Paul S. Minear – författare

A pioneering study of the imagery of the New Testament, revealing a deeper understanding of the nature of the Christian Church.From ‘the bride of Christ’ to ‘the cup of the Lord’, there are many terms in the New Testament which are simply taken for granted or not understood for their symbolical or figurative meanings. This profound study of the underlying implications of over a hundred terms in the New Testament offers a deeper understanding of what the Christian church really is.This pioneering work allows the reader to uncover the true nature of the church through the extensive gallery of images in the New Testament. The range of connotations communicated by a particular image against a historical background is analysed within the text.The author considers images as being able to communicate more than language alone; they can also broaden the mind of an individual and form a mode for perceiving and understanding a given reality. The minor images of the church in the New Testament are investigated through to the people of God and the body of Christ. The final chapter assesses the interrelation of the images analysed and the strategic inferences to be drawn from their interweaving.

A key text in the study of Paul's Epistle to the Romans.

Minear puts forward the significance of using the information uncovered from the last three chapters of Romans (14-16) to reconstruct the picture of the situation in Rome and to interpret the letter as a whole accordingly. He challenges the assumption held by many commentators that there was a single Christian congregation in Rome where different groups of Christians worshipped side by side. Minear proposes that Paul is trying to unite the strong and the weak communities in Rome. Paul does this by employing twelve axioms in efforts at reconciliation in 14.1-15.13. According to Minear, it is the purpose of the rest of Romans to explain, support, and defend these axioms.

From the Preface: There are indeed few books in the Bible where the modern student does not need deft guidance if reading is to prove profitable. In the case of theBook of Revelation that need becomes absolutely essential. When the average student takes up this book, almost without exception the going is tough,the language baffling, the sense of profit minimal. This situation represents a curious reversal, for in earlier centuries no other part of Scripture so greatly intrigued the imagination of Christendom or so greatly fascinated its painters and musicians .... The book at hand is designed to restore the Apocalypse to its rightful place in Christian thinking. The title asserts a continuing conviction: John as a prophet actually saw a new earth. The ordinary ways of perceiving reality had been radically altered by his faith in Christ.... Even moderns., in their traffic with "e;the earth,"e; have accessible a greater diversity of visions than they suppose. The ancient prophet may still have power to enable us to see a new earth. Such at least is the premise that prompted the publication of this book.