The T & T Clark Blog

The Roots we need to cultivate

This is a guest post by Rebecca Rozelle-Stone and Lucian Stone, the editors of our recent publication on Simone Weil: Relevance of the Radical.

The Roots We Need to Cultivate:
Reflections on The Relevance of the Radical: Simone Weil 100 Year Later

It is more than a little ironic to devote a book of essays to a person who would maintain that the truly great and profound insights and works of beauty we have received from the past are “essentially anonymous.” Simone Weil (1909-1943), the late French philosopher, mystic, and social activist, would no doubt eclipse her personhood on this occasion of her 100th year, were she still alive. It was not uncommon for her to write things like, “May I disappear in order that those things that I see may become perfect in their beauty from the very fact that they are no longer things that I see.”¹ However, she never shied from elaborating her thoughts on ethics, religion, politics, force, suffering, work, beauty, and a multitude of other critical issues, and although in our book we reflected on these themes while acknowledging their unity in her life and her writings, the thesis of the collection is the universality – and in that sense, the anonymity – of Weil’s insights.

What can we learn from the Early Church?

 

A few weeks ago we celebrated the launch of Piotr Ashwin-Siejkowski's book on the Apostles' Creed in Piotr's Parish in Richmond (London). Piotr has done a wonderful job in inviting other scholars and friends to give a short paper each on the importance of the Early Church for us doing theology today.

To be frank - I was amazed not only by the quality and wide range of the responses, but also by the large number of people from the Parish and beyond who came to take part in this inspiring afternoon! 

The speakers were:

Revd Dr Andrew Gregory, University College, Oxford

Dr Marcus G. Plested, Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies, Cambridge

Revd Dr Paul Collins, University of Chichester

Martin Warner, University of Warwick

Revd Dr Darrell Hannah, Ascot

 

We have asked the contributors to send us their papers to be published here on the blog. So watch out for a mini-series of posts on the relevance of the Early Church!

 

 

SBL

Just a quick shout-out to the blogosphere. I will be at SBL in New Orleans this year, so if any of you have book ideas you'd like to discuss do drop me a line to set up an appointment.

I'm particularly looking for ideas for coursebooks and introductory texts, but monographs are always good too!

Email me: dmattos 'at' continuumbooks.com

Ezekiel: A Commentary - new in paperback, now available!

This commentary has classroom use written all over it, so putting Paul M. Joyce's Ezekiel: A Commentary into paperback was a no-brainer. At $49.95, this edition will certainly be more attainable to students, who are struggling to get through this most complex and controversial book of the prophets. Here's what some have already said:

"It is a rare commentator who combines judicious historical research with genuine literary sensitivity, and Paul Joyce has done just that in this fresh and deeply insightful theological interpretation of the book of Ezekiel. Rich in exegetical detail but never bogged down by it, Ezekiel: A Commentary gets to the heart of Ezekiel's message, never losing sight of the thorny and fundamental question for understanding the book, What is Ezekiel saying about God and God's relation to his people? How does this most difficult to understand prophet deal with the knotty questions of divine justice and power in the wake of the crisis of exile? Learned, informative and engagingly written, this commentary is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the prophet and his by turns perplexing, bizarre, unsettling and oddly comforting message for a time of national catastrophe."

-- J. Cheryl Exum, Professor of Biblical Studies, University of Sheffield

"Paul Joyce's commentary on Ezekiel is warmly commended.  It is unique in the way that it concentrates on Ezekiel's theology, thereby bringing his thought to life."

-- Jacob Milgrom, Professor Emeritus of Biblical Studies University of California at Berkeley

 

"Offers fresh insight into the book of Ezekiel. Joyce never merely repeats another scholar's opinion but always offers his own well-informed perspective. This book is a valuable addition to the literature devoted to the book of Ezekiel and it can be highly recommended."

 

--Lena-Sofia Tiemeyer, Expository Times

"Dr Joyce has put all students of prophecy in his debt with a clear, concise and up-to-date commentary on the book of Ezekiel. This is a thoroughly commended survey of recent studies of the most complex and controversial of the prophetic books of the Old Testament. It explains the problems and recounts and evaluates the proposed solutions to them. From a world where temple-symbolism, ritual-enforced holiness and grotesque visions provided an unfamiliar religious setting, Ezekiel emerges as a figure who upheld human responsibility and awareness of the fundamentally spiritual nature of hope. The commentary should do much to set Ezekiel as a worthy companion alongside the congenial figures of Isaiah and Jeremiah. "

--Ronald E. Clements, Emeritus Professor of Old Testament Studies, King’s College, University of London

Geoffrey Bromiley 1915-2009

We have learned with great sadness that Goeffrey Bromiley has passed away on August 7th.

Bromiley was not only a renowned church historian and historical theologian, he significantly influenced English-language Christianity over the past six decades, translating and editing—from several original languages—thousands upon thousands of pages of theological works from such notables as Karl Barth, Jacques Ellul, Helmut Thielicke, and others.

Among his many translations widely used by English-language readers are the 10-volumes of the Theologisches Wörterbuch des Neuetn Testaments (Theological Dictionary of the New Testament), edited by Gerhard Kittel; Wolfhart Pannenberg's three-volume Systematische Theology (Systematic Theology); and the Kommentar zum Römerbrief (Commentary on Romans) by Ernst Käsemann.

Geoffrey Bromiley, together with N. T. Torrance made an immesuarable contribution to the work of T&T Clark by his translating and editing of Karl Barth's Church Dogmatics, a work still used, loved and studied by many scholars world wide. 

You can find an obituary on the Fuller website here. 

Ben Myers has a piece here. 

Geoffey Bromiley's translation of the Church Dogmatics has just been published in a new Study Edition. Two of his other books are still in print with T&T Clark: Historical Theology: An Introduction and Introduction to the Theology of Karl Barth. 

     

Recently Published LNTS Volumes!

 

I am very pleased to announce that three new titles from the LNTS Series have been published recently.

 In Grammatical and Exegetical Study of New Testament Verbs of Transference Paul Danove carries out an exhaustive Case Frame analysis of the ditransitive verbs of transference in the New Testament. Danove uses this analysis to develop a set of descriptive guidelines for interpreting and translating the various usages of ditransitive verbs of transference and applies these rules in exegetical studies of the text of the New Testament to generate a Case Frame lexicon of the verbs of transference. This study distinguishes the requirements of the 127 New Testament verbs of transference according to four syntactic functions, twelve semantic functions, and 22 lexical realizations. Such approach permits a rigorous investigation of all occurrences of verbal complements with the same syntactic, semantic, and lexical attributes. However, not only this issue is discussed here as Danove also debates on the influence of one semantic feature [namely, an inherent quality of words that has implications for their lexical realization], as well as on the ‘intrusion’ of four grammatical constructions [in other words – an inherent structuring templates of grammar that governs syntactic, semantic, and lexical attributes and modify meaning] on each category of complements with the same syntactic, semantic and lexical description. This volume is a true contribution to the linguistic study of biblical Greek and to the exegesis of biblical texts.

Thematic Studies and Exegetical Studies are the two volumes of Early Christian Literature and Intertextuality, edited by Craig A. Evans and H. Daniel Zacharias. Both volumes are collections of essays, in which scholars seek to understand better the function of older scripture in later scripture and treat pre-Christian texts, alongside with Christian texts, which make use of older sacred tradition. The variety of texts discussed in these volumes is impressive, as papers cover the Dead Sea Scrolls, 1 Maccabees, Gospel of Matthew, Corinthians, Philo and Paul, to name just a few. Some essays are concerned with discreet bodies of writings; some with versions of scriptures, while others discuss how scripture is interpreted as part of apocalyptic and eschatology. Early Christian Literature and Intertextuality is filled with a variety of themes, including law, conversion, anthropology, paradise, Messianism; and many more.

Message of Acts in Codex Bezae. A Comparison with the Alexandrian Tradition, vol. 4, Acts 18.24-28.31: Rome, by Jenny Read-Heimerdinger and Josep Rius-Camps, is the final volume in the four-volume commentary on the Book of Acts. It presents a fresh look at the text of Codex Bezae and, though based on the Greek text, it aims to be accessible to those who are not familiar with Greek. Acts 18.24-28.31 cover the trial of Paul and the latest stage of the mission to the Gentiles, concluding in Paul’s unimpeded proclamation of the gospel in Rome. This impressive volume offers a side by side translation of the Vaticanus and Bezan manuscripts [or related alternatives after 22.29], which is followed by a full critical apparatus that deals with more technical matters, and a commentary which explores in detail the differences in the message of the two texts. The evaluation made by the author of Paul’s defence at his successive trials is particularly noteworthy as it appears to be considerably less favourable than commonly assumed.

All three volumes are now available to customers in the UK and those in the US will be able to purchase these books in August.

Judging a book by its cover!

I know, you should not (normally) judge a book by its cover. However, from time to time we publish a book with a cover that is quite exceptional (I find).

This one is hot from the press: Oliver Crisp's new book God Incarnate. As many of you will know, Oliver has many talents - apart from being a brilliant thinker and theologian he is also a painter. For this new book of "explorations in Christology" we asked him to provide a painting for the cover (not something we would ask many authors to do...). Oliver came up with this remarkable and powerful painting "Jesus of Nazareth".

It now has a special place on my desk. Can't stop gazing at it.

Online Review: Wesley - A Guide for the Perplexed

There is a nice review of Jason Vickers' Wesley: A Guide for the Perplexed in this edition of Themelios by Dave Hill:

"Vickers’ argument is both illuminating and persuasive. His decision to engage with Wesley’s ecclesiology and public theology provides a helpful corrective to pietistic trends within evangelicalism. Those looking for a hero of private, individualistic Christianity in Wesley should look again."

You can read the full review here. 

Joseph Ratzinger - Mapping a Theological Journey

This is a guest post by Gerard Mannion from the Catholic University in Leuven. Gerard is one of the editors of our forthcoming title The Ratzinger Reader due to be published in January 2010.

When Joseph Ratzinger was formally announced as Pope Benedict XVI from the balcony above St Peter’s Square on April 19th 2005, completing his long journey from being a pastor-theologian to the Chair of Peter, unlike either of his two immediate predecessors (indeed, in a global sense, any of his predecessors), the world already knew a great deal about him. For the first time in history, here was a pontiff whose books were being read across the globe, whose ideas were widely known, who even had his own online ‘fan club’. So, too were there many books and articles, both popular and scholarly about him. And all this prior to his elevation to Peter’s chair.

Of course, the attention afforded him since his elevation to the Pontificate has multiplied enormously, and the number of books about him is legion. So there are many volumes about Joseph Ratzinger the theologian in print already, including other collections of his writings. Exhaustive bibliographies have been produced and many are available freely on the World Wide Web. A complete edition of his entire published corpus is also presently in production. So why another book about him?

An Interview with Adam Kotsko

Adam Robinson has posted an Interview with Adam Kotsko on his blog. Adam is the author of Zizek and Theology in our Philosophy and Theology Series. 

Great interview, Adam!