This celebratory volume in honour of Frances Young draws on and develops the multifarious hermeneutical interests evident in the body of her work. Its overall thematic motif, to highlight concerns which impacted on her work, is the symbolic use of 'wilderness.' This multi-disciplinary volume begins with an in-depth analysis of her work by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams. The first part of the volume has biblical and early Christian literature as the focus, and deals with, among other topics, Jesus' encounter with people of impairment, biblical figures such as Miriam, gospel portrayals of mountains, experience of wilderness in the lives of Maori and Jewish people, the temptation of Jesus as interpreted at different times, and the redefinition of asceticism in Syrian Christianity. The second part of the volume addresses theological concerns, with essays which advocate wisdom as a potential mode for doing theology, engage with the radical Christian writings of 17th and 18th centuries, revisit the problem of sin, highlight the latent Christological motifs in the novels of Tolkien, and draw attention to the significance of the Quranic Jesus.
In this long awaited book, key themes from Frances Young's earlier work - motherhood, suffering, disability, meaning and love - re-emerge in a richer and deeper melody. The cries of anguish and why are taken up into a new-found trust and joy. She draws us into the beauty and strength of a love which faces all the challenges and yet celebrates the wonder of Arthur's life and vocation. If you are someone grappling with the hard questions about God, life and things going wrong, this book is for you.' Deborah Ford, Hospital Chaplain at Cambridge University Hospitals
Created as a companion guide to a Patristics textbook, From Nicaea to Chalcedon surveys a variety of writings to have occurred during one of the most significant periods in the formation of the Church, from 265-466. It does not aim to cover the subject as a textbook would, but aims to delve deeper into some of the characters who were involved with the Church or the Councils during this period. Beginning with Eusebius of Caesarea and the first council of the Church at Nicaea, and ending with Theodoret of Cyrrhus, who is thought to have changed his view of Christology after the watershed Council of Chalcedon, this unique text surveys some of the most influential characters to have shaped Church history and the formation of doctrine. Surveying a mixture of significant literary figures, laymen, bishops and heretics this book presents biographical, literary-critical and theological information about each. They are chosen either because they are important to the history of doctrine, or because new material about them has thrown light upon their work, or because they will broaden the reader's understanding of the culture and history of the period or of live issues in the church at the time. Structured in five parts, each part deals with a period of time and a sequence of characters, so the book is easily followed in chronological order. Added to this, is the double bibliography, which in this edition is fully updated. Bibliography A details those texts in English of the original texts of antiquity, whilst Bibliography B provides details of publications in English, French and German which have appeared since 1960-2004 on or about the characters discussed in the body of the text.
In lucid and non-technical prose, Young demonstrates how and why the two most familiar Christian creeds - the Apostles' Creed and the Nicene Creed - came into being. She describes how creeds originated in instruction before baptism and have their roots in the New Testament itself. She then shows how the rise of Gnosticism and a tendancy towards fragmentation in the church made a clear statement of faith necessary, as well as outlining the various controversies which led to particular words and phrases being included in the creeds as we now have them. She then describes the construction of the great Christian doctrines of the Trinity and incarnation.
This book challenges standard accounts of early Christian exegesis of the Bible. Professor Young sets the interpretation of the Bible in the context of the Graeco-Roman world - the dissemination of books and learning, the way texts were received and read, the function of literature in shaping not only a culture but a moral universe. For the earliest Christians, the adoption of the Jewish scriptures constituted a supersessionary claim in relation to Hellenism as well as Judaism. Yet the debt owed to the practice of exegesis in the grammatical and rhetorical schools is of overriding significance. Methods were philological and deductive, and the usual analysis according to 'literal', 'typological' and 'allegorical' is inadequate to describe questions of reference and issues of religious language. The biblical texts shaped a 'totalizing discourse' which by the fifth century was giving identity, morality and meaning to a new Christian culture.
This collection of articles first brings together a number of working papers which were significant in the development of Frances Young's understanding of patristic exegesis, studies not included in her ground-breaking book, Biblical Exegesis and the Formation of Christian Culture (1997), though paving the way for that work. Then comes a selection of papers on theology, church order and methodology, the whole collection constantly returning to themes such as the fundamental connection between theology and exegesis, the significant role of reflection on language, metaphor and symbol, and the creative interaction of early Christianity with its cultural and intellectual environment. These studies demonstrate the author's scholarly approach to patristic material, whereby careful attention is paid to actual texts from the past; but they also reveal the groundwork for her own theological explorations in the very different intellectual environment of the present.
The subject of Christ's sacrifice on the Cross has mainly been treated in the context of general discussions of Atonement theory. This is inevitable, but when it occurs, his sacrifice tends to be confused with theories of substitution, satisfaction, and propitiation, in which case its nature is understood according to 'a priori' assumptions concerning the proper rationale of sacrifice. The result of this situation is that, according to their own convictions, historians of the Doctrine of the Atonement have either tended to accept sacrificial language in the Greek Fathers as evidence of the presence of the later Western theory of atonement, at any rate, in germ; or they have dismissed it as no more than the use of traditional Christian expressions which do not represent the real Doctrine held by the authors with whom we are concerned. In addition to this, the treatment of sacrificial language as one of the modes of expressing Atonement has meant that, in modern studies, the subject of Christ's sacrifice has been divorced from consideration of the sacrificial worship and service of the Church.... The aim of this study is to try to correct the balance, to emphasize the importance and diversity of sacrificial concepts in the theology and life of the early Eastern Church, and so to throw light on the usually confused treatment, not only of Christ's atoning death, but also of the sacrifice of the Eucharist. from the Introduction
Frances Young, who won high critical acclaim for her deeply committed book, Sacrifice and the Death of Christ, seeks to convey the excitement of the theological quest, the excitement of studying the Bible, the excitement of wrestling with what might seem outmoded and irrelevant ways of thinking and discovering that there is a chiming with experience. She offers a study of atonement as a demonstration of the possibilities. It stems from a deep preoccupation with suffering and its meaning, the outstretched arms of the crucified Christ, the image of the woman in travail. But this suffering and pain is the prelude to new birth, to vision and hope, to the feast of the kingdom. New birth and new creation, she sees, lie at the heart of the Christian message; and our own growth depends on the painful but rewarding labor of appropriating the Bible and our Christian heritage through critical reflection.
How did we get from Scripture to creed? Historical criticism has revealed a gap between Scripture and the mainstream doctrines that define Christianity today. Not the least of these are the Trinity and two natures of Christ—widely accepted since the fifth century, but unfounded in historical readings of Scripture. How did these dogmas become so integral to the faith in the first place? Frances M. Young tackles this monumental question in a culmination of decades of biblical and patristic research. The first of two volumes exploring the emergence of doctrine in the early church, Scripture, the Genesis of Doctrine reframes the relationship between Scripture and doctrine according to the intellectual context of the first few centuries CE. Young situates the early Christians’ biblical hermeneutic within the context of Greco-Roman learning without espousing historical relativism. Ultimately, Young argues that the scriptural canon and the Rule of Faith emerged concurrently in the early Church, and both were received as apostolic. The perceived gap between the two may in fact be the product of our modern assumptions rather than an ancient reality. Nuanced and ecumenical, Scripture, the Genesis of Doctrine explores early Christians’ biblical hermeneutic, with an eye toward how we interpret the bible today. Young’s magisterial study holds widespread implications for not only patristics but also exegesis and systematic theology.
This book reconsiders ways in which the cross of Christ was construed before "atonement theories" narrowed the categories. The "typology" of Passover is explored as probably the very first way in which Christians came to understand the passion. The use of sacrificial imagery is re-examined. The significance of identifying the cross with the Tree of Life is traced across the centuries into medieval times, along with other surprising links with the Eden narrative. The validity of seeking imaginative insights to grasp what the cross signifies is given theological consideration in a chapter that moves into literary and liturgical reflections and is punctuated with cruciform poems. The overall outcome is a quite paradoxical focus, not on death, but on life.
Focus on God is a plea to do just that--focus on God. In recent years, many ministers and priests have lost confidence in the value of their work. Many have wondered whether the clergy still have a role in the life of the community. Here is an exciting picture of the minister as a resource person, able to communicate some of the riches of our theological heritage to the new generation of Christians and able to appropriate some of the rewards of scientific and cultural explorations for the nourishment of the life of the church. The minister is seen as the person who can bring together intellect and imagination to enable and interpret a continuing conversation between tradition and present experience. The task of the minister and priest involves, above all, attention to God, and the attempt to help others think about God for themselves.
`Two superb scholars in New Testament and the early Church here show why it is vital to dig deeper into the past in order to live well in the present and enable a better future. Above all they communicate the intensity of life in the Holy Spirit in the cities where Christianity took root - a life uniting head, heart, tongue and practical action. The culminating guidelines for mission in twenty-first century pluralist settings are packed with challenging wisdom centred on the crucified, living Jesus Christ.' David F. Ford, Regius Professor of Divinity, University of Cambridge `Here is rich and varied food for the mind, repeated provocation for the curious, and much stimulus for hours of discussion. The themes are challenging: How do holiness and mission hang together? Is the city more a threat or an opportunity for Christianity? Is the church really a learning community? How do Christians best work together? What do we need to hear afresh from the Bible and the early church on what really matters? Use the book for a study group. You will benefit greatly from it, and may well be inspired to act upon what you learn.' James D. G. Dunn, former Lightfoot Professor of Divinity, University of Durham `Four strong chapters, organically grounded in the experience and teaching of the Bible and the Early Church, undergird a remarkable finale that lays bare the radical challenge to mission posed by the modern city. This is a profound, accessible and convincing book.' Leslie Griffiths, Superintendent, Wesley's Chapel, London
This volume consists of previously published articles by Frances Young, a scholar of early Christianity, well-known for her work Biblical Exegesis and the Formation of Christian Culture, together with a few newly composed additions. The studies collected here are concerned with the New Testament, but their approach is often not in the modern historico-critical mode. Rather, they bring new insight through being informed by the author's patristic specialism, by methodological enquiries, by her interest in doctrinal and theological reading, and by exploration of the very nature and function of sacred scriptures. The significance of this volume lies in the way it exemplifies the extraordinarily interesting changes which have taken place in biblical hermeneutics during the last 50-60 years. Many of the essays could be useful, not only to research specialists, but to advanced undergraduates as well as clergy and preachers.
How did Scripture function in early arguments about doctrine? Historical criticism has revealed a gap between scripture and the mainstream doctrines that define Christianity today. Not the least of these are the Trinity and two natures of Christ—widely accepted since the fifth century, but seemingly unfounded in historical readings of Scripture. How did these dogmas become so integral to the faith in the first place? Frances M. Young tackles this monumental question in a culmination of decades of biblical and patristic research. The second of two volumes, Scripture in Doctrinal Dispute illuminates the role of biblical hermeneutics in the debates that forged Christian dogma on the nature of God. Young shows how the theological commitments to God as the sole creator of all else from nothing shaped fourth- and fifth-century disputes over Christology and the Trinity. Played out in the great councils of the fourth century and beyond, these conflicts drove the need to discern doctrinal coherence in scripture. The different sides relied on different prooftexts, and the rule of faith served as the criterion by which scriptural interpretation was measured—thereby forming the basis of the creeds. Nuanced and ecumenical, Scripture in Doctrinal Dispute completes Young’s magnum opus, closing the gap between scripture and Christian tradition. Young’s magisterial study holds widespread implications for not only patristics but also exegesis and systematic theology.
This new and refreshing approach to 2 Corinthians shows how exegesis of the New Testament writing can issue in theology that is relevant to today. Beginning with an account of the essential thrust of the text, the authors argue for the unity of the letter, setting it against both its Jewish and Hellenistic backgrounds, and examining questions of meaning and reference in the interpretation of particular passages. They then consider how the text can be illuminated by the modern study of hermeneutics, as well as by new sociological approaches. The whole study reaches its climax with an assessment of Paul's authority then and now, and the importance of what he says about God. To conclude, the authors provide their own vivid and compelling translation of Paul's words, inviting a complete rereading of the letter in the light of all that has gone before.
The collection of poems was written when the author, now a senior citizen, was a young woman. The poems are about racism, the civil rights era, sex, love, self-introspection, youthful struggles, and Black America. At once eloquent, noble, and majestic, as well as hip, sassy, and earthy, the poems embody and reveal the authors versatility in speaking and writing in many voices. The book of poems is for everyoneevery race, class, and ageand for every mood. The poems reveal the authors ability to speak in a voice as majestic as great poets as seen in In the Garden and God Bless the Child, and as earthy as blues singers as seen in Go on, Man, and Git. The provocative poem You Will Rise One Morning gives a unique and poetic insight into the creation of Black and White youth. The eloquently sensual poem First Love is rich in language and imagery. The author describes the early days of the silent protest of the men and women of all walks of life who marched for human rights during the civil rights era as seen in Shell Rise in Jubilee. The poem summons White America to look deeply into her soul and discover new ways of thinking about the racial issue and ways of winning this moral victory. She writes succinctly, passionately, and profoundly in the brief messages in The Earth Stood Still, Twin Vices, The Looking Glass, and One Moment in Time. The book describes the joys and sorrows of the universal feelings of love. She gives advice to young people in their youthful struggles for coping with life and discovering the meaning of life. This is expressed in the poems How Do You Make It? Thats Life, Problems, and You Can Do It. In the section Just Shuckin and Jivin, the author shows her ability to get down to earth and speak in a hip and sassy voice. The author takes a satirical look at Black America through the fictional characters in the section Portraits in Black America. The characterizations are stinging, noble, witty, and humorous. The characters in this section represent two classes: the affluent who live on Sugar Hill and the poor who live in Mud Town. On Sugar Hill, we meet the Uncle Tom college president, the pillar of society who has a romantic rendezvous with a young man soon after her beloved husband dies, the high school teacher who seduces his favorite student, the interracial couple, the honorable attorney who cant get elected to office, and the dreamer who dreamed of holding political office. Across the way is Mud Town where we meet the maids and their white employers, some of whom are good and some bad. Theres Deacon John who lives a double lifeone holy and one sinful. Dont forget Ms. Tittie Boo, the sexpot. In both Sugar Hill and Mud Town, we meet characters who are honorable and dishonorablejust as it is with life. Through her poetry, the author has earned a place among the great truth-tellers of our time.
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