Extending the Table – New Testament Theology by Jon Isaak (An Interview with the Author)

I am excited about this new book by personal friend and professor, Jon Isaak.  He is an EXCELLENT teacher of the Scriptures and interacts with the most current scholarship.  I encourage you to give this interview a read and consider purchasing the book!  – Kurt

1) What is your background academically?

My formal academic training is a mix of pedagogy (credentialed school teacher), Christian ministry formation (seminary Bible degree), and specialization in early Christian history and literature (PhD, McGill University, Montreal). For me, an equally important aspect of my background is missionary service (lived and taught in four countries—US, Canada, Congo, and Russia), as well as standing beside my wife in Christian ministry; she’s the pastor (14 years) and I’m the pastor’s spouse. Since 1987, we have both served in some form of ministry sponsored by the Mennonite Brethren church.

2) What are some broad theological commitments you ‘bring to the table’ in any of your work?  How do you fall on the spectrum of conservative and liberal scholars?

The broad theological commitments I have are also a mix. It’s a combination of Anabaptist-Mennonite leanings together with a strong dose of Evangelicalism. Sometimes people ask me what is an Anabaptist-Evangelical perspective, anyway? How might one recognize this strand within Christianity? For me, there are at least two emphases: (1) a large optimism about human transformation as a journey of growth and development, including commitments to community building, non-violent peacemaking, and life-long discipleship—a few of the key ideals of Anabaptism; and (2) a deep conviction that such transformation is best rooted in a personal connection to Jesus, the one who is uniquely grounded in the mission of God to reconstitute the people of God, and who finally deals with sin and its deceptive reign, making possible authentic and abundant living—a few of the key ideals of Evangelicalism.

3) What are the key goals that drove you to want to write a New Testament theology book?  Are there any features that will set this work apart from other NT Theologies?

NT Theology books tend to focus on one of three areas. Some focus primarily on the history of the movement, how it started, how it developed, who won, who lost, etc. Others focus on the individual books of the NT, setting out the theological contributions of each of the 27 books. Still others take theological themes like Christology or Ecclesiology and survey what the NT writers have to say about those themes.

What I wanted was to do all three in one book! I wanted something historical, theological, and thematic. The book is my attempt to write a NT Theology in a popular format that is historically rigorous in its reconstruction of the voices of the NT writers, theologically grounded in Jesus’ story as witnessed by these writers, and thematically constructive for the church in its ongoing witness to the watching world. I hope that my ambitious attempt to do all three things in one book will prove useful to students of biblical literature, theology, culture, and mission.

4) Who are some theological influences that have shaped your project?

For NT scholarship, I like Luke Johnson. His Bible commentaries and his NT Introduction are excellent in their balance between historical issues and contemporary application to community life today. Another NT scholar, who is now dead, but who also significantly shaped my thinking, is George Caird. It is from him that I got the metaphor of thinking of the NT as a conference round table discussion and the metaphor of the NT as a choir that is not singing in unison, but in SATB harmony, all on the significance of Jesus. My constructive theology is shaped by C. Norman Kraus’s Anabaptist systematic theology. Even though I write as a historian and biblical theologian, I don’t want that to be an excuse for not working things out systematically! I have started to use the language of doing biblical theology, systematically.

Other NT authors of influence are Richard B. Hays, N. T. Wright, and E. P. Sanders. Anthropologist, Rene Girard, and historian, Robin Lane Fox, have shaped my understanding of the ancient world and western civilization. I continue to find that the fantasy writings of novelists like C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, and J. K. Rowling have loads of links to the biblical narrative and archetypal themes generally.

5) How do you hope that your book will contribute to theological discourse in the broader academic world and in the local church?

I hope that my book will help people with the way they think about the NT and its usefulness. Typically, the spectrum ranges from those who see the NT as mostly a company policy manual designed to insure uniform procedures for all times and all places. On the other end of the spectrum are those who have pretty much given up on the church and the Bible. For these, the NT is an antiquated relic from the past, of little use except for a museum shelf. I would like to speak into this dynamic with an alternative.

My book imagines the NT as a conversation taking place “around the table” where the writers of the NT share their guiding vision of God’s saving work among them and their passion for the Christian church engaged in God’s mission. As is to be expected, there are differing perspectives developed at the NT conference table. On most any topic, a spectrum of convictions emerges. Instead of finding this to be disturbing, the differing perspectives are held together without reduction, forming a creative tension that is deep and rich. It is precisely within this interpretive space that ongoing community reflection, discernment, and praxis can take place. In this way, NT Theology plays the role of “extending the table,” giving contemporary faith communities a way of connecting with God’s people from the dawn of time to the end of time.