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Archive for the ‘Kai Akagi’ Category

Metaphors in the Narrative of Ephesians 2:11–22

In Brill, Ephesians, Ephesus, Kai Akagi, Metaphor, Narratology, Oscar E. Jiménez on November 30, 2023 at 2:27 pm
Cover of book: White background with three circles containing manuscript fragments

2023.11.08 | Oscar E. Jiménez. Metaphors in the Narrative of Ephesians 2:11–22: Motion towards Maximal Proximity and Higher Status. Linguistic Biblical Studies 20. Leiden: Brill, 2022. pp. xiii + 221.

Review by Kai Akagi, Rikkyo University.

Oscar E. Jiménez’s Metaphors in the Narrative of Ephesians 2:11–22: Motion towards Maximal Proximity and Higher Status is the published version of Jiménez’s PhD thesis completed at London School of Theology. The volume provides a reading of Ephesians 2:11–22, approaching this text from the two perspectives included in the volume’s title: metaphors and narrative. Specifically, Jiménez employs conceptual metaphor theory (CMT) to analyze and articulate the significance and function of metaphors in the text. At the same time, he approaches the text as a “narrative” consisting of a “drama” in three acts such that each part of Ephesians 2:11–22 may be considered as part of a progression integrally related to the other parts of the text.

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Old Testament Conceptual Metaphors and the Christology of Luke’s Gospel

In Bloomsbury, Christology, HB/OT, Kai Akagi, Luke-Acts, Metaphor, New Testament, T & T Clark on October 30, 2020 at 6:27 pm

2020.10.19 | Gregory R. Lanier. Old Testament Conceptual Metaphors and the Christology of Luke’s Gospel. LNTS 591. London: T&T Clark, 2018.

Review by Kai Akagi, Japan Bible Seminary.

Gregory R. Lanier’s Old Testament Conceptual Metaphors and the Christology of Luke’s Gospel uses conceptual metaphor theory (CMT) to consider the christological significance of four metaphors in the Gospel of Luke: “horn” in 1:68–69, “dawn” in 1:78–79, “mother bird” in 13:34, and “stone-rock” in 20:17–18. After an opening chapter consisting of a literature review, a description of the topic of this volume, and an explanation of method and research objectives, the subsequent four chapters in turn each consider one of the metaphors. The final chapter summarizes the results and offers a synthesis of their christological significance.

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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

origins

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 »

Union with Christ in the New Testament

In Christology, Grant MACASKILL, Kai Akagi, New Testament, Oxford University Press on March 31, 2015 at 9:58 pm

UCNT

2015.03.09 | Grant Macaskill. Union with Christ in the New Testament. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013. Pp. 353. ISBN: 9780199684298. Hbk.

Reviewed by Kai Akagi, University of St Andrews.

Many thanks to OUP for providing a review copy.

Grant Macaskill’s Union with Christ in the New Testament considers the conceptualization and theological role of union with Christ across the books of the New Testament. It approaches these in view of their Old Testament background and the context provided by other Jewish literature, and it places them in dialogue with the diachronic understanding of union in selected theological traditions in which union plays a significant role. Those considering a varied range of subjects within the fields of New Testament studies, systematic theology, historical theology, and, to an extent, patristics and Second Temple Judaism, may find this volume relevant to their work.

The first half of the book considers union in selected theological traditions (including patristic theology, modern Orthodox theology, and Lutheran and Reformed theology) and then turns to Old Testament and Jewish context for studying union in the New Testament. Read the rest of this entry »

The Roman Army and the Expansion of the Gospel: The Role of the Centurion in Luke-Acts

In Alexander KYRYCHENKO, De Gruyter, Kai Akagi, Luke-Acts, Uncategorized on February 6, 2015 at 10:14 am

kyrychenco

2015.02.03 | Alexander Kyrychenko. The Roman Army and the Expansion of the Gospel: The Role of the Centurion in Luke-Acts. Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft 203. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2014. pp. xi + 228. ISBN: 9783110344028.

Reviewed by Kai Akagi, University of St Andrews.

Many thanks to De Gruyter for providing a review copy.

This volume is the published version of Alexander Kyrychenko’s PhD dissertation from 2013, supervised by Carl R. Holladay at Emory University. It considers the literary function of the Roman centurion in Luke-Acts in light of the presentation of the Roman military in contemporary Greco-Roman and Jewish literature. Kyrychenko offers his study as concerned with narrative in its attention to the literary and thematic significance of how Luke-Acts presents Roman centurions and contextual in its examination of portrayals of the Roman military across literatures. Read the rest of this entry »