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`Two superb scholars in New Testament and the early Church here show why it is vital to dig deeper into the past in order to live well in the present and enable a better future. Above all they communicate the intensity of life in the Holy Spirit in the cities where Christianity took root - a life uniting head, heart, tongue and practical action. The culminating guidelines for mission in twenty-first century pluralist settings are packed with challenging wisdom centred on the crucified, living Jesus Christ.' David F. Ford, Regius Professor of Divinity, University of Cambridge `Here is rich and varied food for the mind, repeated provocation for the curious, and much stimulus for hours of discussion. The themes are challenging: How do holiness and mission hang together? Is the city more a threat or an opportunity for Christianity? Is the church really a learning community? How do Christians best work together? What do we need to hear afresh from the Bible and the early church on what really matters? Use the book for a study group. You will benefit greatly from it, and may well be inspired to act upon what you learn.' James D. G. Dunn, former Lightfoot Professor of Divinity, University of Durham `Four strong chapters, organically grounded in the experience and teaching of the Bible and the Early Church, undergird a remarkable finale that lays bare the radical challenge to mission posed by the modern city. This is a profound, accessible and convincing book.' Leslie Griffiths, Superintendent, Wesley's Chapel, London

Examines the continuity between early Christianity and Judaism - the focus of much controversy.

This collection of essays by Morna D. Hooker deals with the theme of continuity and discontinuity - primarily between first-century Judaism and early Christianity - and explores the ways in which New Testament writers drew on their own cultures and previous beliefs in interpreting their experience of Jesus.

Endings in literary works are critical, an author's conclusion -- to a story or an argument -- is intended to shape our understanding of the whole in one particular way or another. In this engaging and deceptively simple study, Morna D. Hooker explores the final pages of each of the four Gospels and the Book of Acts, and attempts to uncover the specific messages that the Evangelists hoped to convey to their readers. Almost all of the Old Testament books have conclusions that look forward to what is going to happen next -- what, then, is the significance of the way in which these New Testament documents end? A companion volume to her much-praised Beginnings, this new study began as a valedictory lecture given in the University of Cambridge to mark her retirement as Lady Margaret's Professor of Divinity, and was expanded to form the Chuen King Lectures given in the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2001. Book jacket.

The uses of "Holy Scripture".--Baker, J. A. The myth of the Church.--Fenton, J. The preacher and the biblical critic.--Baker, T. New Testament scholarship and liturgical revision.--Evans, S. Walking in newness of life.--Dyson, J. A change of diet?--.--Drury, C. Who's in, who's out.--Flesseman-van Leer, E. Dear Christopher.--Flessman-van Leer, E. Dear Christopher.

'In the course of time the antagonism between Jew and Christian became so bitter that Christians began to behave like cuckoos, or like tycoons who had taken over the company. So concerned were they with their own position in God's scheme of salvation that they ceased to ask fundamental questions about God's purpose for Israel according to the flesh'. They forgot that poignant verse in "Romans in which Paul declares: 'I could wish that i myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen by race.' For by the time that the church had become a predominantly Gentile community it had been cut off, not from Christ, but from Paul's kinsmen. I have been attempting in these lectures to understand the situation of those who wrestled with the problems of relating old and new in the first years of the Christian era; if we wish to understand the origins of our faith, then clearly it is essential to explore the context in which it was first formulated. It may well be that the way in which these men and women related old and new may be of help to Christians today who experience the tension between past tradition and present experience. It may be that a better understanding of what was going on as the Christian community sought to establish its own identity could affect our attitudes to questions concerning Jewish-Christian relationships today.'--from back cover.