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Perspectives
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“Where the angels long to look!” First Peter as Advent
Preacher
FREDERICK J. GAISER
(see full text of essay under “Editorial”)
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First Peter’s call to a living hope and faithful
obedience, awaiting a salvation in Christ that is “ready to be revealed”
(1:5)—all of this based firmly in the promises of the Old Testament—could
provide material for a rich series of Advent sermons, perhaps using as a
theme the provocative notion that believers in Christ have been given news
better than anything available to the angels (1:12).
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Remembering Tamar
DIANE JACOBSON
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To remember Tamar and to tell the story of her rape is
to say that we know, we understand, we see, and we name the truth—a truth the
Bible continues to speak, no matter how painful.
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Articles
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First Peter in Recent Study
M. EUGENE BORING
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Recent studies in 1 Peter abound and demonstrate a
remarkable convergence on many points. The distinction between scholarly
commentaries for the guild and devotional or homiletical commentaries for the
church is being widely overcome.
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Teaching 1 Peter as Scripture
ROBERT W. WALL
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While acknowledging the important insights of critical
scholarship, faithful Christian teachers will interpret 1 Peter within the
early church’s rule of faith, a unified tradition that found coherence, not
dissonance, in the various elements of Scripture. Within this rule of faith,
1 Peter calls Christians to radical obedience to the God who has purged them
from sin by the obedient suffering of Jesus on their behalf.
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Aliens and Exiles: Social Location and Christian
Vocation
SCOT MCKNIGHT
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First Peter addresses “aliens and exiles”—terms that
refer not to spiritual pilgrims, but to the social location of the Christians
to whom Peter writes. Peter’s letter includes a strategy for how people in
that location might best influence the Roman world, and infers how we might
influence our own.
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St. Peter’s
Passion: The Passion Narrative in 1 Peter
J. RAMSEY
MICHAELS
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First Peter bears witness to the events leading up to
Christ’s death on the cross, looking at Christ’s sufferings first as an
example to his followers and then as the price of redemption. Christ’s
passion is a portent of what is in store for faithful readers.
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Silent Wives, Verbal Believers: Ethical and
Hermeneutical Considerations in 1 Peter 3:1–6 and Its Context
JEANNINE K.
BROWN
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Wives are to be silent witnesses; believers (including
women) are to be verbal witnesses. With this tension, 1 Peter invites us to
consider the complex task of the Christian community as it engages its social
environment in challenge and testimony, then and now.
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Crass Casualty or Purposeful Pain? Psalm 34’s
Influence on Peter’s First Letter
MICHAEL J. GILMOUR
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Whereas Thomas
Hardy’s poem “Hap” concludes that human sorrows have no purpose, the author
of Ps 34 finds the kindness of God in the midst of crisis. First Peter uses
Ps 34 in its attempt to convince Christian readers that suffering is
purposeful.
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Honorable Conduct among the Gentiles—A Study of
the Social Thought of 1 Peter
EARL J. RICHARD
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According to 1 Peter, all humans are owed honor as
creatures of God. Christians have duties, therefore, not only toward members
of the community of believers but also toward outsiders.
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Are You Serious? First Peter on Christian Life in a
Complicated World
MARC KOLDEN
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First Peter’s call to good conduct, to acceptance of
human authority, and to suffering may sound more like legalism or moralism
than good news about being new creatures in Christ. Or, might such
living—based in hope and sharing in Christ’s own suffering—lead Christians to
be intentional participants in God’s providential governance of their world
and creative reshaping of society?
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Resources
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Texts in Context: Radical
Trust in the Just Judge: The Easter Texts of 1 Peter
MARY H. SCHERTZ
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First Peter’s call to obedience and suffering has
sometimes been sorely abused in the church’s interpretation, turning a blind
eye to violence against the oppressed. But this letter can also serve as a
call to renounce violence, as did Christ himself, in a way that can transform
evil into good.
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Face to Face: Should I Preach from a Lectionary?
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Yes!
ARLAND J. HULTGREN
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Why?
MARK A. THRONTVEIT
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Reviews
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Paul: A Jew on the Margins, by Calvin J. Roetzel
IRVING L. SANDBERG
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Christ on Trial: How the Gospel Unsettles Our Judgment,
by Rowan Williams
MATTHEW L. SKINNER
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Between Cross and Resurrection: A Theology of Holy Saturday,
by Alan E. Lewis
RONALD W. ROSCHKE
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The Politics of the Cross: The Theology and Social
Ethics of John Howard Yoder, by Craig A. Carter
CLINT SCHNEKLOTH
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Evolution from Creation to New Creation: Conflict,
Conversation and Convergence, by Ted Peters and Martinez Hewlett
ALAN G. PADGETT
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A Wounded Innocence: Sketches for a Theology of Art,
by Alejandro R. García-Rivera
ROBERT BRUSIC
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