This book was born as an answer to an issue raised from the floor at the 2015 General Conference (GC) Session in San Antonio, Texas (pp. 2‒4). The discussion of women’s ordination led to the observation that Seventh-day Adventists are drawing different conclusions from the same Scriptures. In attempts to explain this reality, it was proposed tha…[Read more]

This book is a response to a commission by the officers of the Trans-European Division (TED) of the Seventh-day Adventist Church (SDA) to take stock of the TED’s history. The occasion was the TED’s ninetieth anniversary (1929‒2019). The goal was to commemorate it and evaluate how the church’s leaders “tried to shape the development of Adventist…[Read more]

This book’s author calls it “an interpretive essay.” Following up on an interest of his which began when he was a seminary student, he wrote it after he retired to Austin, Texas after years of service as Dean at the Berkeley Divinity School. He is active today in Texas as an Episcopalian Priest. The Episcopalian denomination continues the legac…[Read more]

If ecotheology feels like an unfamiliar word, or worse ‒ like a theological fashion statement ‒ it might be good to begin this book by circling it overhead. First, look at the credentials of the editors and contributors. Of the editors, Alan G. Padgett, is Professor of Systematic Theology at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota. Kiara A. Jor…[Read more]

Jacques Doukhan is both the author of Genesis and the editor of the Seventh-day Adventist International Bible Commentary. Genesis is the first release of this series and is intended as a model for all subsequent commentaries. Similar to other biblical commentaries, Genesis covers the entire book of Genesis. In this regard, the editors mention two…[Read more]

The Doctrine of God is an introductory textbook aiming to provide a clear and concise introduction to the doctrine of God by addressing some big questions concerning divine attributes and the God-world relationship in mainly recent Christian theology. More precisely the book provides an issue-focused presentation on selected contemporary…[Read more]

John Bolt, an emeritus professor at Calvin College (Grand Rapids, MI) and an expert on Calvinism, endorsed James Eglinton’s new biography of Herman Bavinck with these words: “This will be the definitive Bavinck biography for generations.” Time will tell whether Bolt is correct in this assessment, but after reading this fascinating book I tend…[Read more]

Steve Daily, Ph.D., is a former Adventist pastor and chaplain who taught psy-chology at Loma Linda and La Sierra Universities for over twenty years. This is the fourth book by Daily about Seventh-day Adventism and its founder (cf. Adventism for a New Generation [Better Living Publications, 1993]; Prophetic Rift, 2 vols. [Better Living…[Read more]

This published version of Denis Kaiser’s Ph.D.-dissertation is a comprehensive treatment of what the subtitle promises: A thorough analysis of the understanding of divine inspiration in early Seventh-day Adventist history, mainly during the 50 years from 1880 to 1930. The author compiled material from many years of research, collecting even n…[Read more]

“I’m a Black liberation theologian, so don’t be surprised if I say things that will upset you.” (p. 97) This may seem an odd sentence to start a book review with, but it is exactly what Anthony Reddie, Director of the Oxford Centre for Religion and Culture (Regent’s Park College, University of Oxford), and Extraordinary Professor of Theologic…[Read more]

The representations of religious tension between the polytheistic humans and the monotheistic Cylons in the Sci Fi (now Syfy) channel’s hit series Battlestar Galactica (2003–2009) is nowhere more evident than in the human “convert” to monotheism, Gaius Baltar, who struggles to proselytize his minority beliefs to other humans. Ancient Jewish…[Read more]

Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents provide readers with often radical re- visions and critiques of biblical texts. This article asks how the principal characters’ affective engagements with Scripture vary, and considers the extent to which fiction may “play” with the Bible, despite its authoritative distanc…[Read more]

Modern science fiction writers often draw upon the biblical flood story as inspiration for their own narratives. It is not uncommon to find humans fleeing on space arks to escape some cosmic disaster. In the process of adapting the biblical narrative to contemporary circumstances, these writers also frequently transform the unnamed female…[Read more]

In the virtual world elaborated in Marvel’s movies (the “Marvel Cinematic Universe” or MCU), “science” is creatively, strategically confused with “magic” and/or “religion.” Key supernatural/magical elements of the franchise’s comic-book source material are “retconned” (retroactively granted new narrative coherence and continuity) as advanced…[Read more]

This article considers several instances of biblical reception in the science-fiction role-playing game Horizon Zero Dawn (Guerrilla Games/Sony, 2017). The game’s characterisation of technology, science, and religion has led some commentators to understand Horizon Zero Dawn as presenting a firm rejection of religious narratives in favour of s…[Read more]

Queer theory’s standard origin story centers on Michel Foucault, Judith Butler, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, and Teresa de Lauretis. This article proceeds down a less-traveled road, one yet to be explored in biblical studies. Like standard queer theory, this trajectory’s roots are also in French thought—not that of Foucault or Jacques Lacan, howev…[Read more]

This article employs two strategies to understand Paul’s dissatisfaction with the meal practice of the Corinthian assembly in 1 Corinthians 11:17-31. First, it uses a form of queer reading to interrogate the text for its assumptions about normativity and deviance. Second, it puts the Corinthian meals in conversation with modern queer potlucks a…[Read more]

While queer biblical translation aims to validate the presence of the LGBTQI community within Christianity, it is often viewed as violating the ethical standards of canonical biblical texts. This paper analyses the Queen James Bible as an activist, queer translation of the Bible that intersects with questions of ethics. Drawing on prefatory…[Read more]

In the Hebrew Bible, God epitomises an ideal hegemonic masculinity: sexless but reproductive, in control of his creation, and hypermasculine when engaging with his feminised followers. As such, the Gospel writers depict Jesus as the Son of God with this, as well as the masculine ideals of the Greco-Roman world, in mind. Ultimately, this causes a…[Read more]

Queering Jesus is a call to remember the danger of the story of Jesus. The primary aim of this article is to offer a comprehensive survey of the representation of queer Jesus. Building upon the deconstructive work of Johannes Baptist Metz and the notion of the dangerous memories of Jesus’s suffering and death (memoria passsionis), this article t…[Read more]