Acts of God in History

Studies Towards Recovering a Theological Historiography

Edited by Christoph Ochs Edited by Peter Watts By (author) Roland Deines

Book cover: Acts of God in History

Extent: 525 pages

Publisher: Mohr Siebeck

Subjects: Religious Studies

Series: Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament

Language: English

Hardback (Published)

(November 2013)

ISBN: 9783161521812

6.46 x 9.37 inches

Price: $284.00

In stock

These selected studies by Roland Deines pursue the question of how revelatory acts of God have been experienced historically and encapsulated in biblical and early Jewish writings. Topics range from the Pharisees to Bar Kokhba, and from the historical Jesus to the Apostolic decree, with Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI) on Jesus and Martin Hengel on Jesus’ pre-existence and incarnation discussed as particular methodological examples. It is the author’s goal to provide contributions to a theologically motivated historiography that is methodologically open to the fact that God acts in history.


The eleven studies in this volume are connected by the conviction that God acts in history and that it remains necessary for biblical exegesis to integrate this into its methodology. Roland Deines presents historical and methodological considerations to trace how God was experienced within historical events and how such events inspired the formation of Scripture. Topics range from the Pharisees to Bar Kokhba, and from the historical Jesus to the Apostolic decrees, with Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI) on Jesus and Martin Hengel on Jesus’ pre-existence and incarnation discussed as particular methodological examples. Roland Deines intends these studies to be contributions towards a theologically motivated historiography. His aim is to propose a viable reading of history under the assumption that the one God to whom the Holy Scriptures of the Jewish-Christian tradition bear witness is indeed the creator, sustainer and perfecter of this world and its history.

Introduction: God's Role in History as a Methodological Problem for Exegesis
Part One: Historical StudiesThe Social Profile of the Pharisees - Jesus the Galilean: Questioning the Function of Galilee in Recent Jesus Research - Jesus and the Jewish Traditions of His Time - The Apostolic Decree: Halakha for Gentile Christians or Christian Concession to Jewish Taboos?
Part Two: Responses to the God who ActsHow Long? God's Revealed Schedule for Salvation and the Outbreak of the Bar Kokhba Revolt - Biblical Viewpoints on Repentance, Conversion, and Turning to God - The Term and Concept of Scripture
Part Three: Methodological ProbingsThe Recognition of God's Acting in History in the Gospel of Matthew - Can the 'Real' Jesus be Identified with the Historical Jesus? Joseph Ratzinger's (Pope Benedict XVI) Challenge to Biblical Scholarship - Pre-existence, Incarnation and Messianic Self-understanding of Jesus in the Work of Martin Hengel

  • Edited by Christoph Ochs
  • Edited by Peter Watts
  • By (author) Roland Deines

"Acts of God in History raises afresh the question of God for the practice of critical biblical scholarship. The unifying thesis of the work is as simple as it is provocative: historiography is shaped by critical reflection on God. [...] Deines's work constitutes a formidable challenge to a field where the synchronic judgments of the historian are too often warranted by a secular ideology in which religious convictions are allowed no claim on reality." --Wil Rogan, Review of Biblical Literature, 7.16.2015
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