Category Archives: Books

Coming Soon: An Interview with the Editor of the New Edition of the Zurich Bible

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This new edition of the Zurich Bible came out in January and the editor has agreed to ‘sit down’ for an interview about the volume. I’m looking forward to sharing our exchange with you. More anon.

Die Ausgabe für das persönliche Bibelstudium und die Arbeit in der Gemeinde. Neu mit deuterokanonischen Schriften.

• mit deuterokanonischen Schriften
• mit Einleitungen und Glossar
• einspaltig
• Schriftgrösse 100 %

Andere einspaltige Ausgaben: Schulbibel rot, Leinen grün
Einspaltig mit grösserer Schrift: Leinen dunkelrot, Kunstbibel, Leinen rubinrot

2019, 2251 Seiten, 12.9 x 20.0 cm, Hardcover
ISBN 978-3-85995-256-0
ca. 19,90 €

It also comes in red.

Wahrheit – Glaube – Geltung: Theologische und philosophische Konkretionen

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In einer Zeit, in der sich unterschiedliche und zuweilen widersprechende Wahrheiten nahezu täglich neu Geltung verschaffen, müssen die Wahrheits- und Geltungsansprüche des christlichen Glaubens überprüft und in einer steten Interpretation der biblischen Texte vergegenwärtigt werden. Sich in den vielfältigen Deutungen der Großbegriffe zu orientieren und theologische und philosophische Konkretionen zu formulieren, hat sich die 20. Jahrestagung der Rudolf-Bultmann-Gesellschaft für Hermeneutische Theologie zur Aufgabe gemacht. Der Sammelband dokumentiert deren Erträge.

20 Jahre waren auch Anlass für eine Rückschau. Neben zwei Beiträgen der beiden Vorsitzenden findet sich deshalb auch eine Übersicht zu den Vorstandsmitgliedern sowie zu den Themen und Vorträgen der Jahrestagungen. 

Mit Beiträgen von Volker Gerhardt, Corinna Körting, Michael Labahn, Malte Dominik Krüger, Isolde Karle, Ulrich H. J. Körtner und Christof Landmesser.

The Rudolf-Bultmann-Gesellschaft has met every year since 1998 and every year a volume of collected essays from that gathering has been published.    This volume is the 20th.

Indeed, the conference where these papers were delivered occurred exactly one year ago this week (the 19-21 of February, 2018).  They focus on the topic described in the book’s title, which was also the title of the gathering last year.  Following the introduction by the editors there are 7 essays- 5 on various subjects related to the conference theme, 2 which survey the history of the RBG and finally a summary of the contents of the volumes which the annual conference has produced.

The essays are uniformly well written but that by Malte Dominik Krüger is particularly engaging beginning, as it does, with a reference to and description of a Nespresso commercial featuring George Clooney and the discussion it engendered in Germany given it’s depiction of the afterlife.  When Krüger asks ‘Warum Heute Evangelisch Sein?’ his answer resonates not only with German society but with American too.

The last two essays take in turn the history of the RBG, first from 1998 to 2008 and second from 2008 to 2018.  The essays fully describe the conferences each year and mark the highlights and themes of those meetings.

Here are the contents:

1

2

As is the case with the previous volumes in this series, the present work is an excellent read; informative, helpful, and contemporary in terms of relevance.  Those unable to attend the annual meeting of the world’s only Rudolf Bultmann Society can ‘sit in’ through these essays as a ‘fly on the wall’ and hear some of the most groundbreaking theological material between the covers of a book.

I joyously recommend it.

Understanding the Gospels as Ancient Jewish Literature

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Understanding the Gospels as Ancient Jewish Literature places the Gospels in the context of contemporaneous Greco-Roman Jewish texts (4th cent. BC–3rd cent. AD), a collection that includes the Dead Sea Scrolls and the literature of the early Rabbis.

While decades of research into the “Jewish backgrounds” of the Gospels have proven to be fruitful, little attention has been given to their function as a witness to the evolution of ancient Judaism. Comprehending this evolution sheds new light and meaning on the Gospel narratives, as well as on the core message of the Jesus movement. Understanding the Gospels as Ancient Jewish Literature argues that when viewed through the lens of ancient Judaism, the Gospels become a source for the geographical, historical, and religious reality of ancient Judaism, some of which would have otherwise been missing from the historical record. And in turn, the study of ancient Judaism clarifies some of the teachings attributed to Jesus by the Evangelists.

While slim (it’s just 38 pages in length plus endnotes) this little volume is filled with very important first class historical detail, and like all Carta volumes, richly, richly illustrated with photos and maps and charts and such.  Jeffrey Garcia offers details every student of the New Testament needs to have well in hand before beginning study of the text.

Garcia divides his work into these short major sections

  • Introduction
  • Sources for Understanding the Gospels
  • Geography of the Land of Israel in the Gospels
  • Jewish Political History in the Gospels
  • Jewish Life in the Gospels
  • Jewish Styles of Teaching in the Gospels
  • Charity, Deeds of Reciprocal Kindness, and the Image of God in the Gospels
  • The Gospels as the First Literary Witness to Jewish Practice

The work concludes, again, with extensive endnotes, rich in bibiographic references.

The sections above include sometimes few and sometimes many and in a few cases none when it comes to subsections.  The introduction is one page.  The sources for understanding the Gospels take up but three pages, etc.  Each topic is scraped across the surface and then Garcia moves on.

Each section serves, so far as I am concerned, as an introduction to the topic at hand and an encouragement to further, deeper reading on those topics which interest individual readers.

The little work is the ideal tool for classroom use and Sunday School students to find themselves face to face with the strange and foreign world of the New Testament.  I recommend it to undergrad courses and church workers as well as to interested layfolk of all levels.  It is a delightful volume.

The Early Reception of the Book of Isaiah

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By none less than Kristin!

This volume brings together a lively set of papers from the first session of the Deuterocanonical and Cognate Literature program unit of the Society of Biblical Literature Annual Meeting in 2016. Together with a few later contributions, these essays explore a number of thematic and textual issues as they trace the reception history of the Book of Isaiah in Deuterocanonical and cognate literature.

Dogmatik

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This will be of interest to many:

Dogmatics embodies the nature of Christian faith and reflects the truth content and meaning of the Christian understanding of God and world. Important issues in Christian dogmatics include: the clarity of the terminology used, links to biblical and church traditions, and connections to experience and thought in the contemporary life world.

Christoph Heilig’s Doctoral Dissertation: “Paul as Narrator/Paulus als Erzähler”

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Christoph has posted the table of contents here.

I read through the book last year and in a very brief review would say of it that Heilig’s careful and meticulously crafted thorough examination of the work of NT Wright and Richard Hays is the clearest and most sustained critique of Pauline studies yet written.

Heilig’s masterful grasp of the material (both in its primary and secondary sources) is breathtaking. And whilst at times the pages turn slowly and readers are required to concentrate quite vigorously, such concentration is richly rewarded by the end of the tome.

It’s the work, in sum, of a genius and one of the most brilliant young minds presently at work in New Testament studies. Watch this young man, he is going to turn the theological world inside out.

And when his dissertation is published, and it will be, get it.

Evangelische Kirche und Konzentrationslager (1933 bis 1945)

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Um das Verhältnis der evangelischen Kirche zum KZ-System zwischen 1933 und 1945 darzustellen, untersucht Rebecca Scherf wesentliche Aspekte, die dieses Verhältnis charakterisieren: die Seelsorgetätigkeit der evangelischen Kirche, die inhaftierten Geistlichen, ihre Hafterfahrungen sowie die Reaktionen auf ihre Verhaftungen. Zur Analyse der Seelsorgetätigkeit wurden Quellen aus den frühen Jahren der NS-Diktatur herangezogen, die das Herausdrängen kirchlicher Einflussmöglichkeiten innerhalb des KZ-Systems durch den Staat bezeugen, das 1937 in einem für die damalige evangelische Kirche unverständlichen Seelsorgeverbot gipfelte.

Bereits im März 1933 wurde der erste evangelische Pfarrer in KZ-Haft genommen, bis März 1945 waren es insgesamt 71. In einem Überblick dokumentiert Scherf erstmals alle in den KZs inhaftierten Pfarrer, Vikare und Pfarrverwalter nach landeskirchlicher Zugehörigkeit, Verhaftungszeitpunkt und Inhaftierungsgrund. Zeitlich liegt ein Schwerpunkt auf den Jahren 1935 und 1941/42 mit den meisten Inhaftierungen. Die Inhaftierungsgründe sowie die Reaktionen von institutioneller und gemeindlicher Seite in jenen Jahren spiegeln dabei das sich wandelnde Verhältnis von Staat und evangelischer Kirche wieder. Die lokale Priorität liegt auf den Lagern Sachsenburg und Dachau, in die die meisten Geistlichen verschleppt wurden.

Hierbei konnte die Autorin auf der Grundlage von Tagebucheinträgen und Predigten erstmals das protestantische Leben der Geistlichen im Dachauer Pfarrerblock rekonstruieren. Wenige der 71 Geistlichen hielten ihre erlebte KZ-Haft nach ihrer Entlassung schriftlich in einem autobiographischen Bericht fest. Acht dieser Aufzeichnungen untersuchte Scherf, um persönlichen Erfahrungen und theologischen Deutungshorizonten der erlebten KZ-Haft nachzugehen. Den Abschluss bildet der Blick auf die Auswirkungen der KZ-Haft für das Selbstbild und die Fremdwahrnehmung der Bekennenden Kirche nach 1945.

Die Arbeit wurde mit dem Wilhelm Freiherr von Pechmann-Preis 2018 ausgezeichnet.

I’ve finished reading this genuinely terrifying volume.  Terrifying because, primarily, the parallels between the Christian Church which fell under the sway of the Nazis and the Christians who have fallen victim to Trumpism are so close as to be identical.  That terrifies me.  It should terrify everyone.

The table of contents, which is quite extensive, is available at the link above under the ‘Leseprobe’ tab, and won’t be repeated here.

Scherf’s goal in this work is fairly straightforward: to describe quite fully how the Church lived out its calling in the period of Hitler and how it ministered in the Concentration Camps which Hitler used to exterminate millions.  She begins

Am 20. März 1933 wurde Damian Oswald, Pfarrer der protestantisch- evangelisch-christlichen Kirche der Pfalz, aufgrund seiner politischen Ausrichtung als religiöser Sozialist in KZ-Haft genommen. Er war der erste evangelische Geistliche, der dem KZ-System zum Opfer fiel und aufgrund seiner politischen Einstellung inhaftiert wurde.

And then she proceeds to tell the story of the Church in Nazi Germany.  To be precise

Wenn im Folgenden von „evangelischer Kirche“ gesprochen wird, dann ist damit das Gegenüber von BK und deutschchristlicher Reichskirche gemeint, das sich in dem damaligen Gefüge der DEK und ihrer Landeskirchen abspielte war und von der Reichs- bis zur Gemeindeebene zu beobachten.

This leads her to assert

Für die historische Kontextualisierung des Themas „Evangelische Kirche und Konzentrationslager“ für den Zeitraum von 1933 bis 1945 wird von der These ausgegangen, dass auf gedanklicher Grundlage einer Ideologie der Vormachtstellung des „arisch“ deutschen Volkes vor allem drei ineinander greifende Handlungskategorien für die innenpolitische Machtetablierung und -erhaltung des NS-Regimes entscheidend waren: Gesetze und Verordnungen, Terrormaßnahmen und mediale Propaganda. Ausgehend von einer Untersu chung der Funktion des Konzentrationslagersystems im nationalsozialisti schen Terrorapparat wird anschließend der Fragehorizont mit Blick auf die evangelische Kirche eröffnet.

And off she goes.

This is, as hinted above, a really terrifying volume because it shows not only the horror of Nazi Germany ‘from the point of view’ of those who struggled to maintain a true Christian witness in the worst of circumstances, but the sad fact that if the Church is not ever vigilant, it can easily fall under the sway of political power and forget or abandon it’s purpose.

As Scherf tells the story, she makes it quite clear that terror played a significant part in the methods of the Nazis.  Fearmongering, othering, these tools were widely used.  The consequences were shocking:

Nach dem Reichstagsbrand am 27. Februar 1933 existierten in Deutschland circa einhundert Konzentrationslager und „Schutzhaftabteilungen“ jeweils für unterschiedliche Zeiträume.

Scherf goes on to quote a primary source (as she does many, many times) to illuminate her points:

„Am 10. November 1938, an Luthers Geburtstag, brennen in Deutschland die Synagogen … In dieser Stunde muß die Stimme des Mannes gehört werden, der als der deutsche Prophet im 16. Jahrhundert aus Unkenntnis einst als Freund der Juden begann, der getrieben von seinem Gewissen, getrieben von den Erfahrungen und der Wirklichkeit, der größte Antisemit seiner Zeit geworden ist, der Warner seines Volkes wider die Juden.

The means by which Nazis sought to terrorize, control, and manipulate have striking modern parallels.  But the most important aspect of the volume, at least to me, is the fact that Scherf tells the stories of many, many theologians and pastors who lived in and ministered to the inhabitants of the Camps.  Time and time again she informs readers about particular pastors in particular camps and what they did in those camps to help those people.

The notion that ‘Germany’ and Germany’s Christians (as a whole) went along silently is put to the lie page after page.  There was real, substantive, widespread theological resistance to Hitler and it wasn’t just from a few theologians gathered at Barmen.  One need simply read the heart-wrenching accounts of

  • KZ Fuhlsbüttel, Evangelisch-lutherische Kirche im Hamburgischen Staat, Seelsorger: Friedrich Hammer.
  • KZ Dachau, Evangelisch-lutherische Landeskirche Bayern rechts des Rheins, Seelsorger: Friedrich Hofmann.
  • KZ Emslandlager, Frauen-KZ Moringen, Evangelisch-lutherische Landeskirche Hannovers, Seelsorger: Walter Holsten.

And many others to see the truth of the matter.  And this in spite of the fact of Himmler’s efforts!

Datiert auf den 9. März 1937 erhielt der Reichskirchenausschuss ein Schreiben Heinrich Himmlers. Der Ausschuss hatte sich am 28. Januar 1937 nach den durchweg negativen Antworten auf sein zweites Rundschreiben direkt an den Reichsführer-SS gewandt „mit der Bitte, einen Befehl an die Schutzhaftlager- Kommandanten zu erlassen, durch die die Abhaltung von Gottesdiensten und die Ausübung der Seelsorge in den Schutzhaftlagern wieder ermöglicht wird.“ Dieser Bitte entsprach Himmler nicht.

Not only does the body of the work include countless important details but the indices do as well.  In particular, the list of persons including different biographical details is worthy of a read through.

This is an important, timely, amazing, and again, terrifying read.  Read it.

Abraham’s Family

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Abraham’s Family: A Network of Meaning in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, Ed. by Lukas Bormann

Lukas Bormann: Introduction

Part I: Abraham’s Family in the Old Testament
Konrad Schmid: Remembering and Reconstructing Abraham: Abraham’s Family and the Literary History of the Pentateuch – Antti Laato: The Abraham Story in Genesis and the Reigns of David and Solomon – Magnar Kartveit: Abraham and Joseph in Samaritan Tradition – Lotta Valve: The »Wooing of Rebekah« and the Methodological Rift between Tradition History and Reception History

Part II: Abraham’s Family in Ancient Jewish Literature
Jacques T.A.G.M. van Ruiten: Abraham’s Family in the Book of Jubilees – Aliyah El Mansy: »He is perfect, he is a true man!« (Jub. 27:17): Constructions of Masculinities in Abraham’s Family – Jesper Høgenhaven: Abraham and his Family in Qumran Biblical Exegesis – Michael Becker: Abraham and the Sacrifice of Isaac in Early Jewish and Christian Exegesis: Conceptual Patterns in Development – Christian Noack: Abraham’s Family in Philo

Part III: Abraham’s Family in the New Testament
Lukas Bormann: Abraham as »Forefather« and his Family in Paul – Angela Standhartinger: Member of Abraham’s Family? Hagar’s Gender, Status, Ethnos, and Religion in Early Jewish and Christian Texts – Christfried Böttrich: Abraham and his Children in Luke-Acts – Guido Baltes: The Prodigal Son and his Angry Brother: Jacob and Esau in a Parable of Jesus? – J. Cornelis de Vos: Abraham’s Family in the Epistle to the Hebrews – Eva-Maria Kreitschmann: Abraham’s Family Network in the New Testament Writings

Part IV: Abraham’s Family in Early Christian Literature
Martin Meiser: Abraham and His Family in Ancient Greek and Latin Patristic Exegesis – Anni Maria Laato: Divided by a Common Ground: The Prophecy of Jacob and Esau (Gen 25: 19–26) in Patristic Texts up to Augustine with respect to Modern Inter-Faith Dialogue – Michaela Durst: Abraham and Hellenismos in Julian the Apostate’s Contra Galilaeos : Challenging Christian Knowledge about the Divine

Part V: Abraham’s Family in Jewish Exegesis and in Encounter with Islam
Reuven Firestone: Hagar and Ishmael in Literature and Tradition as a foreshadow of their Islamic Personas – Mariano Gomez Aranda: The Conflict between Jacob and Esau in Medieval Jewish Exegesis: Reinterpreting Narratives – Bärbel Beinhauer-Köhler: Maqām Ibrāhīm and the Sacred Landscape of Mecca According to Ibn Jubayr – Catalin-Stefan Popa: Syrians and the Appeal to Abraham in the Early Islamic Times

A review copy has arrived.  More anon.

Metathesis in the Hebrew Bible: Wordplay as a Literary and Exegetical Device

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Why did the biblical writers choose the specific words they did? In order to explore this question, this book investigates the use of literary-stylistic metathesis in the Hebrew Bible.

By way of introduction, Metathesis in the Hebrew Bible first discusses the related phenomena of linguistic metathesis, in which letters or sounds are unintentionally inverted during the historical development of a language, and textual metathesis, in which the letters of a word are accidentally inverted during the transmission of a text. The discussion then moves on to the widespread use of literary-stylistic metathesis in the Hebrew Bible, in which two or more words that use the same letters in opposite orders are deliberately juxtaposed within a sentence. This device appears in various literary genres within the Bible and in diverse forms, which demonstrates that a number of biblical authors and editors used it as a compositional device, for a variety of purposes: whether for literary, aesthetic, or rhetorical effect; to make a theological or exegetical point; to connect or contrast particular words with one another; or to emphasize a specific viewpoint.

The book also demonstrates that literary metathesis is not limited to the Hebrew Bible but that it also appears in post-biblical Jewish Hebrew compositions, such as The Wisdom of Ben Sira and the rabbinic literature. This leads to the conclusion that the use of this literary tool by the rabbis in the midrashic literature is not a late, artificial approach to Scripture but rather one that has deep roots in the biblical texts themselves and that continued to develop in the writings of the Second Temple period and in later Jewish writings.

A review copy has arrived.

One Carnival to Rule them All: January, 2019

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Introductory Matters

January is always an exciting month.  It kicks off a new year and it begins with a celebration of the greatest of all the Christian theologians and exegetes, Huldrych Zwingli.  But, believe it or not, I’m not going to talk about Zwingli.  Or Luther.  Or Calvin.  Or any of that historical theology stuff.  Instead, this Carnival is restricted to things biblical studies.  So hold on to your knickers, friends, because this Carnival is the One Biblical Studies Carnival to Rule Them All.

Hebrew Bible/ Old Testament

Science and Bible, again.  And yes, I realize that it’s a topic near and dear to many but I just don’t get it.  Science has to do with science and Scripture has to do with theology/ metaphysics.  They don’t play on the same playground, they aren’t neighbors, and they don’t sit down for coffee and chat about what they think about the other.  You never really hear about scientists fretting as to whether or not Christian theology will take it seriously but you have loads of Christian theologians who act like 13 year old girls craving the approval of the boy who won’t pay them any attention.   Nonetheless, if the whole science game is your bag, good for you.  You are Legion.

Archangels.  Where did they come from?  The remaining giants discuss.

Where did archangels come from? How did we end up with archangels in Jewish and Christian tradition?

Find out.

The LXX Reader’s Edition contest that ran in November… has announced the two winners…  here at the end of January (the 25th to be precise).  (3 months.  That has to be a record)(Bless their hearts)(They have political careers ahead of them if this LXX research thing falls through).

Someone wants to argue with Deane Galbraith about giants.

Over at Bible and Interpretation

Hendel and Joosten’s book  [on dating Biblical texts in Hebrew] is chock-full of insightful observations on a multitude of linguistic, textual, and cultural/historical phenomena, and they argue cogently that the best method for dating biblical writings should include all three of these data sources. Nonetheless, their answer to the question, “How Old is the Hebrew Bible?,” is unoriginal because they do little more than offer a sophisticated repackaging of the traditional linguistic dating approach and results, and it is also unsatisfactory because they eschew literary criticism in the formulation of their model of consilience for determining the ages of biblical literature.

Read the full essay.

Septuagint reading can be fun.  Or so we’re told.

There’s a super essay in B&I by Hendel and Joosten on the Hebrew Bible’s age.  You MUST read it (or else).

Many scholars, largely disregarding linguistic data, insist that most or all of the Hebrew Bible was written in the second half of the first millennium BCE, during the Persian and/or Hellenistic periods, and draw the inference that there is little or no historical content that predates this era….The ages of the books of the Hebrew Bible span a vast chronological range, from the early Iron Age to the Greek age, which we can discern at different degrees of focus. There is much that we can know about these topics, more than most scholars are willing to grant.

Oh boy.

Internet Monk is thinking along with Peter Enns about the Bible.  A bad decision on the best of days.  But anyway, he’s doing it.  And you may to give his thinkings a read.

Robert Alter’s really wonderful translation/ commentary on the Hebrew Bible gets a thorough going over in this ‘symposium’ on it in the Jewish Review of Books.  It is a substantial review by a good raft of scholars, and you should most definitely read it.  I was given a copy of Alter’s work for Christmas and I really love it.

Septuagint Summer School.  You know you want to.  It’s in the Summer.  In Europe.

New Testament

An Orthodox Priest named Stephen has a very interesting take on Jesus and social justice.  He opines

Secularism is the forgetting of God, or remembering Him in a manner that is truly less than God. This is the cause of all injustice. Indeed, it is the great injustice: that human beings forget their Creator and the purpose of their existence. When we forget God, everything is madness.

I recommend his intriguing essay.

Joel Watts tells us how the New Testament canon was actually formed.  Who knew…

Larry’s right.  Paul wasn’t ‘converted’.   He simply reformed.

Bill Mounce asks if ‘all’ the translations are wrong at Mark 1:16.  To which I reply, the ones most people use are, but the REB is right.  The REB proves itself over and over again the most reliable version in English and here it does so yet again.

Ian Paul discusses, naturally, the historicity of the visit of the Wise Men.  What the world needs is more Bultmannians.

Ian also talks about the notion that the Gospel can be funny at spots…  He’s apparently writing a book on the humor in the Bible….  But he’s British…

Philbert *The Traveler* Long had a bit of something to say about the Theology of Acts.  He remarks

There is a third element of the book of Acts which…

Bart Ehrman asks about early Christians and the belief in reincarnation.  He writes

It is often said today that reincarnation was a widespread teaching in early Christianity as well.  In fact, the evidence for it is ….     To see the rest of what I have to say, you’ll need to belong to the blog.  It’s easy to join, and costs less then fifty cents a week.

I don’t know what he says about it.  I’m not a blog-liever.  If you are, you’ll know.

James McGrath thinks Jesus was a hugger.  It’s an interesting and not altogether impossible reading of the text he is looking at.  Why not, I guess.  But Jesus also had a beard and there’s no reason to think that having a beard is required just because he had one…  ergo…

Richard Bauckham lectured at the Ecole Biblique in Jerusalem on Jesus Christ as the Alpha and Omega.  You’ll enjoy it.

Bart Ehrman answers a reader’s question about the Jewishness of the New Testament authors.  Someone (the questioner) has been reading the Nazi sympathizing New Testament scholars in Germany in 1930 again…  Fortunately Deane has the good sense (along with many others) to point out the absurdity of it all (and Bart pulled his post down… but you can still read it here).

Mike Bird writes a thing about ‘Apostle Paul’ and some early Church person thing.  What intrigues me about the post is the practice among some of saying ‘Apostle Paul’ instead of ‘The Apostle Paul’ as though ‘the’ is now out of fashion.  It’s weird.  Stop it.

And, finally, your ‘eyeroll of the month’- a post suggesting that the Sermon on the Mount has a dark side because it ‘others’ the pharisees….

This means the Sermon on the Mount is, in large part, constructed upon a negative “othering,” or stereotyping of rivals – namely, the Scribes and the Pharisees. The “righteousness” of the Scribes and Pharisees provides a foil for the higher righteousness of the Sermon.

Archaeology and Texts

Two biblioblogs took notice of the appearance of a website devoted to the polyglots:  Bible and Tech and ETC.  Who doesn’t like polyglots?  And websites?  And polyglot websites?

If you haven’t run across mention of it yet, there’s a Text criticism conference in Birmingham.  Bookings close in mid February.

Belarus text display?  Ok.  I guess a text has got to be somewhere.  Why not Belarus?  Though if I were a text I’d definitely prefer to be in the Zurich Central Library.  Or the British Library.

ETC also took notice of some dead sea scrolls stuffity stuff.  It’s madness though so you should probably just let is slide right on by.   Here’s a snippet just so you know I’m trying to be a blessing:

The texts preserving Psalms from Qumran classified by scholars as biblical texts are significant for the fluid/standard text debate because they preserve large-scale differences that designate them in the mind of many scholars as an alternative tradition or edition of the Psalter.

I hope they get Denzel Washington to play the lead when they make this DSS post at ETC into a movie…

Big news from Brent– the John Rylands texts are online.  Now that’s some useful material for sure.

Israeli looters want to beat Bedouin looters to the loot to be found, they hope, in the region of the Dead Sea around Qumran.  Looting Wars should be the title of the essay here reported.  One set of looters is state sponsored and the other individually driven.  But looters are looters.  if it isn’t your land, it isn’t your loot.

Interested in a digital library of text critical things?  Look no further.

At the time of writing this, we currently have images of or links to more than 1500 manuscripts in our library.

Aren Maeir has a new post on the Philistines and their war-y-ness-hood.  It’s a lot of fun.  The post, not the war-ness-ness of the Philistines.  They were such Philistines.

Michael Langlois lectured at the Ecole Biblique on bible forgeries and the like and it was recorded.  You can view it here.

Bob Cargill wrote a piece for BAR on the so called ‘Jerusalem Column’, noting

The Jerusalem Column is the first inscription from the Second Temple period where the full spelling of the Hebrew name of Jerusalem (ירושלימ) appears. By “full spelling,” I mean a spelling of Jerusalem that includes the letter yod (י) between the lamed (“l”; ל) and final mem (“m”; מ) at the end of the name.

Unfortunately he doesn’t actually use a ‘final mem’, as the article suggests, but a medial mem.  Final mem looks like this: ם.  Not like this: מ.  If BC just meant that the word on the inscription ended with mem that’s what he should have said, without calling it a ‘final mem’ because the two mean different things to people who study Hebrew texts. BAR’s readers won’t notice the difference, but there is one.

Be sure to give the lecture by Israel Finkelstein at the Ecole Biblique a watch if you haven’t already.  It’s way more fun than a pillar.

Important series-es for new testament textual criticism.  Brought to you by the good people of Evangelical Textual Criticism (as opposed to and in contradistinction from non-evangelical textual criticism).

The Nabatean stronghold of Sela gets a great writeup in the Jordan Times, blogged here.  An interesting site with an interesting history.

Paul Barford posted an interesting snippet on Israel’s display of looted archaeological finds.  He notes, though, that

International law bars an occupying military from displaying antiquities outside the occupied area. But (Nir Hasson, ‘Israel Displays Archaeological Finds Looted From West Bank‘ Haaretz Jan 01, 2019). The exhibition is part of the Israeli story invoking the need to preserve culture as a justification of their activities as occupier. Through their media they constantly promote the narrative that archaeological remains in the occupied territory must be ‘saved from’ the Palestinians.

Aren’t they nice to break the law to save artifacts from those awful terrible expansionist Palestinians……  Such humanitarians…

Green papyri.  Again.

Larry Hurtado is thinking about Jesus this month… indeed, something different about Jesus this month…  Be sure to read the whole and don’t cut any of it short.

Books

A new Theology of the Old Testament was reviewed at the very beginning of the month.  It is, seriously, a very good and useful volume.   Rick Brannan announced his writing schedule for 2019.  Have you ever seen such a thing?

Eric Harvey posted a list of books he has read this year.  That may not sound like anything special, until you read the post and realize that these are books for the blind and that there are theological / biblical studies tomes among them.  I suspect that a lot of good could be done if books in biblical studies for the blind were published more purposefully.

Philbert Long reviewed Carl Holladay’s commentary on Acts.  He begins, justifiably:

There have been several significant…

Leander Keck has a book on Inerrancy and the text of the New Testament that gets a mention (I don’t know why) by the ETC folk.  I guess they’re just catching up on book reading.

JB Lightfoot left unfinished his commentaries on several of Paul’s letters.  But he left notes.  Rob Bradshaw has them digitized.  And you can read the notes here.

Someone reviewed a book about following Jesus.  Read it if such things are of interest.  Joel Watts saw a book about Jesus by some Methodist and he was compelled by his Methodist sympathies to make his readers aware of it.

Are you having trouble with translating German?  Tavis Bollinger offers some help if you’re a Logos user.  Or, alternatively, learn German.

James *Not Jim, Don’t Use Jim* Spinti reminds us that editing book covers is just as important as editing book contents.  Otherwise things just look wrong and thus bad.

Larry Hurtado reviews a review of his book.  I’m looking forward to someone reviewing Larry’s review of the review so that then Larry can review the review of the review of his review of his book.

Carl *Hideous* Sweatman shared his reading list from last year.  It’s an interesting mix of bilge, rubbish and a few interesting works.  Send Carl recommendations for stuff that’s worth reading, please.  So that his 2019 can be better than his 2018 was.

Two books are reviewed here having to do with the Bible: Amos, in the Anchor Bible Commentary, and The Jesus Movement in its Expansion.  Scroll down to page 4 of the reviews embedded.

Lexundria.  Books. From antiquity.  Digitized.  Visit it.

Women Biblical Scholars (a blog you should definitely follow) announces the appearance of a monograph on women in Ephesus.  They point it out on the twitter–

Dr. Elif Halal Karaman (@elflal) has an exciting new book out on Ephesian women. She tells Women Biblical Scholars (WBS) about it.

Miscellaneous Things

The CenSAMM has announced a conference scheduled for this Summer.  This will be of interest to many.

The 2019 Conference: The Study of Apocalyptic and Millenarian Movements: Critical and Interdisciplinary Approaches will take place on 27-28 June 2019 at the University of Bedfordshire (Bedford Campus).

Mike Bird has a great quote by Thomas Cranmer on abused wives and divorce.  I’m going to use it.  A lot.

Ben Witherington was interviewed by a guy at a Church and Ben is pleased to share the video of Ben’s interview on Ben’s ‘one stop shop for all things biblical and Christian’.  If you’re as into Ben as Ben is, you’ll enjoy Ben’s discussing Ben.

Brian Davidson has some thoughts on Logos 8.  It’s bible software.  For bible nerds.  Who don’t like real books.  But do like e-books.

Rick Brannan is going to send out a newsletter and he wants you to sign up for it.

Christian Brady had some really important things to say about death.  Give it a read.

Michael Satlow is putting together a resource page which assembles digital humanities materials on Judaism in late antiquity:

This is not meant to be comprehensive, but contains a number of sites and links that might be of interest to those interested in working on digital humanities projects relating to Jews and Judaism in (particularly late) antiquity.  I am happy to add and correct this list, so please feel free to send me your suggestions.  Over time, I may well annotate it as well.

The Center for Apocalyptic studies that Crossley runs has assembled a raft of podcasts and videos that may be of interest to persons interested in them.  Such things as one might find interesting.  Potentially.

Animals and the Bible.  Call for papers.  Check it out.

Dirk remarked on the twitter

ORBIS.  Larry Hurtado mentions it.

ORBIS is primarily intended to serve historians of the Roman Empire, the main questions shaping the project having to do with how Rome managed such a far-flung empire.  So it is “top down” in orientation, more amenable to questions about how trade or governance operated, and at what cost and time involved.

Larry Hurtado has some guidance on what to call people in various international academic contexts.  Give it a look, ye undergrads.

If you are interested in a gathering at Tyndale House, take note of this call for papers:

The 2019 NT Study Group will be meeting at Tyndale House from 26th to 28th June 2018. Our theme this year is Writing, orality and the composition of the NT. We would welcome proposals of papers on any issue of scholarly debate on issues relating to this, including writing in ancient world as it affects the NT, memory theory and orality, and canonical composition and dating of NT documents.

Closing Thoughts

Well there it is, the most important official Biblical Studies Carnival of 2019 (so far).  Be sure to go over and grab the Logos free book of the month.  And check out the listing of upcoming Carnivals.

I’ll next be reporting from Zurich where I’m off to attend the Zwingli Conference (celebrating his arrival in Zurich 500 Years Ago) and where there are loads of cool activities planned.  Stay tuned.

Matthias Flacius Illyricus: Biographische Kontexte, theologische Wirkungen, historische Rezeption

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Die in diesem Band versammelten Beiträge nehmen den in Labin (Kroatien) geborenen Matthias Flacius Illyricus unter vier Schwerpunkten in den Blick. Der erste widmet sich Flacius als „Wanderer zwischen den Welten“, der sich in verschiedenen städtischen und territorialen, politischen und konfessionellen Zusammenhängen zu behaupten hatte. Im Zentrum steht die Frage danach, welchen Einfluss die jeweiligen kulturellen und sozialen Kontexte auf seine geistige und theologische Entwicklung ausübten, welche Exilserfahrung er machte und wie sich dies auf seine Einstellung zu Heimat und Heimatlosigkeit auswirkte.

Der zweite Schwerpunkt beleuchtet Flacius als „Kämpfer für die Wahrheit“. Die Beiträge versuchen sein Ringen um die theologische „Wahrheit“ als Strukturelement seines Denkens herauszuarbeiten. Dies konnte durchaus konfessionell übergreifende Relevanz erhalten, wie sie sich zum Beispiel in Flacius’ großen historischen und hermeneutischen Werken zeigt. Dabei wird deutlich, dass man Flacius nicht auf den Streittheologen und stets polarisierenden Gelehrten des strengen Luthertums reduzieren kann. Vielmehr rückt in den Vordergrund, wie Flacius’ Eintreten für die „Wahrheit“ zugleich ein leitendes Element für sein Geschichtsverständnis und die Art seiner Geschichtsschreibung wurde, für das Konzept der Zeugenschaft und für eine spezifische Hermeneutik.

Der dritte Schwerpunkt widmet sich Flacius in seinen Netzwerken. Hier werden bisher kaum beachtete Korrespondenzen mit anderen Gelehrten betrachtet. Es geht um die Kontakte des Flacius in die Schweiz und nach Italien, sowie um die Gelehrtenkorrespondenzen nach Polen und Ostpreußen als Beispiele aus einem viel breiteren europäischen Korrespondenznetzwerk. Der vierte Zugang hat die Rezeption und von Flacius ausgehende gruppenbildende Wirkungen zum Gegenstand. Dabei rückt Österreich als Ort von Asyl und Exil in den Blick, an den sich die Flacianer, das heißt die Anhänger und engagierten Verfechter des Erbsündenverständnisses des Flacius, nach zahlreichen Ausweisungen aus dem Reich zurückzogen.

Aber auch das Erbe der Flacianer in anderen europäischen Räumen mit Schwerpunkt Slowenien und Kroatien ist zu beachten. Ob es zu der Ausprägung eines „Flacianismus“ im Sinne einer „Konfession“ mit Bekenntnischarakter und konfessionsspezifischen Elementen kam, wird ebenso diskutiert wie die Flacius-Biographik des 19. Jahrhunderts.

Multiple Reformations? The Many Faces and Legacies of the Reformation

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This very good collection of essays contains the following informative works:

The Many Faces of the Reformation

  • Euan Cameron: Reconsidering Early-Reformation and Catholic-Reform Impulses –
  • Randall C. Zachman: The Birth of Protestantism? Or the Reemergence of the Catholic Church? How Its Participants Understood the Evangelical Reformation

Interpretations of Scripture in the Reformation Period

  • Manfred Oeming: The Importance of the Old Testament for the Reformer Martin Luther –
  • Greta Grace Kroeker: Erasmus and Scripture –
  • Paul Silas Peterson: »The Text of the Bible is Stronger«: The Rebirth of Scriptural Authority in the Reformation and it Significance

The Reformation as an Interpretative Event

  • Emidio Campi: The Myth of the Reformation –
  • Scott Dixon: The German Reformation as a Historiographical Construct: The Shaping of the Narrative from Melanchthon to Walch –
  • Ute Lotz-Heumann: Confessionalization is Dead, Long Live the Reformation? Reflections on Historiographical Paradigm Shifts on the Occasion of the 500th Anniversary of the Protestant Reformation

The Aftermath of the Reformation Period

  • John O’Malley: Catholic Pastoral Care: The Early Modern Period –
  • Jan Stievermann: Early American Protestantism and the Confessionalization Paradigm: A Critical Inquiry

Confessional Empires, Missions, and Nations

  • Simon Ditchfield: The »Making« of Roman Catholicism as a »World Religion« –
  • Patrick Griffin: The Last War of Religion or the First War for Empire? Reconsidering the Meaning of The Seven Years’ War in America –
  • Hartmut Lehmann: Nationalism as Poison in the Veins of Western Christianity, c. 1800 – c. 1950

Confessional Modernities, Enlightenment and Secularization

  • John Betz: J. G. Hammann as a Radical Reformer: Two Mites Toward a Post-Secular, Ecumenical Theology –
  • Volker Leppin: Friedrich Gogarten’s Theology of Secularization

Confessional Cultures: Legal and Diaconical Traditions

  • Christoph Strohm: Confession and Law in Early Modern Europe –
  • Johannes Eurich: The Influence of Religious Traditions on Social Welfare Development: Observations from the Perspective of Comparative Welfare State Research

Scripture and the Evangelical-Pietist Tradition

  • Ryan P. Hoselton: »Flesh and Blood Hath Not Revealed It«: Reformation Exegetical Legacies in Pietism and Early Evangelicalism –
  • Douglas A. Sweeney: The Still-Enchanted World of Jonathan Edwards’ Exegesis and the Paradox of Modern Evangelical Supernaturalism

Scriptural Authority and Biblical Scholarship in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries

  • Friederike Nüssel: The Value of the Bible: Martin Kähler’s Theology of Scripture and its Ecumenical Impact –
  • David Lincicum: Ferdinand Christian Baur, the New Testament, and the Principle of Protestantism –
  • Matthias Konradt: Sola Scriptura and Historical-Critical Exegesis

These essays were all originally papers delivered at three different academic meetings all centered on the them of the varieties of the Reformation.  The topics are wide ranging as are the backgrounds of the contributors.  All are in English.

The strength of the volume is the breadth of topics considered.  But that is also its weakness.  That is, the vast array of subjects addressed is both engaging (as when one is reading a magazine that covers a lot of different topics) and disorienting (in that topics flit from one branch to another, never really alighting on one long enough for it to be fully developed).

The volume lacks an organinzing center.  When one is one moment following a discussion of the importance of the Old Testament for Luther and the next an essay about Pastoral care in the Reformation and then an essay on nationalism as a poison in the veins of Western Christianity, then one can feel a bit dizzied.

To be sure, the aim of the volume is to show a multitude of perspectives on the Reformation and its outworkings.  But so many manifestations of the Reformation under one cover may be a bit much.  One gets the feeling that one isn’t reading a book so much as a collection of student papers which are all addressing the broadly stated assignment of ‘writing an essay on some aspect, any aspect of the Reformation, that you wish’.

In spite, however, of the ‘shotgun’ style of the volume, it is very informative.  Especially helpful are the essays by Zachmann, Oeming, Campi, Lehmann, Leppin, Nüssel, (whose essay was particularly intriguing), and Strohm.  I would have, I think, enjoyed hearing those papers delivered along with what must surely have been additional spoken details which didn’t make it into the polished final versions.

The volume’s introduction describes the various colloquia during which the papers were delivered.  At the end of the volume are found a list of contributors (2 of which are women) and an index of persons.

This volume explores the inherent pluralism of the Reformation and its manifold legacies from an ecumenical and interdisciplinary point of view, asserts the dust jacket.  And that is most certainly true.  Readers interested in a forest of Reformation trees will truly find the volume useful.  So it certainly is something worth recommending, which I do.

Readers simply need to be prepared to hop and skip about on the variegated checkerboard that is the volume’s contents.  But all the hopping and skipping is worth the effort.

The Council of Trent: Reform and Controversy in Europe and Beyond (1545-1700)

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Exactly 450 years after the solemn closure of the Council of Trent on 4 December 1563, scholars from diverse regional, disciplinary and confessional backgrounds convened in Leuven to reflect upon the impact of this Council, not only in Europe but also beyond. Their conclusions are to be found in these three impressive volumes. Bridging different generations of scholarship, the authors reassess in a first volume Tridentine views on the Bible, theology and liturgy, as well as their reception by Protestants, deconstructing many myths surviving in scholarship and society alike. They also deal with the mechanisms ‘Rome’ developed to hold a grip on the Council’s implementation. The second volume analyzes the changes in local ecclesiastical life, initiated by bishops, orders and congregations, and the political strife and confessionalisation accompanying this reform process. The third and final volume examines the afterlife of Trent in arts and music, as well as in the global impact of Trent through missions.

All the details of the volume can be found here.   Just click the Leseprobe tab.  There you will find the table of contents, etc., so that those materials won’t be repeated here.

Readers of book reviews generally want to know what the book under consideration contain (and thanks to the internet, that information is now generally available on the publisher’s website) and, more importantly, if it’s worth buying or recommending to their library or even checking out from their lending source.

Further, potential readers of the book want to know if there are problems with it.  If it fails to meet the reader’s needs or doesn’t deliver the advertised scholarship then the review it receives should reflect those facts.  If, however, it meets expectations or surpasses them, it receives a more positive review.

This book meets expectations.  And it is the first of a planned three in the series.  Volume two will take in hand the Bishops and Princes along with Church and Politics.  And volume three will turn our attention to Art and Music followed by Global Catholicism.

But I’ve gotten ahead of myself a bit and wish to return to consideration of the present volume.  It’s highlight, for me, is the chapter titled Trent and the Latin Vulgate: A Louvain Project?  This really amazing piece traces the incredible significance of the Louvain-ers in the production and promulgation of the biblical text that would be chosen as THE Catholic Bible.   Seldom does one encounter such carefully reconstructed historical detail.  Text critics and students of the history of the Vulgate will benefit immensely from reading this essay.

Equally enjoyable is G. Frank’s essay on Melanchthon and Trent.  Perhaps because I enjoy Melanchthon so much or perhaps because Frank is such a clear writer.

Not, strictly speaking, a theological essay but rather a historical one is Sachet’s “Privilege of Rome: The Catholic Church’s Attempt to Control the Printed Legacy of the Council of Trent”.  The attempts of Rome to control the narrative about Trent by controlling what was published of and from it is extremely intriguing.  The Church of Rome has always manifested a fairly high level of control.  This essay shows how that mentality worked itself out in the wake of Trent.

Enjoyable too is the essay by John O’Malley on Trent and Vatican II.  Here he shows that in spite of the major differences between the two Councils, they share some amazing similarities.  ‘They nicely illustrate the paradox of history’, opines O’Malley in the closing paragraphs.  I will let readers discover for themselves the surprise in store.

I think this is a very fine collection of essays and if volumes two and three are as excellent, then this series will become standard fare for historians of the Catholic Church.  I am happy to recommend it to your personal library and to your research library.  It fills an important gap in that it goes into greater detail on the issues of the Council of Trent than more general treatments and histories do.

Where the general textbooks scratch the surface, this volume bores into the bone.

Zwingli’s Private Library

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This arrived from Brill for review a while back:

The Swiss theologian Huldrych Zwingli (1484–1531) was one of the most prominent reformers and the founder of the Reformed Protestant Church in the Swiss Confederation. During the last hundred years more than 200 titles from his private library have been discovered. They give an interesting insight into his interests and sources. The present book contains not only an extensive introduction and a catalogue of these books and manuscripts, but also an inventory of the lost works possessed by Zwingli. They open the door to Zwingli’s study and to the intellectual world of an important reformer.

The book is comprised of three parts.  In part one, Leu and Weidmann put Zwingli in the context of books and libraries in general and in the context of his own library in particular.  As they state it

… investigating someone’s private library is just as crucial in tracing his spiritual life and intellectual conflicts, as is the scrutiny of other personal documents.

They go on to say a bit further on

Zwingli loved the secluded life of study. It is no coincidence that he underlined the quotation by Horace: “Beatus ille, qui procul negotiis” (Happy the man who is far away from the business) in his copy of the Orationes praelectiones et praefationes by Philipp Beroaldus.

So the aim here is clearly stated: which books did Zwingli own and what did he think of them?  To that end, then, we are informed that

… a maximum of a few thousand titles would have been available to scholars during Zwingli’s lifetime.  It can thus be inferred that they had to purchase many of the books they wanted themselves, due to the difficulty, at times sheer impossibility, of accessing the material otherwise.

And books were expensive!

One of his most expensive books was probably his edition of the works of Augustine (no. 13). The edition printed later in 1529 by Johannes Froben (about 1460–1527) had cost 18 guilders.

I had to do a little research, but I discovered this bit of information about the value of the guilder:

An outdoor laborer earned 6.50 guilders per week or just over 300 guilders per year.
A master carpenter earned 9 guilders per week or just over 450 guilders per year. 
Wages did not change for 150 years.

A pastor earned 500 guilders per year. Rent free. We have an antique Dutch book and it describes the detailed living expenses of a pastor and his wife on a 500 guilders a year salary. They could not make ends meet.

Today, economists find it difficult to express a meaningful correlation factor of cost of living between two very different cities e.g. Miami, Oklahoma and Miami, Florida, let alone find a factor for correlating cost of living between two countries over some 400 years. However, research on inflation and CPI over the period of 1600 to 2000, -as well as rate of exchange and purchasing power- gives us a workable factor of 60. That means that for the rest of this report we’ll use: 100 guilders in the 1600s equals US $6,000 in today’s money.   (Cf- http://vanosnabrugge.org/docs/dutchmoney.htm).

That’s approximately the valuation of the guilder used in Switzerland during Zwingli’s lifetime.  I.e., 1 guilder = $60.  That means that Zwingli’s copy of Augustine’s works cost him $1080.

Zwingli paid off this work in at least two installments because on 8th March 1521 he wrote to Beatus Rhenanus that he had sent four guilders to the bookseller Mathias Biermann to settle the debts for his Augustine.

Leu continues:

If we calculate Zwingli’s income, it becomes evident that the Reformer spent a comparatively large amount of his money on his library which numbered several hundred titles. He was prepared to spend substantial sums on books and on education. We do not know how much he earned in Glarus, his financial situation in Einsiedeln is better documented. As well as a papal pension of 50 guilders per year for his military services in northern Italy, he also had a sinecure from Glarus and received an annual salary of twenty guilders from the monastery in Einsiedeln. There, he was also entitled to part of the so-called Beichtschilling (confessional shilling), to the fees for reading Masses (Oblations) and to a quarter of the donations at a funeral (mortuaries). Furthermore, he held the parish of Glarus de jure and had a locum vicar, thus securing for him self an additional income. Zwingli certainly earned over 100 guilders annually in Einsiedeln, which was not the case during his early days in Zürich.

These fascinating details fill this volume’s first chapter and no fuller picture of Zwingli’s book acquisitions has ever been composed.

When our authors get to the second part of their work they examine in brilliant detail the works in Zwingli’s library (of three chief sorts, Theological, Historical, and Miscellaneous).  They provide many examples of marginal notations along with many historical details about the works Zwingli used.  For instance, and remarkably

Astonishingly enough, not one single German Bible has survived from Zwingli’s Bible collection, although he certainly knew the so-called Wormser Propheten (no. A 17) as well as Luther’s New Testament (no. A 18). He used both of these works in preparing his translation for the Zürich Bible. Unlike the private collection of Zwingli’s successor, Heinrich Bullinger, no copy of the Zürich Bible has come down to us from Zwingli’s library, although he himself contributed greatly to its translation. We do however have a complete Greek Bible which, in a way, can be seen as Zwingli’s family Bible (no. 26). He would not have read aloud from it in the family circle, but he recorded the births of his children on the back inside cover. This list of births was continued by his son, recording his children with Anna Bullinger proving that the Bible remained in the Zwingli family after his death and was not transferred to the abbey library of the Grossmünster.

They also provide numerous illustrative plates throughout the volume.

Zwingli’s library was comprised of just over 400 volumes.  197 of them are held in the Zurich Central Library and they are available online, as we are here informed:

Finally it should be noted that all titles held by the ZBZ are available in digitized form at the following internet address: http://www.e-rara.ch/pbhzwingli/nav/classification/17174539

There is a wealth of material in those volumes in the form of Zwingli’s marginal notations.

The third part of the volume is the catalogue itself.  And, unsurprisingly, it is simply a listing of those volumes held by Zwingli in his personal library.

The volume concludes with a bibliography.  It also concludes with a series of indices of printer’s locations, a list of contributors to Zwingli’s library, and finally, dedicators.

This is an exceptionally interesting book.  The historical details it shares and the massive amount of material it so carefully sifts is astonishing.  Readers of this volume will learn more about Zwingli and his world than from most other volumes on the great Reformer.  I cannot recommend it highly enough.  And so I recommend it to you, to your library, and to your research institution.

Glaube in Karl Barths ‘Kirchlicher Dogmatik’: Die anthropologische Gestalt des Glaubens zwischen Exzentrizität und Deutung

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The study systematically analyzes Karl Barth’s understanding of human faith in Church Dogmatics. Barth’s anthropology founded on Christology is presented with special attention to the doctrines of creation and justification. Applying Barthian dialectics, Schüz shows how the “eccentric” nature of faith “extra nos,” and its free and historical adoption, is transmitted through interpretations.