Slavery, Sabbath, War & Women: Case Issues in Biblical Interpretation

by Willard M. Swartley

Book Overview

The Bible appears to give mixed and even conflicting signals on the four case issues of slavery, Sabbath, war, and women. New Testament scholar Willard Swartley seeks to identify the difficulties surrounding these discussions and clarify basic learnings in biblical interperation in a spirit of unity and dialogue. As a predecessor to his 2003 publication, Homosexuality, this book rounds out a thorough spirit-filled discussion of some of the...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0836133307
• ISBN13: 9780836133301
• Release Date: May 1983
• Publisher: Herald Press (VA)
• Length: 368 Pages
• Weight: 0.94 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

Nothing like it

The book is now dated, but it has aged gracefully. There is nothing else like it. The beauty of the book, which makes it enduringly useful, is its presentation of arguments actually made on both sides of the questions: whether holding slaves is biblical, whether Christian worship should be on Saturday or Sunday, whether Christians may or should not participate in war, and whether women may or should not be ordained to Christian ministry. For most readers, these questions will have been long since settled. By presenting arguments, in their own wards, on both sides, Swartley shows how delicate and tenuous have been those settlements, as they claim biblical warrant for themselves. Anyone concerned with the interpretation of scripture in relation to contested issues, moral and theological, should read this book. It is excellent.

Valuable on Multiple Levels

One of the aspects of Mr. Swartley's book that I found most interesting was his treatment of hermenuetics. He outlines 22 principles which every evangelical student of Scripture should utilize in attempting to interpret scripture. He begins with "Quoting the Bible does not in itself guarantee correctness of position" and moves through increasingly pragmatic suggestions for interpretation designed to minimize the development of embarrassing proof-texts. A must read for anyone concerned that the words spoken in the pulpit today may have to be dined upon tomorrow!

Pilgrimage to Biblical Liberation

I had to read this book as a requirement for my doctoral studies, and had no previous interest in it. Swartley's studies helped me understand that the personal and social decisions we make for our lives which we base on Scripture depend on the place where we start in Scripture. For instance, if we are discussing the place of women in ministry, our conclusion will be very different if we start with the idea of authority than if we start with the idea of the image of God (Gen. 5:1,2). Swartley's analysis of how antebellum Bible expositors used the Bible to support slavery is very telling in how we use the Bible in regard to the place of women in church and society. His method of graphically analyzing the sabbath from traditional Catholic, Protestant, and Anabaptist (radical) perspectives is particularly helpful. Rev. Clint Akins, D.Min. Director of Cross-cultural Research Evangelical Leadership Training Center Antananarivo, Madagascar