Working bibliography of biblical studies books on ecclesiology

I have prepared a working bibliography of biblical studies books on ecclesiology.  Below I have also reviewed Longenecker's compiliation which is quite good.  Elsewhere, I have reviewed Barrett's book

Update: See also the input from different people on Chris Tilling's post asking for suggestions on this topic

Working bibliography of biblical studies books on ecclesiology

Book review: Community Formation: In the Early Church and in the Church Today edited by Richard Longenecker

Richard N. Longenecker, ed. Community Formation: In the Early Church and in the Church Today (Peabody: Hendrickson, 2002). 

 

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding book on biblical and historical backgrounds of church leadership structures, November 22, 2008

By
Andrew D. Rowell (Durham, NC) – See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

The subject of this book is church leadership structures. It addresses the question: "What are bishops, elders and deacons?"
There
are 11 chapters plus a fantastic introduction to the history of the
debate by editor Richard Longenecker. "Most of the chapters in this
volume were originally presented at the Bingham Colloquium, held June
26-27, 2000, at McMaster Divinity College, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada"
(xvii). I will highlight the chapters I happened to find particularly
helpful. I found the first two chapters by Richard Ascough on
Greco-Roman associations, and Alan Segal on the Jewish institutions, to
be excellent concise descriptions of the context from which the church
emerged. Then there are chapters by well known New Testament scholars
Craig A. Evans, Richard Longenecker, and I. Howard Marshall on the
church in the Gospels, Paul, and the Pastoral Epistles respectively.
Frances Young traces the development of the forms of church leadership
in the whole New Testament and into the Greek fathers–arguing that
probably elders meant "senior citizens" and not a church office.
Finally, there is a brilliant essay by theologian John Webster on how
church leadership should be considered; an interesting essay by David
Hester about the development of Presbyterian polity and whether it is
still valuable today; and then finally a summary by Miroslav Volf of
his book After Our Likeness. If I were teaching ecclesiology in a
seminary, I would require all of these essays. They are concise and
well-written by outstanding scholars.
Because of my own interests, I did not delve into the chapters by Peter Richardson, Scott Bartchy, and Alan Hayes.

Comments

One response to “Working bibliography of biblical studies books on ecclesiology”

  1. Ron Short Avatar
    Ron Short

    Thanks for the bibliography.

    One other source you might want to consider is “The Ancient Church As Family” by Joseph Hellerman.