Now that the recent flood of books about the quest of the historical Jesus has subsided somewhat it seems inevitable that New Testament scholars should turn to the quest of the historical Paul Two new books about Paul represent serious attempts to write a scholarly biography of Paul and place his

The most dramatic event of the 21st century thus far has been the destruction of the twin towers at the World Trade Center for many the symbol of the capitalist Christian or post-Christian West in New York City on Sept 11 2001 This act was perpetrated by men who identified themselves as Muslim

Johannes Albrecht Bengel (1687-1752), the scholar generally regarded as the founder of New Testament textual criticism, had a wonderful Latin saying about reading Scripture: Te totum applica ad textum; rem totam applica ad te (“Apply your whole self to the text; apply the whole thing to yourse

What was going on in the Christian movement between the writing of the New Testament books and the Council of Nicea in A D 325 From well-marketed books and television programs that promise alternative visions of Christianity it seems that in this period there was great diversity in theology and p

Who was Jesus, and what did he say and do? Was Jesus really raised from the dead? Why and when did Christians begin to worship Jesus? These questions go to the roots of Christian faith. The three massive books discussed here provide pertinent information and interpretive options that Christians toda

Around Jesus rsquo time roughly from 20 B C to A D 70 Jews especially in Jerusalem developed the practice of a two-stage burial The corpse would first be laid out on a shelf cut into the wall of a burial cave and allowed to decompose Then a year later the bones would be gathered up and pl

Lectio divina is Latin for spiritual reading. It is a method of reading and praying on Scripture and other classics of spirituality like Augustine’s Confessions and The Imitation of Christ. It has deep roots in the history of monasticism. There are four basic steps in lectio divina: reading (W

The clergy sexual abuse scandal has left us stunned and confused. But crisis in the church is not a new phenomenon. One of the most important spiritual resources in times of crisis in the church has been Scripture. Two items in this year’s roundup of books on the Bible deal explicitly with Cat

The Dead Sea scrolls have fascinated the general public for over 50 years Indeed 10 years ago they were front-page news with wild claims about their contents and charges about coverups and conspiracies What has happened since and what can we expect in the future These two fine books can help t