If you have read Sobrino's "Jesus the Liberator" you are in for a surprise is his new book "Christ the Liberator." It is a more accessible book for a fundamental theology than "Jesus the Liberator." I would call it a MUST READ for anyone working in or thinking about theology. It is also so clearly written and clearly translated that it is suitable for the general reader.

Derhetorizing Paul: A Dynamic Perspective on Pauline Theology and the Law by Lauri Thuren (Senior Research Fellow, Academy of Finland) is an informed and informative examination of Paul's letters which asserts that readers must look past their rhetoric to unearth true and accurate Pauline theology. Claiming that Paul's search to find consistency in the Old Testament was the crucial motivation for Paul's rebellion against the Law, Derhetorizing Paul is a meticulously written, persuasively argued theological accounting that is highly recommended for personal reading lists and seminary reference collections.

Having studied religious/philosophical discourse for decades, I was electrified intellectually and spiritually by the brilliance of existential thought in every selection in this anthology! Not for casual review or the beginning contemplative, the demand for a complex conceptual imagination, a consuming passion for Being, and plasticity of one's most cherished personal beliefs is required. This is an excellent introduction to Tillich's depth and style. Positively transforming!

I am saddened to see both that this fascinating little book has gone out of print and that it has been equally ignored by the theological community. Heinz W. Cassirer was the son of one of the most famous Kantian scholars of the 20th century, Ernst Cassirer. Like his father, he was for many decades a dedicated Kantian in his moral philosophy. Briefly, this entailed a belief about the possibility of fulfilling the demands of the moral law. Kant believed that the moral law placed an inescapable demand on every individual to fulfill its demands, and he further believed that the "ought" of the moral law logically meant that we "could" keep its demands. In other words, every individual is essentially capacitated to be a moral individual. Kant also felt that it was undeniable that none of us actually was able to keep the demands of the moral law because of our sensual nature. But since the demands of the moral law were inescapable, he believed that the demands of the moral law entailed human immortality, that in an afterlife where we would no longer be enthralled to a sensual nature--i.e., a body--we would be able to fully keep the laws demands. Still, the emphasis is on each individual's innate capacity to fulfill the laws demands, whether in this life or in an afterlife.

In middle age, however, Cassirer began to read the New Testament for the first time. In it, he was fascinated by a different account of the moral capacity of human nature. Unlike Kant, St. Paul was struck by the innate incapacity of human beings to do not merely what the moral law demanded, but what they wanted themselves to do. Gradually, and against his own intellectual inclinations, Cassirer came to feel that Paul, and not Kant, provided the more accurate understanding of human nature. This, of course, opens up the possibility greatly at odds with the overly rationalized nonsectarian religion one finds in Kant. In other words, it drives one more to a religion that sees the need for a redeemer as much as a legislator, Paul's own Christian faith.

Although Cassirer doesn't seem to be aware to be especially aware of his work, his book points very much in the direction of Kierkegaard's work, in particular PHILOSOPHICAL FRAGMENTS and THE SICKNESS UNTO DEATH. In both books Kierkegaard displays the logic of Christianity, in which people who are incapable of meeting the demands of the moral law are brought into contact with a redeemer who is the only remedy. I would have loved to see Cassirer explore this, but he doesn't seem to be aware of the sharp parallels to his own reading of Kant and St. Paul.

This book started a turning point in my Christian walk. It is firmly grounded in Biblical truths and it is easy to understand. Each chapter explained a common misconception or problem and what the Bible has to say about it. Although the last section of the book discussing the different disorders wasn't what I was needing, the first 2 sections really hit home. As a new Christian, it layed a foundation that was solidly based on scripture. It dispelled misconceptions that I had and even brought up a few that I didn't know I had! I believe that this book has something for everyone. This a book that I will refer back to often.

If you have not "talked" to God for a long time or you "think" you don't have time to study Bible, grab one and read it! It's excellent!!!!!

Massey is always very adamant and almost ruthless in approach. That is NOT why I think this is an excellent book, though. Using his immense skill as an Egyptologist, Massey shows us incredible links to the Jesus story. Like other books I have read on paganism, the linkage is unignorable. One must read this to gain a perspective on the links between ancient religions and Christianity.

Paul Barnett is also known as Bishop Paul Barnett of the diocese of Sydney, Australia. Apart from his theological qualifications, he has a doctrate in Ancient History and lectures at Macquarie University and Moore Theological College. Barnett has addressed the views of John Spong (and others) in specific and general ways in this book (and others). His thesis is that the life, death and resurrection of Jesus is not only historically defensible - and that conversely other views (such that it is all a myth etc), are indefensible and do not come to grips with the phenomenon of early Christianity attested to both in Biblical sources and extra biblical sources. Bishop Barnett's careful scholarship takes on the selective and naive historical analysis of Spong, Theiring and the Jesus Seminar. Barnett shows that the historical Christian explanation for the events of the New Testament are water tight. You would use this book if you wanted to seriously investigate the claims of the Bible, devoid of modern gnosticism (Spong), reductionist emoiricism (Jesus Seminar) or pure speculation (Theiring). This is a book for the serious sercher of the facts of the matter.

James Dunn is, in my opinion, a model scholar. He begins from liberal presuppositions but his conclusions tend to be quite conservative.

As a liberal, Dunn does not assume that the Bible is inerrant; for each issue he raises, he proceeds to examine the evidence in detail. But despite his liberal presuppositions, he always employs careful exegesis. He does not make unwarranted leaps from the biblical text to supposed extra-biblical parallels, but closely examines the biblical text in its own light before extending his inquiry cautiously outwards.

It is widely recognized that there is a large conceptual leap between Jesus (as presented in the Gospels) and Paul. Jesus lived as a Jew, in obedience to the Law of Moses, and he restricted his mission to "the lost sheep of the house of Israel" (Mt. 15:24). Paul devoted himself primarily to the conversion of Gentiles. He held that Gentiles could be saved apart from circumcision and other works of the Law, asserting that Christ was "the end of the Law" (Ro. 10:3).

Dunn argues that the conceptual link is not as unbridgable as many scholars assume. Indeed, he argues that Jesus' attitude toward the Law constitutes a bridge to later Christianity. In Dunn's opinion, Paul was merely following Jesus' position to its logical conclusion, responding to issues as they subsequently arose in early Church history in a way that was consistent with Jesus' own stance.

For example, Dunn examines Mark 7 in detail. (There Jesus is reported to have "declared all foods clean".) Dunn does not assume that Mark's report is historical, but weighs the evidence pro and con. He ultimately concludes that Jesus made a somewhat ambiguous statement. Mark interpreted it one way; Matthew interpreted it somewhat differently. It was the ambiguity of Jesus' position which gave rise to subsequent controversy in the Church. Yet Jesus did lay a foundation for the position ultimately expounded by Paul.

Such a brief summary does not do justice to Dunn's approach, however. The value of the book is in its detailed argumentation. In addition to his careful exegesis, Dunn builds on the research of E. P. Sanders on extra-biblical Jewish literature -- though Dunn reaches different conclusions than those of Sanders. At various points, Dunn explores the intertestamental history recorded in 1 and 2 Maccabees, he discusses "Jesus, the Pharisees, and sinners" -- in direct response to Sanders -- and he talks about the Hellenists (see Acts 6:1ff.) as a historical bridge between Jesus and Paul. He also attempts to unravel controversies in the early Church -- notably that between Paul, Barnabas, Peter and James (see Gal. 2).

The net effect is to set Jesus in a broad historical context: Dunn reaches back to critical intertestamental events, carefully considers Jesus' position vis-a-vis the Pharisees, and proceeds forward through the Hellenists to Paul and other early Christian leaders. The broad sweep of the argument is, to my mind, quite persuasive.

The book is not a light read! It consists of a series of articles on individual New Testament texts. Dunn wrote the articles as part of his research for a commentary on Romans (since published in the Word Biblical Commentary series). Each article was published in a theological journal, thus each chapter of this book has been submitted to scholarly review. In compiling the book, Dunn has added a brief appendix to each chapter, in which he responds to the scholarly critique of each original article. Given the detailed nature of the argumentation, and the scholarly audience to which the articles were originally directed, readers may find it a difficult read. It is not necessary to read Greek in order to make sense of the book, however.

The first few chapters of the book focus on the Gospel of Mark; the remainder of the book examines passages critical to the interpretation of Paul's letter to the Galatians.

To a scientific mind, there is no such thing as "the last word" on any given subject. Other scholars vigorously dissent from Dunn's conclusions. But for Christians who are troubled by the radical scepticism of many scholars, Dunn demonstrates that conservative conclusions can be defended in a responsible manner.

Our small group Sunday School class (about 12 adults ranging from about 25-55) used this resource for a 12 week study. There are six lessons, but as we tend to be chatty, we lengthened our time on each. Not only did we find the material intriguing and the theme unusual, but it also inspired us as a group to take a families trip to a nearby aquarium at the end of our study. This is not an overly preachy Bible study, but it does provide sound scriptural resource for looking at a natural and spiritual resource in a new and refreshing way.