The latest issue of Asbury Journal is now available, containing the below articles, many engaging with Brent A. Strawn’s book, The Old Testament is Dying (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2017).
From the Editor
Is the Old Testament Dying? An Academic Discussion
David B. Schreiner
Introduction – On the State of the Old Testament: Essays in Review of Brent Strawn’s The Old Testament is Dying
David B. Schreiner
A Précis of Brent A. Strawn’s The Old Testament in Dying
Kimberly Bracken Long
A Response to Brent A. Strawn
Murray Vasser
A Response to Brent A. Strawn
Clinton J. Moyer
On Maladies Canonical, Christian, and Human: A Response to Brent A. Strawn
Brent A. Strawn
The Old Testament’s Moribund Condition: Still Critical
Brad Haggard
The Strangeness of Culture: A Response to Brent A. Strawn
David B. Schreiner
On the Moding and Diachrony of the Books of Samuel
The three “lamp” passages in Samuel (1 Sam 3:3; 2 Sam 21:17; 22:29) cooperate to establish an inclusio that serves as the hermeneutical lens for the final form of Samuel. Contrary to Graeme Auld, therefore, 1 and 2 Samuel is not necessarily all about David, but rather it’s about David insofar as he is the chief vehicle through which the narrative communicates a particular ideology. To account for this dynamic, there appears to be at least two phases of development within Samuel’s lamp metaphor, the latter of which imported a more critical posture toward the monarchal institution. Moreover, the latter phase of this metaphor’s development appears to have important implications for Samuel’s literary development away from an ancient apology. Alastair Fowler argues that literary genres change through time, and when this happens ideas encroach upon literary forms and become the driving force of the work’s presentation. Synthesizing this framework with some of the ideas of John Van Seters, this essay proposes that the certain phases of Samuel’s literary development may constitute the moding of a royal apology.
Bill T. Arnold
Divine Revelation in the Pentateuch
Studies of divine revelation in the Old Testament rightly focus on Israel’s encounter with God at Mount Sinai recorded in Exodus 19-24 (and interpreted in Deuteronomy 4). But theologians often neglect the earlier expressions of divine self-disclosure, which hold potential to enrich our understanding of this essential Christian doctrine. This paper investigates the ancestral narratives of Genesis (especially Gen 12:7 and 17:1) and the appearance of Yhwh to Moses at the burning bush (Exod 3-4), in order to gain a more complete perception of divine revelation in the Pentateuch, which then offers contributions to Christian theologizing about the doctrine of revelation generally.
Ban Seok Cho
The Nature of the Church’s Mission in Light of the Biblical Origin of Social Holiness
This paper intends to find missiological implications that the biblical origin of social holiness has for the church’s mission. In order to accomplish this purpose, this paper, first, identifies the biblical origin of social holiness in the Old Testament narrative and its development in the New Testament narrative. Then, the relationship between the image of God in Genesis 1 and the development of social holiness in the biblical narrative will be discussed. Lastly, in light of the biblical origin of social holiness, missiological implications for the church’s mission are suggested. The thesis of this paper is that social holiness – as a biblical concept that is theocentric, relational, and missional in nature – provides a biblical framework for the church to integrate different dimensions of its holistic mission. In conclusion, this paper suggests that the church’s mission, in light of the biblical origin of social holiness, is both social and spiritual, involves the whole life of the church (both being and doing), is shaped by the grace of God, and includes creation care/
Features
From the Archives: Soviet Anti-Religious Propaganda Posters
Book Reviews
The entire issue is available as a pdf here.
