The Indelible Image

[Steve Lortz]

Once I took off the TWI/CES blinders and started reading around, I found that there are some very good New Testament scholars out there. Actual scholars! James D. G. Dunn has been one of my favorites for well over ten years. Today, I came across a copy of volume II of The Indelible Image by Ben Witherington III. Thumbing through it, I decided to acquire a copy of volume I for myself.

Witherington focuses on the interdependence of theology and ethics in the New Testament. One feature of his book that intrigues me is the picture he presents of "The Thought World of the New Testament," which is a Venn diagram, with overlapping circles. Each of the circles represents the thoughts of one of the New Testament writers. There are places where ALL of the circles intersect, but there are also other places where each writer's thoughts are unique to that particular writer. This seems to me to be a much more reasonable and much more useful presentation of the integrity of the Word than Wierwille's "fits like a hand in a glove."

It'll be awhile before I'm able to get the book and start reading it, but I thought I'd post a "heads up" in case anybody else might be interested, or has already heard of Witherington.

Love,

Steve

Edited August 10, 2010 by Steve Lortz

[geisha779]

Steve,

I am really happy to hear you found Ben Witherington. . . . he is great to read...his background is not quite as fundamentalist as some and he is somewhat fluid in his understanding. ...meaning he is willing to change his mind. He had a blog which I don't think has been updated recently...however, there is much there to look over and enjoy.

http://benwitherington.blogspot.com/

[brideofjc]

Just thinking about the title, "Indelible Image" and I'm wondering if it is a discussion of "Imago Dei"? Let us know what you read when you get the book. I've perused some of his commentaries.

[Steve Lortz]

Steve,

I am really happy to hear you found Ben Witherington. . . . he is great to read...his background is not quite as fundamentalist as some and he is somewhat fluid in his understanding. ...meaning he is willing to change his mind. He had a blog which I don't think has been updated recently...however, there is much there to look over and enjoy.

http://benwitherington.blogspot.com/

Mahalo for wishing me mele kalikimaka!

Aloha nui oi,

Steve

[Steve Lortz]

Just thinking about the title, "Indelible Image" and I'm wondering if it is a discussion of "Imago Dei"? Let us know what you read when you get the book. I've perused some of his commentaries.

It's gonna be a few weeks before I can get the book. I'm in the middle of a summer school class (a whole semester packed into 5&1/2 weeks, about 2 weeks to go) on writing APA style. It's pretty intense. In September my load will lighten up considerably. I have to finish three hours of a "Life Assessment" module, and three hours of a "Christian Communities and Vocation" module, then I'll have completed the requirements for a BS in Organizational Leadership. After that, I start jumping through the hoops to acquire official accreditation to teach.

Love,

Steve

P.S. I'll definitely answer your question when I find out myself!

[Twinky]

This is a more up to date link for Ben Witherington: Ben's new site

(Not that I know any more of him than appears on this thread.)

[Mod Kirk]

A side discussion about the existence of God has been removed from this thread.

While threads questioning God and his motives are not out of place in the doctrinal forum, please don't derail doctrinal discussions with extraneous matters.