References

Main Background Material

The ideas in these books form the spine of this project. In a very real sense, this project grew out of a desire to synthesize this material into a unified whole.

If you decide to purchase books, I encourage you buy from my good friend Byron at Hearts and Minds Bookstore. He is a wonderful Christian and without him this project would not exist.

N.T. Wright

Why did Jesus and the Apostles talk frequently and at length about the Kingdom of God/Heaven and resurrection, and say almost nothing about 'going to heaven when you die'? This is the basic question Wright is asking, and beginning to answer, across these books.

On Death and the Powers

  • Jesus and the Forces of Death A discussion of how Jesus' activities during his ministry look through the lens of conflict with the Powers of Death as described in the Torah Law code.
  • The Lamb of the Free A detailed discussion of Death as a source of pollution and alliance with Death as the foundation of sin. Starting with the Torah law codes and a discussion of how the sacrificial system works and proceeding through the prophets and into the NT.
  • Leviticus: A Book of Ritual and Ethics One of the main references from Lamb of the Free, discusses in detail the sacrificial system, the ancient context, and the underlying ethical values it reflects.
  • The Unseen Realm Dr. Michael Heiser explores, with great care, the spiritual realm as imaged in the scripture. He also draws from extra-biblical sources, most notably the book of Enoch (which is quoted in the NT), to illuminate how these beliefs and images inform the NT.

God's Peace and Suffering

  • Colossians Remixed and Romans Disarmed These are deeply insightful reads of Colossians and Romans by Sylvia Keesmaat and Brian Walsh. What would the early church, people struggling to survive in the underclass of the Roman Empire, have heard in these letters? How did these letters generate the church we see in Carthage , in Marcellus, and in Montesino?
  • The Suffering of God Throughout the Hebrew scripture God grieves, God regrets, God mourns, God is rejected by God's people. God suffers. Why? What does this mean for our understanding of God?
  • Shalom: The Bible's Word for Salvation, Justice, and Peace A careful look at how Shalom (usually 'Peace'), Mishpat (usually 'Justice'), and Hoshia (usually 'Salvation') are connected within the Biblical text. What are the expectations around these words and how do they interact? Shalom is used for far more than 'absence of violence', and most often refers to 'having enough'. Hoshia most often refers to 'saving from material or physical oppression'.

The Early Church