The issue of wealth and poverty and its relationship to Christian faith is as ancient as the New Testament and reaches even further back to the Hebrew Scriptures. From the beginnings of the Christian movement, the issue of how to deal with riches and care for the poor formed an important aspect of Christian discipleship. This careful study shows how early Christians adopted, appropriated, and transformed the Jewish and Greco-Roman moral teachings and practices of giving and patronage. As Helen Rhee illuminates the early Christian understanding of wealth and poverty, she shows how it impacted the formation of Christian identity. She also demonstrates the ongoing relevance of early Christian thought and practice for the contemporary church.

There has been much discussion of two dimensions of the kingdom of God in scholarship: the temporal (already/not yet) and the embodied (spirit/flesh). Russell proposes that there is a third parallel dimension, a social dimension. Using Victor Turner’s concepts of structure, antistructure, and liminality, Russell explores how these concepts are consistently expressed in Jesus’ teaching, in Paul’s writing, and through the writers of the second and third centuries. She demonstrates how, from the very beginning of the Jesus movement, Christ followers were unique, not because their members were to live liminal lives apart from structure, but because they lived out new antistructural relationships within existing structures and thus transformed them. They lived liminally within their structure.

There is a growing recognition that God’s design is for us to read Scripture alongside the whole church in all of its cultural and linguistic diversity. Exploring the New Testament in Asia is a textbook for students and scholars of the New Testament to help the church hear and see the good news of Jesus anew. This collection of essays offers theological reflections on New Testament themes from Asian perspectives, while addressing contextual issues in light of the New Testament. Touching on topics such as salvation, holiness, poverty, ethnic tensions, reconciliation, honoring elders, persecution, and hospitality, the scholars in this book demonstrate the importance of a varied contemporary context for understanding the New Testament. The result is a theological contribution that is both contextually relevant and biblically faithful.

The Pauline collection for the poor in Jerusalem is the most famous example of financial support for geographically distant groups in early Christianity. Recent assessments of the Pauline collection have focused on patronage to explain the social relations between Jerusalem and the Pauline groups and the strategies adopted by Paul. Through a comparison with the Greco-Roman world and a close reading of the texts, this study challenges the recent approach and proposes that other factors shaped Paul’s stance. Paul was interested in reassuring the Corinthians about the financial outcome of the collection and dispelling doubts that he might take advantage of them. The collection was an action modeled on divine generosity and an exchange within a reciprocal relationship between Christian groups. This study also surveys intergroup support between Christian groups in the first three centuries CE. This practice involved churches from most of the Mediterranean Basin and was known even outside of Christian circles. Transfers of money were organized according to a consistent pattern modeled on local charitable practices. The Pauline collection had similar characteristics and can be seen as part of this widespread economic practice.

The long series of studies of John Law's monetary theory and practice point to two almost constant interpretations of the Controller General of the Duke of Orleans' finances. The first sees Law as an unscrupulous banker, a wizard of lies; the second, on the contrary, appreciates his efforts to create a new monetary system that would generate full employment in an economically compromised France. However, Law's creation of new credit institutions — different from the banks of the time — and the reasons for the unfortunate end to his social and economic life, have aroused little interest. This work thus offers an in-depth analysis of the theories expressed in his most important work, Money and Trade, by examining the Bank of Turin experience and the reasons Law’s work failed in France due to the acquisition of national public debt.

Urban poverty in the developed world is an ever-present problem, and Christian approaches to poverty throughout history have much to teach us. The practice of almsgiving, which is the consistent practice of giving and sharing resources to meet the needs of the poor, is a sadly neglected part of this Christian heritage. This book explores the Christian lifestyle of almsgiving through the study of John Chrysostom. The sermons and writings of John Chrysostom (c.347-407 CE), pastor in Antioch and archbishop of Constantinople, contain perhaps the greatest concentration of teaching on almsgiving in all of Christian literature. John's teaching on almsgiving was both biblical and practical, and his ministry helped strengthen care for the poor throughout the Roman Empire of late antiquity. John preached his sermons to congregations filled with people who lived very comfortable lives. From his perspective, the churches of Antioch and Constantinople had grown complacent regarding poverty, when in fact God had called them to become a harbor for the poor.

Beginning with Jesus's ministry in the villages of Galilee and continuing over the course of the first three centuries as the movement expanded geographically and numerically throughout the Roman world, the Christians organized their house churches, at least in part, to provide subsistence insurance for their needy members. While the Pax Romana created conditions of relative peace and growing prosperity, the problem of poverty persisted in Rome's fundamentally agrarian economy. Modeling their economic values and practices on the traditional patterns of the rural village, the Christians created an alternative subsistence strategy in the cities of the Roman empire by emphasizing need, rather than virtue, as the main criterion for determining the recipients of their generous giving.

This study examines how Cyprian of Carthage, the most significant bishop in the early Latin tradition, appropriates the canonical Paul. Cyprian, like Paul, is a pastoral theologian, so his pastoral concerns provide a helpful lens through which to study his use of the apostle. These include divine truth and eternal glory; the church’s unity, ministry and sacraments; discipline and repentance; and wealth and welfare. Examining Cyprian’s use of Paul in these areas allows us to move beyond a simple literal/allegorical paradigm to appreciate the wide range of reading strategies used by Cyprian: model, image, maxim, title, contextual exegesis, direct application, prophetic fulfilment and qualification. It also provides a different perspective on Paul than the one arrived at by privileging a handful of texts. This study of Cyprian’s appropriation of Pauline texts therefore illuminates the interplay between text, context and theology in his exegesis. It also deepens our understanding of the early North African hermeneutical tradition and the early reception of Paul.

Adebayo, a young adventurous teacher meets Toro, an upper class lady. Cupid's arrow hits home, setting off ripples of intrigues, tensions and anticipations. Adebayo mounts a passionate love campaign but Cupid's match does not meet the approval of Teju; Toro's brother who safekeeps his sister for a more worthy partner. Adebayo also faces opposition from a colleague and a student whose obsessive crush on him leads her to spin scandalous webs. A lost pregnancy; a kidnap; an atmosphere of blackmail and pretence, two lovers find themselves at war with each other.

A successful entrepreneur and nonprofit founder shares his plan of action to help the American economy by assisting America’s poor. John Hope Bryant, successful self-made businessman and founder of the nonprofit Operation HOPE, says business and political leaders are ignoring the one force that could truly re-energize the stalled American economy: the poor. If we give poor communities the right tools, policies, and inspiration, he argues, they will be able to lift themselves up into the middle class and become a new generation of customers and entrepreneurs. Raised in poverty-stricken, gang-infested South Central Los Angeles, Bryant saw firsthand how our institutions have abandoned the poor. He details how business loans, home loans, and financial investments have vanished from their communities. After decades of deprivation, the poor lack bank accounts, decent credit scores, and any real firsthand experience of how a healthy free enterprise system functions. Bryant radically redefines the meaning of poverty and wealth. (It’s not just a question of finances; it’s values too.) He exposes why attempts to aid the poor so far have fallen short and offers a way forward: the HOPE Plan, a series of straightforward, actionable steps to build financial literacy and expand opportunity so that the poor can join the middle class. Fully seventy percent of the American economy is driven by consumer spending, but more and more people have too much month at the end of their money. John Hope Bryant aspires to “expand the philosophy of free enterprise to include all of God's children” and create a thriving economy that works not just for the one percent or even the ninety-nine percent but for the one hundred percent. This is a free enterprise approach to solving the problem of poverty and raising up a new America. “Economic immobility is the defining issue of America in the twenty-first century. John Hope Bryant makes an engaging case for why we must make our economy work for everyone. How the Poor Can Save Capitalism is a must-read for business leaders, policymakers, and community leaders who want to make the American Dream a reality for all our children.” —Ben Jealous, former CEO, NAACP “John and I want the same things. And the goals of this book are the same goals of my Rebuild the Dream campaign. He has provided the road map to economic recovery for this country at a time when economic inequality is at its peak. I, for one, will be following the steps laid out in the HOPE Plan.” —Van Jones, former Presidential Advisor to Barack Obama and current host of CNN’s Crossfire