Bücher von Michael Barram

American Christians today, says Michael Barram, have a signifi­cant blind spot when it comes to economic matters in the Bible. In this book Barram reads biblical texts related to matters of money, wealth, and poverty through a missional lens, showing how they function to transform our economic reasoning.Barram searches for insight into God's purposes for economic justice by exploring what it might look like to think and act in life-giving ways in the face of contemporary economic orthodoxies. The Bible repeatedly tells us how to treat the poor and marginalized, Barram says, and faithful Christians cannot but reflect carefully and concretely on such concerns.Written in an accessible style, this biblically rooted study reflects years of research and teaching on social and economic justice in the Bible and will prove useful for lay readers, preachers, teachers, students, and scholars.

The Apostle Paul sought to exert his influence and authority over the congregations he founded long after they had been established. Such ongoing oversight by Christianity¿s prototypical «evangelist» has not been adequately understood. In a brief 1987 article, W. Paul Bowers challenged John Knox¿s assertion that Paul¿s «pastoral and administrative work irked him and that he wanted to be free of it». This book confirms and significantly develops Bowers¿s little-known thesis, examining a wide range of passages in the apostle¿s undisputed letters and highlighting crucial implications of Paul¿s broadly conceived vocation for understanding his mission and moral reflection.