What are the origins of Jesus’ reputation for healings and exorcisms? Few questions in Jesus studies are more hotly contested or elicit more diverse responses. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach and in dialogue with recent scholarly literature, The Galilean Wonderworker offers a compelling account. Recognizing the reciprocal relationship between personal and communal well-being within Israelite faith, this study offers new insights into how sickness and healing were understood in first-century Palestine. This, in turn, supplies the backcloth for a fresh evaluation of the evidence for Jesus’ healings and exorcisms, where the emphasis falls firmly upon the dynamics of personal encounter. Jesus emerges as a spirit-person, capable of engendering faith and exercising authority to the extent that sufferers experienced liberation from debilitating symptoms and oppressive behaviors, many of which reflected contemporary sociopolitical conditions. Further, by vesting theological significance in these outcomes, they simultaneously constituted manifestations of God’s sovereign presence, signaling restoration of covenantal well-being. Acknowledging that Jesus expected his disciples to heal and exorcize, the investigation concludes with an overview of how this legacy was embraced by the early church—noting how exorcism becomes incorporated into Christian initiation while spiritual healing, though continuing, is eclipsed by pastoral care and conventional medical practice.
Illness tends to be viewed in a negative light as something to be avoided at all costs. Yet most of us become ill at some point and many will suffer prolonged periods of failing health. In this insightful and entertaining book, Ian invites us to accompany him through one such experience and to discover how, despite its debilitating effects, illness can yield a deeper appreciation of living as well as of those who share our journeys. Here is an honest, amusing and, at times, profound account, full of wisdom, humanity and faith.
What are the origins of Jesus' reputation for healings and exorcisms? Few questions in Jesus studies are more hotly contested or elicit more diverse responses. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach and in dialogue with recent scholarly literature, The Galilean Wonderworker offers a compelling account. Recognizing the reciprocal relationship between personal and communal well-being within Israelite faith, this study offers new insights into how sickness and healing were understood in first-century Palestine. This, in turn, supplies the backcloth for a fresh evaluation of the evidence for Jesus' healings and exorcisms, where the emphasis falls firmly upon the dynamics of personal encounter. Jesus emerges as a spirit-person, capable of engendering faith and exercising authority to the extent that sufferers experienced liberation from debilitating symptoms and oppressive behaviors, many of which reflected contemporary sociopolitical conditions. Further, by vesting theological significance in these outcomes, they simultaneously constituted manifestations of God's sovereign presence, signaling restoration of covenantal well-being. Acknowledging that Jesus expected his disciples to heal and exorcize, the investigation concludes with an overview of how this legacy was embraced by the early church--noting how exorcism becomes incorporated into Christian initiation while spiritual healing, though continuing, is eclipsed by pastoral care and conventional medical practice.
After offering a brief overview of the role of faith within Judaism, Christianity and Islam, an interdisciplinary analysis of faith, belief, belief systems and the act of believing is undertaken. The debate over the nature of doctrine between George Lindbeck and Alister McGrath brings into focus four ways in which beliefs can be employed: expressive, interpretative, formative and referential/relational. An analysis of monotheistic belief ensues which demonstrates how it can function meaningfully in each of these modes, including the last, where insights from phenomenology and relational ontology, as well as philosophical theology, favour a participatory approach in which God is encountered not as an object of investigation, but as that transcendent Other whose worship is the fulfilment of human being. The study concludes by highlighting convergences between the nature of faith presented in the initial scriptural overview and that developed throughout the rest of the study.
Illness tends to be viewed in a negative light as something to be avoided at all costs. Yet most of us become ill at some point and many will suffer prolonged periods of failing health. In this insightful and entertaining book, Ian invites us to accompany him through one such experience and to discover how, despite its debilitating effects, illness can yield a deeper appreciation of living as well as of those who share our journeys. Here is an honest, amusing and, at times, profound account, full of wisdom, humanity and faith.
In recent years, there has been an explosion of interest in network-based modeling in many branches of science. This book synthesizes some of the common features of many such models, providing a general framework analogous to the modern theory of nonlinear dynamical systems. How networks lead to behavior not typical in a general dynamical system and how the architecture and symmetry of the network influence this behavior are the book’s main themes. Dynamics and Bifurcation in Networks: Theory and Applications of Coupled Differential Equations is the first book to describe the formalism for network dynamics developed over the past 20 years. In it, the authors introduce a definition of a network and the associated class of “admissible” ordinary differential equations, in terms of a directed graph whose nodes represent component dynamical systems and whose arrows represent couplings between these systems. They also develop connections between network architecture and the typical dynamics and bifurcations of these equations and discuss applications of this formalism to various areas of science, including gene regulatory networks, animal locomotion, decision-making, homeostasis, binocular rivalry, and visual illusions. This book will be of interest to scientific researchers in any area that uses network models, which includes many parts of biology, physics, chemistry, computer science, electrical and electronic engineering, psychology, and sociology.
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