A creative collection of essays that introduces, critiques, and dialogues with Daniel Patte’s ground-breaking work Romans: Three Exegetical Interpretations and the History of Reception: Volume 1: Romans 1:1-32 (T&T Clark, 2018). Nine scholars from different cultural and methodological perspectives engage with Patte’s work, critique his methodology and ethic of interpretation, and develop alternative readings. The first part introduces the format of Patte’s book and the three historical interpretations: forensic, covenantal, and realized-apocalyptic. Part two debates methodology and ethical responsibility. The third part focuses on Romans 1:16-18 and 1:26-27 and includes a Confucian Chinese reading and a call for joint biblical and social-science research on the role of Romans in current public policy debates. The final part includes a chapter on pedagogy regarding how Patte’s book can be used in the classroom. The final chapter is a powerful description by Patte himself of the various life experiences that shaped his reading of Romans. This book is a critical and communal conversation with Patte on the history of reception of Romans 1 and an example of the necessity of conversations among diverse interpreters that, as Patte says, “reflect the diversity of the modes of our human experience”.

This study of the Matthean narrative uses the interpretive lens of food exchange to explore the Matthean community's relationship with the wider world. While many studies depict this community as withdrawing from or in conflict with the larger society, James P. Grimshaw's focus on the daily need for food reveals a community that, while distinct, progressively integrates itself into the larger Jewish and Gentile society and the natural world. In addition, this view of community corresponds to the view of a God who actively provides for and relates to all creation. Grimshaw's alternative portrayal of the Matthean community, whose interactions with its surrounding environment are more complex and sustained than often imagined, is a compelling interpretation for today's stratified and disconnected world.

This volume on Luke-Acts as with all titles in the Texts@Contexts series highlights readings that make explicit the diverse contemporary contexts of biblical interpreters. The global spread of contributors includes scholarly voices from South Africa, South America and Hong Kong, as well as from the United States. The chapters are organized around four themes. The first examines interpretations of Jesus, looking at his childhood, contemporary context, and his teaching - including whether Jesus' sympathetic response to disease and pain might be used to advocate euthanasia. The second examines social categories: gender, race, and class, including a political and racialized reading of the history of diasporic Black America as a model for reading Acts as a diasporic history. The third examines issues of empire and resistance. The final part looks at society and spirituality, with a focus on modern contemporary contexts.

A creative collection of essays that introduces, critiques, and dialogues with Daniel Patte’s ground-breaking work Romans: Three Exegetical Interpretations and the History of Reception: Volume 1: Romans 1:1-32 (T&T Clark, 2018). Nine scholars from different cultural and methodological perspectives engage with Patte’s work, critique his methodology and ethic of interpretation, and develop alternative readings. The first part introduces the format of Patte’s book and the three historical interpretations: forensic, covenantal, and realized-apocalyptic. Part two debates methodology and ethical responsibility. The third part focuses on Romans 1:16-18 and 1:26-27 and includes a Confucian Chinese reading and a call for joint biblical and social-science research on the role of Romans in current public policy debates. The final part includes a chapter on pedagogy regarding how Patte’s book can be used in the classroom. The final chapter is a powerful description by Patte himself of the various life experiences that shaped his reading of Romans. This book is a critical and communal conversation with Patte on the history of reception of Romans 1 and an example of the necessity of conversations among diverse interpreters that, as Patte says, “reflect the diversity of the modes of our human experience”.

This volume on Luke-Acts as with all titles in the Texts@Contexts series highlights readings that make explicit the diverse contemporary contexts of biblical interpreters. The global spread of contributors includes scholarly voices from South Africa, South America and Hong Kong, as well as from the United States. The chapters are organized around four themes. The first examines interpretations of Jesus, looking at his childhood, contemporary context, and his teaching - including whether Jesus' sympathetic response to disease and pain might be used to advocate euthanasia. The second examines social categories: gender, race, and class, including a political and racialized reading of the history of diasporic Black America as a model for reading Acts as a diasporic history. The third examines issues of empire and resistance. The final part looks at society and spirituality, with a focus on modern contemporary contexts.

The Texts @ Contexts series gathers scholarly voices from diverse contexts and social locations to bring new or unfamiliar facets of biblical texts to light. Matthew sheds new light from new perspectives on themes in the Gospel including community; land, labor, and Empire; children, parents, and families; health and disabilities; and border-crossings. The authors challenge us to consider how we deal with cultural distances between ourselves and these ancient writings - and between one another in the contemporary world. Like other volumes in the Texts @ Contexts series, these essays de-center the often homogeneous first-world orientation of much biblical scholarship and open up new possibilities for discovery.