Preaching the Eighth Century Prophets

And so this volume turns its attention to the world revealed by the eighth century prophets. This is a call for a new paradigm for reading Scripture and a new paradigm for preaching the world revealed in Scripture. The eighth century prophets - Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, and Micah - imagined the world as God intended it, ruled in the righteousness and justice originally illuminated in the Torah. Isaiah holds up a vision of Yahweh creating a world in which is messiah will rule in a spirit of wisdom and knowledge of the Lord. Humans who are filled with this knowledge will treat one another with respect and dignity, which in turn will influence the natural world. The wolf then will live in peace with the lamb and the lion with the calf (Isa 11:1-9). This is the world God is bringing about, the world in which the prophets call people to participate. As we launch this fifth volume, our desire is to renew our incentive to preach the eighth century prophets, to enlighten the power of God's Word to change lives, and in this process invite the church to be shaped by the world of Scripture and to participate in the radical new world that God is creating."" - From the Introduction