Description: The eschatological and dualistic symbolism of the early Christians has misled us into thinking that the Gospel in its classic period has no concern with what we call social change, writes Wilder. Saint Paul's apparently conservative social views must be understood in light of his expectation of Christ's imminent return; his is an "emergency ethic." But going beyond Paul's explicit social teachings to his kerygmatic affirmations, we see that the "principalities and powers" over which Christ has triumphed also refer to the corrupted structures of society. The social-ethical significance of the kerygma becomes discernible as soon as we learn to interpret the mythological expressions of the New Testament in historical terms.
Brief description: Peter S. Hawkins is Professor of Religion and Literature at Yale Divinity School. His work has centered on Dante, but he has also written widely on the history of biblical reception and on contemporary fiction. He is the author of numerous books, including Dante's Testaments: Essays on Scriptural Imagination, Dante: A Brief History, and Undiscovered Country: Imagining the World to Come.
Review Quotes: ""A man of letters in the best sense of the term, Amos Wilder was an important scholar of the New Testament, a foundational figure in the study of the Bible through the techniques of literary criticism, a poet, and a sensitive critic of Modernist literature. All of his books are valuable for anyone interested in the intellectual history of the twentieth century, and in their own right for their thoughtful analysis of significant religious and literary issues."" --Christopher J. Wheatley, The Catholic University of America