Books by David Instone-Brewer
Jesus Scandal
Publisher: Lexham Press
RRP: £7.99
The author's aim is to help thinking lay persons and people preparing sermons to apply NT ethics within a modern culture, while still remaining faithful to the text - by taking into account the ancient culture. This is high quality scholarship at a very accessible level. Over the centuries Jesus's teaching on ethical matters has often become muted and distorted. This book sets the matter straight. Here are 30 areas of ethical debate: in each context Jesus offered insights which would have left his contemporaries agape. They range from singleness (rare: could Jesus be trusted?) to abortion (unwanted children were strangled, and the early church notably took a strong stance against this practice) to sexual immorality (the NT church had an unusually high number of people who had been sexually promiscuous) to boasting (Jesus taught his disciples to take lowly titles as he did for himself, but the church ignored him).
Scripture in Context: Modern sciences and the Bible
Publisher: Lexham Press
RRP: £15.99
The author asks how science can aid our interpretation of the Bible. The result is stimulating on topics such as God's omnipresence, the origin of languages, the nature of eternity, the relationship of spirit and soul, the reality of resurrection, and Jesus' human experience.
Scripture in Context: Moral Questions of the Bible: Timeless Truth in a Changing World
Publisher: Lexham Press
RRP: £11.99
This title finds the timeless injunctions in the Bible, and also those rules that change with time. Examples turn into principles for how to teach modern morals from God-given rules to ancient believers.
Scripture in Context: Church Doctrine & the Bible: Theology in Ancient Context
Publisher: Lexham Press
RRP: £11.99
By stripping away 2000 years of theology we can see what doctrines would have looked like to Jewish and Roman readers. This helps us understand how different parts of the church went in different directions.
David has also written books on Divorce and Remarriage and on a Jewish background to the New Testament.