What is �The Intertestamental Period: A Climate of Change� all about? Also known as the Silent Years of the Bible, the four-hundred-year period between the Old and New Testament was all but silent. The actions of Alexander the Great, Antiochus Epiphanes, Justin Maccabees, Herod the Great, Cleopatra, Marc Antony Julius Caesar, and many others set the stage for the New Testament events to take place and to be written down for future study and life application. Many shadows of the things to come prophetically spoken about in the Old Testament were found fulfilled at the onset of the New Testament. This book overflows with history, religion, politics, literature, but it also has intrigue, murder, rebellion, with a little bit of insanity mixed in. The events that took place during this era were not considered �in simpler times� or boring by any means. You will discover that The Intertestamental Period was An Optimum Environment for God�s Ultimate Plan.

This book offers the first comprehensive systematic theological reflection on arguably the most serious issue facing humanity and other creatures today. Responding to climate change is often left to scientists, policy makers and activists, but what understanding does theology have to offer? In this collection, the authors demonstrate that there is vital cultural and intellectual work for theologians to perform in responding to climate science and in commending a habitable way forward. Written from a range of denominations and traditions yet with ecumenical intent, the authors explore key Christian doctrines and engage with some of the profound issues raised by climate change. Key questions considered include: What may be said about the goodness of creation in the face of anthropogenic climate change? And how does theology handle a projected future without the human? The volume provides students and scholars with fascinating theological insight into the complexity of climate change.

When readers of the Bible turn its pages from Chapter 4 of Malachi to Chapter 1 of the Gospel according to St. Matthew, they pass not only from the Old to the New Testament, a fact of which they are well aware, but they also pass over a number of centuries, a truth to which most readers give little thought. Between Malachi and the appearance of John the Baptist there is an interlude of about four centuries. Certain scholars in the past have characterized these centuries as the "silent centuries," and have relegated them to oblivion, not considering them of much significance for Jewish history or for an understanding of the history and theology of the New Testament. In a larger sense than is often realized, these centuries are the key for the understanding and adequate comprehension of the life and literature of the New Testament. While the setting for both the Old and New Testaments is the Mediterranean world, yet the intellectual, social, and religious backgrounds of both Testaments is different. The fact is that the atmosphere in which the New Testament is written is in large part the product of the period between the Testaments, and no amount of study of the Old Testament can solely explain it. On the other hand, no survey of the life of the Roman era is able to give the biblical reader explanations of many New Testament phrases and ideas. - Introduction.

Why bother with God when he is viewed as a sacred superstition, a discarded non-entity, or a pretext for religious wars? Jews and Christians have doubted and discarded God at many times throughout the ages, and have also justified countless conflicts in his name. Their history, however, tells a different story. Here we observe the historical reality of God’s relentless quest to relate with people, whether Jew or gentile. Despite significant differences between these communities, this is the DNA that binds them and places them in a paradigm different from the one articulated in The Quest: Christ Amidst the Quest, where people are seeking to be freed from their predicament. The Judeo-Christian narrative shows God’s incessant quest orchestrated through various channels, such as scriptural revelation, miraculous interventions, covenantal commitments, divine presence in the tabernacle or the temple, God’s sacrificial incarnation in Christ, and the advent of the anticipated Jewish Messiah. The narrative climaxes in a grand finale when humans and their habitat will be ushered into an age of peace and harmony. Journeying through such a narrative will provide assurance that God is walking with you amidst life’s turmoil, and that the best is yet to be.

Explore biblical theology with monographs from a diversity of experts. The Studies in Biblical Theology series includes a wealth of resources to help you understand the development of various doctrines, concepts, and terminology across the Old and New Testaments. Investigate the characteristics of worship in the early church with studies on its liturgy and sacraments. Fine-tune your understanding of Jesus' ministry by exploring his wilderness experience and the nature of his mission. Delve into detailed word studies, investigate Christological titles used by Paul, and come to a new appreciation of the Ten Commandments. These in-depth treatments will give you a better grip on key theological themes found throughout the Bible.

This volume brings together scholars working in diverse traditions of the humanities in order to offer a comprehensive analysis of the environmental catastrophe as the modern-day apocalypse. Drawing on philosophy, theology, history, literature, art history, psychoanalysis, as well as queer and decolonial theories, the authors included in this book expound the meaning of the climate apocalypse, reveal its presence in our everyday experiences, and examine its impact on our intellectual, imaginative, and moral practices. Importantly, the chapters show that eco-apocalypticism can inform progressively transformative discourses about climate change. In so doing, they demonstrate the fruitfulness of understanding the environmental catastrophe from within an apocalyptic framework, carving a much-needed path between two unsatisfactory approaches to the climate disaster: first, the conservative impulse to preserve the status quo responsible for today’s crisis, and second, the reckless acceptance of the destructive effects of climate change. This book will be an invaluable resource for students and scholars interested in the contributions of both apocalypticism and the humanities to contemporary ecological debates.

Future Ethics: Climate Change and Political Action presents a comprehensive examination of the philosophical questions facing activists, policy makers and educators fighting the causes of climate change. These questions reflect a genuine crisis in ethical reflection for individuals and groups in today's society and are also underpinned by a broader question of how the future forms the basis for action in the present. For instance, does the reporting of impending 'points of no return' in global warming renew a spirit of resistance or a spirit of fatalism? How is the future of the human species really imagined in society and how does this affect our sense of ethical responsibility? In this fascinating book, thirteen leading experts explore the philosophical and ethical issues underlying social responses to climate change and in particular how these responses draw upon ideas about the future. Ideal for students of environmental ethics in multiple disciplines, the book provides sources and discussion for anyone interested in issues to do with environment, society and ethics.

Telling in current biblical postcolonial discourse that draws insights from the works of Aime Cesaire, Frantz Fanon, and postcolonial theorists is the missing contribution of Leopold Sedar Senghor, the architect of Negritude. If mentioned at all, Senghor is often read through conclusions drawn by his critics or dismissed altogether as irrelevant to postcolonialism. Restored to its rightful place, Senghorian Negritude is a postcolonial lens for reading Scripture and other faith traditions with a view to reposition, conscientize, liberate, and rehabilitate the conquered, and enable them to reclaim their faith traditions and practices that once directed a mutual relationship between God, human, and nature--a delicate symbiosis before the French colonial advent in West Africa. A keen eye for cross-cultural analysis and contextualization enriched this volume with an intriguing reading of scripture, Ancient Near Eastern and Greco-Roman texts in conversation with other faith traditions, particularly Senegalese Diola Religion. As a Poetics of Postcolonial Biblical Criticism, Negritude is an optic through which people of faith may look around themselves, critically reread their sacred texts, reassess their vocation, and practice mutuality with God and nature on the heels of chilling climate change. Enshrined in this innovative argument is a call for introspection and challenge for people of faith to assume their vocation--human participatory agency.

What the Bible Does NOT Say By: Larry G. Root, Ed. D What does the Bible REALLY say about such topics as abortion, the antichrist, capitalism, the death penalty, Mary Magdalene, the Rapture, LGBT, and sexuality?