This collection of twelve essays will celebrate the distinguished contribution of Professor John Kenneth Riches to biblical interpretation. The international selection of contributors are all either former students or colleagues of Professor Riches and the focus of the essays all reflect (and extend) Professor Riches' particular research interests and contribution to biblical and theological studies. The essays in this volume are clustered around two closely related topics: historical and theological contributions to understanding the nature of Christian freedom and agency, and studies which investigate how Paul's thought has been interpreted in diverse settings. All the contributors have been asked to centre their thinking around the following issues: how does the grace of being 'in Christ' transform and restore those who receive it in faith; how far they are, as it were, responsible for that transformation; how far their is identity changed by their union with Christ; and how are they to make ethical decisions, are they to be guided (and goaded?) by the law, or are to be led by the Spirit and called to discern what is right and good in the law?There are four parts to this book. Part I explores grace and human agency by looking at texts both within and outside of the New Testament, highlighting the themes of ethical responsibility and freedom. Part II turns to look at how Pauline themes of grace and the Christian life have been interpreted at various points of Christian history. Part III reflects John Riches' substantial interest in and contribution to African biblical interpretation and includes essays that investigate how Paul is appropriated in African contexts. Part IV reflects John Riches' interest in the mutual engagement between theology and Scripture and includes contributions investigating the theological aspects of the Law and the Spirit, and transformation in Christ in the theology and ethics of P.T. Forsyth.

Beliefs about land, or the Abrahamic land promise, were an important part of Second Temple Judaism. Within the Roman Empire, the reality of life for Jews 'in the land' was different from the experience of Jews in the Diaspora. Among the diverse expressions of Judaism that flourished in the land prior to the revolt, there are indications that Jesus paid attention to the relationship between God, people and land. However, there are marked differences between Jesus' millenarian vision of sacred space and that of other groups at that time. The methodology employed in Wenell's study views religious space as having both sacred and social aspects and draws upon insights from sociology and social anthropology. It focuses on three main areas, all of which are relevant to beliefs about 'the land': temple, purity and the twelve. A comparative approach with other first century groups reveals Jesus as a prophetic figure who does not focus on a temple as the centre of God's kingdom, nor on purity as the means of maintaining group identity in the sacredness of the land. Instead, Jesus takes up land imagery in calling a group of twelve disciples in a prophetic and symbolic action with implications for Jesus' vision of sacred space and the social organization of that space. Both positively and negatively, Jesus' attitude toward the three areas of temple, purity and twelve points to unique aspects of his message and to distinctive beliefs poignantly relevant to the Abrahamic promise of the land.

Constructions of Space III engages with the great variety of sacred spaces set out and given meaning in the texts of the Hebrew Bible, early Jewish literature and the New Testament. Spatial-critical, as well as anthropological, philosophical and narrative perspectives are interacted with in creative ways and brought to bear on the spaces encountered within the texts. Among the concepts and themes explored are oppositional aspects such as holiness and danger/the profane, fear and hope, utopia and dystopia, and purity and impurity. The social and mythological significance of more 'grounded' places such as Jerusalem and Egypt, temples, burial places and threshing floors is considered alongside more ethereal and symbolic spaces like those of heaven, the last judgement and the kingdom of God. What emerges is a dynamic and lively set of perspectives that illuminates relationships between texts, spaces and communities.

Society for Educational Studies Annual Book Prize winner: 2nd Prize This ground-breaking volume draws upon a rich and variegated range of methodologies to understand more fully the practices, policies and resources available in and to religious education in British schools. The descriptions, explanations and analyses undertaken here draw on an innovative combination of policy work, ethnography, Delphi methods, Actor Network Theory, questionnaires, textual analysis as well as theological and philosophical insight. It traces the evolution of religious education in a post-religious age from the creation of policy to the everyday experiences of teachers and students in the classroom. It begins by analysing the way in which policy has evolved since the 1970s with an examination of the social forces that have shaped curriculum development. It goes on to explore the impact and intentions of a diverse group of stakeholders with sometimes competing accounts of the purposes of religious educations. It then examines the manner in which policy is, or is not, enacted in the classroom. Finally, it explores contradictions and confusions, successes and failures, and the ways in which wider public debates enter the classroom. The book also exposes the challenge religious education teachers have in using the language of religion.

Constructions of Space III engages with the great variety of sacred spaces set out and given meaning in the texts of the Hebrew Bible, early Jewish literature and the New Testament. Spatial-critical, as well as anthropological, philosophical and narrative perspectives are interacted with in creative ways and brought to bear on the spaces encountered within the texts. Among the concepts and themes explored are oppositional aspects such as holiness and danger/the profane, fear and hope, utopia and dystopia, and purity and impurity. The social and mythological significance of more 'grounded' places such as Jerusalem and Egypt, temples, burial places and threshing floors is considered alongside more ethereal and symbolic spaces like those of heaven, the last judgement and the kingdom of God. What emerges is a dynamic and lively set of perspectives that illuminates relationships between texts, spaces and communities.

This collection of twelve essays will celebrate the distinguished contribution of Professor John Kenneth Riches to biblical interpretation. The international selection of contributors are all either former students or colleagues of Professor Riches and the focus of the essays all reflect (and extend) Professor Riches' particular research interests and contribution to biblical and theological studies. The essays in this volume are clustered around two closely related topics: historical and theological contributions to understanding the nature of Christian freedom and agency, and studies which investigate how Paul's thought has been interpreted in diverse settings. All the contributors have been asked to centre their thinking around the following issues: how does the grace of being 'in Christ' transform and restore those who receive it in faith; how far they are, as it were, responsible for that transformation; how far their is identity changed by their union with Christ; and how are they to make ethical decisions, are they to be guided (and goaded?) by the law, or are to be led by the Spirit and called to discern what is right and good in the law?There are four parts to this book. Part I explores grace and human agency by looking at texts both within and outside of the New Testament, highlighting the themes of ethical responsibility and freedom. Part II turns to look at how Pauline themes of grace and the Christian life have been interpreted at various points of Christian history. Part III reflects John Riches' substantial interest in and contribution to African biblical interpretation and includes essays that investigate how Paul is appropriated in African contexts. Part IV reflects John Riches' interest in the mutual engagement between theology and Scripture and includes contributions investigating the theological aspects of the Law and the Spirit, and transformation in Christ in the theology and ethics of P.T. Forsyth.

This book offers a new, multidisciplinary way of thinking about the Kingdom of God which fully recognises its sociological and spatial significance in performing boundaries of the sacred. Though spatial-critical perspectives have been increasingly recognised as important across many disciplines, the significance of non-physical religious spaces and their correspondence to boundaries of the sacred has not been explored fully, and never using the specific example of the Kingdom of God. Wenell considers the diverse and sometimes contradictory articulation of the Kingdom in the gospels as well as the ways that Kingdom language frames contemporary ethical debates. Her study of the Kingdom is located within the wider study of religion, affording the opportunity to investigate connections between space, belonging and the sacred. Wenell structures her investigation in four key areas that engage with the Kingdom in different, but theoretically interconnected ways. She begins by setting out a theory of sacred space that is capable of including the Kingdom, and establishing key concepts such as boundary, performance, physical/non-physical spatiality, spokespersons and controversy. Wenell then focuses on the synoptic gospels and the origins of the Kingdom, noting aspects of uncertainty as well as areas of agreement and controversy over boundaries of the sacred in these uniquely interrelated texts. The third and fourth areas of investigation move into cultural reception, considering instances where the Kingdom is formative for identity and ethical relationships both in individual and wider group belonging terms. Specific reference is made to issues of ethical consuming and displacement, placing the Kingdom in dialogue with Bauman’s discussion of a society of consumers, and Arendt’s notion of equitable co-habitation of the earth.

Society for Educational Studies Annual Book Prize winner: 2nd Prize This ground-breaking volume draws upon a rich and variegated range of methodologies to understand more fully the practices, policies and resources available in and to religious education in British schools. The descriptions, explanations and analyses undertaken here draw on an innovative combination of policy work, ethnography, Delphi methods, Actor Network Theory, questionnaires, textual analysis as well as theological and philosophical insight. It traces the evolution of religious education in a post-religious age from the creation of policy to the everyday experiences of teachers and students in the classroom. It begins by analysing the way in which policy has evolved since the 1970s with an examination of the social forces that have shaped curriculum development. It goes on to explore the impact and intentions of a diverse group of stakeholders with sometimes competing accounts of the purposes of religious educations. It then examines the manner in which policy is, or is not, enacted in the classroom. Finally, it explores contradictions and confusions, successes and failures, and the ways in which wider public debates enter the classroom. The book also exposes the challenge religious education teachers have in using the language of religion.