Roy E. Ciampa and Brian S. Rosner on 1 Corinthians

Roy E. Ciampa and Brian S. Rosner, The First Letter to the Corinthians, Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids/Nottingham: Eerdmans/Apollos, 2010), ISBN 9781844744848.

With the exception of D.A. Carson’s commentary on John, I was fairly disappointed with the first few volumes in the Pillar New Testament commentary series. However, more recent volumes, in my opinion, have been excellent; the last few years alone have seen the release of commentaries by Douglas J. Moo on Colossians and Philemon, David G. Peterson on Acts, G. Walter Hansen on Philippians, and Peter T. O’Brien on Hebrews (to join his earlier excellent entry on Ephesians). Now the series taken as a whole is shaping up to the best, if not the best, of commentaries written from an evangelical perspective at this level.

Having some familiarity with Brian Rosner’s work elsewhere, I’ve been looking forward to this one on 1 Corinthians. I expect it will become a standard mid-level evangelical work to refer to on the letter for a new generation of students, a position that Gordon Fee’s commentary held for quite a long time.

There is a very generous excerpt available here, which includes the Introduction and part of the commentary on chapter 1. And the bibliography is available here.

The Introduction takes in the church in Corinth, the identity and aims of Paul, the interpretation of 1 Corinthians, 1 Corinthians in recent research, and some features of the commentary.

A nice paragraph at the end of the Introduction caught my eye, where they describe 1 Corinthians as:

‘Paul’s attempt to tell the church of God in Corinth that they are part of the fulfillment of the Old Testament expectation of worldwide worship of the God of Israel, and as God’s eschatological temple they must act in a manner appropriate to their pure and holy status by becoming unified, shunning pagan vices, and glorifying God in obedience to the lordship of Jesus Christ.’

Here is how they outline the letter:

I. Letter Opening, 1:1-9

A. Salutation, 1:1-3

B. Thanksgiving, 1:4-9

II. True and False Wisdom and Corinthian Factionalism, 1:10–4:17

A. Request for Unity, 1:10-17

B. Condemnation of False Wisdom: The Wisdom of this World, 1:18–2:5

C. Affirmation of True Wisdom: The Wisdom of the Cross and the Spirit, 2:6–3:4

D. Reflections on the Nature of Christian Leadership, 3:5–4:17

III. “Flee Sexual Immorality” and “Glorify God with Your Bodies,” 4:18–7:40

A. Condemnation of Illicit Sexual Relations: “Flee Sexual Immorality” (and Greed), 4:18–6:20

B. Affirmation of Sexual Purity: “Glorify God with Your Bodies,” 7:1-40

IV. “Flee Idolatry” and “Glorify God” in Your Worship, 8:1–14:40

A. Condemnation of Idolatrous Practices: “Flee Idolatry” (Food Offered to Idols), 8:1–11:1

B. Affirmation of Edifying Worship: “Glorify God” in Your Worship, 11:2–14:40

V. The Resurrection and Consummation, 15:1-58

A. Affirmation of the Central Role of the Resurrection of Christ in the Gospel Message, 15:1-11

B. Explanation of the Consequences of Denying the Resurrection of the Dead, 15:12-19

C. Explanation of the Significance of Christ’s Resurrection, 15:20-28

D. Exhortation in Light of Positive and Negative Responses to the Resurrection of the Dead, 15:29-34

E. Answers to Philosophical Objections to Belief in the Resurrection of the Body, 15:35-49

F. Explanation of the Necessity of the Resurrection for the Realization of God’s Ultimate Victory, 15:50-57

G. Final Appeal in Light of the Affirmation of the Resurrection, 15:58

VI. Letter Closing, 16:1-24

A. Instructions for the Collection for the Saints, 16:1-4

B. Travel Plans, 16:5-9

C. Request on Behalf of Timothy, 16:10-11

D. Update regarding Apollos, 16:12

E. Exhortations, 16:13-14

F. Commendation of Stephanas, 16:15-18

G. Greetings from Others in Asia, 16:19-20

H. Paul’s Final Greeting and Farewell, 16:21-24

Chris Wright on the Mission of God’s People

The ‘LICC Reader’s Guide to...’ is a series from the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity, published in LICC’s quarterly magazine EG and made available online via the LICC website. It’s designed to aid individuals and small groups in discussing books that LICC believe are worthy of further study. I contributed two for the most recent edition of EG (December 2010): on Bill Bryson’s At Home (available here) and Chris Wright’s Mission of God’s People (pasted below).

Christopher J.H. Wright, The Mission of God’s People: A Biblical Theology of the Church’s Mission, Biblical Theology for Life (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2010), 301pp., ISBN 9780310291121.

Extract

‘The missional challenge of reaching the ends of the earth with the gospel, so that the whole earth may be filled with the knowledge of the glory of God, faces us still with all its diversity and complexity. The evangelization of the world, in the fullest sense of both the words in that phrase, remains as urgent a priority for the church as it was when Jesus laid it as a mandate on his disciples before his ascension.’

Why Read This Book?

Following previous works which argue that the whole Bible can and ought to be read from the perspective of the mission of God – his redemptive purpose for the whole of creation – this book explores the mission of God’s people. In doing so, it provides an even-handed and warm-hearted worked model of doing ‘biblical theology for life’ (the title of a new a series of volumes from Zondervan which this one kicks off).

About the Book: Overview

‘What does the Bible as a whole in both testaments have to tell us about why the people of God exist and what it is they are supposed to be and do in the world?’ That’s the big question asked in the first part of the book. The second part, the main bulk of the volume, offers a series of answers, outlining the kinds of people we were created to be (caring for God’s creation, walking in God’s way, representing God to the world, etc.) and the specific tasks we are called on to do (bearing witness, proclaiming the gospel, living and working in the public square, etc.). The third part then reflects on the implications for God’s people today.

About the Book: Main Themes

‘The mission of God’s people is carried on in and for the world; it centres on the gospel of God; and it lays a demanding privilege on the church.’ The world, the gospel, and the church frame the book and dominate the discussion, their treatment flowing out of the overarching story of Scripture, demonstrating the significance of biblical theology in handling these themes, and showing mission as the all-encompassing purpose of God to restore creation – which embraces all that his people are called to be and do in the world.

About the Book: Implications

As might be expected from a volume in a ‘Biblical Theology for Life’ series, the book is naturally concerned with the ‘so what?’ question. And the implications are rich and varied, heartening and challenging: serving creation and society; recovering the wholeness of the gospel, ourselves as servants of the gospel, as well as our confidence in the gospel; repenting of our failings, and making disciples – and all to the glory of God.

Questions to Ask While Reading

1. What fresh insights are emerging out of your reading of the book?

2. How is the book expanding your understanding of (a) the gospel, (b) the church, and (c) the world?

Questions to Answer After Reading

1. What would ‘mission’ look like if the church took seriously the concerns of this book?

2. Which chapter, for you, has been (a) the most encouraging, (b) the most challenging, (c) the most contentious?

3. What difference, if any, will your reading of the book make in your own life?

Dietrich Bonhoeffer on Advent

I’m preparing to preach later this morning on biblical texts for the second week of advent – Malachi 3:1-4 and Luke 3:1-6.

In Malachi, the Lord promises to send a messenger ahead of his own coming to the temple when he will refine and purify it.

What precipitates this promise, as Malachi tells us in 2:17, is that the people are whinging! ‘Why does God allow evil? If he’s a good God, why don’t we see more evidence of his justice?’ The people want God to step in and exercise his power over evil; they want ‘justice’. But they don’t seem to realise that they might be included in God’s judgment when he comes!

Basically, be careful what you wish for...

In my preparation, I have happily stumbled across some excerpts from a 1928 Advent sermon preached by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who (though without reference to Malachi 3), riffs on this theme of judgment:

‘It is very remarkable that we face the thought that God is coming, so calmly, whereas previously peoples trembled at the day of God...

‘We have become so accustomed to the idea of divine love and of God’s coming at Christmas that we no longer feel the shiver of fear that God’s coming should arouse in us. We are indifferent to the message, taking only the pleasant and agreeable out of it and forgetting the serious aspect, that the God of the world draws near to the people of our little earth and lays claim to us. The coming of God is truly not only glad tidings, but first of all frightening news for every one who has a conscience...

‘Only when we have felt the terror of the matter, can we recognize the incomparable kindness. God comes into the very midst of evil and of death, and judges the evil in us and in the world. And by judging us, God cleanses and sanctifies us, comes to us with grace and love.’

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, A Testament to Freedom: The Essential Writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, ed. Geffrey B. Kelly and F. Burton Nelson (New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 1995), 185-186.

David Benson on Shaping the Thinking of Teens Outside the Church

Scripture Engagement links to some helpful-looking work by David Benson (including his Master’s thesis from Regent College, Vancouver) on how to help teenagers engage with Scripture.

They note:

‘Most of our Scripture Engagement tools are geared toward teens who are relatively open to the Scriptures though perhaps struggle to see the relevance. But what about the antagonistic atheists and seculars who favour naturalistic science over the implausible supernatural; the untrusting skeptics and agnostics who find the historical and moral assertions in the Bible literally incredible; or the confused seekers and New Agers who want meaning to their life but are suspicious of any (religious) truth claims – no matter how seemingly relevant – lest they be duped and lose their “freedom”?’

Benson’s resources aim to ‘unpack a pre-evangelistic conversational strategy that challenges, informs, and inspires teens to see the Bible as plausible, credible, and relevant’.

Benson’s model, which he is using in Australian schools, is one of ‘apologetic triangulation’. He takes his cue from ‘the discrete approaches’ of Francis Schaeffer, Lee Strobel, and Rob Bell, finding in them ‘three distinct angles on commending the inspiration and authority of the Scriptures to a diverse adolescent audience’.

1. The Bible is plausible

Aim: opening ears by undermining secularism

Strategy: logical verification (reason)

Mode: challenge

Model: Francis Schaeffer

2. The Bible is credible

Aim: establishing trust through advancing credible truths

Strategy: empirical verification (evidence)

Mode: inform

Model: Lee Strobel

3. The Bible is relevant

Aim: arousing interest by engaging experience

Strategy: existential verification (experience)

Mode: inspire

Model: Rob Bell

Scot McKnight on Jesus vs. Paul

Christianity Today carries a long-ish piece by Scot McKnight (beginning here) on the perennially-vexing question of the relationship between Jesus and Paul on ‘the gospel’

He begins:

‘Many biblical scholars and lay Christians have noted that Jesus preached almost exclusively about the kingdom of heaven, while Paul highlighted justification by faith—and not vice versa. Some conclude that they preached two different gospels. Others argue that really they both preached justification; still others say it's all about the kingdom. What gives?’

He notes that his own early experience of reading the gospels as they are ‘filtered through Paul's theology’ is not unusual for evangelicals, and he also thinks the Reformation and the Great Awakenings and revivals of the 18th and 19th centuries largely led to a ‘Paul-shaped movement through and through’. And yet, increasingly, he says, there is an ‘unmistakeable shift among many evangelicals from a Pauline-centered theology to a Jesus-shaped kingdom vision’.

‘It is not exaggerating to say that evangelicalism is facing a crisis about the relationship of Jesus to Paul, and that many today are choosing sides. I meet many young, thinking evangelicals whose “first language” is Jesus and the kingdom. Yet despite the trend, perhaps in reaction to it, many look to Paul and justification by faith as their first language. Those addicted to kingdom language struggle to make Paul fit, while those addicted to Paul’s theological terms struggle to make Jesus fit.’

According to McKnight, attempts to make the one fit the other only end up reducing the gospel – either it gets equated with the kingdom or it becomes a synonym for justification by faith.

Instead, leaning on 1 Corinthians 15:1-11 (in which, McKnight notes, there is not a word about ‘kingdom’ or ‘justification’), he says:

‘The gospel is first and foremost about Jesus. Or, to put it theologically, it's about Christology. Behind or underneath both kingdom and justification is the gospel, and the gospel is the saving story of Jesus that completes Israel’s story. “To gospel” is to tell a story about Jesus as the Messiah, as the Lord, as the Son of God, as the Savior.’

After some more elaboration of this point, he concludes:

‘My contention, then, is simple: If we begin with kingdom, we have to twist Paul into shape to fit a kingdom vision. If we being with justification, we have to twist Jesus into shape to fit justification. But if we begin with gospel, and if we understand gospel as Paul does in 1 Corinthians 15:1-11, then we will find what unifies Jesus and Paul – that both witness to Jesus as the center of God’s story.’

Trevor Cooling on Doing God in Education

The latest newsletter from Theos, the Public Theology think tank, links to a new report entitled Doing God in Education, by Professor Trevor Cooling, the Director of the National Institute for Christian Education Research at Canterbury Christ Church University.

Here’s the blurb:

‘It argues that all education – whether religious or ‘secular’ is value-based, and is shaped by the beliefs and commitments of those who lead schools. To pretend that teaching is somehow just a matter of transmitting neutral ideas is profoundly misleading. The values and beliefs of teachers cannot simply be left at the school gate.

‘The report, which has important implications for the presence and role of Christian education, argues that God belongs in school not simply because it is a ‘right’ that comes with living in a liberal society, but because the Christian contribution to education is positive and constructive, contributing powerfully to the common good.’

The report is available in full here.

Bill Bryson on the Home

The ‘LICC Reader’s Guide to...’ is a series from the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity, published in LICC’s quarterly magazine EG and made available online via the LICC website. It’s designed to aid individuals and small groups in discussing books that LICC believe are worthy of further study. I contributed two for the most recent edition of EG (December 2010): on Bill Bryson’s At Home (pasted below) and Chris Wright’s Mission of God’s People (to follow in a separate post).

Bill Bryson, At Home: A Short History of Private Life (London: Doubleday, 2010), ISBN 9780385608275.

Extract

‘Looking around my house, I was startled and a little appalled to realize how little I knew about the domestic world around me. Sitting at the kitchen table one afternoon, playing idly with the salt and pepper shakers, it occurred to me that I had absolutely no idea why, out of all the spices in the world, we have such an abiding attachment to these two. Why not pepper and cardamom, say, or salt and cinnamon? And why do forks have four tines and not three or five? There must be reasons for these things.’

Why Read This Book?

In line with current interest in the ‘ordinary’ and the ‘everyday’ across philosophy, sociology, and cultural studies – a phenomenon itself worthy of consideration – Bill Bryson furnishes a fascinating social history of the home. A little rambling and self-indulgent in places, for sure, but eminently readable and never dull.

About the Book: Overview

Essentially, Bryson leads us on a leisurely meander through the Norfolk rectory (built in 1851) where he lives, room by room, using each space as a launchpad for exploring the origins of domesticity, the history of home life, and more besides.

About the Book: Main Themes

History, according to Bryson, is ‘masses of people doing ordinary things’ – eating, sleeping, making love, nurturing children, amusing themselves – and home, he claims, is ‘where history ends up’. A careful look at how we have lived and arranged our habitations not only allows us to discover those things which make home what it is today, but also offers a way of tracing the development of ideas. In this way, the ‘private life’ of the title is necessarily connected to wider accounts of the public sphere too. So, for instance, the chapter on the fusebox takes in the history of lighting, whaling, Britain during the blackout, and the early oil industry.

About the Book: Implications

Home shapes who we are – for good and ill. Whether we understand it primarily as our place of residence or in terms of people – those with whom we have a shared history – experiences of ‘home’ are deeply formative, connoting security and warmth for some and struggle and pain for others. Apart from providing an opportunity to look more closely at the minutiae that make up our everyday lives, Bryson teaches us much about observation, taking an interest in how things we might take for granted – electricity, chimneys, stairs – have revolutionised the way people live.

Questions to Ask While Reading

1. How have homes changed, and would you describe these changes as for the better or the worse?

2. What values about home life emerge in Bryson’s account?

3. As you read, how, if at all, are you looking differently at your home as a result?

Questions to Answer After Reading

1. How does the arrangement of your life in the home reflect your priorities and values?

2. What does the Bible have to say about the significance of home? For instance, how does home feature in the story and teaching of Jesus in the gospels?

3. How might we steer a course between the human need for ‘belonging’, which home helps to supply, and the obsessive drive for independence in home ownership?

4. How might the home function as a place of God’s presence and transformation?