Mark's 'biography' of Jesus is the earliest of the four gospels, and influenced them all. The distinctive feature of this biography is the quality of 'good news', which presupposes a world dominated by the forces of evil. John Painter shows how the rhetorical and dramatic shaping of the book emphasises the conflict of good and evil at many levels - between Jesus and the Jewish authorities, Jesus and the Roman authorities, and the conflict of values within the disciples themselves. These matters of content are integral to this original approach to Mark's theodicy, while the stylistic issue raises the question of Mark's intended readership. John Painter's succinct yet thorough treatment of Mark's gospel opens up not only these rhetorical issues, but the social context of the gospel, which Painter argues to be that of the Pauline mission to the nations.

This book offers a new, multidisciplinary way of thinking about the Kingdom of God which fully recognises its sociological and spatial significance in performing boundaries of the sacred. Though spatial-critical perspectives have been increasingly recognised as important across many disciplines, the significance of non-physical religious spaces and their correspondence to boundaries of the sacred has not been explored fully, and never using the specific example of the Kingdom of God. Wenell considers the diverse and sometimes contradictory articulation of the Kingdom in the gospels as well as the ways that Kingdom language frames contemporary ethical debates. Her study of the Kingdom is located within the wider study of religion, affording the opportunity to investigate connections between space, belonging and the sacred. Wenell structures her investigation in four key areas that engage with the Kingdom in different, but theoretically interconnected ways. She begins by setting out a theory of sacred space that is capable of including the Kingdom, and establishing key concepts such as boundary, performance, physical/non-physical spatiality, spokespersons and controversy. Wenell then focuses on the synoptic gospels and the origins of the Kingdom, noting aspects of uncertainty as well as areas of agreement and controversy over boundaries of the sacred in these uniquely interrelated texts. The third and fourth areas of investigation move into cultural reception, considering instances where the Kingdom is formative for identity and ethical relationships both in individual and wider group belonging terms. Specific reference is made to issues of ethical consuming and displacement, placing the Kingdom in dialogue with Bauman's discussion of a society of consumers, and Arendt's notion of equitable co-habitation of the earth.

The Kingdom Within will change your life! The book resulted from a spiritual transformation that occured in 1989. After twenty years of practice and study a profound experience with higher reality suddenly manifested after a seven mile run near my home at that time in East Tennessee, USA. Suddenly my conscious awareness expanded beyond my body to include all the surroundings of the country side. I never spoke of the significance of this transformation at that time because I did not know how to put into words a spiritual realization that cant be adequately expressed in human terms. It wasnt until 1995 that the full impact of the now present awakened eternal consciousness stablilized within my being. It would have been very easy to just bath in the radiance of Gods image because His love is so fufilling yet the pressure within increased to the point in 2002 that it was time to put into words the way to the inner kingdom of eternal life. The book is for you! It stills the chaos in your life by showing you how to live and what wonder of wonders was placed in all humans at the time of their birth. If you are serious about the search for eternal life NOW and how to understand the ways of the world you need the message in this book! The Kingdom Within is a book about L E Maddens spiritual transformation that occurred 1989. He spent twenty years previous to this event studying the major spiritual teachings of the world. Why wait so many years to let others know? The book tells the reason for the delay and its importance for a complex society. With forty years of spiritual depth and wisdom presented to a spiritual seeker the steps to obtain an enlightened awarness in this lifetime is now possible! Sitting in silence for several years contemplating the meaning of life the full measure of this revelation is now available for all to use. L E Madden has worked in management and engineering capacities for industrial manufacturing firms since 1982. Balancing spirit and business he has successfully integrated the life-changing spiritual transformation of 1989 into daily life. He presently works for a Fortune 100 company as a senior process engineer. Married since 1977 with two successful adult children, he lives near Kansas City, Missouri.

Ladd's magisterial work on New Testament theology has well served scores of seminary students since 1974. Now this comprehensive, standard evangelical text has been carefully revised by Hagner to include an update of Ladd's survey of the history of the field of New Testament theology, an augmented bibliography, and an entirely new subject index.

Get ready for Judgment Day. For centuries, humans have dreaded—and anticipated—the end of the world. These fears—fueled by natural disasters, famines, world wars, and the writings of people like Nostradamus and Jeane Dixon—have left us with more questions than answers. In The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to the Last Days, Richard H. Perry goes to the definitive source on the subject: the Bible itself. • While the book is as exciting as an action/adventure novel, the author’s primary source is the Bible, and he guides his readers to an understanding of the Last Days by using related Scripture. • Covers Bible basics and the Signs of the Times. • Includes timelines of every stage leading up to the Last Days and after.

Scholarship on the Gospel of Mark has long been convinced of the paradoxical description of two of its primary themes, christology and discipleship. This book argues that paradoxical language pervades the entire narrative, and that it serves a theological purpose in describing God's activity. Part One focuses on divine action present in Mark 4:10-12. In the first paradox, Mark portrays God's revelatory acts as consistently accompanied by concealment. The second paradox is shown in the various ways in which divine action confirms, yet counters, scripture. Finally, Mark describes God's actions in ways that indicate both wastefulness and goodness; deeds that are further illuminated by the ongoing, yet defeated, presence of evil. Part Two demonstrates that this paradoxical language is widely attested across Mark's passion narrative, as he continues to depict God's activity with the use of the three paradoxes observed in Mark 4. Through paradoxical narrative, Mark emphasizes God's transcendence and presence, showing that even though Jesus has brought revelation, a complete understanding of God remains tantalizingly out of their grasp until the eschaton (4:22).

Reprint of the original, first published in 1843.