Any coherent comment on what the Bible says about the Bible, the Christian Scriptures,' says Tim Meadowcroft, 'must address the wider notion that God speaks.' Accordingly, his fresh, wide-ranging exposition of 'the message of the word of God' is structured around four key propositions. The first is the extraordinary, fundamental reality that God speaks - and that when he speaks, he acts. This introduces us to the breadth of God's speaking, both in the text of Scripture and by means of the world that he has created. Secondly, God speaks in the written words of Scripture in a particular way: this is because the biblical texts are unique. Thirdly, God speaks in Christ: the word of God is finally and fully revealed and heard in the person of Jesus, the incarnate Word. From this it follows that the word of God in Scripture is a witness to the revelation of God in Jesus, that Jesus provides a model for interpretation of the Scriptures, and that the Scriptures are best understood and interpreted in the light of Christ. The fourth proposition is that God speaks today: his voice continues to be heard in the light of Christ and through the reading of Scripture. Throughout, Meadowcroft shows how God's speaking is concerned with his glory, and calls into being his people - who themselves are to live out and declare the word of God to others.

Description: Earthing the Cosmic Queen explores the connection of poet, world, and text in the Song of Songs based on the process of reading as understood by Relevance Theory. This linguistic theory reveals new insights into the Song of Songs by tracing associations between the poet and her world. The main portion of this book involves a discourse analysis of the entire Song for the purpose of revealing the poet's cognitive environment and communicative intentions. Seven sites of discourse are explored: entreaties, wasf, the daughters, royalty, the brothers, losing and finding, and the Garden. The Garden of Eden strongly figures and could be considered a flashpoint of engagement. There is suggestion in the text that there is a crisis for the poet regarding her place in ancient Hebrew society. Thus, the Garden of Eden texts and the Song of Songs are carefully contrasted to highlight the contours of her radical message.

The contemporary renaissance of theological interpretation as an approach to reading the Bible has brought with it a host of questions. Most importantly, what is the relationship between theological interpretation and more traditional forms of historical inquiry characteristic of the field in the modern era?

The story of evangelicalism in New Zealand is almost as old as the history of European contact. The essays in this volume exhibit much of the breadth and depth of this evangelical witness, divided as it is into two sections: historical and theological. As David Bebbington says of the historical essays in this volume, "what is most striking about the members of the evangelical bodies depicted in this volume is their variety. These people were not uniformly anything, let alone joyless or humourless. The evangelicals of New Zealand were by no means monochrome, and least of all black." Derek Tidball says of the theological essays in this volume, that they exhibit four hallmarks: they are evangelical, contextual, creative, and courageous, before concluding: "These papers show skilled evangelical theological acrobats in action, not for the entertainment of us all but for the instruction of us all."