From the email promotion:

Whether you are familiar with Dr. Craig Keener or this is your first introduction to his work, we are delighted to announce an upcoming Bible webinar with the professor of New Testament at Asbury Theological Seminary.

Well-known for his research on the Jewish and Greco-Roman context of the New Testament, Dr. Keener will join us for a two-day online seminar to teach us more about the Jewish context of key books and passages of the Bible. It will be a wonderful teaching series that you will not want to miss!

Here is the second session, entitled “The Jewish Context for the Sermon on the Mount and the Book of Matthew Continued.”

Image: Patrick Fore

 
Session 3: The Jewish Context For The Gospel Of John
 
Session 4: The Jewish Context for the Book of Revelation

From the email promotion:

Whether you are familiar with Dr. Craig Keener or this is your first introduction to his work, we are delighted to announce an upcoming Bible webinar with the professor of New Testament at Asbury Theological Seminary.

Well-known for his research on the Jewish and Greco-Roman context of the New Testament, Dr. Keener will join us for a two-day online seminar to teach us more about the Jewish context of key books and passages of the Bible. It will be a wonderful teaching series that you will not want to miss!

Here is the first session, entitled “The Jewish Context for the Sermon on the Mount and the Book of Matthew.”

Image: Patrick Fore

Session 3: The Jewish Context For The Gospel Of John
 
Session 4: The Jewish Context for the Book of Revelation

As usual, the writing of Matthew Schmitz, senior editor of First Things, is clear and cogent—and courageous. He fearlessly tackles daunting topics such as, in this case, immigration. It is a genuine pleasure to follow his almost seamless integration of personal testimony, social environment, rational investigation, and theological articulation. I particularly appreciate Schmitz’s compatible juxtaposition of Protestant ethical and social theologian Reinhold Niebuhr’s realism and Catholic natural theologian Thomas Aquinas’s political theory. Well done!

I will confess up front that I am in a position of a high level of agreement with what I take to be Schmitz’s primary assertions. Liberal idealism is an impractical and unworkable assumption about the world in which we live. It arises out of an over-realized eschatology rooted in an inaccurate assumption that utopia has already been achieved if people will just act like it. Further, liberal Christianity’s idealism has an anemic hamartiology. It simply does not realize the depth and extent of human sinfulness.

I am in something of a shock over the intensity of Schmitz’s insistence that outright contempt is behind liberal attitudes toward American citizens in general. Indeed, religious elitists do often ascribe ignorance and inferiority to their opponents (John 7:49). But I wondered if Schmitz overstated his case here. I fear not. I know liberal Christians of whom contempt for others would not be an accurate description. Yet I must admit in my own dealings with liberal Christianity I have often encountered an arrogance and animosity toward conservative Christians that is nothing short of contemptuous.

Nevertheless, although my journey and that of Matthew Schmitz have much in common, they have different starting points—and that affects their direction. Schmitz initially assumed the need for open borders and viewed with contempt those who thought otherwise. His life experiences and development eventually changed his direction toward a more closed border mindset. I had the opposite experience. I initially assumed the dire need for strictly enforced closed borders. My familial background is Pentecostal Christian. Pentecostals are very conservative, both religiously and politically. Furthermore, my first jobs included construction work, working in a truck stop, and factory labor. Immigrants were frequent rivals for scarce resources. My brother-in-law lost his job as a sheetrock hanger because he could not compete with the low wages undocumented immigrants were constrained to endure. Secure borders were a matter of economic survival for us … even before 9/11 and another whole set of security concerns.

The kind of book Evangelical Christians need to be reading on navigating Christian-Muslim relations today is the kind of book Matthew Kaemingk has written in Christian Hospitality and Muslim Immigration in an Age of Fear. So then, I am beginning this review with a positive recommendation right up front. Please let me explain why.

Matthew Kaemingk is assistant professor of Christian ethics and associate dean at Fuller Theological Seminary. Kaemingk earned his Master of Divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary and holds doctoral degrees in Systematic Theology from the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam and in Christian Ethics from Fuller Theological Seminary. Kaemingk is an ordained minister in the Christian Reformed Church. He presently lives in Houston with his wife Heather and their three sons Calvin, Kees, and Caedmon.

Matthew Kaemingk

Kaemingk’s research and teaching focus is on Islam and political ethics, faith and the workplace, theology and culture, and Reformed public theology. Thus Christian Hospitality and Muslim Immigration in an Age of Fear comes rather directly out of his primary expertise. And it shows. The Foreword by Jamie Smith, quite the heavy hitter himself and a Charismatic Calvinist on top of that, not only testifies to the credibility of Kaemingk’s work and frames it for readers but helps connect it with Evangelical Reformed readers as well as Pentecostal/Charismatic readers.

Matthew Kaemingk faces several pressing questions head-on. How can diverse people live together? How should Western Christians respond to their new Muslim neighbors? Can Islam and Christianity peacefully coexist? Are there limits to religious freedom and tolerance? How much religious diversity can a single nation withstand? He believes the far left’s unqualified concessions and the far right’s reflex aggressions are both mistaken. Yet he does not simply draw a line down the middle between the two. He proposes another option: “Christian hospitality” or, as he (cover aside) more often puts it, “Christian pluralism”. Yet before prematurely dismissing him at this point readers should note that he does not mean by “pluralism” what may be the first thought which comes to many minds (i.e. he is certainly no John Hick). Kaemingk is firmly committed to the exclusivity of Jesus Christ as the one and only Savior and Lord. He is also firmly committed to loving neighbors—even enemies, if so they be—of other faiths.

A series of 19 lectures on the Gospel of Matthew by Dr. Craig S. Keener of Asbury Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky.

Lecture 1: The Reliability of the Gospels, Part 1

Lecture 2: The Reliability of the Gospels, Part 2; Miracles, Part 1

Lecture 3: Miracles, Part 2, Exorcism

Lecture 4: Introduction to Matthew, Matthew 1

Lecture 5: Matthew 2—3

Lecture 6: Matthew 3—4

Lecture 7: Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5

Lecture 8: Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5—6

Lecture 9: Matthew 7—8

Lecture 10: Matthew 8—9

Lecture 11: Matthew 10—11

Lecture 12: Matthew 12—14

Lecture 13: Matthew 14—16

Lecture 14: Matthew 16—19

Lecture 15: Matthew 19—22

Lecture 16: Matthew 23—24

Lecture 17: Matthew 24—25

Lecture 18: Matthew 26—27

Lecture 19: Matthew 27—28

The nineteenth and final in a series of 19 lectures on the Gospel of Matthew by Dr. Craig S. Keener of Asbury Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky. This lecture is entitled, “Matthew 27—28.”

For further reading:

Craig S. Keener, Gospel of Matthew: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary (Eerdmans, 2009).

The Secret Codes in Matthew: Examining Israel’s Messiah
A unique commentary on Matthew, the Gospel to the Hebrews, by Messianic teacher Kevin Williams.

The eighteenth in a series of 19 lectures on the Gospel of Matthew by Dr. Craig S. Keener of Asbury Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky. This lecture is entitled, “Matthew 26—27.”

For further reading:

Craig S. Keener, Gospel of Matthew: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary (Eerdmans, 2009).

The Secret Codes in Matthew: Examining Israel’s Messiah
A unique commentary on Matthew, the Gospel to the Hebrews, by Messianic teacher Kevin Williams.

The seventeenth in a series of 19 lectures on the Gospel of Matthew by Dr. Craig S. Keener of Asbury Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky. This lecture is entitled, “Matthew 24—25.”

For further reading:

Craig S. Keener, Gospel of Matthew: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary (Eerdmans, 2009).

The Secret Codes in Matthew: Examining Israel’s Messiah
A unique commentary on Matthew, the Gospel to the Hebrews, by Messianic teacher Kevin Williams.

The sixteenth in a series of 19 lectures on the Gospel of Matthew by Dr. Craig S. Keener of Asbury Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky. This lecture is entitled, “Matthew 23—24.”

For further reading:

Craig S. Keener, Gospel of Matthew: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary (Eerdmans, 2009).

The Secret Codes in Matthew: Examining Israel’s Messiah
A unique commentary on Matthew, the Gospel to the Hebrews, by Messianic teacher Kevin Williams.

The fifteenth in a series of 19 lectures on the Gospel of Matthew by Dr. Craig S. Keener of Asbury Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky. This lecture is entitled, “Matthew 19—22.”

For further reading:

Craig S. Keener, Gospel of Matthew: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary (Eerdmans, 2009).

The Secret Codes in Matthew: Examining Israel’s Messiah
A unique commentary on Matthew, the Gospel to the Hebrews, by Messianic teacher Kevin Williams.