The "Suffering Servant" text of Isaiah 53 is a perennial topic of debate within Jewish and Christian biblical theology. Is the Suffering Servant an individual, a group, or both? How and why did he suffer? What role did God play in his suffering? How is his suffering related to human salvation? The answers to these questions often divide Jewish and Christian readers of Scripture as well as Christians across different denominations. In particular, Isaiah 53 tends to inform different Christian accounts of the origin, nature, and saving value of Christ's Passion. The Suffering Servant in Aquinas contributes to the debate on the meaning of Isaiah 53 and its bearing upon the Passion of Christ by examining how St. Thomas Aquinas engaged this biblical text. This book examines every explicit reference to Isaiah 53 that Aquinas makes in his biblical commentaries, Commentary on the Sentences, Summa Theologiae, and Opuscula. It analyzes how and why Aquinas interprets Isaiah 53 in the ways that he does. It focuses especially upon how Aquinas draws upon Isaiah 53 to shed light on the saving mystery of Christ's Passion. Readers will see how Aquinas articulates the relationship between God's will and Christ's suffering, the diverse forms of Christ's pain, the degree to which the Passion can be considered a "punishment," and the saving functions of the Passion as example, merit, satisfaction, and sacrifice. This book makes an original contribution to the growing field of Biblical Thomism. It examines Aquinas's exegetical methods as well as the role of Scripture within his speculative theology. And it properly contextualizes Aquinas's exegesis by considering the differences between his Latin version of Isaiah 53 and contemporary renderings of Hebrew and Greek versions. Readers will see that Aquinas's Christological interpretations of Isaiah 53 are both exegetically intriguing and theologically rich.

Christians have called the Book of Isaiah a “fifth gospel” because of its striking foretelling of the principal mysteries of the life of Jesus. But how do these prophecies of a still far-off Savior relate to the circumstances of Isaiah’s own time? St. Thomas Aquinas’s Commentary on Isaiah is believed to be his first major theological work, produced as part of his academic training as a bachelor of theology. Carefully attending to the language and structure of Isaiah’s prophecy and using Scripture to shed light on Scripture, Aquinas explains how Isaiah’s message brought comfort to Israel and pointed forward to the coming of the Christ.

The description of the Suffering Servant in Isaiah 53 is a beloved biblical text with an unshakable place in the theology and self-understanding of the church. Since New Testament times, this text has fed the church's thinking about the person and work of Jesus Christ. Leading Old Testament theologian Gordon McConville offers a lively exposition of Isaiah 53 that is at once true to its Old Testament context, conversant with the history of interpretation, and deeply Christian. McConville illuminates the text's contribution to our apprehension of who Jesus is and explores the various ways the text can speak to us in faithfulness to its scriptural authority and character. The author explores the theological and spiritual issues that arise from the poetry's words and phrases and shows how this classic text can speak to the life of the church today. The Touchstone Texts series addresses key Bible passages, making high-quality biblical scholarship accessible to the church. The series editor is Stephen B. Chapman, Duke Divinity School.

The areas of discussion include the nature and method of theology, Scripture and its interpretation, Christology and the doctrine of the Trinity, moral theology, and the reading and use of theological dialogue partners. The essays are written by eminent systematic theologians, theological ethicists, and biblical scholars from a wide range of Christian traditions. The contributors to this volume appraise, extend and apply different aspects of the conception of "theological theology". That theology should in fact be thoroughly theological means that theological discourse gains little by conforming to the canons of inquiry that govern other disciplines; it should rather focus its attention on its own unique subject, God and all things in relation to God, and should follow procedures that allow it to access and bear witness to these realities.

This book provides a critical study of the main Christian doctrines as understood and explained by Thomas Aquinas. The whole Thomistic revival of the last century focused almost exclusively on Aquinas as the Christian philosopher. Thus books and articles developed his understanding of being, his epistomology, natural theology, etc. However little has been done, even to this day, by way of examining Aquinas' teaching on the major Christian doctrines. This book of essays by an international team of recognised scholars will help fill this gap. Such a book will be indispensable in every theological library.

Examines the history and development of ecological theological anthropology and how it engages human suffering, so that people of faith can better understand the suffering inherent to earth's creative processes and that inflicted by human sin.

In this volume, an expert theologian addresses the key soteriological theme of atonement. Atonement and the Life of Faith provides substantive engagement with the doctrine of the atonement, including sections on the Apostles' Creed, Scripture, the history of the doctrine, constructive dogmatics, and Christian praxis. Focusing on the third part of the Apostles' Creed, it explores how atonement relates to the church, the Holy Spirit, and the Christian life. Each section offers a constructive departure from trends in contemporary works on the subject. This book shows students how to integrate theology into the life of faith and demonstrates how theological thinking is a part of Christian worship. Each unit begins with a brief section pointing readers to a familiar hymn, poem, or liturgy. The Soteriology and Doxology series consists of introductory textbooks that cover key topics in soteriology. Volumes provide substantive treatments of doctrine while pointing to the setting of theology in doxology. Series editors are Kent Eilers (Huntington University) and Kyle C. Strobel, (Biola University).

Improve your service. While many claim to offer models of leadership suitable for contemporary society, this book goes a notch higher by doing so through the prism of Jesus's servant leadership. As the servant-leader par excellence, Jesus not only taught but demonstrated service by stooping down and washing his disciples’ feet. This book distills the experience and wisdom of men and women who have practically benefited from Jesus’s leadership. Reflective of the global church, all the authors speak of a servant leadership inspired by love, honoring of God, humble in approach, and seeking the welfare of others without neglecting a healthy self-regard. Whether you work on-site or remotely, you will find the grist for robust leadership. This book is a must-read for theologians, businesspeople, educators, students, and Christian practitioners seeking to make a difference in our times.

How do human beings today receive divine revelation? Where and in what ways is it mediated so that all generations can hear the fullness of the gospel? In this volume, distinguished theologian Matthew Levering shows that divine revelation has been truthfully mediated through the church, the gospel, and Scripture so that we can receive it in its fullness today. Levering engages past and present approaches to revelation across a variety of traditions, offering a comprehensive, historical study of all the key figures and perspectives. His thorough analysis results in an alternative approach to prevailing views of the doctrine and points to its significance for the entire church.