers. The work presupposes the normative and canonical claim of the New Testament for all forms of Christian theology. Beker concentrates on some of the most central issues within the New Testament by surveying sixteen of the twenty-seven book of the New Testament. A chronological sequence is followed, beginning with Paul’s letters. For the student.
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Suffering And Hope A Print On Demand Title
$18.99Add to cartThis compelling study by J. Christian Beker provides a moving, triumphant answer to one of life’s greatest mysteries – the presence of suffering in God’s world. Now an established classic in the discussion of the problem of evil, Suffering and Hope plumbs the Old Testament’s response to earthly pain as well as Paul’s own dealings with “redemptive suffering.” Beker seeks to understand how the Bible’s view of suffering relates to our present experience of suffering and to the Christian hope for the future of creation. His concern is with the quality and character of both suffering and hope in a world where the question of suffering is inescapable. This powerful new edition features a foreword by Ben C. Ollenburger that describes the story behind the book – the dehumanizing conditions Beker endured as a slave laborer during the Nazi occupation of The Netherlands and the ways in which they helped shape the particular poignancy of his view of suffering. Readers will be moved both by Beker’s personal transparency and by his biblical vision of “hopeful suffering” – the apocalyptic trust in God’s eventual victory over the power of death that poisons his creation.
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Triumph Of God
$18.00Add to cartPreface
PART ONE: THE PAULINE LETTER
1.The Hermeneutical Problem
Three Solutions
Summary2.Primary Themes In Pauline Thought
The Dialectic Of Coherence And Contingency
Apocalyptic As The Basis Of Paul’s GospelPART TWO: THEOLOGICAL CONSEQUENCES
3.The Contingency Of The Gospel
Paul’s Occasional Letters
Galatians And Romans4.The Coherence Of The Gospel
Objections To Apocalyptic
Apocalyptic And The Resurrection Of Christ
The Cross Of Christ And The Demonic Powers
Christian Life And The Church: The Appropriation And Practice Of The Gospel In The Horizon Of Hope5.The Enigma Of The Law And The Struggle Between Sin And Death
The Law Amid The Struggle Between The Powers
The Dilemma Of Sin And Death: Equal Or Disparate Powers?6.Summary
Appendix: Paul The Theologian: Major Motifs In Pauline Theology
Bibliography
IndexesAdditional Info
This book posits two pillars as the foundations of Paul’s thought: 1) the interaction between coherence and contingency in Paul’s interpretation of the gospel and 2) the apocalyptic character of his gospel. The author ventures to demonstrate how Paul’s interpretation of the gospel as coherent is integral with Paul’s communication of the gospel as situationally contingent. These ostensibly opposing perspectives actually combine to form a fluid Pauline hermeneutic. The centrality of Christological apocalyptic in Paul’s interpretation is posited and involves a radical shift in traditional conceptions of Paul’s theology. The author is “recasting Paul’s theology as a theocentric theology of hope rather than as a Christocentric salvation-history (O. Cullmann) or as an existentialist theology of the cross (R. Bultmann). A theology of hope views the present as the dawn of the future and the future as the full actualization of the present.” Examining the implications of this approach-the ultimacy of God’s sovereignty and triumph beside the Christ- event, the formation of a “biblical- theology,” a rethinking of traditional concepts of salvation and ethics-the author intends to reveal a fresh and most enlightening view of Paul’s theology.
