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CURRENTLY IN BOOKS
Students honour Lind’s work

Gordon Zerbe

Peace and Justice Shall Embrace: Power and Theopolitics in the Bible: Essays in Honor of Millard Lind
Ted Grimsrud and Loren Johns, ed. Telford, Pa.: Pandora Press US; Scottdale, Pa./Waterloo, Ont.: Herald Press, 1999. 251 pp. $34.95.

Peace and Justice Shall Embrace is a collection of essays honouring the teaching ministry of Millard Lind, long-time professor of Old Testament at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart, Ind. The articles included in this volume were written by students of Lind over the years. Of the nine authors of the major essays, two are now pastors, five are professors at Mennonite colleges and universities, including Douglas Miller at Tabor College in Hillsboro, Kan., and two are professors at public universities.

Lind is known for his ground-breaking work on the theology of divine politics in the Old Testament period, particularly in connection with the themes of peace, justice and nonviolence. His most important book, Yahweh is a Warrior (Herald Press, 1980), presents the idea that the nonviolent behaviour of the people in the Exodus and other contexts is based on deferring to God the role and right to bring justice and wage war. Lind also contributed the volume Ezekiel, in the Believers Church Bible Commentary series (Herald Press, 1996). In continuity with Lind’s interests, the articles in Peace and Justice Shall Embrace explore in some way the peaceable character of biblical visions of justice.

The essays raise provocative issues in regard to anabaptist-Mennonite theologies of peace and justice – for instance, whether a vision of a warrior God is ultimately compatible with Mennonite pacifism. Most of the essays assume a fairly sophisticated reader, those with some familiarity with a scholarly study of the Old Testament. Teachers of the Old Testament or Christian studies and seminary students would benefit from digesting the contents of this volume. However, many readers of the MB Herald may find it inaccessible.

Gordon Zerbe is Associate Professor of New Testament at Canadian Mennonite Bible College/Mennonite College Federation in Winnipeg.

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Last modified May 4, 2000.

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