Carmen Joy Imes

The Bible calls us to live as disciples of Jesus in every area of our lives, including politics. But how do we live as faithful political disciples when politics has become so toxic? Too often, Scripture's political witness is reduced to a few verses to defend our partisan political team. For some, political neutrality is the gold standard in congregational life. But if God's people refuse to pursue political discipleship, someone--or something--will disciple our politics for us. Rather than rehashing America's current political context or attempting to offer a blueprint for contemporary political practice, this book invites readers from across the political spectrum to rediscover the startling, strange, beautiful, and often-neglected world of biblical politics and imagine how the Bible might transform our political witness. Each chapter offers a snapshot of a different biblical text or figure--such as Esther, the Torah, Jeremiah, Paul, the midwives of Exodus, and Jesus--and explores how they offer us a vision of political discipleship. To help us imagine how we might move from Scripture to political action, the author includes stories of faithful political discipleship from around the world and throughout church history. With a foreword by Carmen Joy Imes, Reimagining Biblical Politics empowers us to practice faithful political discipleship in our churches, neighborhoods, and communities.

What does it mean to be human? This timeless question proves critical as we seek to understand our purpose, identity, and significance. Amidst the many voices clamoring to shape our understanding of humanity, the Bible reveals important truths related to our human identity and vocation that are critical to the flourishing of all of creation. Carmen Joy Imes seeks to recover the theologically rich message of the creation narratives starting in the book of Genesis as they illuminate what it means to be human. Every human being is created as God's image. Imago Dei is our human identity, and God appointed humans to rule on God's behalf. Being God's Image explores the implications of this kinship relationship with God and considers what it means for our work, our gender relations, our care for creation, and our eternal destiny. The Bible invites us into a dramatically different quality of life: a beloved community in which we can know God and one another as we are truly known. In Being God's Image, you'll find: Imes's clear, insightful exploration of our deepest questions: what it means to be human, A discussion guide for personal reflection or group study, Additional links to related video material through the BibleProject.

Biblical Foundations Award Finalist Have you ever wondered what the Old Testament—especially the Old Testament law—has to do with your Christian life? You are not alone. Some Christian leaders believe we should cast off the Old Testament now that we have the New. Carmen Joy Imes disagrees. In this warm, accessible volume, Imes takes readers back to Sinai, the ancient mountain where Israel met their God, and explains the meaning of events there. She argues that we've misunderstood the command about "taking the Lord's name in vain." Instead, Imes says that this command is about "bearing God's name," a theme that continues throughout the rest of Scripture. Readers will revisit the story of Israel as they trudge through the wilderness from a grueling past to a promising future. The story of Israel turns out to be our story too, and you'll discover why Sinai still matters as you follow Jesus today.

The Name Command (NC) is usually interpreted as a prohibition against speaking Yhwh’s name in a particular context: false oaths, wrongful pronunciation, irreverent worship, magical practices, cursing, false teaching, and the like. However, the NC lacks the contextual specification needed to support the command as speech related. Taking seriously the narrative context at Sinai and the closest lexical parallels, a different picture emerges—one animated by concrete rituals and their associated metaphorical concepts. The unique phrase ns' shm is one of several expressions arising from the conceptual metaphor, election as branding, that finds analogies in high-priest regalia as well as in various ways of claiming ownership in the Ancient Near East, such as inscribed monuments, the use of seals, and the branding of slaves. The NC presupposes that Yhwh has claimed Israel by placing Yhwh’s own name on her. In this light, the first two commands of the Decalogue reinforce the two sides of the covenant declaration: “I will be your God; you will be my people.” The first expresses the demand for exclusive worship and the second calls for proper representation. As a consequence, the NC invites a richer exploration of what it means to be a people in covenant with Yhwh—a people bearing his name among the nations. It also points to what is at stake when Israel carries that name “in vain.” The image of bearing Yhwh’s name offers a rich source for theological and ethical reflection that cannot be conveyed nonmetaphorically without distortion or loss of meaning.