This volume examines the 'counter-narratives' of the core Christian story, proposed by texts from Nag Hammadi and elsewhere. A noteworthy body of highly respected scholars examine material that is sometimes difficult and often overlooked, contributing to the ongoing effort to integrate Nag Hammadi and related literature into the mainstream of New Testament and early Christian studies. By retracing the major elements of the Christian story in sequence, they are able to discuss how and why each aspect was disputed on inner-Christian grounds, and to reflect on the different accounts of Christian identity underlying these disputes. Together the essays in this book address a central issue: towards the end of the second century, Irenaeus could claim that the overwhelming majority of Christians throughout the world were agreed on a version of the core Christian story which is still recognisable today. Yet, as Irenaeus concedes and as the Nag Hammadi texts have confirmed, there were many who wished to tell the core Christian story differently. Those who criticized and rejected the standard story did so not because they were adherents of another religion, 'Gnosticism', but because they were Christians who believed that the standard account was wrong at point after point. Ranging from the Gospels of Judas and Mary to Galatians and Ptolemy's Letter to Flora, this volume provides a fascinating analysis of how the Christian story as we know it today developed against counter-readings from other early Christian traditions.

The disunity of the church is a social and theological scandal for it betrays the prayer of Jesus that we "will be one . . . so that the world will believe" (John 17:21). As a Baptist whose academic background focused on the Orthodox Church and whose teaching has included Catholic and Protestant contexts, this division is for Elizabeth Newman personal and professional. Attending to the Wounds on Christ's Body rests on the conviction that the broad tradition of Christianity already contains resources to heal the church, namely the saints of the church. Newman examines especially how Teresa of Avila (1515-1582) speaks to the whole church today in the midst of political, economic, and ecclesial brokenness. Teresa's reliance upon three scriptural figures--dwellings, marriage, and pilgrimage--helps make sense of an ecclesial way of life that is inherently unitive, a unity that stands in contrast to that of the nation-state or the global market. Teresa's scriptural journey offers an alternative at once liturgical, political, and economic. This Doctor of the Church provides "medicine" that can repair wounds of division that separate brothers and sisters in Christ.

Father Robert Hater strongly believes that ?story without basic belief lacks direction, and basic belief without story is lifeless.? He illustrates this relationship between story and Catholic belief with sensitive and powerful narratives, including the account of his own mother's death and its impact on him. This is an invaluable resource for anyone involved in conveying the story of Jesus and the church: pastors, homilists, catechetical leaders, catechists and teachers, parish ministers, and families, as well as all who wish to find God in their own stories.

This book gives a critical assessment of Paul van Buren's contribution to the Jewish-Christian dialogue, and attempts an original contribution of its own. The main body of the work is concerned with van Buren's 'A Theology of the Jewish-Christian Reality', a systematic rethinking of Christianity vis-a-vis Judaism in a Post-Holocaust world. The premise on which van Buren's rethinking of Christianity rests is that the covenant between God and the Jewish people is eternal. The author suggests an alternative theory which overlaps with the relationship between Judaism and Christianity.

In Scripting Jesus, Michael White, famed scholar of early Christian history, reveals how the gospel stories of Jesus were never meant to be straightforward historical accounts, but rather were scripted and honed as performance pieces for four different audiences with four different theological agendas. As he did as a featured presenter in two award-winning PBS Frontline documentaries (“From Jesus to Christ” and “Apocalypse!”), White engagingly explains the significance of some lesser-known aspects of The New Testament; in this case, the development of the stories of Jesus—including how the gospel writers differed from one another on facts, points of view, and goals. Readers of Elaine Pagels, Marcus Borg, John Dominic Crossan, and Bart Ehrman will find much to ponder in Scripting Jesus.

Vols. 1-26 include a supplement: The University pulpit, vols. [1]-26, no. 1-661, which has separate pagination but is indexed in the main vol.

2000 Years and Beyond brings together some of the most eminent thinkers of our time - specialists in philosophy, theology, anthropology and cultural theory. In a horizon-scanning work, they look backwards and forwards to explore what links us to the matrix of the Judaeo-Christian tradition from which Western cultural identity has evolved. Their plural reflections raise searching questions about how we move from past to future - and about who 'we' are. What do the catastrophes of the twentieth century signify for hopes of progress? Can post - Enlightment humanism and its notion of human nature survive without faith? If the 'numinous magic global capitalism' is our own giant shadow cast abroad, does that shadow offer hope enough of a communal future? Has the modern, secularized West now outgrown its originating faith matrix? Often controversial and sometimes visionary, these seven new essays ask: how do we tell - and rewrite - the story of the Common Era? Introduced by Paul Gifford, and discussed in a lively dialogic conclusion, they add their distinctive voices to a debate of profound and urgent topicality.