The Spirit Says offers a stunning collection of articles by an influential assemblage of scholars, all of whom lend considerable insight to the relationship between inspiration and interpretation. They address this otherwise intractable question with deft and occasionally daring readings of a variety of texts from the ancient world, including-but not limited to-the scriptures of early Judaism and Christianity. The thrust of this book can be summed up not so much in one question as in four: o What is the role of revelation in the interpretation of Scripture? o What might it look like for an author to be inspired? o What motivates a claim to the inspired interpretation of Scripture? o Who is inspired to interpret Scripture? More often than not, these questions are submerged in this volume under the tame rubrics of exegesis and hermeneutics, but they rise in swells and surges too to the surface, not just occasionally but often. Combining an assortment of prominent voices, this book does not merely offer signposts along the way. It charts a pioneering path toward a model of interpretation that is at once intellectually robust and unmistakably inspired.

With his latest book, The Holy Spirit before Christianity, John R. Levison again changes the face and foundation of Christian belief in the Holy Spirit. The categories Christians have used, the boundaries they have created, the proprietary claims they have made - all of these evaporate, now that Levison has looked afresh at Scripture. In a study that is both poignant and provocative, Levison takes readers back five hundred years before Jesus, where he discovers history's first grasp of the Holy Spirit as a personal agent. The prophet Haggai and the author of Isaiah 56-66, in their search for ways to grapple with the tragic events of exile and to articulate hope for the future, took up old exodus traditions of divine agents - pillars of fire, an angel, God's own presence - and fused them with belief in God's Spirit. Since it was the Spirit of God who led Israel up from Egypt and formed them into a holy nation, now, the prophets assured their hearers, the Spirit of God would lead and renew those returning from exile. Taking this point of origin as our guide, Christian pneumatology - belief in the Holy Spirit - is less about an exclusively Christian experience or doctrine and more about the presence of God in the grand scheme of Israel's history, in which Christianity is ancient Israel's heir. This explosive observation traces the essence of Christian pneumatology deep into the heart of the Hebrew Scriptures. The implications are fierce: the priority of Israelite tradition at the headwaters of pneumatology means that Christians can no longer hold stubbornly to the Holy Spirit as an exclusively Christian belief. But the implications are hopeful as well, offering Christians a richer history, a renewed vocabulary, a shared path with Judaism, and the promise of a more expansive and authentic experience of the Holy Spirit.

Synopsis: Should women be priests? Should women submit to their husbands? Is premarital sex okay? Inflammatory questions such as these have splintered Christianity and polarized the church. In Sex, Gender, and Christianity, a cadre of seasoned college professors offers the modest proposal that honest, fruitful conversations about these questions will take place only if we develop the ability to deal with sex, gender, and the Christian faith with the academic rigor and perspectives of our various disciplines. This volume contributes an unprecedented collection of first-rate articles from a variety of disciplines--from the social sciences to history, from literary criticism to theology--that will challenge college administrators, professors, and students to address fractious questions in an atmosphere of scholarly inquiry. Contributors: David G. Allen, Karen Trimble Alliaume, Brian Bantum, Mikee C. Delony, James G. Dixon III, Antonios Finitsis Theresa J. FitzPatrick, Allyson Jule, Patricia O'Connell Killen, Caryn D. Riswold, and Tina Schermer Sellers Endorsements: "This is a courageous book. At a time when clouds of fear and confusion hover over college classrooms when it comes to talking about sex and gender, here we have a responsible and creative treatment of these thorny topics. It would be a mistake to bypass this book as yet another treatment of sex and gender, because you will not find anything else like it." --Willie James Jennings, Associate Professor of Theology and Black Church Studies, Duke Divinity School "Sex, Gender, and Christianity is a much-needed corrective to polarizing arguments about women's roles and their expectations for equality. Probing historical exemplars from Eve to Carrie Bradshaw, the book's authors exchange heat for light on a topic that sorely needs the latter. This will be an invaluable resource for undergraduate courses in both religious and gender studies." --Diane Winston, Knight Chair in Media and Religion, USC Annenberg School for Communication Author Biography: Priscilla Pope-Levison is Professor of Theology and Assistant Director of Women's Studies at Seattle Pacific University, and Affiliate Faculty in Women Studies at the University of Washington. She is the author of Turn the Pulpit Loose: Two Centuries of American Women Evangelists (2004). John (Jack) R. Levison is Professor of New Testament at Seattle Pacific University. He is the author of Fresh Air: The Holy Spirit for an Inspired Life (2012); Filled with the Spirit (2009); and Texts in Transition: the Greek Life of Adam and Eve (2000). Together they are the authors of Jesus in Global Contexts (1992) and editors of Return to Babel: Global Perspectives on the Bible (1999).

In "Return to Babel," each of ten historically significant biblical texts is interpreted by three scholars: one Latin American, one African, and one Asian. Geographic locales range from a tiny village in the Philippines to the city of Nairobi, Kenya; from Gwangju, South Korea, with its one million inhabitants, to the frontier city of Wiwili in the northern mountains of Nicaragua. The result is a collection of essays that shed new light on familiar texts and make the reader aware of the ways in which culture can shape our understanding of Scripture.

Liberator, ancestor, cosmic Christ, and Black Messiah. These are just some of the ways that Jesus is viewed in the world. This rare book provides a global tour of the Christologies emerging in Latin America, Asia, and Africa, and those of North American feminist and African-American theologies. Bibliography. Indexes.

This book provides the most thorough and systematic analysis of early Jewish interpretations of Adam currently available. With detailed exegesis Levison demonstrates that each early Jewish author painted a unique portrait of Adam by utilizing Adam to express a particular, preconceived theological Tendenz. This study therefore displaces the notion that a unified Adam mythology existed in early Judaism with the recognition that each author readily adapted the early chapters of Genesis according to specific needs and aims. Alongside an introduction which surveys studies of early Jewish interpretations of Adam and studies on the Adam cycle, this book contains analyses of all relevant passages from Sirach, Wisdom of Solomon, Philo, Jubilees, Josephus, 4 Ezra, 2 Baruch, Apocalypse of Moses and Vita Adae et Evae. This monograph is an indispensable tool for both Old and New Testament studies, providing a variety of early Jewish examples of biblical exegesis from c. 200 BCE to 135 CE, as well as insight into the milieu within which Paul and other early Christian writers formulated their own unique interpretations of Adam.