Leander E. Keck

Leander E. Keck presents a series of essays, sermons and lectures from a long career, their subjects ranging from historicity to the importance of listening and sympathy. Echoes of the Word suggests that now is the time for introspection among Christians: facing a crisis of secularisation, he calls not merely for unity, but for a period of serious and reflective thought. Grounding his arguments in a profound understanding of both the Biblical texts and their historical context, Keck offers a deep analysis of how Christianity has been influenced by new converts down the centuries who brought their own philosophies to the table, and speaks movingly of how essential it is to love one another as Christ loved us.

For half a century Leander Keck thought, taught, and wrote about the New Testament. He first served as a Professor of New Testament at Vanderbilt Divinity School and Emory University's Candler School of Theology before becoming Dean and Professor of Biblical Theology at Yale Divinity School. Keck's lifelong work on Jesus and Paul was a catalyst for the emerging discussions of New Testament Christology and Pauline theology in the Society of Biblical Literature and the Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas. Keck wrote a staggering number of now industry-standard articles on the New Testament. Here, they are all collected for the first time. In Christ's First Theologian and Why Christ Matters , readers will discover how Keck gave new answers to old questions even as he carefully reframed old answers into new questions. Keck's work is a treasure trove of historical, exegetical, and theological interpretation.

For half a century Leander Keck thought, taught, and wrote about the New Testament. He first served as a Professor of New Testament at Vanderbilt Divinity School and Emory University's Candler School of Theology before becoming Dean and Professor of Biblical Theology at Yale Divinity School. Keck's lifelong work on Jesus and Paul was a catalyst for the emerging discussions of New Testament Christology and Pauline theology in the Society of Biblical Literature and the Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas. Keck wrote a staggering number of now industry-standard articles on the New Testament. Here, they are all collected for the first time. In Why Christ Matters and Christ's First Theologian, readers will discover how Keck gave new answers to old questions even as he carefully reframed old answers into new questions. Keck's work is a treasure trove of historical, exegetical, and theological interpretation.

Like widely differing siblings raised by the same parents, each letter produced by Paul has its own distinguishing character. For the historically minded critic, each letter s unique traits provide important clues for detecting the circumstances in which Paul wrote it as well as what he hoped to achieve with it. Scholars assume that by examining the content of the letter (the answer ), they can infer the readers situation that Paul is addressing (the question )--a method sometimes called mirror reading. In the case of Romans, however, both the particular traits and the overall content are so unusual that scholars continue to debate why Paul wrote precisely this letter and what he hoped to achieve by it in Rome." So begins Leander Keck's seminal work on the New Testament book of Romans. Keck asserts that because Romans is part of the New Testament, we can compare it with the other letters ascribed to Paul, as well as with what Acts reports about his message and mission. But the first readers of Romans had only this letter; they could compare it only with what they may have heard about him. While this commentary does from time to time compare Romans with what Paul had said before, it concentrates on Romans itself; what Paul says in this text should not be conflated with--nor inflated into--what he thought comprehensively, though it is essential to understand that as well. "We do not really need another major commentary [on Romans] that loses us in the minutiae of word studies, literary parallels, sociological and rhetorical hypotheses; we have such in plenty. The Abingdon series, however, by its limited size, forces the contributor to focus on the primary task of the commentator: to clarify the meaning (intended or potential) of the words of the text and to provide some basic reflection on its/their continuing significance. And that is where Keck excels." - James D. G. Dunn, Review of Biblical Literature 04/2006."

In Who Is Jesus? Keck clarifies the difference between the way Jesus is presented in the Gospels and the way critical historians portray him. He then explores, from four perspectives, Jesus' contemporary moral and theological pertinence. Keck looks initially at Jesus as a first-century Jew, then considers how Jesus' mission was energized by his grasp of the kingdom of God. He goes on to probe the meaning of the crucifixion of Jesus in light of the biblical understanding of God's holiness, a theme largely neglected today. Keck concludes his discussion by looking at Jesus' role in the moral life of the Christian community.

Keck shows how the church is suffering from malaise brought on by oversecularization in aspects of church life including worship, theology, ethos, and communication. This penetrating clarion call to renewal cuts through the conventional ideological labels of "liberal" and "conservative." Keck argues with passion that mainline churches today must neither pretend to be culturally triumphant nor whimper in fear. Rather, the church has grounds to be confident about its proper nature and mission. Keck envisions a renewed church that has recovered a sense of what is basic to its nature and purpose--restoring the praise of God to the center of worship.