The title of this book, taken from John 1:14, is normally taken to refer to the notion of 'incarnation', which understands 'the word' as a pre-existent Son of God and 'becoming flesh' as the transformation of this 'word' from a heavenly, divine existence to the life of a human being. Against this conventional interpretation the author argues that John's use of the term 'word' really does refer to an act of speaking, God's expression of His will, and that 'becoming flesh' describes the realisation or embodiment of His intentions, from creation onward, in a form perceptible to human senses, not only in the 'flesh' of Jesus but also in historical reality in the world of men. This has implications for other aspects of John's Gospel, including its historicity, its literary form, and its relationship to the Old Testament, and leads to very different conclusions about the central issue in John's Gospel, the person of Jesus and his relationship to God the Father and to those who believe in him.
Breaking with the tradition of reading Romans as a theological treatise devoted essentially to 'justification by faith', this 're-reading', drawing upon the insights of the 'new perspective on Paul', views it as a true letter written to Christians in Rome. It argues that Paul's prime concern in Romans is the troubled relationship of Jews and Gentiles in the early church, and specifically in Rome, and it seeks to follow the Apostle's argument and his attempts to bring the separate groups together in unified worship. It also includes a short overview of the early church in Rome, a brief introduction to issues of reading and interpretation, and reflections on the importance of Romans for readers today.
Finding a Voice explores aspects of the use and function of language in East Germany which resulted from Party control of public discourse during the period of the German Democratic Republic. A distinctive feature of the volume, which brings together essays by British and German scholars, is the wide variety of areas which are incorporated in this survey - from political and public discourse, through aspects of sociolinguistics and the teaching of German, to a spectrum of artistic forms ranging from rock music and film to poetry and the novel. In particular, the relationship between public discourse and the events of the 'Wende' is explored in a number of contributions. Most of the works and issues considered are discussed in English here for the first time, and the volume as a whole should be of interest to scholars concerned with the GDR and with contemporary German culture, to undergraduate and postgraduate students, and also to others interested in the history and culture of Germany since 1945. Nine of the essays are in English and four in German.
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