Loader looks at hotly contested New Testament passages on sexuality and offers a fair and balanced treatment of what scholars say about them. He also offers an analysis of why interpreters say what they say, and demonstrates how texts may be interpreted specifically to support a preformed opinion. Written in straightforward, non-technical language, this classroom text is also ideal for Bible study groups.
Jesus and the Fundamentalism of His Day is a deconstructive view of the Gospels (in the Jesus Seminar mode) that sets each Gospel writer beside the others -- and beside the hypothetical source document Q -- to show that Jesus' primary message was compassion for human beings, even when such compassion subordinated the demands of Scripture.
This book raises thorny questions about the themes of faith, hope, and love. Is God really like Jesus or was Jesus a temporary exception to the way God usually is? Was there forgiveness before the cross? Will God one day stop loving? What do we do with the fact that the hopes they had for change were not fulfilled? What happened to good news for the poor? Why did some replace it with something else? Does Christian freedom mean we no longer need the Law? Were early responses to rejection always healthy? Does the Bible say all we need to know about sexuality? It responds to what the author observes is a widespread hunger and interest for discussions which identify and tackle some of the troubling themes of New Testament interpretation in ways that are not defensive, but yet are also supportive of faith, especially an informed faith. It draws together the fruit of over half a century of scholarly research and teaching.
How did the biblical authors and the people of their time view sex and sexual issues? This book takes the reader into their world. It offers a careful reading of these ancient texts and how they would have been understood in the context of their time. Did they see sex positively or as something dangerous? How did they view marriage? How do their views of marriage relate to the way most people see marriage today? What were the understandings of human nature that underpinned their discussions of appropriate and inappropriate sexual behavior? How did they view sexual relations between people of the same gender? Listening to biblical writers alongside what others were saying at the time, this book takes these texts seriously. By providing information about sex then it offers the reader a basis for discussing sex now and for approaching issues that have continued to create consternation, confusion, and often conflict in today’s world. At the same time, it provides for possibilities of seeing continuity and appreciating the richness and blessing of human sexuality.
This book comes from the playground of imagination. It is the work of a leading international specialist in New Testament studies with a passion for making the findings of New Testament research accessible for a wide readership. From children’s stories to liturgies, poems to subversively provocative fantasies, it invites the reader to play, to reflect, and to be confronted. This is a book to keep coming back to, rather than one to be read from cover to cover. It invites the reader to engage issues at the heart of faith and disbelief. It is a rich and challenging resource for personal and for group reflection. Some pieces will serve well as discussion starters. Some are for storytelling and celebration, including children’s stories with subtle hints for adult minds. Others belong in the context of worship. They are grouped broadly according to the church liturgical year: “Around Christmas”; “Around Easter”; “Around Pentecost”; and “Any Time.” Come and read! Come and play!
Can myths be true? Hiding behind their unreality is often deep meaning waiting to be uncovered. This book explores four myths first found on the margins of Israel’s faith. Over time these myths became major resources for understanding and articulating faith. They began as stories of wicked angels, kings claiming to be gods, and women whom men should fear. They then developed to become sources of deep insight. They helped open up our understanding of sin and suffering, of Christ as servant king, and of the Word and Wisdom of God incarnate. Like imaginative works of art, which can communicate truth in ways that photographs cannot, these myths adorn the halls of faith and invite wonder and engagement.
This book offers an alternative commentary—concise, up-to-date, readable, engaging the text as a cross-cultural encounter, acknowledging distance and difference from our contemporary world as well as highlighting proximity and relevance. It is written by a leading international New Testament scholar and designed for individual and group use. The commentary looks at Mark’s special emphases, with attention also to its use by other Gospel writers and its use for recovering the emphases of Jesus himself. It explores why Mark thought to tell the story of Jesus’ ministry as the good news and what impact he likely sought to have on communities of his time. The commentary also considers what in Mark’s Gospel might still have something to say to our time, and what might not. This book is written for faith seeking an informed understanding of the past and a critical appreciation of its abiding relevance. Also included is the full text of Mark’s Gospel in a fresh translation by the author.
The culmination of a lifetime of work on the Gospel of John, William Loader's Jesus in John's Gospel explores the Fourth Gospel with a focus on ways in which attention to the structure of Christology in John allows for greater understanding of Johannine themes and helps resolve long-standing interpretive impasses. Following an introductory examination of Rudolf Bultmann's profound influence on Johannine studies, Loader turns to the central interpretive issues and debates surrounding Johannine Christology, probing particularly the death of Jesus in John, the salvation event in John, and the Fourth Gospel in light of its Christology. The exhaustive bibliography and careful, well-articulated conclusions take into account the latest research on John, ensuring that this volume will be useful to scholars and students alike.
Can myths be true? Hiding behind their unreality is often deep meaning waiting to be uncovered. This book explores four myths first found on the margins of Israel's faith. Over time these myths became major resources for understanding and articulating faith. They began as stories of wicked angels, kings claiming to be gods, and women whom men should fear. They then developed to become sources of deep insight. They helped open up our understanding of sin and suffering, of Christ as servant king, and of the Word and Wisdom of God incarnate. Like imaginative works of art, which can communicate truth in ways that photographs cannot, these myths adorn the halls of faith and invite wonder and engagement.
In this groundbreaking book William Loader shows how the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures created new slants and emphases on sexuality that would leave their mark on the writings of Philo and the New Testament--and ultimately on Christian thought itself. According to Loader, "Some things are lost in translation, others gained." The making of the Septuagint could not help but result in verbal connections, lost emphases, and novel wordplays that opened the door to new interpretations. One particularly important instance of this effect of translation is the Septuagint's treatment of sexuality. In the course of his book Loader explores sexuality as it is presented in the Decalogue, the stories of Creation and the Garden of Eden, and the brief reference to divorce in Deuteronomy 24, looking in turn at their Septuagint translations, their use in Philo, and their possible impact on the New Testament. These fascinating studies have important implications for thinking about gender issues and male-female relations.
The dynamic teachings of the New Testament are often lost in the dryness and formality of academic study. In The New Testament with Imagination William Loader seeks to solve this conundrum. He brings imagination into play to enter the world of the New Testament and carefully reads key sample passages to go right to the heart of its message. This book offers a unique new way of approaching the New Testament -- nothing else like it is in print -- and will be accessible to a broad readership, although it will also give longtime students of scripture a fresh perspective. Loader's historically sound methodology remains focused on imagining what we know through established research, not fanciful reconstruction. Loader's distinctive work has the strength of a standard introduction, but without an overload of information, and the depth of a New Testament theology, but written in language accessible to readers new to the New Testament.
This volume brings together essays on John and Hebrews by William R. G. Loader. Beside his monographs on John and Hebrews are numerous contributions to journals, conference volumes, and Festschriften, of which a representative selection is gathered here into a single volume. They discuss how these writings portray Jesus and his significance and deal with continuity and discontinuity with Israel's tradition, as well as address the ethical issues which these texts raise and also evoke.
The Pseudepigrapha on Sexuality is the third of five volumes by William Loader exploring attitudes toward sexuality in Judaism and Christianity during the Greco-Roman era. In this volume Loader investigates in detail a large, diverse collection of more than forty Jewish apocryphal and pseudepigraphal writings and fragments composed between the third century b.c.e. and the end of the first century c.e. Judith, Tobit, 2 Enoch, Susannah these and many other writings reveal a complex and fascinating amalgam of attitudes and mores related to sexuality in early Jewish culture. Loader analyzes each book or fragment in its own literary context and draws out significant trends and themes that run through the entire corpus, offering a rich smorgasbord of reflection on sexuality during that period.
Bill Loader has been one of the leading New Testament scholars not just in Australia, but globally, for half a century. What is immediately apparent is that the clarity of communication and the exceptional precision in analyzing the details of ancient texts, which are the hallmarks of his scholarship, were present even in the earliest essays. Without exception every essay in this volume is a contribution of exceptional insight for all who seek to learn from an exemplary scholar.
William Loader here investigates the Dead Sea Scrolls, mining every document of potential relevance for understanding ancient attitudes towards sexuality, aside from the biblical writings and there are many such documents. They include the Temple Scroll, 4QMMT, the Damascus Document, and a number of legal, liturgical, wisdom, and exegetical documents. These texts treat a wide range of matters pertaining to sexuality, from ritual and cultic concerns to visions of human community and family in future expectation. Far from the common view that the writers of the Scrolls held a low view of sexuality and marriage, Loader concludes that most of these sources reflect an affirmative stance towards sex and marriage within a framework of clear boundaries marking out where sex did and did not belong. / The Dead Sea Scrolls on Sexuality offers the first comprehensive treatment of this subject and comprises both detailed exegetical discussion of each work and a synthetic analysis of themes. The attention to detail displayed and the helpful summaries included make this book an indispensable resource for both scholar and general reader.
This volume brings together essays on the theme of sexuality and gender by William R. G. Loader, one of the leading specialists in the field, arising from his extensive investigation of early Jewish and Christian literature about such issues as marriage, adultery, divorce, celibacy, gender roles, and incest
This book provides a critical reassessment and fresh analysis of Jesus' attitude towards the Law as portrayed in each of the canonical Gospels, Q, Thomas, and the apocryphal Gospels. Representing William Loader's definitive work on the subject, this comprehensive study presents in a clearer picture of Jesus and his message. A special feature of this book is its textually "sequential analysis of the theme of the Law. By taking this unique approach, Loader lets Jesus' stance towards the Law emerge directly out of the Gospel narratives themselves while at the same time highlighting important similarities and differences between the texts. Comparing the canonical Gospels with each other and with crucial noncanonical sources allows Loader to probe behind the tradition in the search for Jesus' true relationship with the Judaism of his day. Despite its focused theme, this is not a book about the historical Jesus. Instead, it works with the ancient materials we actually have before us and so offers a more secure basis for the less certain task of reconstructing the history behind the texts. In treating each Gospel, Loader also begins with a substantial engagement of current and previous research before presenting his own perspectives. As a result, "Jesus' Attitude towards the Law will be valued both as an original scholarly contribution and as an unrivaled sourcebook for studying Jesus, Second Temple Judaism, and the origins of Christianity.
This series of biblical commentaries is the first to be based on the Revised English Bible, and incorporates the most recent research into both Old and New Testament books. Written by experienced scholars for the use of ministers, preachers, teachers, students, and church leaders, they relate the texts in their ancient settings to the needs of Christians in a multi-racial, multi-faith society.
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