This chapter sets Leviticus within its narrative context in the Pentateuch and discusses historical-critical approaches to its composition. It further addresses a theology of holiness and the decentralization of cultic worship, which gives greater importance to purity in the home.

The theology of Leviticus is also deeply concerned with holiness in time and setting a liturgical rhythm for the people of Israel. The focus on cultic calendars and seasonal festivals is important in understanding how Leviticus views holiness. The rhythms of the people are directed by God’s creation in Genesis and his salvific works in Exodus. These are tied into seasonal harvest and celebrations for the flourishing of God’s people.

This chapter considers some of the ways that the discourse of Galatians interfaces with other parts of the New Testament: Romans, the canonical Pauline corpus, and selected texts beyond the Pauline corpus.

This chapter places Paul’s discourse in the context of the “ethnic hierarchies” that were rampant in his world. For Paul, any form of identity prioritization turns a micro-identity into a problematic macro-identity, transgressing Paul’s view that Christ-followers of differing identities are to be united in collective worship of the sovereign God.

This chapter offers a condensed version of the message of Galatians, explaining how scholars have offered differing interpretations and setting out the general approach adopted in this book.

For John, Jesus’s story is a continuation of God’s story as described in Israel’s Scriptures, what Christians call the OT. Exploring John’s use of Scripture is the first of our thematic chapters because it provides perhaps the most crucial context for understanding Johannine theology. Although the Gospel of John does not quote Scripture in the same way as the Synoptics do, especially Matthew and Luke, scriptural stories of God’s life-giving will and salvific work for Israel form its supporting framework. As I argued in the previous chapters, examining the narrative elements of the Gospel of John helps us to see the importance of God’s identity as Creator. Paraphrasing Genesis in John 1:1–5, the Gospel establishes its sacred cosmology in line with that of ancient Israel and Hellenistic Jewish circles of the late first century.

Islamophobic and anti-immigrant parties in the European Union also found benefits in philosemitism. Postwar Europe had until then resisted Judeo-Christian civilizational discourse, but Islamophobia precipitated this conversion. The antisemites of yesterday, joined by culturally progressive “Enlightenment fundamentalists,” yearned for a Jewish-Christian alliance against “Islamo-fascism” and Muslim immigrants. Muscular Israel now symbolized Western resistance against Islam: For illiberal philosemites, the Jewish state showed weak liberal Europe the path to its survival. In Germany, “remembrance culture” hardened into a key symbol of national identity during the long Angela Merkel chancellorship (2005–21). In the Federal Republic, the nationalization of Holocaust memory translated into permanent alert against “imported” antisemitism, shielded the Holocaust from comparability, and affirmed Germany’s commitment to Israel’s security in the name of “reason of state.”

The purity of the Israelite tent had a direct relationship to the purity of God’s tent, or the tabernacle. Understanding purity is critical to understanding Leviticus’ theology of holiness and holy space. This chapter discusses the difference between moral and ethical purity as well as the dietary laws and other commands for Israel around maintaining their holiness.

“The world” (ho kosmos) is a unique character in the Gospel of John. “World” is used seventy-eight times in this Gospel, versus nine times in Matthew, and only three times each in both Mark and Luke. Understanding what the world is in John is difficult because of its multifaceted nature and ambivalent quality. It is at once the creation of God and, therefore, beloved by God, but it also repeatedly rejects God’s emissaries, returning love with hate (e.g., 7:7; 15:18–25). In this chapter, I will argue that the world is depicted both as God’s creation and as a demonically possessed and impure realm. While John famously excludes individual exorcisms, it nevertheless includes references to demons (7:20; 8:48, 52; 10:20–21), the devil (6:70; 8:44; 13:2), Satan (13:27), “the evil one” (17:15), and the “Ruler of this world” (12:31; 14:30; 16:11) to describe forces promoting lies and death. God combats the Ruler and shows steadfast love for the world by sending Jesus as a revelation of holiness and purification to exorcize this demonic force from those who believe. After Jesus’s departure, believers remain in the world, continuing Jesus’s mission and, therefore, demonstrating God’s faithfulness (17:13–19).