Mark W. Hamilton – författare

The book known as the Old Testament is actually a collection of stories, songs, prophetic addresses, wise sayings, and other bits of literature composed over centuries and compiled for the use of worshiping communities. These texts appeared in ancient Israel, reflecting its traumas and less frequent triumphs. Far from being comfortable texts that sedate over-stimulated readers, they offer critique of the powerful for the sake of those for whom the only tool of overcoming oppression is language itself. Because of the distance in time and cultural experience, the Old Testament is often inaccessible to modern readers. This introduction bridges that distance and makes the connections across time and culture come alive.The Bible assembles a wide range of literary types because of the needs of the communities first using it as they preserved the legacy of their past, good and bad, for the sake of a viable future. Their legacy continues as relevant as ever. This introduction, then, seeks to help readers make sense of the variety and hear within it points of commonality as well. The Old Testament is a book readers look to for meaning. Christian readers, especially, have difficulty connecting with the theological meanings of the texts. Mark Hamilton offers an introduction that addresses theological issues directly and sensitively. Considering the massive sweep of literary types and ways of expressing ideas about God, A Theological Introduction to the Old Testament offers an alternative to introductions based solely on historical or literary themes.

The book known as the Old Testament is actually a collection of stories, songs, prophetic addresses, wise sayings, and other bits of literature composed over centuries and compiled for the use of worshiping communities. These texts appeared in ancient Israel, reflecting its traumas and less frequent triumphs. Far from being comfortable texts that sedate over-stimulated readers, they offer critique of the powerful for the sake of those for whom the only tool of overcoming oppression is language itself. Because of the distance in time and cultural experience, the Old Testament is often inaccessible to modern readers. This introduction bridges that distance and makes the connections across time and culture come alive.The Bible assembles a wide range of literary types because of the needs of the communities first using it as they preserved the legacy of their past, good and bad, for the sake of a viable future. Their legacy continues as relevant as ever. This introduction, then, seeks to help readers make sense of the variety and hear within it points of commonality as well. The Old Testament is a book readers look to for meaning. Christian readers, especially, have difficulty connecting with the theological meanings of the texts. Mark Hamilton offers an introduction that addresses theological issues directly and sensitively. Considering the massive sweep of literary types and ways of expressing ideas about God, A Theological Introduction to the Old Testament offers an alternative to introductions based solely on historical or literary themes.

Recovering the church’s native language for migrants

Nationalistic tribalism is on the rise around the world. How we treat strangers (foreigners, immigrants, migrants) is a promi­nent political, economic, and religious issue. Drawing on his personal experiences and expertise as a biblical scholar, Mark Hamilton argues that Scripture describes God’s people as strangers who are called to show grace and hospitality to others.

The church has often identified itself as a community of strangers. This was the story of the church during much of its early history. In many parts of the world, it still is. In a world in which 240 million persons are voluntary immigrants and another 60 to 70 million are refugees, the urgency of the church’s recovery of its native language on immigration remains vital. Jesus, King of Strangers examines the Bible’s key ideas about human movement and the relationship between migrants and their hosts. Hamilton argues that reclaiming the biblical language will free the church from hypernationalism and fear-driven demagoguery.

The study of the eighth-century prophets has experienced major changes over the past five decades. In these articles, published during a time when traditional methods of reading these texts gave way to new interests and approaches, John Willis addresses some of the major challenges facing interpreters of the prophetic works as coherent books. The careful attention to detail in the biblical texts themselves and in the history of scholarship shown in these essays offers a helpful model for scholars seeking to understand the ancient texts and appropriate them for new conditions.

"We offer this collection as a token of our affection and admiration of our friend and colleague James Weldon Thompson. . . . His studies of the letter to the Hebrews and of Paul in their intellectual contexts (especially Middle Platonism) have contributed significantly to the ongoing quest for placing the New Testament in its socio-intellectual setting. Although his publications in this area date back more than thirty years, his best work is occurring now, and we may anticipate path-breaking contributions ahead. His more recent work on preaching and pastoral care in Paul both situate the Apostle in his own world and, just as importantly, offer correctives of some contemporary ministerial practices and invitations for improvements. Since 1993 Thompson has served as the editor of Restoration Quarterly, a significant venue for research in biblical studies, church history (especially of the Stone-Campbell Restoration Movement), and contemporary theology. His more popular works make available to a lay audience thoughtful, well-informed, and spiritually rewarding interpretations of much of the New Testament. "His achievements, however, do not end at the printing press. For more than thirty years, he has taught ministers and others at the Institute for Christian Studies (now Austin Graduate School of Theology) and Abilene Christian University. Students of the past and the present speak of him as a prepared, stimulating, and creative teacher unafraid of experimentation for a new generation of learners. At both institutions he also served as an administrator, first as President of ICS and then as Associate Dean of ACU''s Graduate School of Theology. His colleagues respect his ability to enlist them for work as needed and otherwise to get out of their way, certainly a too rare set of skills in university administrators!" --from the Preface

These twenty-two meditations on the songs, prayers, and stories of the Bible invite readers to imagine themselves as part of a world in which human beings may fully live into their sufferings and joys as part of a vibrant while still critically searching faith in God. Here we see prophets and poets, as well as ordinary men and women, embrace the realities of life without apology or fear. Each meditation opens with the author''s fresh translation of the biblical text and concludes with a prayer that seeks the critical edge of faith as an active stance toward human existence. The movement from text to commentary to prayer reflects a basic conviction that the encounter with the Bible allows persons of many cultures, whether believers or unbelievers, to engage the deepest layers of human existence today. These reflections come out of the author''s search across cultures to find a common humanity before God. Since the Bible is a non-Western book in its origins and much of its present life, interpretation of that book can both confront the particularities of Western Christianity with its own limitations and offer sources of renewal for communal and individual spirituality. These reflections aim to contribute to that larger end.