Contents
Abbreviations
Preface
Introduction
Part one The Pauline Writings
1. God at the center
2. Jesus Christ our Lord
3. God's saving work in Christ
4. Life in the Spirit
Part two The synoptic gospels and Acts
5. The Gospel of Mark
6. The Gospel of Matthew
7. The Gospel of Luke and Acts: the doctrine of God
8. The Gospel of Luke and Acts: the doctrine of Christ
9. The Gospel of Luke and Acts: the salvation of our God
10. The Gospel of Luke and Acts: the Holy Spirit
11. The Gospel of Luke and Acts: discipleship
Part three The Johannine Writings
12. The Gospel of John: the doctrine of Christ
13. The Gospel of John: God and Father
14. The Gospel of John: God the Holy Spirit
15. The Gospel of John: the Christian life
16. The epistles of John
17. The revelation of John
Part four The general Epistles
18. The Epistle to the Hebrews
19. The Epistle of James
20. The past Epistle of Peter
21. The second Epistle of Peter
22. The Epistle of Jude
Conclusion

This work is not a history of New Testament times, nor an account of New Testament religion. Nor does it proceed from a view that the New Testament was written as theology. We must bear in mind that the writers of the New Testament books were not writing set theological pieces. They were concerned with the needs of the churches for which they wrote. Those churches already had the Old Testament, but these new writings became in time the most significant part of the Scriptures of the believing community. As such, they should be studied in their own right, and these questions should be asked: What do these writings mean? What is the theology they express or imply? What is of permanent validity in them? We read these writings across a barrier of many centuries and from a standpoint of a very different culture. We make every effort to allow for this, but we never succeed perfectly. In this book I am trying hard to find out what the New Testament authors meant, and this not as an academic exercise, but as the necessary prelude to our understanding of what their writings mean for us today.