Power, Service, Humility: A New Testament Ethic

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POWER SERVICE HUMILITY POWER SERVICE HUMILITY REINHARD FELDMEIER FELDMEIER A New Testament Ethic baylorpress.com Religion /Biblical Studies “Few have approached the relationship between power and service with the exegetical insight and theological depth that Reinhard Feldmeier manifests in this volume. Writing with clarity and passion, he provides readers with an ethic that reveals the paradoxical relationship between power, service, and humility in the New Testament.” —Frank J. Matera, Professor Emeritus, The Catholic University of America Since ancient times, depictions of the divine have been painted with the colors of divine power. Not surprisingly, power language became a central part of the New Testament’s understanding of God and human relationships. In Power, Service, Humility, biblical scholar Reinhard Feldmeier reads across the New Testament canon—the Gospels, Pauline epistles, and Revelation of John—to distinguish two ways in which power works. Feldmeier’s chief claim is that power based on oppression, the kind Satan offers Christ, is a far different kind of power than the empowerment that God grants Jesus in the resurrection. Further, Feldmeier demonstrates the antithetical link between worldly power and the power present in Christ-like service and humility. As Feldmeier discovers, the differences between sacred and secular power have dramatic implications for how humans handle power within the church and beyond. Power, Service, Humility provokes thoughtful considerations of both human and divine relationships with power and power’s holy place within the Christian faith. ReinhardFeldmeierisProfessorof NewTestament,Georg-August-University, Göttingen.He is the co-author of God of the Living: A Biblical Theology (Baylor University Press, 2011). He resides in Göttingen, Germany. ...