This essay will examine readings of an influential gospel motif over the first two Christian centuries. Should Christian generosity be extended to all, without condition, and should that “all” include even those who are hostile? If so, why? The chapter starts with the materials that had reached written form by the end of the first century (in Matthew 5, Luke 6, and Didache 1), focusing on the malleability of this tradition, in its various forms and with its various rationales. As a second step, it examines the pragmatics of these instructions. Starting from these three texts, but pursuing their themes into later (second-century) materials, it notes the practical difficulties regarding (a) whether this generosity is too easily abused, and (b) whether, or for how long, such generosity can be sustained. The significance of this material for the outward momentum (mission) of the church will be highlighted. As a third step, it examines the theological interpretation of these instructions, and the various ways they are connected to the character of God, or the achievement of Christ, including the ways they become integral to the “gospel.” Finally, it indicates the value of crossing the canonical boundary, the importance of reception as an active and creative phenomenon, and the theological aspects of interpretation.

In his robust and polarizing style, Paul makes claims that have provoked readers in numerous ways, at times spurring admirers to follow daring paths with radical implications for theology, but sometimes irritating his critics, who have raised numerous objections on theological, philosophical, and moral grounds. Paul divides opinion as much today as he did in his own lifetime. This essay discusses five topics where Paul proves to be challenging. In each case, we will trace how Paul subverts some aspects of an ancient value-system, not by a straightforward inversion of values but by his reconfiguration of what is good and necessary around the event of Christ crucified and risen. In many cases we will find that there is a partial match between Paul’s Christological configuration of values and the liberal values espoused by the majority of intellectuals in the modern West, with respect to justice, equality, freedom, and human rights. If Paul is to remain in any sense a constructive challenge, we will need to deploy a creative theological hermeneutic, which attempts to recontextualize Paul’s core insights in our own very different historical, intellectual, and social setting.

It is as great a pleasure to introduce this important monograph to the reader as it was to watch, advise and encourage the research which forms its basis. In the diversifying world of New Testament scholarship, Dr Angus Paddison is positioned at the cutting edge of one of its most exciting developments – the rediscovery of the dialogue with theology about the subject matter of the New Testament. Several voices in recent years have called for this dialogue to be reopened, but there are still too few scholars able or willing to immerse themselves as deeply in theology as in exegesis, or vice versa. With freshness, boldness and prodigious industry, Paddison here explores not only why but also how such a dialogue should take place, and makes a distinct contribution in at least three areas.

In the first place, this volume analyses and critiques current historical criticism, as practised on 1 Thessalonians, for its failure to take sufficiently seriously the meaning-potential of the text, and for its focus on ‘archaeological’ features of the text to the exclusion of engagement with its subject matter. Not all readers will accept every element of this critique, but any reader with an ounce of theological interest in the New Testament will recognise the problem here exposed and the challenge here issued. Drawing on Barth's reaction to the historical critics of his day, Paddison asks us to focus attention again on what the text is talking about and pointing towards.

Tolerance has its limits in any community which wishes to preserve its identity. Boundaries which create distinctions between ‘insiders’ and ‘outsiders’ have to be established and maintained if a community is to survive, especially a minority community in a pluralist environment. Most Jewish communities in the Diaspora appear to have been successful in preserving their social and religious identity, in many cases over hundreds of years. Where, then, did they fix the boundaries which defined the distinction between members and non-members? This question has often been addressed in enquiring how Gentiles were considered to have crossed the boundary and come into the Jewish community; but remarkably little attention has been paid to the opposite phenomenon, that is, how Jews were considered to have crossed the boundary and passed out of Judaism. Recent studies have rightly emphasized the variety within Second Temple Judaism, its multifarious strands making it difficult to define universal standards of ‘acceptability’ within Judaism. Yet individual Jewish communities, however diverse they may have been, must have preserved some sense of ‘proper’ behaviour which made it possible to castigate actual or potential ‘apostasy’. To detect where the boundaries lay in this regard would not only shed light on the maintenance of Jewish identity in the Diaspora; it would also provide some hints as to how the fateful division between early Christianity and Judaism took shape in the cities of the Graeco-Roman world.

For R. G. Collingwood, a scholar's final humiliation comes when his juniors conspire to present him with a volume of essays as a sign that they now consider him senile! In this case, however, we have gathered a collection of essays to celebrate the 65th birthday of a scholar who is by no means retired and is at the height of her powers. Morna Hooker's renown for her probing questions and sharpness of mind continues to grow with each new publication, and this collection is designed both to celebrate her achievements and to express our hope for more to come.

Of the many topics illuminated by Morna's work, we elected to focus on a controversial theme where she has rightly insisted on clarity of mind and breadth of focus. The relationship between early Christianity and its parent Judaism has a depth and complexity which is peculiarly difficult to grasp. We have taken our theme and our inspiration from Morna's Ethel M. Wood Lecture, New Wine In Old Bottles (1984) and her subsequent Sanderson Lectures Continuity and Discontinuity (1986), where, as a consummate communicator, she has opened up the key issues of our subject in a widely accessible way.

This is not, like the average Festschrift, a loose collection of essays on a common theme. Rather, we have planned and assigned essays to our contributors in an attempt to cover at least the major topics in this field.