Holiness and Ecclesiology in the New Testament

Stephen Barton -- Durham University "Holiness and Ecclesiology in the New Testament represents a new and much better way of doing what is conventionally called 'the theology and ethics of the New Testament.' In twenty essays -- which are scholarly yet accessible -- almost all the books of the New Testament are examined for what they display of a holy God who calls a people to holiness. A common critique linking the essays is the inadequacy of the modern tendency to reduce holiness to matters of the private piety of the autonomous self. In contrast, the New Testament texts are shown to be an urgent invitation to Christians past and present to rediscover and embody the public dimensions of the Christian calling to holiness in church and society. This book is the only New Testament study I know that makes the vital link between holiness and sociality so consistently. I commend it strongly." Dan Boone -- Trevecca Nazarene University "Rather than lowering a single definition of holiness onto the texts of the New Testament, the authors of Holiness and Ecclesiology in the New Testament have allowed each biblical writer and context to offer its own contribution. As a result, the church is called to embody holiness in each unique situation. From Jewish purity systems to ritual cleaning to circumcision to idolatrous feasts to sexual practices to empire protest, the church is called to experience and express the holiness of God as her guiding narrative and defining characteristic. The corporate understanding of ecclesial holiness found in this book will challenge those who have gone looking for proof texts to prop up a one-two sermonic punch of personal experience. Favorite texts will need to be reconsidered in light of the broader call of the people of God to holiness . . . which will make us not less holy but more publicly holy, more body-practiced holy, more engaged-with-the-world holy. The stories of Israel and Jesus remain the dominant narratives that shape the church, and the triune God remains the central character in a narrative of self-emptying, cruciform love. This expression of the holy God sends the church to the margins of the world where people need justice, compassion, mercy, and peace. This is a new book on my preaching shelf."