Opening the Bible:

Essays by Howard H. Charles

Edited by J. Robert Charles

In this collection of fifty essays, Howard Charles brings his gifts as a scholar, teacher, and expositor of the Bible to a variety of themes arising from the scriptures as a whole and from the Old and New Testaments. Originally written as lesson helps for teachers of adult Sunday school classes, these essays will inform, inspire, and give insight to anyone seeking a better understanding of the form and content of the Bible. From the creation story in Genesis to the prophetic concern for justice, from the parables of Jesus to his crucifixion, from the Gospel of Luke to the book of Revelation, Charles opens the Bible in clear, simple language.

"For more than thirty years, Howard Charles’s Builder essays were a monthly gift to the Mennonite church, nurturing Sunday school teachers and equipping them for their labor of love. These essays reveal Howard’s characteristic depth of insight, clarity, and seasoned perspective. Respected and loved as professor of New Testament at Goshen Biblical Seminary from 1947 to 1989, he patiently led his students to grasp the biblical text’s distinctive structure and literary features, its historical significance and its enduring meaning for Christian faith. This pedagogical style shows in these pieces, which combine solid academic scholarship with spiritual formation, to nurture heart and head.” - Willard M. Swartley, Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary

J. Robert Charles, editor, is director for Europe at Mennonite Mission Network. He lives in Goshen, Indiana, and is a member of Waterford Mennonite Church

290 pp. Paper. ISBN 0-936273-37-2
$18.00 (US)
Copyright © 2005 by Institute of Mennonite Studies
3003 Benham Avenue, Elkhart, Indiana 46517-1999
www.ambs.edu/IMS

Co-published with Herald Press
616 Walnut Avenue, Scottdale, Pennsylvania 15683
490 Dutton Drive, Unit C8, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 6H7
www.heraldpress.com

See PDF flier with order form.

Contents

1. How the Bible came to us
2. Two testaments, one Bible
3. The good news: What God has done
4. The good news: What must I do?
5. The good news: What difference does it make?
6. Sin: The universal malady
7. “In wrath remember mercy”
8. Biblical perspectives on healing
9. Let us praise God!
10. Sex, marriage, and the Bible
11. The quest for peace
12. The new Jerusalem

Part 2 Opening the Old Testament
13. The creation story in wider perspective
14. The creation of man and woman
15. The Old Testament patriarchs
16. The conquest and the problem of violence
17. The prophetic concern for justice
18. The servant of the Lord: Vision and sequel
19. Jonah: What is the point?
20. Reflections on the book of Esther

Part 3 Opening the New Testament
21. putting the New Testament together
22. What is a gospel?
23. The origin of Christmas
24. The Gospel according to Luke
25. The message of the Fourth Gospel
26. Messiahship in a new key
27. Jesus as a miracle worker
28. The revolutionary Jesus
29. Jesus and discipleship
30. Jesus, the teacher among teachers
31. Reflections on Jesus’ parables
32. The pharisees: Saints or sinners?
33. Jesus and the poor
34. “Blessed are the peacemakers”
35. The enigmatic Judas
36. The crucifixion of Jesus
37. Some thoughts about Good Friday
38. The gospel of resurrection
39. What happened at pentecost?
40. Acts: The church in conflict
41. James: From skeptic to martyr
42. paul, citizen of four worlds
43. paul and the way of love
44. Spirit and Christian life in paul’s thought
45. Spiritual gifts for mission
46. The Lord’s Supper
47. The early church and the Roman state
48. Romans, a Christian classic
49. Is James “a right strawy epistle”?
50. Can we understand the book of Revelation?

These essays are wide-angle lenses offering panoramic views on the Bible by one who looked with the eyes of faith, attended intensely, and saw clearly. They are the gift of a master teacher who approached the biblical text with humble reverence expressed in careful scholarship as he sought to hear God's word and equip the saints for the work of ministry. Howard Charles continues to do here what he did for so many of us who attended his classes, the work our risen Lord did for his disciples at Emmaus: he opens the scriptures.
-Ron Kennel, pastor, Clinton Brick Mennonite Church, Goshen, Indiana

For those who sat in Howard Charles's classroom, these essays provide a wonderful opportunity to again hear the voice of this wise teacher as he carefully, thoughtfully, and thoroughly works through a wide range of topics. For those who never had the opportunity to study under his tutelage, these essays will communicate with freshness the dual calling Howard Charles embodied: to follow after Jesus Christ as faithful disciple and to open the scripture as serious scholar.
-Mary Lehman Yoder, pastor, Assembly Mennonite Church, Goshen, Indiana

These essays show us Howard Charles at his best as a teacher and writer who serves not spiritual junk food or sugar-coated fluff but sturdy whole grain bread and chewy granola. He helps us understand the text and its history, thus releasing its true power, its ability to shape lives. These essays are as inspiring as ever and may be needed even more than when they were first written. They invite us to open the Book to see how the word of God came thousands of years ago, and how the word of God enfleshed in Jesus brought new life to his people. It can do so again today.
-William Klassen, New Testament scholar, writer, and retired professor, Waterloo, Ontario

The joys of being a student in a class taught by Howard Charles come through vividly in Opening the Bible. Charles's writing combines unusual virtues: reverence for the text yet freedom to ask questions of it, passion for the message he conveys but without narrowness of spirit. His explorations in the Bible richly deserve the attention of a new generation of seekers.
-John Rempel, Assistant professor of Theology and Anabaptist Studies, Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary, Elkhart, Indiana