Richard Müller

The concept of God's two kingdoms was foundational to Luther and subsequent Lutheran theology. Since the middle of the nineteenth century, that concept has been understood primarily as a political concept. But is a political reading of the two kingdoms a perversion of Luther's teaching? Leading Reformation scholar William Wright contends that those who read Luther politically and see in Luther a compartmentalized approach to Christian life are misreading the Reformer. Wright reassesses the original breadth of Luther's theology of the two kingdoms and the cultural contexts from which it emerged. He argues that Luther's two-kingdom worldview was not a justification for living irresponsibly on planet earth.

Scientists believe that we would not be here it were not for three great cataclysms in the early history of Earth and of the universe. This is the first book to explore the deep connection between the events that shaped life on Earth: the "Big Bang" that spawned an entire universe; the explosion of a supernova, which seeded the solar system with heavy elements; and the crash of a comet or asteroid that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs and cleared the way for the evolution of mammals.

Foundations of Contemporary Interpretation seeks to identify and clarify the basic problems of interpretation that affect our reading of the Bible today. This unique volume provides a comprehensive and systematic coverage of the field of general hermeneutics. Foundations of Contemporary Interpretation examines the impact of specific academic disciplines on the interpretation of the Bible. Previously published as separate volumes, its various sections explore the interface between hermeneutics and literary criticism, linguistics, history, science, and theology. Included in Foundations of Contemporary Interpretation, each with its own separate table of contents, are: -Has the Church Misread the Bible? -- Moises Silva -Literary Approaches to Biblical Interpretation -- Tremper Longman III -God, Language, and Scripture -- Moises Silva -The Art of Biblical History -- V. Philips Long -Science and Hermeneutics -- Vern S. Poythress -The Study of Theology -- Richard A. Muller. These six sections cover the interface between hermeneutics and the major disciplines.

The Study of Theology address two major concerns -- the place of biblical hermeneutics and practical theology. The author discusses the hermeneutical implications of biblical, historical, systematic, and practical theology and presents a case for the relationship between exegesis and the other theological disciplines. However, the relationship between hermeneutics and practical theology is also essential. According to the author, "the traditional forms of theology and preaching frequently fail the tests of exegesis and contemporary theologizing while, at the same time, most contemporary theology and exegesis fails to address directly the needs of the church." Muller presents a case for the structure of hermeneutics and argues that it is essential to the church because "theological training as a whole . . . ought to reflect the life of the church and be of value to the life of the church."