The Importance of Outsiders to Pauline Communities

The Importance of Outsiders to Pauline Communities PDF

Author: Emma Louise Parker

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2024-06-13

Total Pages: 364

ISBN-13: 0567713830

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This book argues that, despite Paul's often dramatic and critical descriptions of non-Christians, his letters reveal a deep concern for the presence of outsiders and for their opinion of Christians. Parker suggests that outsiders are enormously important to Paul: they determine whether Christian communities dwindle or thrive, while also playing a key role in helping such communities to understand and shape their purpose as missional disciples, develop their thinking and practice around normal daily events and relationships - and even shape how they understand God. Parker offers a careful exegesis of the main texts within the Pauline corpus, revealing a sensitivity to the outsider; including 1 Thessalonians, Romans, 1 Corinthians and the Pastoral Epistles. By using Social Identity Theory she explores key concepts of group boundaries, identity and inter-group relations, highlighting a theme which is significant in Paul's own thought: the importance of similarity between groups. Whilst not denying the counter-cultural identity of the new Christian communities, Parker concludes that Paul reveals the areas of overlap between insiders and outsiders, since these areas not only create opportunities for positive opinions and relationships but also point to a greater understanding of God.

The Importance of Outsiders to Pauline Communities

The Importance of Outsiders to Pauline Communities PDF

Author: Emma Louise Parker

Publisher:

Published: 2024

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780567713841

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"This book argues that, despite Paul's often dramatic and critical descriptions of non-Christians, his letters reveal a deep concern for the presence of outsiders and for their opinion of Christians. Parker suggests that outsiders are enormously important to Paul: they determine whether Christian communities dwindle or thrive, while also playing a key role in helping such communities to understand and shape their purpose as missional disciples, develop their thinking and practice around normal daily events and relationships - and even shape how they understand God"--

Outsider Designations and Boundary Construction in the New Testament

Outsider Designations and Boundary Construction in the New Testament PDF

Author: Paul Raymond Trebilco

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2017-10-26

Total Pages: 372

ISBN-13: 1108314325

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What terms did early Christians use for outsiders? How did they refer to non-members? In this book-length investigation of these questions, Paul Trebilco explores the outsider designations that the early Christians used in the New Testament. He examines a range of terms, including unbelievers, 'outsiders', sinners, Gentiles, Jews, among others. Drawing on insights from social identity theory, sociolinguistics, and the sociology of deviance, he investigates the usage and development of these terms across the New Testament, and also examines how these outsider designations function in boundary construction across several texts. Trebilco's analysis leads to new conclusions about the identity and character of the early Christian movement, the range of relations between early Christians and outsiders, and the theology of particular New Testament authors.

Christianity in the Greco-Roman World

Christianity in the Greco-Roman World PDF

Author: Moyer V. Hubbard

Publisher: Baker Academic

Published: 2010-01-01

Total Pages: 344

ISBN-13: 1441237097

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Background becomes foreground in Moyer Hubbard's creative introduction to the social and historical setting for the letters of the Apostle Paul to churches in Asia Minor and Europe. Hubbard begins each major section with a brief narrative featuring a fictional character in one of the great cities of that era. Then he elaborates on various aspects of the cultural setting related to each particular vignette, discussing the implications of those venues for understanding Paul's letters and applying their message to our lives today. Addressing a wide array of cultural and traditional issues, Hubbard discusses: • religion and superstition • education, philosophy, and oratory • urban society • households and family life in the Greco-Roman world This work is based on the premise that the better one understands the historical and social context in which the New Testament (and Paul's letters) was written, the better one will understand the writings of the New Testament themselves. Passages become clearer, metaphors deciphered, and images sharpened. Teachers, students, and laypeople alike will appreciate Hubbard's unique, illuminating, and well-researched approach to the world of the early church.

The New Testament Interpreted

The New Testament Interpreted PDF

Author: Cilliers Breytenbach

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2006-09-01

Total Pages: 416

ISBN-13: 9047410599

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This volume, in honour of Bernard C. Lategan, a renowned specialist on the modern reception of the New Testament, covers the broad spectrum of the reception of the New Testament as literature. Interpretations of the New Testament from antiquity through modern day critical scholarship up to contemporary readings in Africa are presented and discussed.

Heralds and Community

Heralds and Community PDF

Author: Bo Young Kang

Publisher: Langham Publishing

Published: 2016-08-30

Total Pages: 422

ISBN-13: 1783680636

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This book is part of the ongoing debate about Paul’s understanding of the relationship between his own mission and the church’s. While this study endorses some previous scholarship on Paul’s silence about the church’s proactive evangelism in his letters, it argues that explanations for such silence cannot be adequately made from exegetical conclusions on related texts alone. Rather, this study suggests that constructing a plausible conception of mission as understood by Paul, influenced by the impact of the Jesus-tradition and Jewish restoration eschatology, is essential for explaining Paul’s thinking. Dr Kang proposes that Paul’s silence regarding congregational evangelism is due to his unique two-pronged conception of mission – one being the event of eschatological heralds, the other being the event of eschatological community.

Experientia, Volume 2

Experientia, Volume 2 PDF

Author: Colleen Shantz

Publisher: Society of Biblical Lit

Published: 2012-08-17

Total Pages: 297

ISBN-13: 1589836707

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This collection of essays continues the investigation of religious experience in early Judaism and early Christianity begun in Experientia, Volume 1, by addressing one of the traditional objections to the study of experience in antiquity. The authors address the relationship between the surviving evidence, which is textual, and the religious experiences that precede or ensue from those texts. Drawing on insights from anthropology, sociology, social memory theory, neuroscience, and cognitive science, they explore a range of religious phenomena including worship, the act of public reading, ritual, ecstasy, mystical ascent, and the transformation of gender and of emotions. Through careful and theoretically informed work, the authors demonstrate the possibility of moving from written documents to assess the lived experiences that are linked to them. The contributors are István Czachesz, Frances Flannery, Robin Griffith-Jones, Angela Kim Harkins, Bert Jan Lietaert Peerbolte, John R. Levison, Carol A. Newsom, Rollin A. Ramsaran, Colleen Shantz, Leif E. Vaage, and Rodney A. Werline.

Researching with Communities

Researching with Communities PDF

Author: Ruth DeSouza

Publisher: Lulu.com

Published: 2007

Total Pages: 421

ISBN-13: 0955694108

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Researching with communities presents a range of personal and grounded perspectives from academics, researchers and practitioners on undertaking research in ways that promote and privilege the voice of the community, is respectful of local or indigenous practices and is culturally safe. Most definitely not a 'tick list' for approaching community-inclusive research, this book provides grounded exemplars, guides and discussion about the experiences of doing research respectfully and inclusively. It does this by drawing on the perspectives of researchers and community practitioners and by providing a range of reflective chapters that explore what community-based research means in a range of settings and for a range of people. Like the communities in which they are grounded, undertaking research in this way is always a unique experience.

The Oxford Handbook of Ecclesiology

The Oxford Handbook of Ecclesiology PDF

Author: Paul Avis

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2018-06-21

Total Pages: 688

ISBN-13: 019108137X

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The Oxford Handbook of Ecclesiology is a unique scholarly resource for the study of the Christian Church as we find it in the Bible, in history and today. As the scholarly study of how we understand the Christian Church's identity and mission, ecclesiology is at the centre of today's theological research, reflection, and debate. Ecclesiology is the theological driver of the ecumenical movement. The main focus of the intense ecumenical engagement and dialogue of the past half-century has been ecclesiological and this is the area where the most intractable differences remain to be tackled Ecclesiology investigates the Church's manifold self-understanding in relation to a number of areas: the origins, structures, authority, doctrine, ministry, sacraments, unity, diversity, and mission of the Church, including its relation to the state and to society and culture. The sources of ecclesiological reflection are the Bible (interpreted in the light of scholarly research), Church history and the wealth of the Christian theological tradition, together with the information and insights that emerge from other relevant academic disciplines. This Handbook considers the biblical resources, historical development, and contemporary initiatives in ecclesiology. It offers invaluable and comprehensive guide to understanding the Church.