For the past century, scholars have debated when and how a divine Christology emerged. This book considers the earliest evidence we have, the letters of Paul. David Capes, a veteran teacher and highly regarded scholar, examines Paul's letters to show how the apostle constructed his unique portrait of Jesus as divine through a rereading of Israel's Scriptures. This new addition to the Acadia Studies in Bible and Theology series is ideal for use in courses on Paul, Christology, biblical theology, and intertextuality.

Readers' Choice Awards Honorable Mention One of Nijay Gupta's Best Academic New Testament Books Who is your Jesus? Matthew's teacher? John's Word made flesh? Hebrews' great high priest? What if it turned out that your Jesus is a composite of your favorite selections from the New Testament buffet, garnished with some Hollywood and Americana? Rediscovering Jesus takes us on a gallery tour of biblical portraits of Jesus, from Matthew through Revelation. Our expert guides point out the background and highlights of each New Testament image of Jesus. Then we hit the streets to visit other houses of worship and their scriptures, examining the Jesus of the Book of Mormon and the Qur'an. Popping into a bookstore, we browse the latest on the Gnostic and the historical Jesus. Then we're off on a walking tour of Jesus in America, followed by a film festival of Jesus movies. All along the way our tour guides describe and interpret, but also raise questions: How is this Jesus different from other portraits? If this were our only portrait of Jesus, what would our faith be like? Rediscovering Jesus is an enjoyable, informative and challenging look at how we encounter Jesus in Scripture and our culture. With ample sidebars exploring contexts and the "so what?" questions, it takes us beyond other surveys by probing how our understanding of Jesus can make a difference for faith and life. From the authors of Rediscovering Paul, this is a textbook introduction to Jesus that guides us in our pilgrimage toward seeing Jesus truly.

Description: This delightfully multifaceted volume, comprised of thoughtful essays by an esteemed array of cultural critics, probes the intersection of Christian faith and culture to honor the memory of A. J. ""Chip"" Conyers, a remarkably ecumenical Christian scholar and cultural ""warrior"" whose premature death in 2004 cut short a remarkable career in teaching and writing. As those who knew him can attest, Conyers lived his life at the intersection of Christian theology and cultural concern with a singular blend of astuteness, gracefulness, and Christian conviction. This festschrift, as esteemed theologian and Conyers's mentor Jurgen Moltmann indicates in the foreword, is intended to mirror Conyers's own commitment to incisive cultural criticism and theological faithfulness in the mold of the ""great tradition."" This is no small achievement even for so venerable a cast of scholars as the contributors to this volume, as Conyers crossed interdisciplinary boundaries--in a day of escalating hyper-specialization--with the greatest of ease. He was comfortable discussing contemporary church life or the christological controversy of the patristic era, Heideggerian hermeneutics or human dignity and the imago Dei, faith and the Enlightenment or the fatherhood of God, Catholic ""substance"" or Protestant reform. Yet Conyers always did this through the lens of historic Christian orthodoxy. Though he was a most incisive student of culture, in a most refreshing way he steered clear of being co-opted by the currents of culture. Neither retreating into pious devotionalism nor opting for the theologically unreflective activism that has become so chic in our post-consensus climate, he embodied a theological perspective that blends responsible cultural engagement with eschatological hope. The reader is sure to encounter the same blend in this festschrift, and to come away both challenged and edified toward fulfilling the message and hope of Conyers' life and work: to faithfully thrive in Babylon. Endorsements: ""Chip Conyers was a remarkable Christian scholar, one who combined an intense desire for God with an unbounded love of learning. Like a meteor against the night, he illuminated the world around him and showed the church a more faithful way to follow Christ. The essays presented here give a sense of Conyers' breadth and wisdom and his courage to engage the culture for Christ's sake. This is a worthy tribute to one of the most generous, insightful, and humane theologians I have known."""" --Timothy George Dean, Beeson Divinity School General Editor of the Reformation Commentary on Scripture About the Contributor(s): David B. Capes is Dean of the Graduate School and Director of the School of Theology at Houston Baptist University. He has authored a number of books including Old Testament Yahweh Texts in Paul's Christology (1992) and Rediscovering Paul (2007). J. Daryl Charles is Director and Senior Fellow of the Bryan Institute for Critical Thought & Practice at Bryan College. Among the number of books he has authored are Retrieving the Natural Law: A Return to Moral First Things (2008) and The Unformed Conscience of Evangelicalism: Recovering the Church's Moral Vision (2002).

The earliest Christian communities engaged in bold and imaginative rereadings of their Scripturesanone more astounding and potentially inflammatory than of the passages that focus upon the name and nature of Israel's God. In this volume, David B. Capes tracks the Apostle Paul's use of Old Testament texts that directly invoke God's name, Yahweh, for what they can disclose about the earliest Christian beliefs and practices. Since Paul writes to his churches in Greek and quotes the Old Testament extensively from the Septuagint, Capes focuses upon Old Testament quotations and allusions in which kyrios translates the divine name. He discovers that Paul applies a majority of his quotations of and allusions to Yahweh texts to the Lord Jesus Christ, thus offering to him designations originally reserved for Israel's God. Given the high regard that Judaism placed upon both Scripture and the divine name in the first century, the application of Yahweh texts to Jesus bears significant christological weight. These texts reveal that Paul considered Jesus to be more than a man or a divine agentaPaul believed that Christ was in some sense Yahweh Himself.Capes thus unveils Paul's strategy for the reading of Scripture, which provides a basis for properly interpreting early Christianity's veneration of Jesus, including prayers and hymns to Christ, the authoritative status attributed to Jesus' words, and the notions of Christ's pre-existence, role in creation, and authority as coming eschatological Savior and Judge. How Paul reread his Bible goes hand-in-glove with the differences that developed between Christianity and Judaism.

Israel's God and Rebecca's Children is a collection of essays written as a tribute to the lasting scholarship and friendship of Larry Hurtado (University of Edinburgh) and Alan Segal (Barnard College), two scholars who have contributed significantly to the contemporary understanding of Second Temple and Rabbinic Judaism and early Christianity. Their colleagues and friends examine a wide range of topics that have been the focus of Hurtado and Segal's research, including Christology, community, Jewish-Christian relations, soteriology and the development of early Christianity. Together these essays reconceptualize Christology and community in Judaism and Christianity and provide valuable insights into the issues of community and identity.

For some of us, the apostle Paul is intimidating, like a distant and difficult uncle. Maybe not someone you'd like to hang out with at a coffee shop on a rainy day. He'd make a scene, evangelize the barista, and arouse looks across the room. For a mid-morning latte, we'd prefer Jesus over Paul. But Paul is actually the guy who-from Ephesus to Athens-was the talk of the marketplace, the raconteur of the Parthenon. He knew everyone, founded emerging churches, loved the difficult people, and held his own against the intellectuals of his day. If you're willing to give Paul a try, Rediscovering Paul is your reliable guide. This is a book that reacquaints us with Paul, as if for the first time. Drawing on the best of contemporary scholarship, and with language shaped by teaching and conversing with today's students, Rediscovering Paul is a textbook that has passed the test. Now in a reworked edition, it's better than ever. There are fresh discussions of Paul's letter writing and how those letters were received in the churches, new considerations of pseudonymity and the authenticity of Paul's letters, and updated coverage of recent developments in interpreting Paul. from Paul's conversion and call to his ongoing impact on church and culture, this second edition of Rediscovering Paul comes enthusiastically recommended.