Kirjahaku

This little book attempts to provide the reader with the knowledge to initiate sincere conversation and friendship with the universe encompassing and indwelling Mystery of God. Why and how this undertaking is possible constitute the substance of this little book. If the spiritual journey being recommended and explained is undertaken and faithfully completed, it will lead to the indescribably precious goal of habitual union with God's indwelling Presence and Love.

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In this concise study, John Perry enables the reader to see that the Transfiguration story does not recount an actual event, but was created to teach an important "symbolic" lesson abou thte Risen Jesus. To that end, he explains: (1) the conflict within the early church that called the story into being; (2) the nature ofmidrash and the role that it played in the formation of the story. Perry then considers why Mark, the writer of the first Gospel, decided to modify the Transfiguration story known to him and use it in his Gospel. Finally, answers are provided for 12 questiosn frequently prompted by contemporary readings of this story. These answers shed considerable light on the way the early church went about the task of preserving and interpreting the sacred history of Jesus.

InExploring the Resurrection of Jesus, John Perry defends the appearances of the Risen Jesus as real but "nonphyscial" and he reconciles this reading with a scientific world view.

Tradition has assumed that the Lord's Supper was "instituted" by Jesus on the night of Holy Thursday as a memorial of his impending death on Good Friday. Recent scholarship tells us, however, that this assumption must be carefully qualified. The way in which Jesus taught the church to celebrate his Supper was actually far more complex. This investigation reveals that the earliest celebrations of the Lord's Supper were memorials of Jesus' Resurrection, not his death. Only later, because of an urgent pastoral problem, did the early church decide to join the memory of Jesus' death to her original celebration of his Resurrection. In the final chapter, Perry answers specific questions raised by the contemporary understanding of the Lord's Supper.

In Exploring the Messianic Secret in Mark's Gospel, John Perry shows the reader how to distinguish between the actual history of Jesus and Mark's Messianic Secret theology, explaining why the substance of Mark's theology is still valid and can still nourish our contemporary faith.