Theology

Stefan Alkier's collected essays on biblical intertextuality research demonstrate how the preposition »inter« transforms the meaning of biblical texts from a fixed locus into a dynamic space of textual relations-thereby opening up exegesis as a creative, perspectivally situated, and ever-renewed work of interpretation.

This concise volume brings together seventeen essays by international scholars that examine the Gospel of Mark from historical and theological perspectives. The contributions address key issues of reception, interpretation, and application, reflecting the current state and diversity of scholarly research on Mark's theological and literary profile.

Simon Birol examines the conceptions of Jacob of Serugh regarding the ascetic life, both as a solitary and within the community, and situates them within the development of early Syriac monasticism. The basis for this study consists of two Syriac texts by Jacob, including the work On the Solitaries, here critically edited for the first time.

Philippa Townsend argues that early Christian sacrificial ideas were shaped by a widespread discursive association between ethnicity and sacrifice in ancient Mediterranean texts. Christians used sacrificial rhetoric to establish and perpetuate their identity as a people in ways that have shaped modern ideas about race and religion.