Method and Meaning

Never before has there existed a more diverse set of possibilities for understanding the canonical texts of the New Testament, other early Christian literature, and the history of the emergent Christian movement that was to become the church. Harold W. Attridge has contributed authoritatively to many of the disciplines that underlie approaches to these questions: textual criticism, exegesis, comparative literary and historical studies, and numerous other areas. In honor of his work, this volume seeks to draw many of these methodological threads together. Readers will find discussions of both new and traditional methods of New Testament study, with numerous examples indicating how these approaches work and what insights they yield. The contributors are Gary A. Anderson, David E. Aune, James Hamilton Charlesworth, Adela Yarbro Collins, John J. Collins, J. Keith Elliott, Eldon Jay Epp, Philip F. Esler, Craig A. Evans, Everett Ferguson, Sean Freyne, Gabriella Gelardini, Mark Goodacre, Rowan A. Greer, Richard A. Horsley, Judith M. Lieu, Francisco Lozada Jr., Andrew B. McGowan, Edgar V. McKnight, Elaine Pagels, Pheme Perkins, Richard I. Pervo, David Rhoads, Kent Harold Richards, James M. Robinson, David T. Runia, Thomas D. Stegman, SJ, Thomas H. Tobin, SJ, Joseph B. Tyson, and James VanderKam.

Andrew B. McGowan is Warden and President of Trinity College, The University of Melbourne and Melbourne College of Divinity. He is author of ＂Ascetic Eucharists: Food and Drink in Early Christian Ritual Meals＂ (Clarendon) and co-editor of ＂God in Early Christian Thought: Essays in Memory of Lloyd G. Patterson＂ (Brill). Kent Harold Richards is Executive Director Emeritus of the Society of Biblical Literature and was Professor of Old Testament. He is currently serving as pastor of the First United Methodist Church in Mystic, CT, and is president of a consulting firm, Strategy Points, Inc. He is the co-author of＂ Interpreting Hebrew Poetry ＂(Augsburg Fortress) and co-editor of ＂Second Temple Studies 2: Temple Community in the Persian Period＂ (Sheffield Academic Press) and＂ Method Matters: Essays on the Interpretation of the Hebrew Bible in Honor of David L. Petersen＂ (Society of Biblical Literature).