CHRISTIANITY · BIBLE
Hal Taussig
A founding member of the Jesus Seminar, HAL TAUSSIG is a pastor, professor of Biblical literature at Union Theological Seminary in New York, and professor of early Christianity at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. He is the author of In the Beginning Was the Meal; The Thunder: Perfect Mind; A New Spiritual Home; Reimagining Life Together in America (with Catherine Nerney); Jesus Before God; Reimagining Christian Origins (with Elizabeth Castelli), and others.
Some ninety beautiful polished stones sit in a clear glass bowl of water on an equally stunning purple cloth covering a small altar in the middle aisle of The Garden Church in Lansdowne, Pennsylvania.
— from A New Spiritual Home
Most acclaimed
A new New Testament
Over the past century, numerous lost scriptures have been discovered, authenticated, translated, debated, celebrated. Many of these documents were as important to shaping early Christian communities and beliefs as what we have come to call the New Testament; these were not the work of shunned sects or rebel apostles, not alternative histories or doctrines, but part of the vibrant conversations that sparked the rise of Christianity. These scriptures are rarely read in contemporary churches, but are discussed mainly by scholars. Yet we have a great deal to gain by placing them back into contact with the twenty-seven books of the traditional New Testament-- by hearing, finally, the full range of voices that formed the early chorus of Christians. To create this New New Testament, Hal Taussig called together a council of scholars and spiritual leaders to discuss and reconsider which books belong in the New Testament. They chose ten books, presented here alongside the traditional scriptures in the new Open English Bible translation.--From publisher description.
A New Spiritual Home
A new kind of Christianity is emerging at the grass roots. Full of heart-felt expression, artistic creativity, and liberal social values, progressive churches and small Christian communities have established themselves across the denominational spectrum. Reporting on a national research study that undercuts the impression that right-wing Christianity is the only new development on the contemporary American religious landscape, Hal Taussig identifies thousands of progressive churches and para-churches and describes five characteristics of this new movement. He then proceeds to analyze its blind spots, project its future, and suggest how to start a progressive church.
Reimagining Christian origins
A genuine possibility of reimagining how Christianity began has now come into view. Based within the fields of discourse that have come forth in the last forty years, this book proposes ways that the study of Christian origins can paint subtle and complex pictures of the first centuries of Christianity. Taking as inspiration the work of Burton L. Mack - upon whose sixty-fifth birthday, this volume is issued - Reimagining Christian Origins provides an introduction to and an analysis of the emerging methodologies of the field and presents nineteen new examples of scholars at work in this field. The book is divided into four parts: (1) Reimagining the Social Formation of Early Christian Communities, (2) Reimagining the Galilean Movements, (3) Reimagining the Emergence of Christian Myth, and (4) Reimagining Christianity in the Mediterranean World.