Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Reading In Context: Zacchaeus And The Economics Of Salvation, Benjamin J. Lappenga

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"One way to go about shaking ourselves from the interpretive grooves (ruts!) formed by our Western assumptions is to encounter a reading of a well-known text that seems shocking at first, until the 'new' reading focuses our eyes upon the biblical words themselves."

Posting about ­­­­­­­­Zacchaeus' salvation story from In All Things - an online journal for critical reflection on faith, culture, art, and every ordinary-yet-graced square inch of God’s creation.

https://inallthings.org/zacchaeus-and-the-economics-of-salvation/

New Covenant God Will Make, James W. Skillen

Pro Rege

Dr. Skillen's essay is part of a book project, tentatively titled God's Sabbath with Creation, exploring (1) the meaning of our creaturely responsibilities in relation to the progressive development of the biblical covenants and (2) the relation of this age to the coming age - creation and eschatology.

Repose In Mystery: The Limit Of Sobriety According To John Calvin, Jan Van Vliet

Pro Rege

This is a revised version of a paper Dr. Jan van Vliet presented at the annual meetings of the Evangelical Theological Society, November 18, 2009, in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Sanctified By God's Word: Towards A Websterian Ontology Of Scripture And Church, Benjamin J. Lappenga

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

John Webster’s account of Scripture grants the canonical texts an ontology determined by their divine use, discusses Scripture as an aspect of the doctrine of revelation rather than the church, and above all preserves the capacity of God’s Word to question and form believers. Yet, Webster’s proposal has met resistance from theologians who find his accent on sola scriptura inconsistent with his claim that interpretation (not simply “text”) has ontological force as a part of “sanctification.” This paper asks whether it is possible to retain a robustly Websterian account of Scripture while at the same time denying that Scripture’s primacy …

"Speak, Hannah, And Do Not Be Silent": Pseudo-Philo's Deconstruction Of Violence In Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum 50-51, Benjamin J. Lappenga

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

This article argues that the movement from Hannah’s silent prayer in 50.5 (‘Hannah did not want to pray out loud’) to her bold declaration in 51.5 (‘I will speak my words openly’) interrupts a narrative trajectory involving violent zeal in Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum. Throughout the narrative, the prayers of key individuals for God’s merciful action on behalf of the people are rendered efficacious by acts of zeal (zelus) that are both public and violent (47.1–3). By contrast, Hannah’s act of silent prayer (framed as ‘zeal’ in 50.5) is accepted as the accompanying act for the people’s prayer (51.2). This vicarious …

James 3:13-4:10 And The Language Of Envy In Proverbs 3:21-35, Benjamin J. Lappenga

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

Although a few interpreters have noted in passing the numerous verbal links between James 3:13–4:10 and LXX Prov 3:21–35, James’ passage is regularly read as a polemic against jealousy that is most at home within Hellenistic moral literature. This paper argues that the literary and thematic coherence of James 3:13–4:10 derives not primarily from the Hellenistic topos on envy (so Luke Timothy Johnson) but from metaleptic interplay with Prov 3:21–35. That is, the explicit appeal to “the scripture” in James 4:5 and the citation of Prov 3:34 in James 4:6 indicate that the tropes usually interpreted against the backdrop of …

Bible Stories No One Talks About, Mark Verbruggen

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"These are real people, messed up and sinful people, and yet they are the ones used by God to advance his Kingdom of grace and truth in Jesus Christ."

Posting about dealing with ­­­­­­­­the unpleasant narratives in the Bible from In All Things - an online hub committed to the claim that the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ has implications for the entire world.

http://inallthings.org/bible-stories-no-one-talks-about/

Community-Edifying 'World-Construction' In Paul And 1 Clement As A Resource For Theological Deliberations About Human Origins, Benjamin J. Lappenga

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

Recognizing that the rhetorical context for the cosmological reflections of both Paul and one of his earliest interpreters is the promotion of community-building, this paper proposes that the “world-construction” of these early believers offers a model for the contemporary church’s discourse concerning human origins. The paper, then, is an exercise in theological interpretation of Romans 5 and 1 Corinthians 15, read alongside one of the earliest interactions with these texts in the letter known as 1 Clement.

“I Myself Am An Israelite”: Revisiting Paul’S Use Of Ζῆλος In Romans 9-11, Benjamin J. Lappenga

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

Previous attempts to account for Paul’s language of ζῆλος in Romans 9-11 focus too narrowly on the occurrence in 10:2 (Dane C. Ortlund [2012]), rely on a difficult distinction between παραζηλόω as “provoke to anger” in 10:19 and παραζηλόω as “emulate” in 11:11, 14 (Richard H. Bell [1994]), or wrongly insist that the meaning of παραζηλόω in 10:19-11:14 must be restricted to its semantic value in Deut 32:21 LXX (Robert Jewett [2007]). A way forward is to recognize—by harnessing insights recently formulated within the framework of relevance theory—that the ζηλ- word group in Paul’s usage is monosemic. Within this framework, …

Biblical Hermeneutics And Hebraism In The Early Seventeenth Century As Reflected In The Work Of John Weemse (1579-1636), Jay Shim

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

This dissertation presents a contextual and historical understanding of hermeneutical works of post-Reformation Reformed orthodoxy, and the flow of exegetical tradition within orthodox theology from the Reformation to the early seventeenth century. Virtually all of the older modern studies interpreted post- Reformation theology and its biblical study as "dogmatic," "deductive," "rationalistic," and "unspiritual," descriptions allegedly made in a comparison and contrast of the characteristics of post-Reformation thought with the theology of the early sixteenth century. These pejorative descriptions typically state that post-Reformation biblical exegesis was a deductive reading of dogmas into Scripture using a predetermined dogmatic analogy of faith. This …

Touch Me And Believe: Spiritual Resurrection Redefined, Michael Williams

Pro Rege

No abstract provided.

Man And Creation: Perspectives From The Psalms, Henry De Vries

Pro Rege

No abstract provided.

Inspiration, Tradition, And The Problems In Translation Of The Scriptures, John Zinkand

Pro Rege

No abstract provided.

Recent Covenant Studies And The Reformed Believer, Wayne A. Kobes

Pro Rege

No abstract provided.

God's Purpose For Man, Samuel Van Houte

Pro Rege

No abstract provided.