Studying lectionary texts? Here are some starting places for study at ATLA this week. If you are the graduate of an accredited U.S. theological school, you may have free access to these articles through your school. Check ATLAS access options. You can find full lists of ATLAS recommended articles for this week at The Text This Week's page for this week's texts:
http://www.textweek.com/yeara/adventa2.htm
Advent 2A
December 8, 2013
Allen, Ronald J., "Removing Anti-Jewish Toxins from Advent Preaching," The Living Pulpit, 1997.
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“…the preacher can emphasize that while the church legitimately uses the prophetic passages to interpret the significance of Jesus, these texts have a life and integrity of their own. Indeed, most of the predictive prophetic texts in Advent look for a renewed social world whereas most Advent preaching concentrates on the regeneration of personal worlds.”
Alison, James, "Prodded to Life," The Christian Century, 2007.
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“We are promised that the One who is to come longs for peace and seeks to make it possible.”
Beuken, Willem A.M., "The Emergence of the Shoot of Jesse (Isaiah 11:1-16): An Eschatological or a Now Event?" Calvin Theological Journal, 2004.
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“Whether one still awaits the Messiah or one recognizes him in Jesus of Nazareth, Isaiah 11 anticipates, according to this explanation, a completely new future in which God's involvement with the world is to reach its completion.”
Evans, Craig A., "Jesus and Justice," Ex Auditu, 2006.
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Lee, Max J., "Response to Evans," Ex Auditu, 2006.
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“Jesus' proclamation of the rule (and justice) of God did not come out of thin air. His language and themes are deeply rooted in Israel's ancient and sacred Scripture. This is not to say that there is no innovation to be found in his teaching; it is only to say that the teaching of Jesus cannot properly be understood apart from careful consideration of its scriptural and traditional antecedents.”
Janzen, Gerald, "Divine Warfare and Nonresistance,"Direction, 2003.
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“On the matter of nonresistance, the theme of spiritual warfare demonstrates a continuity between the Old and New Testaments.”
McCann, J. Clinton, Jr., "Preaching on Psalms for Advent,"Journal for Preachers, 1992. (Section begins on page 13)
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Section on this text begins on page 13. “Psalm 72 is eschatological. As Robert Alter suggests, it is an example ‘of poetic form used to reshape the world in the light of belief.’”
Mays, James Luther, "'In a Vision': The Portrayal of the Messiah in the Psalms," Ex Auditu, 1991.
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“These then are some of the principal features of the vision of the relation between the Messiah and God in the Psalms. It is of course an Old Testament vision. It is articulated in the vocabulary of its time and in the idiom of the protagonists in which it was given human expression. But its royal, political, military language is not irrelevant as long as the great metaphor of the reign of God is useful to the thinking of faith seeking understanding.”
Houston, Walter J., "The King's Preferential Option for the Poor: Rhetoric, Ideology and Ethics in Psalm 72," Biblical Interpretation, 1999.
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“It is my intention to respond to the challenge posed by the materialist interpretation of the Bible practised by Mosala, Gottwald (e.g., Gottwald 1992) and others. I am unable to treat texts on this subject as disembodied texts for whose meaning the reader is solely responsible, as much recent literary criticism has suggested. In these texts someone is trying to persuade me of something.”
Cousar, Charles B., "Disruptive Hope: New Testament Texts for Advent," Journal for Preachers, 2001. (Section begins on page 28.)
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“Romans 15:4-13, the epistolary lesson for the Sunday, may seem to have an unusual beginning point, but, as assigned, it begins and ends with hope. The scriptures are written to evoke steadfastness and hope (15:4), and the concluding benediction is prayer for hope (15:13). In both cases, hope is the gift of God.”
Horrell, David G., "The Peaceable, Tolerant Community and the Legitimate Role of the State: Ethics and Ethical Dilemmas in Romans 12:1-15:13," Review & Expositor, 2003.
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Abstract: “These four chapters of Romans constitute a coherent section of ethical instruction which aims to foster the solidarity of the Christian community, to legitimate a degree of diversity in its convictions and practices, and also to advise Christians on relations with outsiders, specifically with the state. The community so envisioned, which unites Jew and Gentile without erasing their differences, is an embodiment of the gospel presented throughout Romans. Particular attention is given to the notorious Rom 13:1-7 and to the place of this text in its literary context. While the Christian community is presented as a non-conformist, non-violent community (Rom 12:2,17-21), the text also sanctions the use of force on the part of the state (Rom 13:4). Thus it raises difficult questions concerning the ways in contemporary readers, whose membership of the Christian church does not preclude participation as citizens of their societies, should discern their responsibilities.”
Patte, Daniel, "Thinking Mission with Paul and the Romans: Romans 15:1-33," Mission Studies, 2006.
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Abstract: “I write these notes on Romans 15:1-33 (read together with 1:1-15 and other passages of Romans) as resources for a group discussion of Romans 15 and its teaching about mission for the group's life context. I presuppose that the group will want to have three rounds of discussion. According to the size of the group these three rounds can take place in one long session - with the larger group breaking down in smaller groups and coming back together three times, for instance during an evening - or in three shorter sessions. The first round-table discussion is focused on the group members' first readings of Romans 15. The second round-table involves comparing the members' readings with those of scholars. For this purpose, since there are presently three types of scholarly readings of Romans, I present them, underscoring the different ways they conceive of Paul's teaching about mission. Throughout I also presuppose that each member of the group is committed to "read with" the other members this text of Paul as a Scripture about mission, a process that requires a third round-table.”
Carter, Warren, "Matthew's Gospel: An Anti-Imperial/Imperial Reading," Currents in Theology and Mission, 2007. See entire issue of Currents in Theology and Mission 34, image focus on Matthew's gospel.
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“Matthew's plot is an act of imperial negotiation. Unfolding through six stages, its central dynamic comprises conflict between Jesus and the Rome-allied (Jerusalem-based) leaders. It ends with God raising Jesus, crucified by the imperial elite.”
Keener, Craig S., "'Brood of Vipers' (Matthew 3.7; 12.34; 23.33)," Journal for the Study of the New Testament, 2005.
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Abstract: “According to a widespread tradition in the ancient Mediterranean world (attested in Herodotus, Aelian, Pliny and other writers), vipers killed their mother during their birth, hence were associated with parent-murder. Ancient writers sometimes used parent-murder as an example of one of the worst conceivable crimes, one that invited divine vengeance. Whereas Matthew's source may apply the image of vipers' offspring generally to the crowds listening to John the Baptist, Matthew applies it specifically to the Pharisees in all three of the passages where he recounts the image. In two of these instances the Pharisees claim honorable descent; Matthew ironically inverts the value of this claim through this image of vipers' parent-murder. Matthew utilizes the image for his intra-Jewish polemic, contending that his Jewish-Christian hearers are truer heirs of the patriarchs and prophets than the Pharisees are.”
Kelhoffer, James A., "Early Christian Studies among the Academic Disciplines: Reflections on John the Baptist's 'Locusts and Wild Honey,'" Biblical Research, 2005.
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Abstract: “This article reflects on the methodologies employed in the author's recent monograph on John the Baptist's "locusts and wild honey" with an eye to six larger issues of interest to New Testament and early Christian studies in interdisciplinary perspective. These issues concern the ongoing need for philological refinement; moving beyond 'parallelomania' to cogent argumentation and elucidation; the use of sociological data from recent and contemporary, pre-industrialized peoples; John the Baptist (and other biblical personalities) in patristic interpretation; in the early church, biblical literature construed as a source of paideicr, and food, culture and theology: conceptions of food in antiquity.”
Vinson, Richard, "'King of the Jews': Kingship and Anti-Kingship Rhetoric in Matthew's Birth, Baptism, and Transfiguration Narratives," Review & Expositor, 2007.
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“In Lectionary Year A, between Advent and Epiphany, lectionary preachers will have several occasions to reflect on what Matthew means by calling Jesus "king/7 "Messiah/7 and other related terms.”
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