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© 2023 The Christian Century.
Ten Commandments, zero context
Many lawmakers want to see the commandments displayed in public schools. Are they also interested in the Hebrew Bible’s ethical demands?
A Hebrew scholar rekindles her love for classic Bible stories
Julie Faith Parker reads the Bible without guilt or shame, leading readers toward a healthier way of relating to scripture.
The roots of Hebrew Roots
A small but growing movement of Christians believes fervently that Torah observance is for everyone.
In the Hebrew Bible, love is complex
Song-Mi Suzie Park shows that ahav is dense, powerful, political, and divine.
Who is the mother of Israel?
In the Hebrew Bible, God’s love is maternal.
What if we treated all of creation—plants and stars, soil and rivers—as our kin?
Biblical scholar Mari Joerstad and indigenous activist Nick Estes challenge our human-centered worldview.
Are the people of 21st-century Israel the chosen ones of Genesis to whom Yahweh promised the land in eternal covenant? Walter Brueggemann gives a nuanced answer.
reviewed by J. Nelson Kraybill
Jon Levenson's new book reflects on the theme of the love of God in the Hebrew Bible. The three components of his subtitle suggest the range and depth of his exposition.
reviewed by Walter Brueggemann
George Steiner said that "the translator invades, extracts, and brings home." In this remarkable volume, Everett Fox does all of this.
The Prodigal Son is often read to mean that God loves sinners, whereas the Jews thought God only loved the righteous. This makes no sense.
J. Denny Weaver is steadfast in his conviction that any conception of God found in the Bible must first be compared to the person of Christ himself.
reviewed by Daniel G. Deffenbaugh
Anton Wessels emphasizes points of convergence among the Abrahamic religions, even assimilating their scriptural perspectives into a single story. It's an audacious wager, and not without dangers.
reviewed by Leo D. Lefebure
In two pages, you go from a simple devotional habit to being sucked into the vortex of global power plays. You must be reading Brueggemann.
President Obama’s speech in Newtown on December 17 included this pivotal question: “Are we prepared to say that such violence visited on our children year after year after year is somehow the price of our freedom?” The president is bristling here at the way our political discourse reflexively leaps to claims about individual rights and freedoms.
Notice the size of this psalm: it moves from the revelation of God in the heavens to the revelation of God in scripture to the mysterious working of God’s word in the believer.