From Publishers Weekly
The 10 essays collected in this volume began as a 1997 lecture series at King College, a Presbyterian school in Bristol, Tenn. The book's overall tone is conversational and informal, which serves to widen its appeal beyond a strictly academic audience. The first two essays, by editor Bowley (a King religion professor) and Adam Kamesar (who teaches at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati), establish a historical context and introduce the Bible as a library rather than a single book. John C. Reeves (Univ. of North Carolina-Charlotte) and Bruce Metzger (emeritus, Princeton Theological Seminary) examine scriptural authority in early Judaism and the formation of the Christian canon. Kathryn Johnson (Univ. of North Carolina-Charlotte) offers the lone treatment of Islamic practice in this collection, emphasizing the tensions between traditional Islamic approaches to the Qur'an and modern textual criticism. Essays on the Bible's role in Orthodox, Catholic and Lutheran traditions (by Demetrios Constantelos, Joseph Fitzmyer and David Steinmetz, respectively) are followed by James McClanahan's (Associate Professor of Religion at King College) "contemporary Protestant approach" to the Bible and Michael Meyer's (Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion) essay on Scripture in modern Judaism. This readable and informative introduction to biblical interpretation emphasizes Christian (primarily Protestant) and Jewish traditions, while tipping its hat to Islam. (Sept.)
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