Drawing on the wisdom and teaching experience of highly respected theologians, the Engaging Theology series builds a firm foundation for graduate study and other ministry formation programs. Each of the six volumes-- Scripture, Jesus, God, Discipleship, Anthropology, and Church--is concerned with retrieving, carefully evaluating, and constructively interpreting the Christian tradition. Comprehensive in scope and accessibly written, these volumes, used together or independently, will stimulate rich theological reflection and discussion. More important, the series will create and sustain the passion of the next generation of theologians and church leaders. "This book means to explore who Jesus was, is, and is to come, and by what series of events this man of Jewish history came to be viewed by millions as a man of God-like powers in their present lives and their hoped for future." Rich in familiarity with Jesus' Jewish world, Gerard Sloyan helps us discover a Jesus thoroughly situated in his own time and place. Grounded in the New Testament gospels, Sloyan's study leads us to an already interpreted Jesus, distinctly portrayed by each evangelist. Going outside the New Testament, Sloyan takes us into the theological questions and developments that culminated in the affirmations of the councils of Nicaea and Chalcedon. This impressive, clearly written work challenges readers to see both the historical Jesus who preached the in-breaking of God's reign and the post-resurrection Jesus whom Christians named Lord and Savior.

How did Jesus, a much-loved and highly respected Jewish teacher, get sentenced to death as a criminal? The questions of students and scholars about the actual circumstances, legal situation, and subsequent development of the Passion Narratives are here answered in Sloyan's second edition of this reliable resource, first published by Fortress Press in 1973. This second edition includes additional text, updated bibliography and notes, and a new preface.

This volume in the New Testament in Context (NTC) commentary series is a concise treasure-trove of information about two New Testament letters (2 and 3 John) and a treatise or sermon (1 John). Issues of authorship and province are considered, and related commentaries by Bultmann, Schnackenberg, and Brown are engaged. In contract to the infinite detail of these latter commentaries, Gerard Sloyan s work stands as a paragon of clarity, insight, and access to the meaning of the Johannine letters. The overall effect provides the reader with perspective on the kinds of issues christological, ethical, organizational, and theological that were troubling and dividing the church in the second century. Gerard S. Sloyan is a priest of the Diocese of Trenton (NJ) and Professor Emeritus of Religion at Temple University. He is currently a visiting professor in the School of Religious Studies at the Catholic University of America. His most recent book is The Crucifixion of Jesus: History, Myth, Faith.

What was crucifixion? Why was Jesus of Nazareth executed and what really happened? Gerard Sloyan begins with history and traces the development of the New Testament accounts of Jesus' death. He shows how Jesus' death came to be seen as sacrificial and how the evolving understandings of Jesus' death affected those who suffered most from it - the Jews. He then traces the emergence and development - in theology, liturgy, literature, art - of the conviction that Jesus' death was redemptive, as seen both in soteriological theory from Tertullian to Anselm, in the Reformation and modern eras, and in more popular religious responses to the crucifixion. Especially fascinating is the story of the emergence of a distinct "Passion piety" that still characterizes the West. In all this Sloyan detects the separation of the cross from Jesus' life and resurrection, allowing the mythicizing of an event too large for mere words to handle: the mystery of the cross.