Have you ever heard "Paul" and "love" being put into the same sentence? How about "love" and "theology"? Nijay Gupta's "The Affections of Christ Jesus: Love at the Heart of Paul's Theology" solves that problem. In an approachable and accessible manner, Gupta systematically: - demonstrates how "love" has been neglected by Pauline scholarship. - summarizes Christian and secular, modern and ancient understandings of "love." - explores the language of love in the Old Testament, carefully rooting his later study in YHWH's demonstrable expressions of love for his people. - looks at 1st Century usage of "love" in the Greco-Roman culture. - explores how love language is used in the gospels and the Jesus tradition. - over several chapters lays out Paul's use of "love" in his various letters to the churches. What I loved in particular was: - Gupta's careful yet thorough approach to the topic; - those word studies are an absolute goldmine for absolutely anyone; - Gupta's careful exegesis through the majority of the Pauline epistles, what a gift to any reader, in particular for a pastor/teacher who wants to help others learn and grow. - The summary and synthesis at the end was brilliant, offering word groupings along with their locations in the text, as well as 6 theses about love and what it means for us today. This is an astounding piece of work from a theologian at the height of his craft.

Carmen Imes is an outstanding communicator and teacher, drawing together biblical ideas and (particularly in this book) the intertextual connections that make the biblical narrative of image-bearing, and serving it up in delectable chapters for the reader. Both the amateur and the seasoned pastor/theologian will have much to take away from this book. Divided into three parts, she begins in part 1 with describing and defining what it is to be in God's image, and that this is neither lost nor marred through humanity's fallenness, instead sin reduces our ability fulfill our vocation, and everyone, no matter what, images God. Part 2 touches on the the wisdom literature, exploring the topic of wisdom, of human sexuality, of suffering and vocation, and living within our limits. Part 3 talks about image bearing and God's now world, beginning with Jesus, the new human, crucified and raised again. This section is again rich in intertextual connections between Genesis 1-3 and Jesus's life, death, and resurrection. Next she explores what it means to live as diverse people in one community brought together through and as the body of Christ. She ends with a look forward towards where this is all going, the ultimate defeat of evil, and the paradise garden becoming a city garden. Again, excellent book with study questions. A wonderful resource to create a framework for reading scripture. Highly recommended!

All too often as readers we assume that biblical world essentially works the way our world works, just without smartphones, airplanes, and jeans. Scholar Jerry Hwang in a Onscript Podcast (April 18, 2023) makes the claim, that of all our present world cultures, the Japanese culture today is most similar to the 1st Century Mediterranean culture of Paul's day. i.e. most of us have no idea of the deep undercurrents flowing in the subtext of the New Testament. This is where this book comes in. Nijay Gupta does a brilliant job elucidating how radically different the Roman world was compared to our (Western and Christianized) world, and simultaneously how how dangerously different the Christian communities were living and worshipping within their Roman context. In turn the book challenges todays Christian community to in turn live boldly different in (at least my context) the radical individualist context in which we live. For example, even as the first Christians were challenged to live out a new sort of family loyalty towards one another (despite the disapprobation of their biological families), even now the radical individualists are called to lay give generously of their personal freedom to form covenant community that nurtures the individuals and proclaims to the world the Father who calls individuals to become family. In the end, Nijay cautions that even the earliest Christians were not perfect and that the New Testament itself may reflect some of this (the New Testament is made up of occasional letters written to certain people facing certain challenges… it is up to us with the guidance of the Holy Spirit to continue working out the Gospel's message in our present circumstances today). I highly recommend this thought-provoking and accessibly written book.