New Book: Holiness and Ecclesiology in the NT

This edited volume of essays involves two important subjects: holiness and the church/people of God.  The general orientation of the contributors is towards a view of holiness that acknowledges the communal dimension of the biblical message of sanctity.  And, the list of authors is quite impressive: George Brooke (DSS), Richard Bauckham (Gospel of John), I. Howard Marshall (Acts), Robert Wall (Paul in Acts), Michael Gorman (Paul, cruciformity, and holiness), Peter Oakes (Romans), Bruce Winter (1 Corinthians), Troy Martin (Galatians), J. Ross Wagner (Philippians), Joel Green (1 Peter), and others!  This is a truly impressive cast of writers and I look forward to reading each of these essays.

NB: One of my supervisors (Stephen Barton) gave to backcover commendation: ‘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.’   For those interested in this subject, I recommend Stephen’s work in general (look up his articles esp. on ATLA), Robert Banks, David Horrell, Ben Witherington (commentary on 1 Cor), Gordon Fee (Paul, Spirit, People of God), and the work of Mary Douglas.  When Stephen mentioned the issue of holiness and sociality, I thought of Michael Newton’s work on Purity in Paul (and Qumran) as well as the book A Vision for the Church (ed. Bockmuehl).