Stephen E. Fowl – författare

'Forty years of Biblical Studies at Sheffield provide cause for celebration and this book is an excellent expression of it ... There is a good balance between Old Testament and New Testament ... There are eighteen essays in the book altogether...all highly readable and informative. Sheffield is to be congratulated on its forty years, on this self-provided Festschrift, and more generally, on its phenomenal contribution to publishing in the biblical field.' (W.D. Stacey, Journal of Theological Studies)

Even though it was written some two millennia ago, Ephesians still speaks to Christians today in themes quite familiar to the modern reader. In a context where the church had become overwhelmingly, if not exclusively, Gentile, the Christian community needed to be reminded of the priority of Israel and the astonishing work of reconciliation that God willed to accomplish in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Now available as a casebound, this volume in the highly acclaimed New Testament Library series reveals the great theological promises of Ephesians while discussing issues of context, authorship, and style.

Theological interpretation of the Bible is key to the health and vitality as well as the belief and practice of the church. Just how it is done has been the subject of much discussion and debate over the centuries. In Reading Scripture with the Church, four leading biblical scholars make the case for theological interpretation. Each author is given the opportunity to interact with the other three, and all four interact with premodern, modern, and postmodern approaches to biblical interpretation. This is an important book for pastors, teachers, and other serious students of the Bible who will be motivated to embrace the task of interpreting the Bible with greater energy, caution, and precision.

In this guide Stephen E. Fowl introduces students to both theological fruit and critical issues of the letter to the Ephesians. On the theological front, Fowl shows how Ephesians offers an unparalleled cosmic vision of the significance of the death and resurrection of Jesus, of the role of heavenly powers in the universe, and of how the community of Christians is to engage with those powers. Fowl also opens up the major identity questions Ephesians shows existed for early Christians: how to conceive the relationship of Gentiles with the Jews from among whom their faith emerged, and how to live as a Christian within households ordered on patriarchal lines while not capitulating to patriarchy. On the critical front, Fowl provides an introduction to the key critical questions and issues, such as whether this letter was actually written to a church in Ephesus, and whether Paul the apostle was indeed the author of the letter. Yet, whilst there are demanding linguistic, historical and cultural questions to be answered, Fowl is careful to point out that this should not be done at the expense of reading the text closely and appreciating its meaning and message.

In this book Fowl examines the role played by three poetic texts, Phil. 2.6-11, Col. 1.15-20, and 1Tim. 3.16 in the arguments of their epistles. Rather than functioning as criteria of christological orthodoxy, these poetic narrations of Christ's person and work are used by Paul to support various ethical positions. For Paul and the Christians he addresses, these stories of Christ are exemplars for the life and practice of the church.

No one purposefully chooses to become an idolater. No one consciously abandons the living God to fall prey to a pantheon of earthly gods. Yet idolatry has a way of subtly seeping into the cracks of human life.In Idolatry, Stephen E. Fowl explores how believers lapse into idolatry, a process he insists is much different from the decision of those who have rejected belief in God. He asserts that the Old Testament's account of Israel's idolatry as dramatic folly and betrayal describes the after effects of idolatry, not the process of how believers lapse into idolatry. Idolatry is a process of slowly diverting love and attention away from the one true God and toward false gods.Fowl identifies the various habits, practices, and dispositions that can lead to this process, using Scripture to demonstrate different ways believers become inclined to idolatry. He first turns to Deuteronomy to show how to combat idolatry by remembering the grace of God. He then examines Ephesians and Colossians to demonstrate how the suggested practices of thanksgiving and gratitude can serve as the antidotes to idolatrous greed. He looks to 1 John to find the love that casts out the fear and insecurity that the books of Kings, Isaiah, and Luke name as the forerunners of idolatry. Finally, he examines curiosity, traditionally considered a vice, and how it turns believers toward idols unless it is countered by an undistracted focus on Jesus.Idolatry looms over believers in a world overflowing with false gods, but Fowl offers hope. By diagnosing and defining the root causes of idolatry before these initial temptations become precipitated actions, Christians learn to navigate a world littered with false idols to live abundantly with the one true God.

This book introduces students to the practice of reading scripture theologically and shows how explicitly theological concerns can be brought to bear on the interpretation of scripture. While the volume offers some methodological essays, it does not lay out a single method; it points to the variety of questions that can and have been raised about interpreting scripture theologically.

Respected scholars offer a theological reading of Judges and Ruth in this addition to the Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible.