Book Review: Bible Gender Sexuality: Reframing the Church’s Debate on Same-Sex Relationships by James V. Brownson
James Brownson’s Bible, Gender, Sexuality has gained a prominent place in church debates about homoerotic behavior. Brownson asserts that a revisionist view affirming same-sex unions can be just as biblical as the traditional view. However, his major premise is suspect. As Andrew Goddard puts it: Brownson has a commitment ‘to establish a wider, transcultural vision…
Read MoreJewish Law in Gentile Churches by Markus Brockmuehl
A Review by Jason Moraff In this collection of essays, Markus Bockmuehl seeks to illuminate how Jewish halakhah undergirds the foundation of what became Christian public ethical discourse. The book is divided into three major sections ordered mostly chronologically, beginning with Yeshua1 himself, then the apostles and early Jesus movement, and then the early patristic…
Read MoreChosen? Reading the Bible amid the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict by Walter Brueggemann
A review by Rabbi Russell Resnik When I first learned that Walter Brueggemann had written a book opposing Zionism and questioning modern Israel’s claim to the land of Israel, I was troubled. Brueggemann is an outstanding Christian scholar of the Old Testament and a highly credible voice. After I read the book, though, I was…
Read MoreReview: The Challenges of the Pentecostal, Charismatic, and Messianic Jewish Movements
Hocken, Peter The Challenges of the Pentecostal, Charismatic and Messianic Jewish Movements Ashgate: Cornwell, England, © 2009 Reviewed by Daniel Juster Anyone not familiar with Monsignor Dr. Peter Hocken and his writings would do well to pursue them. They are insightful, show great depth, well thought out and well .written. Hocken is an English Roman…
Read MoreReview: Flesh of Our Flesh, Tsvi Sadan
Sadan, Tsvi Flesh of Our Flesh: Jesus of Nazareth in Zionist Thought (Hebrew) Jerusalem: Carmel, © 2008. 314 pages. Reviewed by Yaakov Ariel Jewish attitudes towards Jesus of Nazareth have been of particular importance for the shaping of Jewish-Christian relations as well as of Jewish religious and cultural identity. A fascinating new book by Tsvi…
Read MoreSparks, Kenton L. God’s Word in Human Words: An Evangelical Appropriation of Critical Biblical Scholarship. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2008.
Setting the stage for his own stance toward Scripture, Kenton Sparks begins by noting three approaches to navigating faith and Bible: secular, traditionalist, and constructive. Secular approaches do not regard the text as Divine at all. Traditionalist approaches de-emphasize the human element and tend toward harmonization and acceptance of early authorship. Constructive approaches integrate critical…
Read MoreYet I Loved Jacob: Reclaiming the Biblical Concept of Election
Kaminsky, Joel S. Yet I Loved Jacob: Reclaiming the Biblical Concept of Election Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2007. Joel Kaminsky is Director of the Program in Jewish Studies at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. He teaches courses on the Hebrew Bible and on ancient Jewish Religion and Literature. Kaminsky believes that the Christian and Jewish communities…
Read MoreThe Promise Lustiger, Jean-Marie Cardinal.
Lustiger, Jean-Marie Cardinal. The Promise Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2007. Jean-Marie Cardinal Lustiger (1926-2007), a child of Polish-born secularized Jewish parents, was raised in Paris, and, with his family, fled to the south of France (Orléans) during WW II. Tragically, his mother returned to Paris to take care of business affairs, was betrayed by her maid…
Read MoreSholem Asch, One Destiny: an Epistle to the Christians
(trans. by Milton Hindus; New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1945, 88 pp.) Sholem Asch was among the most beloved writers in Yiddish literature for the thirty or more years leading up to the Second World War. Encouraged by the great Yiddish writer I.L. Peretz and vigorously promoted by Abraham Cahan in the Forverts, Asch gained…
Read MorePeterson, Eugene H, The Jesus Way: A Conversation on the Ways that Jesus is the Way
(Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2007.) I will start with a disclaimer – I’m biased toward Eugene Peterson. The first article I read by him was “The Unbusy Pastor,” back in 1981,[1] and it remains a favorite, even if I am still not as unbusy as Peterson would recommend. The article opens with a classic Peterson…
Read More