In this book prominent biblical scholars engage with Francis Watson's most striking arguments on the creation of the gospels. Their contributions focus in particular on his argument for a fourfold gospel rather than four separate gospels, his argument against Q but for an early sayings collection, and on the larger landscape of Jesus studies, gospel reception and interpretation The contributors ask whether, and in what ways, Watson's reorientation of gospel studies is successful, and explore its implications for research. Leading scholars including Jens Schroeter, Margaret Mitchell, Richard Bauckham and many others provide a close critical and creative engagement with Watson's work. More than merely a critical review of Watson's writing, this book carries forward his work with fresh treatments and provides an essential volume for students and scholars seeking to understand the landscape of gospel studies and to explore new directions within it.

In this book, Catherine Sider Hamilton introduces a new lens through which to view the death of Jesus in Matthew. Using the concept of 'innocent blood', she situates the death of Jesus within a paradigm of purity and pollution, one that was central in the Hebrew Scriptures and early Judaism from the Second Temple to the rabbis. Hamilton traces the theme of innocent blood in Matthew's narrative in relation to two Jewish traditions of interpretation, one (in Second Temple literature) reflecting on the story of Cain and Abel; the other (chiefly in rabbinic literature) on the blood of Zechariah. 'Innocent blood' yields a vision that resists the dichotomies (intra muros vs extra muros, rejection vs redemption) that have characterized the debate, a vision in which both judgment and redemption - an end of exile - may be true. 'Innocent blood' offers a new approach not only to the meaning of Jesus' death in Matthew but also to the vexed question of the Gospel's attitude toward contemporary Judaism.

In this book prominent biblical scholars engage with Francis Watson's most striking arguments on the creation of the gospels. Their contributions focus in particular on his argument for a fourfold gospel rather than four separate gospels, his argument against Q but for an early sayings collection, and on the larger landscape of Jesus studies, gospel reception and interpretation The contributors ask whether, and in what ways, Watson's reorientation of gospel studies is successful, and explore its implications for research. Leading scholars including Jens Schroeter, Margaret Mitchell, Richard Bauckham and many others provide a close critical and creative engagement with Watson's work. More than merely a critical review of Watson's writing, this book carries forward his work with fresh treatments and provides an essential volume for students and scholars seeking to understand the landscape of gospel studies and to explore new directions within it.

The essays in this collection explore questions that are fundamental to Anglican identity. What do we mean by doctrine and its development? What does it mean to be Spirit led? What is holiness, in Scripture and in the church's reading of Scripture? How might we negotiate in a theologically coherent way the relationship between the church's cultural context and its inherited faith? These questions arise immediately from the debate about same-sex blessings in the Anglican Church of Canada and in particular the questions posed by the Primate at General Synod 2007. But the questions also stand on their own as deep-seated and far-reaching inquiries involving who we are as people of faith in this time and place.
The contributors to this volume are all Anglicans and scholars who are deeply engaged in the life of the church and committed to its well being. While all very different, their essays are nevertheless linked by two intriguing common emphases: first of all on Scripture, and secondly on the consensus fidelium-the mind of the whole church through history and throughout the world. In this they witness to the possibility of an emerging common mind in the church of Canada: a way of seeing that is both catholic and evangelical-reading both the tradition and the times and, in both, reading Scripture. They represent what it might mean to be the church "in spirit and in truth" in our time. These essays are offered as an articulation of the guiding principles by which the church may move forward in a time of serious disagreement, and in the belief that this approach-at once catholic and evangelical, rooted in Scripture and in the community of the faithful-captures the peculiar genius of Anglicanism and, more broadly, something of what it means to be the Church.
About the Editors:
Catherine Sider Hamilton is a doctoral student and Instructor in New Testament Greek at Wycliffe College, University of Toronto, and Honorary Assistant at Grace Church on-the-Hill in Toronto.
Peter M. B. Robinson is the Priest at Emmanuel Church Richvale and Adjunct Professor of Theology at Wycliffe College, University of Toronto.
George Sumner is the Principal of Wycliffe College, an honorary assistant at St. Paul's Anglican Church, and a Canon to the Dioceses of Toronto and Saskatchewan.