11AR16-11

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Apologia Report 16:11 (1,061)

March 31, 2011

Subject: Islam and subjugation

In this issue:

BIBLICAL HEBREW - a comparative review of the modern, critical, and electronic editions

CHRISTOLOGY - still more top-flight conservative scholarship on the deity of Jesus

ISLAM - the history and practice of subjugating non-believers

ORIGINS - a concise, current explanation of the unending debate over the Big Bang

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BIBLICAL HEBREW

"Which Hebrew Bible?" by David L. Baker -- the abstract reads: "Three major critical editions of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament are in preparation at present: Biblia Hebraica Quinta (BHQ), the Hebrew University Bible (HUB), and the Oxford Hebrew Bible (OHB). This article is a comparative review of these three editions, followed by a briefer review of six other modern editions: British and Foreign Bible Society (BFBS), NIV Interlinear Hebrew-English Old Testament, Jewish Publication Society (JPS), Jerusalem Crown (JC), Biblia Hebraica Leningradensia (BHL), and the Reader's Hebrew Bible (RHB). Finally, there is a brief discussion of implicit editions and electronic editions, followed by concluding remarks on the usefulness of the various editions." Tyndale Bulletin, 61:2 - 2010, p209ff.

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CHRISTOLOGY

Did the First Christians Worship Jesus? The New Testament Evidence, by James D. G. Dunn [1]; Jesus and the God of Israel: God Crucified and Other Studies on the New Testament's Christology of Divine Identity, by Richard Bauckham [2] -- Glenn B. Siniscalchi opens his joint review: "Generally speaking, biblical scholarship for more than a century ... has supposed that a 'high Christology' emerged well after the New Testament texts had been written, even though seeds of that later development can be seen in, for example, the Gospel of John. A fascinating alternative has been emerging in some scholarly circles, represented by these two books by Richard Bauckham and James Dunn."

Bauckham's "basic contention ... can be stated as: 'When New Testament Christology is read with this [strictly monotheistic] Jewish theological context in mind, it becomes clear that, from the earliest post-Easter beginnings of Christology onwards, early Christians included Jesus, precisely and unambiguously, within the unique identity of the one true God of Israel. ... "One of the best features of Bauckham's book is that it seeks to undermine evolutionary understandings of Jesus in earliest Christianity. His thesis coincides with the church's traditional beliefs about Christ. ...

"Dunn's newest book should be read alongside not only Richard Bauckham's but also the work of Larry Hurtado on the origins of the earliest devotion to Jesus. Dunn's major concern here is to clarify what he believes are some of the indistinct features of the picture painted by his interlocutors on the nature of the earliest Christian worship by discussing neglected passages of the New Testament. 'I make bold to enter the discussion,' he writes, 'not because I particularly disagree with Hurtado and Bauckham - our agreement on the great majority of the texts and issues discussed is substantial - but rather because I am concerned to ensure that the *whole* picture is brought into view...." (Gotta love them perfectionist scholars!) Anglican Theological Review, 93:1 2010, pp157-163.

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ISLAM

The Third Choice, by Mark Durie [3] -- reviewer Mark T. Coppenger leaves readers with a confusing summary of the three options offered by fundamentalist Islam. However, as Osama bin Laden sees it, you convert to Islam, forfeit your life, or pay the piper. "Pastor-scholar Mark Durie focuses on Islamic subjugation [dhimmitude] in this book. ...

"Lest one imagine that Bin Ladin's [sic] three-part standard is the product of extremist fantasy, Durie demonstrates that it is classic Islam. ...

"The premise is that ... non-Muslims are the enemy, allowed to exist only on the condition that they accept demeaning and debilitating strictures. When the dhimma collapses because rulers find the non-Muslim populace too 'uppity,' jihad resumes" culling troublemakers.

"Durie grants that maximum dhimmitude is not, at present, the official policy of any predominantly-Muslim nation, for history has not been kind to unbridled Islam.... But gradations are everywhere to be found where elements of sharia (Qur'an-based) law are entrenched or ascendant...."

Durie "makes his case eloquently, and with grace, as he laments the way in which Muslim cultures have injured themselves by suppressing the contribution of non-Muslims (and, of course, Muslim women). His basic introduction to Mohammed and Islam, the first half of the book, is unblinking and worth alone the price of the book. Above all, one could want no better commentary on the splendor of the Bible's instructions concerning 'non-believers'...." Southern Baptist Journal of Theology, 14:2 - 2010, pp88-89.

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ORIGINS

The April 2011 cover of Scientific American has a tabloid sense to it. "Quantum Gaps in Big Bang Theory: Why our best explanation of how the universe evolved must be fixed - or replaced" (pp36-43) is authored by Paul J. Steinhardt (Albert Einstein Professor of Science, Princeton University). The dispute centers on the work of "surprisingly few" who question inflationary theory about the universe's "early growth spurt" and which Steinhardt summarizes.

If you think the non-locality of particle influence in quantum physics is difficult to understand, Steinhardt will take your mind to an equivalently distant dimension of incomprehension. Still, for a concise explanation of current scientific thought regarding the unending debate over the Big Bang, here you go. "Cosmic inflation is so widely accepted that it is often taken as established fact" (reminiscent of other origin theory, is it not? - RP). However, Steinhardt reports that the theory of cosmic inflation "has developed cracks ... in its logical foundations. Highly improbable conditions are required to start inflation. Worse, inflation goes on eternally, producing infinitely many outcomes, so the theory makes no firm observational predictions." Science is left with a deepening void regarding how the universe began and has developed since. <www.j.mp/hMlByK>

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SOURCES: Monographs

1 - Did the First Christians Worship Jesus?: The New Testament Evidence, by James D. G. Dunn (W John Knox, 2010, paperback, 176 pages) <www.j.mp/gQSryk>

2 - Jesus and the God of Israel: God Crucified and Other Studies on the New Testament's Christology of Divine Identity, by Richard Bauckham (Eerdmans, 2008, paperback: 285 pages) <www.j.mp/hSS2si>

3 - The Third Choice: Islam, Dhimmitude and Freedom, by Mark Durie (Deror, 2010, paperback, 288 pages) <www.j.mp/ecUdck>

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