Margaret M. Mitchell, The Heavenly Trumpet: John Chrysostom and the Art of Pauline Interpretation (Hermeneutische Untersuchungen zur Theologie 40; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2000), pp. xxxiv + 564. EUR99.00

Rabbinic parallels do not here lessen, but sharpen, the implied challenge to the authority of the law: on Bockmuehls argument, Jesus followers can claim as much exemption from the commandments of the law as Nazirites but, since they are not truly Nazirites, their claim has no biblical or halakhic support! [...]if Jewish halakhic debate was at the root of some, even much, very early Christian moral reasoning, what distinguishes the developing Christian from rabbinic tradition is its abandonment of that legal framework, and its 234 Book reviews correlative reluctance to label itself Jewish in the various senses (ethnic and cultural) owned by contemporary Jews. Perhaps so, though the raw material here surveyed surely requires the application of analytical tools which have been developed in studies of cultural interactions, especially the strategic self-insertion of minority groups into the discourse of dominant cultures. [...]as Bockmuehl is no doubt aware, claims that Christian ethics are universal or natural are deeply problematic in our postmodern context, and the advancement of Christian public morality will surely have to proceed on terms very different to those deployed by the rst Christians, even if some of their tactics can be imitated. The thematic index seems to depend heavily, although not exclusively, on a doubtless computer-assisted process of word identication. [...]the themes extrapolated from Lead, kindly light are angel, home, journey, lead, light and enlightenment, night, power, pride, repentance and years. In this guise Macmurrays work has found an afnity with those who wish to make community a leading theme of 240 Book reviews their theology. [...]thinkers such as Gunton have drawn on Macmurray in their discussions of the social trinity, whilst Macmurrays epistemological approach played a formative role in T. F. Torrances seminal work Theological Science and in the later work of John Baillie.