Written in a clear and objective manner, this revised edition provides comprehensive coverage of the Indian economy. With extensive references to original works, this account examines updated data and answers important financial questions on topics that include basic issues in economic development; economy and independence; policy regimes; development and structural chan≥ and sectoral trends and issues. Especially designed for less-advanced students, this resource is an ideal introduction to the Indian economy.

Nathan Lovell proposes that 1 and 2 Kings might be read as a work of written history, produced with the explicit purpose of shaping the communal identity of its first readers in the Babylonian exile. By drawing on sociological approaches to the role historiography plays in the construction of political identity, Lovell argues the book of Kings is intended to reconstruct a sense of Israelite identity in the context of these losses, and that the book of Kings moves beyond providing a reason for the exile in Israel's history, and beyond even connecting its exilic audience to that history. The book recalls the past in order to demonstrate what it means to be Israel in the (exilic) present, and to encourage hope for the Israelite nation in the future. After developing a reading strategy for 1–2 Kings that treats the book as a coherent narrative, Lovell examines the construction of Israelite identity within Kings under the headings of covenant, nationhood, land, and rule. In each case he suggests that the narrative of the book creates room for a genuine but temporary expression of Israelite identity in exile: genuine to show that it remains possible for Israel to be Yahweh's people during the exile, but temporary to encourage hope for a future restoration.

In Agnostic at the Altar, former Catholic priest and psychologist John Van Hagen engages the voices of the ancient Jewish prophets in an effort to find something of a universal voice that speaks to all people. He builds upon the work of Scripture scholars, religious writers, and his own experiences to pave a path by which readers can engage in religion, while at the same time defending against harmful religious claims and practices. The prophets, who first appeared in Palestine in the Axial Age, translated their experience of the transcendent into magnificent stories that began with a time of intimacy with their God, a later time of betrayal and turmoil, and a future reconciliation at the end of time. Later, Christians adopted these themes as their own. Their stories emphasize justice and right worship as a way toward a meaningful and peaceful future. Their insights into a spiritual dimension of reality brought purpose to millions of lives. In this uncertain time of increasing global tension and strife, they could do the same for us. Agnostic at the Altar makes a compelling case that the ancient prescriptions for a just way of living together are not only historically significant, but in perfect keeping with an evolutionary-based desire that all people live in harmony.

An analysis of the intertwining tales of Elijah and Ahab--mercurial prophet and Machiavellian king--this book is an accessible treatment of one of the most dramatic and well-known episodes in the Bible. In contrast to the popular image of Elijah as a courageous wonder-worker who calls down fire from heaven and ascends to heaven in a fiery chariot, this book contends that the prophet was a deeply conflicted man, torn between a burning idealism and a deep disillusionment over his failure to achieve his ideals. Despite his profound sense of failure, Elijah's struggle against the paganizing regime of King Ahab and his queen, Jezebel, managed to save monotheism from eclipse, and in so doing alter the course of human history. This work further proposes that the tale presented by the Bible is more than an account of an ancient battle between two historic figures: it is a paradigm of the struggle between the ideals of human dignity and justice, and the alternative of expediency in the pursuit of power, a conflict that pervades human life to this very day.

This book examines the tales of three remarkable figures of the biblical world: the tragic prophet Jeremiah, and the two atypical prophets Jonah and Balaam. Jeremiah was cursed from birth and condemned to a lifelong losing battle against national disaster. Jonah was notorious for his connection with a whale, whereas Balaam was best known as the owner of a talking donkey. Yet these prophets (servants of their deity) are portrayed as rebels against their god. This book contends that these tales, beyond their intrinsic appeal as stories, were written to serve as metaphors. Although set in ancient times and in the exotic Near East, the issues that underlie these gripping tales are not unfamiliar to modern times and Western lives. These prophets represent "everyman" and these unusual dramas explore the phenomenon of revolt against restrictive conditions and against authority.

Bringing Pentecostal theology into the Bible and mission conversation, Amos Yong identifies the role of the divine spirit in God's mission to redeem the world. As he works through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, Yong emphasizes the global missiological imperative: "People of all nations reaching out to people of all nations." Sidebars include voices from around the globe who help the author put the biblical text into conversation with twenty-first-century questions, offering the church a fresh understanding of its mission and how to pursue it in the decades to come.

This is a book about a book: it is an in-depth yet reader friendly analysis of the Book of Judges, one of the most dramatic books of the Bible. Against the commonly-held view that this remarkable work is no more than a collection of hero tales stemming from Israel’s earliest days in its land—its “Heroic Age,” so to speak—this study makes the case that the Book of Judges is a unified composition with a single focused message: that it is the values held by a people and not its politics that determine its fate. Further, Judges contends that there is a direct connection between the kind of values people internalize and the level of violence that racks their society, both inflicted from without and generated from within. And not least, that the presence of violence is a symptom that a society has abandoned the moral values of monotheism for the Machiavellian politics of a pagan worldview that worships power as the ultimate reality. The larger-than-life heroes and heroines—Ehud and Jael, Deborah and Gideon, Jephthah and Samson—who people the pages of Judges serve by their example to illustrate the way this thesis works out in the world.

David Wilson's initial research into the phenomenon of prophecy in the Hebrew Bible suggested that many of the passages featuring prophets, and hitherto considered to be bizarre myths (or much-edited collections of traditions) were, in fact, sequences of dreams. Moreover, it was possible to compare the structure of these sequences with the structure of a night's sleep (hypnogram)--as revealed by modern sleep research--to demonstrate that the "sleeper" was depressed. This characteristic, depressive sleep architecture was then used to show that three characters in particular, Elijah, Jonah, and Adam--compared in the New Testament with Jesus--were all, in fact, depressed. Quite naturally, this raised further questions concerning the nature of Jesus himself: Was he merely a prophet? If he wasn't, how did he differ? If he was depressed, how was he able to function (and succeed in his mission) when Elijah and Jonah clearly had such great difficulties? These and other questions are raised throughout this book, and many of them are not new, but they are, however, changed forever when asked against a contextual background of altered states of consciousness (ASCs), and dreamform in particular.

The ultimate, all-in-one resource on what the Old Testament says about Jesus As Jesus walked the Emmaeus road, he showed his companions how the whole of Scripture foretold his coming. Yet so often today we’re not quite sure how to talk about Jesus in the Old Testament. How do you know what applies to Jesus? And how do you interpret some of the strange prophetic language? Get answers and clarity in this authoritative and reliable guide to messianic prophecy from some of the world’s foremost evangelical Old Testament scholars. In this in-depth, user-friendly one volume resource you get: -essays from scholars on the big ideas and major themes surrounding Messianic prophecy -A clear and careful commentary on every passage in the Old Testament considered Messianic -Insights into the original Hebrew and helpful analysis of theological implications Watch the Scriptures come into full color as you see new meaning in familiar passages and further appreciate God’s masterful handiwork in preparing the way for Jesus, the long-awaited Messiah.

Theological Adventures began as a challenge to the teachers of The Institute for Global Outreach Developments International to provide me with those passages of Scripture they found the most difficult to produce an interpretive theology consistent with nonviolence and a nonviolent God. The allegorical method for dealing with OT violence has not led to a constructive theology capable of eradicating violence from the Christian tradition. However, genre identification of particular books enables a reader to discern the prejudicial nature of a book claiming to speak for God, e.g., Joshua as conquest narrative. Judges, as a reflection on violence and male-female relationships, qualifies as a “social critique” on Israelite society. This is wonderfully portrayed in the study of Samson as the archetypal strongman who represents Israel as a people. It is healthy to be honest enough about OT Scripture to require basic morality as a guide for reading its claims and stories. The gift of a moral conscience is a powerful voice for God’s image in us. I have found the OT to be consistent with the revelation of God in Christ Jesus when a person learns to read it correctly. The guiding interpretive lens is honesty about the intolerable violence sanctioned in the OT.