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Archive for the ‘Reception history’ Category


Ethnicity and Inclusion

In Eerdmans, ethnicity, history of interpretation, inclusion, Jonathan Rowlands, NT reception history, Reception history on December 5, 2022 at 3:00 pm
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2022.12.11 | David G. Horrell. Ethnicity and Inclusion: Religion, Race, and Whiteness in Constructions of Jewish and Christian Identities. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2020. 

Review by Jonathan Rowlands, St. Mellitus College

In Ethnicity and Inclusion, Horrell examines the ways in which the contested categories of ethnicity, race, and religion coalesce in and arise from conceptions of the relationship between Judaism and early Christianity. Seeking to focus “on the log in my own eye rather than the specks in others’ eyes” (pp. 2–3), Horrell brings these issues into conversation with the implicit whiteness (another contested term) of contemporary biblical scholarship. In so doing, he not only upturns claims about Judaism and early Christianity, but also offers sobering critique of NT studies itself. Horrell articulates the need to re-examine conceptions of race, ethnicity, religion, and identity in antiquity, as well as the ways in which these categories are apprehended in contemporary scholarship. 

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To Recover What Has Been Lost

In Brill, Dale C. Allison Jr., Daniel Frayer-Griggs, Eschatology, Gospels, Intertextuality, Jonathan Rowlands, Nathan C. Johnson, NT reception history, Reception history, Tucker S. Ferda on June 11, 2021 at 3:00 pm

2021.6.13 | Tucker S. Ferda, Daniel Frayer-Griggs, and Nathan C. Johnson (eds). “To Recover What Has Been Lost”: Essays on Eschatology, Intertextuality, and Reception History in Honor of Dale C. Allison Jr. Supplements to Novum Testamentum 183; Leiden: Brill, 2021. ISBN: 978-90-04-44350-1.

Review by Jonathan Rowlands, St. Mellitus College.

The essays collected in this Festschrift are grouped into one of the three areas mentioned in the volume’s subtitle. As the helpful introduction from the editors notes, these are three areas that have each occupied a significant place in the writings of Dale C. Allison Jr. 

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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 »


The Pauline Effect: The Use of the Pauline Epistles by Early Christian Writers

In De Gruyter, Jennifer R. STRAWBRIDGE, Jonathon Lookadoo, NT reception history, Paul, Reception history, Uncategorized on July 11, 2016 at 10:20 pm

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2016.07.13 | Jennifer R. Strawbridge. The Pauline Effect: The Use of the Pauline Epistles by Early Christian Writers. SBR 5. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2015. pp. vii + 309. ISBN: 978-3-11-043770-6.

Review by Jonathon Lookadoo, University of Otago

Many thanks to Walter de Gruyter for providing a review copy.

Amid the increasing popularity of reception histories in Humanities scholarship and particularly in early Christian studies, Jennifer Strawbridge has added a unique and timely study of the way in which Paul’s letters were received in the ante-Nicene period. A two-fold emphasis frames the book, which began as an Oxford DPhil thesis supervised by Christopher Rowland and Teresa Morgan. First, the book investigates the way in which early Christian authors used Pauline letters. Second, the volume considers how the interpretation of Paul’s letters may illuminate their role in early Christian formation. Read the rest of this entry »


Nomadic Text: A Theory of Biblical Reception History

In Brennan Breed, HB/OT, Indiana University Press, Kengo Akiyama, Reception history on July 5, 2016 at 10:24 pm

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2016.07.12 | Brennan W. Breed. Nomadic Text: A Theory of Biblical Reception History. Indiana Series in Biblical Literature. Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2014. pp.xii + 299. ISBN: 978-0-253-01252-4.

Review by Kengo Akiyama

Many thanks to Indiana University Press for providing a review copy.

This book, a winner of the Manfred Lautenschlaeger Award for Theological Promise 2016, is based on Breed’s doctoral dissertation, which was written under the supervision of Carol Newsom at Emory University. The book consists of introduction, seven main chapters, and conclusion, followed by notes, bibliography, and index.

The introductory chapter (‘Introduction: The Constitutive Divide of Reception History’) frames the discussion by problematising ‘borderlines’, a concept that all critical studies implicitly or explicitly employ. Read the rest of this entry »


The Intertextual Reception of Genesis 1–3 in Irenaeus of Lyons

In Brill, Eric Covington, Genesis, Irenaeus of Lyons, Patristic exegesis, Patristics, Reception history, Stephen O. PRESLEY on January 13, 2016 at 11:15 am

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2016.01.02 | Stephen O. Presley. The Intertextual Reception of Genesis 1–3 in Irenaeus of Lyons (The Bible in Ancient Christianity; Leiden: Brill, 2015). Hardback. 267 pages + 34 pages bibliography & indices.

Review by Eric Covington, University of St Andrews.

Many thanks to Brill Publishers for providing a MyBook paperback inspection copy.

In The Intertextual Reception of Genesis 1–3 in Irenaeus of Lyons, Stephen O. Presley examines every reference to Gen 1–3 in Adversus Haereses (Against Heresies, abbreviated hereafter as Haer.) to demonstrate how Irenaeus interprets Genesis’ protological narratives within an intertextual network spanning the entire biblical canon.
Presley argues that Irenaeus’ intertextual exegesis is an outworking of his particular view of scriptural consonance informed by his doctrine of revelation and creation. Read the rest of this entry »

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The Early Text of the New Testament

In Charles E. HILL, Early Christianity, Manuscripts, Michael J. KRUGER, New Testament, Oxford University Press, Papyrology, Peter Malik, Reception history, Textual Criticism, Transmission history on October 10, 2013 at 10:44 am

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2013.10.20 | Charles E. Hill and Michael J. Kruger (eds.). The Early Text of the New Testament. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012. xiv + 483 pages (HB) ISBN 9780199566365.

Review by Peter Malik, University of Cambridge.

Many thanks to OUP for providing a review copy.

The present volume is comprised of twenty-two essays (including the extended introduction) written by a wide array of distinguished scholars under editorship of Charles E. Hill and Michael J. Kruger. In the introductory essay entitled “In Search of the Earliest Text of the New Testament”, the editors set out “to provide an inventory and some analysis of the evidence available for understanding the pre-fourth century period of transmission of the NT materials” (p. 2). Read the rest of this entry »

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Early Christian Manuscripts: Examples of Applied Method and Approach

In Amulets, Brill, Dan Batovici, Early Christianity, Egypt, New Testament, Oxyrhynchus, Papyrology, Patristics, Reception history, Scripture, Textual Criticism, Thomas KRAUS, Tobias NICKLAS on June 13, 2012 at 6:12 pm

2012.06.13 | Thomas J. Kraus and Tobias Nicklas, eds. Early Christian Manuscripts: Examples of Applied Method and Approach. Texts and Editions for New Testament Study 5. Leiden, Boston: Brill, 2010. xx + 243 pp. ISBN: 9789004182653.

Reviewed by Dan Batovici, University of St Andrews.

Many thanks to Brill for kindly providing us with a review copy.

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This volume is intended as a papyrological follow-up of a previous volume, New Testament Manuscripts: Their Texts and Their World, published in the same series (TENT 2) in 2006. It features nine articles forming nine chapters varying in size between 15 and 45 pages. Read the rest of this entry »


The Art of the Sacred: An Introduction to the Aesthetics of Art and Belief

In Christian Art, Early Christianity, Graham HOWES, I. B. Tauris, Iconography, Leonard Aldea, Reception history on May 19, 2012 at 8:28 pm

2012.05.09 | Graham Howes. The Art of the Sacred: An Introduction to the Aesthetics of Art and Belief. London: I.B.Tauris, 2010. ix + 190 pages. (PB) £18.99. ISBN: 9781845110062. (HB) £52.50 ISBN: 9781845110055.

Reviewed by Leonard Aldea, Durham University. 

RBECS would like to thank I.B. Tauris Publishers for kindly providing us with a review copy.

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The present volume is the 2010 reprint of the 2007 first edition. However, parts of the book itself and the research behind it are much earlier than that, as the author’s 1988 copyright attests. This is worth keeping in mind if one uses the book for research purposes.

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A Celebration of Living Theology: Engaging with the work of Andrew Louth

In Andrew LOUTH, Call for papers, Durham, Early Christianity, Justin A. Mihoc, Patristics, Reception history on March 1, 2012 at 12:39 pm

Durham University in conjunction with the Department of Theology and Religion will be hosting the conference ‘A Celebration of Living Theology: Engaging with the work of Andrew Louth’ on 9-12 July 2012 at Durham University. The conference aims to celebrate the work of Prof. Andrew Louth in the areas of Patristics, both Western and Eastern, Modern Theology and Theology as Life, as well as explore its reception outside the English-speaking world.

Confirmed plenary speakers are Antoine Arjakovsky, Lewis Ayres, Jane Baun, John Behr, Augustine Casiday, Mary Cunningham, Pavel Gavrilyuk, Thomas Graumann, Cyril Hovorun, John Milbank, Kallistos Ware and, of course, Andrew Louth. Read the rest of this entry »