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Archive for the ‘Cambridge University Press’ Category


Christ: The Cambridge Edition of Early Christian Writings Vols. 3 and 4

In Cambridge University Press, Christology, Patristics, Shawn J. Wilhite on September 6, 2023 at 9:16 pm

2023.09.07 | Mark DelCogliano, ed. Christ: Through the Nestorian Controversy. Vol. 3 of The Cambridge Edition of Early Christian Writings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022. Pp. xlvii + 778. ISBN: 978-1-107-06213-9. [Hardback].

Mark DelCogliano, ed. Christ: Chalcedon and Beyond. Vol. 4 of The Cambridge Edition of Early Christian Writings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022. Pp. xlii + 666. ISBN: 978-1-316-51114-5. [Hardback].

Review by Shawn J. Wilhite, California Baptist University

I do not envy any editor or author writing a holistic account of Trinitarian or Christological theology in the early centuries of Christian thought. It seems impossible to keep in tension each figure, nuance, development of thought, and all the lines of argumentation. The editors say, “An anthology on the vast topic of ‘Christ’ is a fool’s errand” (p. xx). I can only imagine the conversations among the editors, several lists of possible texts to consider, the amount of paper in the “wastebasket” with notes, or even the list of texts that did not “make the cut.” An anthology of Christology became too large for a single volume, so the editors commissioned two volumes: “Though physically separate, the two volumes (i.e., vols. 3 and 4) belong together and are intended to be used together. In fact, together they encapsulate the editor’s vision for the study of Christology in the formative centuries of Christianity” (p. xx). So, before anything further is stated, Andrew Radde-Gallwitz, Mark DelCogliano, Ellen Muehlberger, and Bradley K. Storin ought to be commended for undertaking such a daunting task and for the lasting quality of such an anthology, and especially DelCogliano as the lead editor for volumes 3 and 4.

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Jesus the Jew in Christian Memory

In Barbara Meyer, Cambridge University Press, Historical Jesus, Jewish Backgrounds, Jonathan Rowlands, Memory, Philosophy on November 10, 2022 at 3:00 pm

2022.11.09 | Barbara U. Meyer. Jesus the Jew in Christian Memory: Theological and Philosophical Explorations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020. 

Review by Jonathan Rowlands, St. Mellitus College.

Barbara Meyer’s monograph is concerned with “the theological implications of Jesus’ Jewish identity as well philosophical questions raised by the ongoing presence of Jewishness within Christian ethical and dogmatic discourse” (p. 1). Jesus’ Jewishness, and its pursuant theological and philosophical implications, are apprehended by Meyer through the lens of memory. Memory, she writes, speaks of Jesus’ Jewishness “not [as] a new discovery,” but helps to capture what has been “present but dormant throughout Church history … often suppressed, neglected, and overlooked” (p. 2).

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Divine Discourse in the Epistle to the Hebrews

In Cambridge University Press, Hebrews, Jonathan Rowlands, Madison N. Pierce, New Testament on February 13, 2022 at 9:48 pm

2022.02.01 | Madison N. Pierce. Divine Discourse in the Epistle to the Hebrews: The Recontextualization of Spoken Quotations of Scripture. Society of New Testament Studies Monograph Series 178; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020. ISBN: 9781108495417.

Review by Jonathan Rowlands, St. Mellitus College.

In this monograph, Pierce argues that “the author of Hebrews uses divine discourse—the speech of God—in Hebrews to develop his characterization of God and by extension his broader argument … [such that] these speeches are crucial to his argumentation.” (2). This argument is made primarily with reference to the author’s use of ‘prosopological exegesis’ of Jewish Scriptures. This technique “interprets texts by assigning ‘faces’ (πρόσωπα), or characters, to ambiguous or unspecified personal (or personified) entities represented in the text in question … for clarity of understanding” (4). Following a discussion about prosopological exegesis in antiquity (6-20) and techniques for identifying its use (20-22), Pierce introduces the particular use of this technique in Hebrews, culminating in an overview of previous treatments of divine speech in Hebrews (28-33).

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Jesus’ Death and Heavenly Offering

In atonement, Cambridge University Press, Hebrews, Jonathan Rowlands, R. B. Jamieson, sacrifice on November 23, 2021 at 9:30 am

2021.11.17 | R.B. Jamieson. Jesus’ Death and Heavenly Offering. Society of New Testament Studies Monograph Series 172; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN: 978-1-108-47443-6.

Review by Jonathan Rowlands, St. Mellitus College.

In this monograph, Jamieson addresses two questions concerning the soteriology of Hebrews. First, when and where does Jesus offer himself? Second, what role does Jesus’ death play? His thesis is immediately clear: “Jesus’ death is not when and where he offers himself, but it is what he offers” (p. 1). In the introduction, by means of outlining his own contribution to the issue, Jamieson offers a helpful fivefold taxonomy for scholarship on the soteriology of Hebrews that anybody approaching the issue for the first time would do well to consult in the first instance (also outlined in a 2017 article in Currents in Biblical Research 15.3).

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An Apostolic Gospel

In Cambridge University Press, Epistula Apostolorum, Francis B. WATSON, Gospels, Julia D. Lindenlaub on March 19, 2021 at 3:00 pm

2021.3.8 | Francis Watson. An Apostolic Gospel: The “Epistula Apostolorum” in Literary Context. Society for New Testament Studies Monograph Series 179. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020. ISBN 978-1-108-84041-5.

Review by Julia D. Lindenlaub, University of Edinburgh.

Francis Watson’s already wide-ranging work in gospels within and beyond the canon is here expanded with a new translation of a remarkably significant yet infrequently studied text: Epistula Apostolorum (EpAp). In addition to his translation work, this contribution to the limited secondary literature on this text exemplifies its overlooked potential to problematise generic classifications of texts about Jesus and to shed new light on the early use and reuse of written Jesus tradition. Watson presents EpAp alongside counterparts in its literary context and explores central themes that suggest intriguing avenues for further research—for which this translation will surely prove indispensable.

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Origin of Divine Christology

In Andrew Ter Ern Loke, Cambridge University Press, Christology, Gospels, Historical Jesus, History of Religions School, Kai Akagi, New Testament on June 12, 2018 at 5:00 pm

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2018.06.08 | Andrew Ter Ern Loke. The Origin of Divine Christology. Society for New Testament Studies Monograph Series 169. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017. 249 pp.

Reviewed by Kai Akagi, Japan Bible Academy.

Andrew Loke’s The Origin of Divine Christology continues the stream of works on early high Christology of the neue religionsgeschichtliche Schule by arguing that divine christology originated in Jesus’ own teaching as his first followers understood it. Loke presents his book as an interdisciplinary piece of historical-critical research in that he uses methods of historical research to argue what, in theological categories, the earliest Christians believed Jesus to have taught. While many of the supporting points of his arguments and responses to alternative positions are not new, Loke brings them together in an original way to make his own contribution. He explains his method as applying the “critical realism” of N. T. Wright and Alistair McGrath for interdisciplinary historical criticism. Read the rest of this entry »

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Paul and Ancient Rhetoric

In Bryan Dyer, Cambridge University Press, Emanuel Conțac, Graeco-Roman Backgrounds, Paul, review, Rhetorical Strategies, Socio-Rhetorical Interpretation, Stanley E. Porter on December 22, 2017 at 4:00 pm

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2017.12.28 | Stanley Porter and Bryan R. Dyer (editors), Paul and Ancient Rhetoric: Theory and Practice in the Hellenistic Context, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017. xviii + 330 pp. 

Reviewed by Emanuel Conțac, Pentecostal Theological Institute of Bucharest

Almost forty years have passed since Hans Dieter Betz published his landmark commentary on Galatians (1979) which marked the blossoming of a new approach to the text of Paul’s letters.

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From Stoicism to Platonism

In Cambridge University Press, Early Christianity, Early Judaism, Eric Covington, Platonism, review, Troels ENGBERG-PEDERSEN on July 31, 2017 at 11:25 am

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2017.07.17 | Troels Engberg-Pedersen (ed.). From Stoicism to Platonism: The Development of Philosophy, 100BCE–100 CE. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017. ISBN: 9781107166196.

Reviewed by Eric Covington, Howard Payne University. 

From Stoicism to Platonism: The Development of Philosophy, 100BCE–100CE, edited by Troels Engberg-Pedersen, contains papers that emerged from a conference held in August 2014 at the Danish Royal Academy of Sciences in Copenhagen.  The tome brings together a veritable “Who’s Who” of researchers in the area of ancient philosophy in the first-century BCE and CE world in order to examine, as the title suggests, the interaction between Stoicism and Platonism during the period of 100BCE–100 CE.  The combined effect of the collected essays is to challenge the oft-repeated characterization of this philosophical period as a time of “eclecticism.”  This work nuances this designation and provides further clarity concerning the different types of philosophical interaction during the period and the broad philosophical development during the time that eventually led to the dominance of imperial Platonism by the second century (p. 10).  Read the rest of this entry »


The Challenge of Marcion

In Cambridge University Press, Jordan Almanzar, Judith LIEU, Marcion, Mohr Siebeck, review article, Sebastian MOLL on March 1, 2017 at 4:36 pm

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2017.03.05 | Judith M. Lieu. Marcion and the Making of a Heretic: God and Scripture in the Second Century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015. ISBN: 978-1-107-02904-0.

Sebastian Moll. The Arch-Heretic Marcion. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2010. ISBN: 978-3-16-150268-2.

Review article by Jordan Almanzar, Georg-August-Universität, Göttingen.

Introduction

The significance of the second century for understanding Christian history is summed up by Gerd Lüdemann, who explains that from the first generation until the end of the second century, “more important decisions were made for the whole of Christianity than were made from the end of the second century to the present day.”[i] The contours of orthodoxy were defined in those years and it was during this time that Marcion and his followers were extracted from the orthodox and branded with the dishonorable label of heretics. Read the rest of this entry »


New Cambridge History of The Bible (Vol. 3)

In Cambridge University Press, Emanuel CONTAC, Euan CAMERON, Printing, Reception history, Translation, Transmission history, Uncategorized on January 13, 2017 at 2:00 pm

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2017.01.02 | Euan Cameron, ed. The New Cambridge History of The Bible. Volume 3: from 1450 to 1750. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016. xx + 975 pages. Hardback £125. ISBN: 9780521513425.

Review by Emanuel Conțac, Pentecostal Theological Institute of Bucharest.

The third volume in the New History of the Bible series published by CUP, assembles 34 papers and essays surveying the complex evolution and influence of the most disseminated hypertext in the printing era.
Whereas the editors of the initial series had compressed the post-Reformation period into a single volume, in the revised series the past 500 years are covered by two separate volumes, each addressing a wider variety of topics than would have been possible to include in a single 650-page volume. Read the rest of this entry »