A masterful collection of essays in New Testament studies connecting Scripture, theology, and human life What is the purpose of studying the New Testament, and how is it best approached? Esteemed professor C. Kavin Rowe explores these questions in sixteen incisive essays covering a range of topics, including: • the state of New Testament studies as a field • the relationship between historical criticism and theological reading • interdisciplinary methodology • comparative religion and New Testament Christianity • truth claims of the New Testament What unites these diverse chapters is a holistic approach to the New Testament. Against the modern tendency to separate disciplines, Rowe unites philosophy, theology, history, and biblical studies in fruitful conversation. Most crucially, he emphasizes the essential purpose of this academic work: its implications for human flourishing. With an insightful and bold approach, Rowe’s essays should be read by anyone interested in New Testament studies. Scholars and students will find the essays in this critical volume challenging and rewarding.
How to cultivate a thriving Christian community in a disconnected culture What does it mean to be a Christian community? And what does it mean to lead one? How does a pastor address today’s challenges, from lack of faith in institutions, to conflict in the church, to the tension between tradition and innovation? C. Kavin Rowe addresses these topics and a multitude of others in this collection of keen essays. Bite-size and conversational, yet deeply rooted in Scripture and recent pastoral theology, the essays in Leading Christian Communities reflect on the shaping of Christian leaders for the flourishing of their communities. Pastors and seminarians, as well as all those involved in church ministry, will find inspiration and insight in these pages.
No longer can Acts be seen as a simple apologia that articulates Christianity's harmlessness vis-à-vis Rome. Rather, in its attempt to form communities that witness to God's apocalypse, author Kavin Rowe argues that Luke's second volume is a highly charged and theologically sophisticated political document. Luke aims at nothing less than the construction of a new culture - a total pattern of life - that inherently runs counter to the constitutive aspects of Graeco-Roman society.
C. Kavin Rowe’s keenest essays on Luke, Acts, and Paul, collected into one volume How should scholars undertake New Testament interpretation? C. Kavin Rowe unfolds a careful, multidisciplinary approach across fifteen of his most incisive articles and chapters. Focusing on Luke, Acts, and Paul’s letters, this authoritative collection exemplifies how to enrich exegesis through historical inquiry, philosophical reasoning, and theological reflection. Topics include: • The historical context of the Roman imperial cult • Ecclesial theology in Luke and Acts • The relationship between Luke and Acts • Paul and material culture Seeking the truth of Scripture requires more than a close reading of the text. Rowe’s work on Luke, Acts, and Paul demonstrates how fruitful biblical interpretation can be when interpreters cross disciplinary boundaries. This volume is an indispensable addition to the libraries of scholars, students, and serious readers of Scripture alike.
At its beginning Christianity was surprising, powerful, creative, world-shaking. Today in the West it is many times familiar, common, and expected, losing its power to surprise and transform. We have developed societal amnesia and ignorance of what Christianity originally was – and what it still can be. We need to recover the surprise of Christianity. We need to ask the same fundamental questions as the early Christians, which will help us rediscover the surprising power of Christianity in our midst. Focusing on the surprise of the gospel message takes us into the heart of what it is to understand Christianity at all, and thus what it is to remember and relearn the life-giving power and witness that went with being Christian at the beginning. This remembering and relearning can, in turn, surprise us all over again and chart a course for our witness today.
In this groundbreaking, cross-disciplinary work of philosophy and biblical studies, New Testament scholar C. Kavin Rowe explores the promise and problems inherent in engaging rival philosophical claims to what is true. Juxtaposing the Roman Stoics Seneca, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius with the Christian saints Paul, Luke, and Justin Martyr, and incorporating the contemporary views of Jeffrey Stout, Alasdair McIntyre, Charles Taylor, Martha Nussbaum, Pierre Hadot, and others, the author suggests that in a world of religious pluralism there is negligible gain in sampling from separate belief systems. This thought-provoking volume reconceives the relationship between ancient philosophy and emergent Christianity as a rivalry between strong traditions of life and offers powerful arguments for the exclusive commitment to a community of belief and a particular form of philosophical life as the path to existential truth.
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