Eerdmans Jewish and Christian Studies Collection (4 vols.)

by David G. Horrell; Max Botner; Justin Harrison Duff; Simon Dürr

and

2 more

Publisher:

Eerdmans

, 2020

Overview

The Eerdmans Jewish and Christian Studies Collection combines a wide range of studies on the relationship between Judaism and Christianity. Examining the connection from biblical, cultural, theological, and historical points of view, these volumes answer common questions and explore foundational truths. These resources address issues including atonement, sacraments, culture, and eschatology.

Key Features

• Provides a diverse representation of perspectives
• Examines the relationship between Judaism and early Christianity
• Explores the important role the temple and its worship play in the Eucharist

Product Details

• Title: Eerdmans Jewish and Christian Studies Collection (4 vols.)
• Publisher: Eerdmans
• Publication Date: 2020
• Volumes: 4
• Pages: 1,528
• Topic: Theology

Atonement: Jewish and Christian Origins

• Editors: Max Botner, Justin Harrison Duff, and Simon Dürr
• Publisher: Eerdmans
• Publication Date: 2020
• Pages: 256

What is the historical basis for today’s atonement theology? Where did it come from, and how has it evolved throughout time? In Atonement, a sterling collection of renowned biblical scholars investigates the early manifestations of this core concept in numerous ancient Jewish and Christian sources. Rather than imposing a particular view of atonement upon these texts, these specialists let the texts speak for themselves, so that the reader can truly understand atonement as it was variously conceived in the Hebrew Bible, the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Pseudepigrapha, the New Testament, and early Christian literature. The resulting diverse ideas mirror the manifold perspectives on atonement today.

Contributors to this volume—Christian A. Eberhart, Crispin Fletcher-Louis, Martha Himmelfarb, T. J. Lang, Carol A. Newsom, Deborah W. Rooke, Catrin Williams, David P. Wright, and N. T. Wright—attend to the linguistic elements at work in these ancient writings without limiting their scope to explicit mentions of atonement. Instead, they explore atonement as a broader phenomenon that negotiates a constellation of features—sin, sacrifice, and salvation—to capture a more accurate and holistic picture. Atonement will serve as an indispensable resource for all future dialogue on these topics within Jewish and Christian circles.

Max Botner is assistant professor of New Testament at Grand Rapids Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids, Michigan

Justin Harrison Duff is a postdoctoral research fellow at St. Mary’s College, University of St. Andrews, Scotland

Simon Dürr is a research associate in the Department of Biblical Studies at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland

Ethnicity and Inclusion: Religion, Race, and Whiteness in Constructions of Jewish and Christian Identities

• Author: David G. Horrell
• Publisher: Eerdmans
• Publication Date: 2020
• Pages: 504

Some of today’s problematic ideologies of racial and religious difference can be traced back to constructions of the relationship between Judaism and early Christianity. New Testament studies, which developed contemporaneously with Europe’s colonial expansion and racial ideologies, is, David Horrell argues, therefore an important site at which to probe critically these ideological constructions and their contemporary implications.

In Ethnicity and Inclusion, Horrell explores the ways in which “ethnic” (and “religious”) characteristics feature in key Jewish and early Christian texts, challenging the widely accepted dichotomy between a Judaism that is ethnically defined and a Christianity that is open and inclusive. Then, through an engagement with whiteness studies, he offers a critique of the implicit whiteness and Christianness that continue to dominate New Testament studies today, arguing that a diversity of embodied perspectives is epistemologically necessary.

David G. Horrell is professor of New Testament studies and director of the Centre for Biblical Studies at the University of Exeter, UK, where he has taught since 1995. His other books include The Making of Christian Morality: Reading Paul in Ancient and Modern Contexts and Becoming Christian: Essays on 1 Peter and the Making of Christian Identity

Separated Siblings: An Evangelical Understanding of Jews and Judaism

• Author: John E. Phelan Jr.
• Publisher: Eerdmans
• Publication Date: 2020
• Pages: 352

In the minds of many American evangelicals today, Judaism exists in two places: the pages of the Bible and the modern nation of Israel. In Separated Siblings, John Phelan offers to fill in the gaps of this limited understanding with the larger story of Judaism, including its long history and key facets of Jewish thought and practice. Phelan shows that Judaism is anything but monolithic or unchanging. Readers may be surprised to learn that contemporary Judaism exists in a multiplicity of forms and continues to evolve, as recent changes in scholarly Jewish perspectives on Jesus and Paul attest.

An evangelical Christian himself, Phelan addresses what other evangelicals are often most curious about, such as Jewish beliefs concerning salvation and eschatology. Nevertheless, Separated Siblings is geared toward understanding rather than Christian apologetics, aiming for an undistorted view of Judaism that is sensitive to the painful history of Christian replacement theology and other forms of anti-Semitism. Readers of this book will emerge with more informed attitudes toward their Jewish brothers and sisters—those in Israel and those across the street.

John E. Phelan Jr. taught at North Park Theological Seminary in Chicago for twenty-five years after serving two churches as pastor. He has been involved in Jewish-Christian dialogue for many years.

Table and Temple: The Christian Eucharist and Its Jewish Roots

• Author: David L. Stubbs
• Publisher: Eerdmans
• Publication Date: 2020
• Pages: 416

In most modern discussions of the Eucharist, the Jewish temple and its services of worship do not play a large role. They are often mentioned in passing, but they do little work in grounding, organizing, or explicating what is happening in the Eucharistic celebration.

In Table and Temple, David Stubbs throws light on the reasons for this neglect and shows the important role the temple and its worship played in the imagination of Jesus and his disciples about this central Christian practice. He then explores the five central meanings of the temple and its main services of worship, demonstrating their relationship to the five central meanings of the Christian Eucharist.

These central meanings of the temple itself, the daily, weekly and monthly sacrifices, and the three pilgrim feasts are linked to the history of salvation. Stubbs distills them to (1) the real presence of God and God’s Kingdom among God’s people, (2) thanksgiving for creation and providence, (3) remembrance of past deliverance, (4) covenant renewal in the present, and (5) a hopeful celebration of the feast to come. They provide a solid ground upon which to organize contemporary Christian Eucharistic imagination and practice. Such a solid ground not only expands our theology and enriches contemporary practice, but is also a means to bring greater ecumenical unity to this central Christian rite.

David L. Stubbs is professor of ethics and theology at Western Theological Seminary in Holland, Michigan. He is co-director of the Hope-Western Prison Education Program, served on the task force in the Presbyterian Church that authored Invitation to Christ: A Guide to Sacramental Practices, and wrote a theological commentary on the book Numbers.