06AR11-05
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Apologia Report 11:5
February 2, 2006
Subject: Two recent challenges to the New Testament
In this issue:
FEMINISM - response to "the cruel sexism of ultraconservative Christianity ... is not about rebellion" - or is it?
ISLAM - "how non-Muslims may accurately identify Muslim moderates"
NEW TESTAMENT CRITICISM - noting the growing popularity of Bart Ehrman's recent book, Misquoting Jesus
+ a review of Bruce Chilton's Mary Magdalene: A Biography
RELIGION, GENERAL - a review of the World Christian Database
WORD FAITH MOVEMENT - recent book tracks the prosperity gospel among African Americans
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FEMINISM
The Second Eve: Understanding Biblical Equality, by Bette Boersma [2] -- the brief review by Graham Christian, "formerly with Andover-Harvard Theological Library," reads: "Scholar, mother, and ministerial consultant Boersma has written a touching book that blends her own journey from what she calls a 'limiting belief in traditional gender roles to a liberating belief in God-ordained equality' with careful scholarship that quietly and patiently overturns the cruel sexism of ultraconservative Christianity. This journey has evidently cost her - and has and likely will cost many other women - some personal pain, but holds at its end a tremendous reward. 'This is not about rebellion,' she says. 'This is about my faith in the complete redemption of Jesus Christ.' An important and moving book deserving of a wide audience; highly recommended." Library Journal, Jan '06, p125.
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ISLAM
"What Is a Moderate Muslim?" by Stephen Schwartz -- responds by explaining "how non-Muslims, who typically have little knowledge of Islam, may accurately identify Muslim moderates." This essay could be written with more clarity, but Schwartz makes some significant points:
* - "Moderate Muslims may ... be identified by what they do not do, to contrast them with radicals. And at the top of that list comes the practice of takfir, or declaring Muslims unbelievers over differences of opinion. ...
* - "Moderate Muslims, including Shias as well as Sunnis, also do not refer to followers of other religions, especially Jews and Christians, Zoroastrians, Hindus, and Buddhists, as unbelievers. ...
* - "Moderate Muslims do not employ the rhetoric of jihad, including attempts to split hairs over the meaning of the term. ...
* - Moderate Muslims recognize that Muslims have more rights and opportunities for advancement in most Western countries than in most Muslim lands. ...
* - "Is the Islamic establishment in the U.S. -- the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), and the Muslim Students Association of the U.S. and Canada (MSA) -- moderate? No, it is not. Not one of these three groups has ever identified or criticized a Muslim radical in the U.S., except to slander authentic moderates by trying to portray them as extremists."
TCS Daily, Jan 12 '06, <http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=011106D>
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NEW TESTAMENT CRITICISM
Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why, by Bart Ehrman [3] was #5 on the "Religion/Hardcover" bestsellers list in the January 16, 2006 issue (p20) of Publishers Weekly. The included blurb reads: "In his bestselling book, Ehrman claims ancient scribes were so deeply influenced by the cultural, theological and political disputes of their day that they altered the texts of the Bible. HarperSanFrancisco launched the book with a 20,000 printing; it's now up to 102,000 copies after eight printings."
Religion BookLine, a publication of Publishers Weekly, recently featured a brief interview with Ehrman. See <http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6301707.html>
For a two-part audio response by John Warwick Montgomery on Issues Etc., "Responding to Dr. Bart Ehrman's 'Misquoting Jesus,'" see:
* - Part 1 <http://worldwide.kfuo.org/kfuo/issues_etc6/Issues_Etc _Jan_31b.wma>
* - Part 2 <http://worldwide.kfuo.org/kfuo/issues_etc6/Issues_Etc _Jan_31c.wma>
Mary Magdalene: A Biography, by Bruce Chilton [4] -- reviewer Tom D'Evelyn opens: "Mary Magdalene is back - again. As Bruce Chilton argues in Mary Magdalene: A Biography, her irrepressible image shows 'how much the Western imagination still wants a rich and powerful Mary to protect the poor, defenseless Jesus.'
"Chilton, who is Bell professor of religion at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y., has written earlier biographies of Jesus and Paul. He has won acclaim in some quarters for his scholarship, but also stirred controversy in others for his willingness to move beyond what is stated in the Scriptures and to offer theories about what might lie behind the events narrated in the Bible. ...
"Chilton argues convincingly that from her own experience with Jesus Mary became a key source for the vision that gave the early church its momentum. ...
"In reconstructing the sources for the canonical gospels, Chilton draws on noncanonical works such as The Gospel According to Mary (discovered in 1896), which, he says, 'clearly understands that, in portraying the Resurrection in trenchantly visionary terms (as the perception of 'mind' not of physical eyes or ears or hands), Mary directly contradicted a growing fashion in ancient Christianity that conceived of Jesus as resuscitated from the grave in the flesh.'" Christian Science Monitor, Jan 17 '06, <http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0117/p16s01-bogn.html>
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RELIGION, GENERAL
The year end "Special Issue 42" of Choice magazine for academic acquisition librarians includes a brief review (pp120-121) of the World Christian Database (WCD) <worldchristiandatabase.org/wcd>. This tool is the online version of the acclaimed World Christian Encyclopedia (WCE) [5]. Both emanate from the Comprehensive Center for the Study of Global Christianity (CCSGC), an affiliate of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (GCTS). Reviewer J. Gresham reports that the online version is "even more useful" than the print version, which itself was universally "praised by reviewers."
Gresham provides only minimal description: "The database is fully customized so that the user can select, sort, and correlate the various fields as desired. Reports can be printed as PDF files or downloaded to spreadsheet programs. The database employs a fairly intuitive point-and-click format. Though there is not much in the way of online help, technical support is available by e-mail. ... Highly recommended."
Todd Johnson, co-author of the Second Edition of the WCE, further explained to us that Oxford University Press publishes the WCE for the CCSGC. He adds: "The work of data collection was begun by David Barrett in Nairobi, Kenya in 1965 (where he founded the World Evangelization Research Center). The Center moved to Richmond, VA in 1985, then to GCTS in 2003 where it was renamed the Center for the Study of Global Christianity (a more accurate title referring to our research focus). The World Christian Database was the basis for both editions of the World Christian Encyclopedia (1982, 2001) as well as for World Christian Trends [6].
"There is a considerable amount of documentation available to subscribers of the WCD at the bottom of the home page covering methodology, sources, field name descriptions, glossary, and dictionary."
For a review of the WCE see <http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2002/005/7.75.html>
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WORD-FAITH MOVEMENT
While considering an article from the American Prospect web site [1] that profiled Rod Parsley and questioned his integrity, we discovered a resource that was new to us: Righteous Riches: The Word of Faith Movement in Contemporary African American Religion, by Milmon F. Harrison [7]. The Amazon.com description of this title from Publishers Weekly says it is "an engaging ethnographic account of the Word of Faith movement, a loosely affiliated group of nondenominational churches that embrace a hodge-podge of New Thought, evangelicalism and Pentecostalism. Harrison, a former Word of Faith adherent, introduces readers to several members of the movement as if he were (and in many cases, he is) introducing old friends. He describes his first informant, Cassandra, as someone he has 'known for many years... an extroverted, gregarious person with a great sense of humor... [who] would not hold back in terms of what she thought.' This personal touch, in keeping with Harrison's desire to write a 'straightforward, clear' book, is refreshing and will appeal to a wide audience. Not as illuminating are Harrison's analyses, which often feel as though they could apply to any conservative religious movement. He does give fascinating insights into the tradition's emphasis on Christian prosperity, but only skims the surface of its complicated relationship to the idea of progress and, most regrettably, largely neglects its relationship to the African-American community. He does address these topics, but only briefly, and mostly in concluding thoughts that should have been expounded earlier. Still, Harrison delivers an informative, readable introduction to a little-known but very influential religious movement."
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Sources, Digital:
1 - http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewPrint&
articleId=10473
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Sources, Monographs:
2 - The Second Eve: Understanding Biblical Equality, by Bette Boersma (Junia, 2006, paperback, 160 pages)
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0977024008/apologiareport>
3 - Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the New Testament and Why, by Bart Ehrman (HarperSanFrancisco, November 2005, paperback, 256 pages)
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0060844965/apologiareport>
4 - Mary Magdalene: A Biography, by Bruce Chilton (Doubleday, 2005, hardcover, 240 pages)
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0385513178/apologiareport>
5 - The World Christian Encyclopedia: A Comparative Survey of Churches and Religions in the Modern World (2 Volume Set, Second Edition), by David B. Barrett, George M. Kurian, and Todd M. Johnson (Oxford Univ Prs, 2001, hardcover, 1,700 pages)
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0195079639/apologiareport>
6 - World Christian Trends, Ad 30-Ad 2200: Interpreting the Annual Christian Megacensus, by David B. Barrett, Todd M. Johnson, and Christopher Guidry (Wm. Carey Lib, 2003, hardcover, 928 pages)
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0878086080/apologiareport>
7 - Righteous Riches: The Word of Faith Movement in Contemporary African American Religion, by Milmon F. Harrison (Oxford Univ Prs, 2005, paperback, 192 pages)
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/019515388X/apologiareport>
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