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List of contents
Acknowledgements
List of Abbreviations
Introduction
Part 1—Introducing the Shepherd of Hermas
Chapter 1: An Overview of the Shepherd
Chapter 2: How was the Shepherd Preserved?
Chapter 3: Who Read the Shepherd?
Chapter 4: Critical Questions for the Shepherd: What, to Whom, Where, When, and Who?
Part 2—Studying the Shepherd of Hermas
Chapter 5: Fasting and the Vineyard: Exegeting Similitude 5
Chapter 6: The Characters in the Shepherd
Chapter 7: The Shepherd in its Greco-Roman and Early Jewish Settings
Chapter 8: The Shepherd and Early Christian Literature in the First Two Centuries
Chapter 9: God in the Shepherd
Chapter 10: Sin and Repentance
Chapter 11: Metaphors and Imagery in the Shepherd: The Tower and the House
Chapter 12: Spirit Language in Mandates 5–11: From Ancient Philosophy to Contemporary Theology
Bibliography
Index
About the author
Jonathon Lookadoo teaches at Presbyterian University and Theological Seminary, Seoul, South Korea.
Summary
Jonathon Lookadoo guides readers through the early Christian apocalypse known as the Shepherd of Hermas, providing a clear overview of the numerous literary, historical, and theological insights that this text contains for those researching early Christianity.
Dividing his exploration into two sections, Lookadoo first introduces the Shepherd by providing an overview of the text to those with limited familiarity, while also focusing on critical issues such as authorship, date, and the Shepherd’s complex manuscript tradition and reception history. He then moves to examine the interpretation of particular passages in detail, and by close exploration of theological and literary features he is able to contextualize the Shepherd alongside contemporary contexts. This volume covers the important thematic issues in the Shepherd, and also provides a fresh perspective that arises from a thoroughly textual focus; in so doing, Lookadoo enables readers to engage both with the Shepherd itself and the scholarship that surrounds the text.
Foreword
The first comprehensive overview of the critical, historical, and theological issues in the Shepherd of Hermas looking at its themes of early Christian apocalyptic and early Christian views about Jesus.
