{"title":"Charles W Hedrick","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"gospel-of-the-savior-book-charles-w-hedrick-9780944344903","title":"The Gospel of the Savior","description":"\u003cp\u003eOn March 20, 1967, the Berlin Egyptian Museum acquired a collection of thirty-three parchment fragments written in Coptic. There they were given the simple designation P22220 and stored unceremoniously in paper folders.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAlmost thirty years later, two American scholars working independently of each other--Charles Hedrick and Paul Mirecki--began to study these forgotten fragments. What they found were pieces of a previously unknown gospel, a gospel composed perhaps in the second century and written down sometime between the fourth and seventh centuries.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis new gospel text contains sayings of a speaker identified as the savior and dialogues between the savior and the apostles. While it shares some sayings with the canonical gospels, there are remarkable additions: To the familiar You are the salt of the earth (Matt 5:13), for example, is added the phrase you are the fire that illuminates the world--a saying unknown in the canonical gospels.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn this first-ever publication of The Gospel of the Savior, the scholars who discovered and reconstructed it provide a translation and critical original language text, along with illuminating introduction, commentary, and Coptic\/Greek indices. This volume also includes complete facsimile reproductions of the fragments.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49600534970641,"sku":"GOR013426151","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51009529250065,"sku":"NIN9780944344903","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51736768774417,"sku":"CIN0944344909VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52427128832273,"sku":"NLS9780944344903","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0944344909.jpg?v=1751331565"},{"product_id":"many-things-in-parables-book-charles-w-hedrick-9780664224271","title":"Many Things in Parables","description":"In this splendid introduction to the elusive rhetorical device central to the New Testament picture of Jesus, Charles Hedrick explores the nature of the parable and its history of use. He asks basic questions such as, what is a parable? is Jesus really the author of the parables? and what does a parable mean? and then reviews a range of sources--from Aesop's fables to modern New Testament scholarship--to answer them. He also surveys the various ways the parables have been approached in literary criticism throughout history, giving specific examples of each method and delineating their strengths and weaknesses.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49606587416849,"sku":"GOR013408344","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49618011160849,"sku":"GOR013750789","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50358761226513,"sku":"CIN066422427XG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51005379346705,"sku":"NIN9780664224271","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52337442193681,"sku":"NLS9780664224271","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/066422427X.jpg?v=1751105284"},{"product_id":"when-faith-meets-reason-book-charles-w-hedrick-9781598150100","title":"When Faith Meets Reason","description":"What happens to faith when the creeds and confessions can no longer be squared with historical and empirical evidence? Most critical scholars have wrestled with this question. Some have found ways to reconcile their personal religious belief with the scholarship they practice. Others have chosen to reconstruct their view of religious meaning in light of what they have learned. But most have tended not to share those views in a public forum. And that brings up a second question: at what point does the discrepancy between what I know, or think I know, and what I am willing to say publicly become so acute that my personal integrity is at stake? Being honest about what one thinks has always mattered in critical scholarship. 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It aims at providing a reader-friendly translation of the original Coptic language in contemporary idiomatic English, while remaining true to the complexities of the Coptic. The commentary seeks to clarify each saying as it likely would have been understood in the historical context of the Coptic language during the period of Thomas's popularity in Egypt. The sayings in Thomas in this period are no longer sayings of the Jewish man Jesus of Nazareth, but they have become sayings of a revelation bearer, the living Jesus, who announces a radical faith for a new age of the church. The historical matrix that best serves to inform the text is found in a continuation, albeit in a radical direction, of the traditional faiths represented in the earliest Christian literature.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":50988554387729,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":50988555239697,"sku":"NIN9781556352393","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52597264482577,"sku":"NLS9781556352393","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1556352395.jpg?v=1751244805"},{"product_id":"unlocking-the-secrets-of-the-gospel-according-to-thomas-book-charles-w-hedrick-9781498210706","title":"Unlocking the Secrets of the Gospel according to Thomas","description":"This translation of the Gospel of Thomas represents a departure from the usual literal English of previous publications. It aims at providing a reader-friendly translation of the original Coptic language in contemporary idiomatic English, while remaining true to the complexities of the Coptic. The commentary seeks to clarify each saying as it likely would have been understood in the historical context of the Coptic language during the period of Thomas's popularity in Egypt. The sayings in Thomas in this period are no longer sayings of the Jewish man Jesus of Nazareth, but they have become sayings of a revelation bearer, the living Jesus, who announces a radical faith for a new age of the church. The historical matrix that best serves to inform the text is found in a continuation, albeit in a radical direction, of the traditional faiths represented in the earliest Christian literature. Hedrick, himself an expert in non-canonical (apocryphal) Gospels, has here presented for a popular audience a free-flowing non-literal (but accurate) translation of The Gospel of Thomas, with a commentary on each saying, followed by an extensive glossary to explain the more technical terms . . .  T]his impressive volume initiates in a readable way the beginner into the scholarly discussion as far as one may wish to go. --James Robinson, Claremont Graduate University Professor Hedrick's clear modern-English translation and commentary will make this important early source for the teachings of Jesus understandable to anyone who is interested in the foundations of Christianity. His commentaries are particularly valuable because they show the many ways that Jesus' sayings in the Gospel of Thomas relate to Jesus' sayings in the Bible, as well as how those sayings are similar to other passages in ancient religious literature. --Stevan Davies, Misericordia University A text like the Gospel of Thomas poses special difficulties to a translator: should its apparent obscurity be retained or clarified? Like all best translators, Charles Hedrick has first decided what the text means and then translates accordingly. The result is a fresh, often bold and unexpected, and yet always dependable translation of this important text. --Ismo Dunderberg, University of Helsinki Unlocking the Secrets of the Gospel according to Thomas offers a reader-friendly introduction to the Gospel of Thomas that is, at the same time, the product of a career of detailed study of this early gospel. Hedrick's introduction is both balanced and readable, his new translation of the Coptic text is fresh and idiomatic, and his brief comments on each saying filled with learning. This is ideal for undergraduate teaching and for the general reader. --John S. Kloppenborg, University of Toronto While clarifying its numerous relations to antique literature both within and outside the Bible, Hedrick presents Thomas' Gospel as a collection of sayings that speak for themselves by inviting each reader's individual response to the transforming wisdom of Jesus as seen by its users from the second century onwards, rather than as a mere historical artifact or aid for determining the character of Jesus' original message. --John Turner, University of Nebraska Charles W. Hedrick is Distinguished Emeritus Professor at Missouri State University, Springfield, Missouri. He is author of numerous books and articles on subjects relating to New Testament studies. His most recent book is: House of Faith or Enchanted Forest? American Popular Belief in an Age of Reason (Cascade Books, 2009).","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51030442443025,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51030444933393,"sku":"NIN9781498210706","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52473852100881,"sku":"NLS9781498210706","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1498210708.jpg?v=1750956446"},{"product_id":"unmasking-biblical-faiths-book-charles-w-hedrick-9781532613043","title":"Unmasking Biblical Faiths","description":"Unmasking Biblical Faiths aims to address many of the challenges to traditional Christian faith in the modern world. Since the eighteenth-century Age of Enlightenment, human reason, formerly tethered by the constraints of organized religion, has been set free to explore the universe relatively unchallenged. The influence of the Bible, on the other hand, weakened due to the successes of modern historical criticism, is found to be inadequate for the task of enabling the faith once for all delivered to the saints (Jude 3), in that it cannot adequately respond to the many questions about religious faith that human reasoning raises for modern human beings. In a series of short but tightly reasoned essays, Charles Hedrick explores the confrontation between traditional Christian faith and aggressive human reason, a conflict that is facilitated by Western secular education.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51034572685585,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51034575372561,"sku":"NIN9781532613043","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52586077421841,"sku":"NLS9781532613043","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1532613040.jpg?v=1751307975"},{"product_id":"unmasking-biblical-faiths-book-charles-w-hedrick-9781532613029","title":"Unmasking Biblical Faiths","description":"Unmasking Biblical Faiths aims to address many of the challenges to traditional Christian faith in the modern world. 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And how would the wisdom of Jesus reflected in those few sayings compare to the wisdom of the sages of ancient Israel and the apostles of the early first-century church? To answer such questions historians face serious difficulties. Everything we know about Jesus comes from what later writers thought about him; none of the things they claimed he said came directly from him. Everything in the early Christian gospels is either derived from historical memory, or is borrowed, or invented, Hedrick claims. Even those few sayings receiving near-universal agreement from historians as sayings of Jesus can only be affirmed as probable rather than certain. The aim of this study is to allow Jesus to speak for himself directly to readers, as nearly as possible in his own words without the theological explanations of his interpreters. The resulting image of Jesus that emerges is a complex picture of a first-century lower-class man who was not religious in a traditional sense. 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And how would the wisdom of Jesus reflected in those few sayings compare to the wisdom of the sages of ancient Israel and the apostles of the early first-century church? To answer such questions historians face serious difficulties. Everything we know about Jesus comes from what later writers thought about him; none of the things they claimed he said came directly from him. Everything in the early Christian gospels is either derived from historical memory, or is borrowed, or invented, Hedrick claims. Even those few sayings receiving near-universal agreement from historians as sayings of Jesus can only be affirmed as probable rather than certain. The aim of this study is to allow Jesus to speak for himself directly to readers, as nearly as possible in his own words without the theological explanations of his interpreters. The resulting image of Jesus that emerges is a complex picture of a first-century lower-class man who was not religious in a traditional sense. 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He outlines the nature of historical inquiry, gives a brief history of how scholars have understood Jesus, and indentifies the essential issues confronting the reader of the New Testament Gospel accounts of Jesus: discrepancies, contradictions, and the differences as well as strong similarities among different writers. Endorsements: For many Christians, studying the historical Jesus disrupts and challenges their comfortable faith in the divine Christ of the creeds they have repeated all their lives. According to Hedrick, such conflict can 'bring new insights, a broader understanding, and a deeper appreciation for the complementary relationship between faith and history' . . . In clear and precise prose, Hedrick asserts that the best way to understand the historical Jesus is to study the Gospels as first-century texts that present us with information about the life and death of Jesus. His book serves as an introduction to the central conflicts inherent in the contemporary study of Jesus. -Publishers Weekly About the Contributor(s): Charles W. Hedrick is Distinguished Professor of Religion Emeritus at Missouri State University. He is also the author of Parables as Poetic Fiction and Many Things in Parables.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51221346746641,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51221347139857,"sku":"NIN9780801046544","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0801046548.jpg?v=1750947282"},{"product_id":"when-history-and-faith-collide-book-charles-w-hedrick-9781620328613","title":"When History and Faith Collide","description":"Description: Hedrick explores the tension, or collision, that occurs when studying the Jesus of faith with the critical eye of historical scholarship. He outlines the nature of historical inquiry, gives a brief history of how scholars have understood Jesus, and indentifies the essential issues confronting the reader of the New Testament Gospel accounts of Jesus: discrepancies, contradictions, and the differences as well as strong similarities among different writers. Endorsements: For many Christians, studying the historical Jesus disrupts and challenges their comfortable faith in the divine Christ of the creeds they have repeated all their lives. According to Hedrick, such conflict can 'bring new insights, a broader understanding, and a deeper appreciation for the complementary relationship between faith and history' . . . In clear and precise prose, Hedrick asserts that the best way to understand the historical Jesus is to study the Gospels as first-century texts that present us with information about the life and death of Jesus. His book serves as an introduction to the central conflicts inherent in the contemporary study of Jesus. -Publishers Weekly About the Contributor(s): Charles W. Hedrick is Distinguished Professor of Religion Emeritus at Missouri State University. He is also the author of Parables as Poetic Fiction and Many Things in Parables.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51225109102865,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51225111003409,"sku":"NIN9781620328613","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52134683640081,"sku":"NLS9781620328613","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1620328615.jpg?v=1751089488"},{"product_id":"parables-as-poetic-fictions-book-charles-w-hedrick-9781597523974","title":"Parables as Poetic Fictions","description":"Contending that Jesus' narrative parables are more poetic than metaphoric, Charles Hedrick argues that parables should be understood solely on their own terms and not on the terms of the Gospel writers' contexts into which they have been placed or of the agendas of the later church. Hedrick charts new territory as he dares readers to recover the imaginative fiction of Jesus' parables. Hedrick's dissatisfaction with figurative and metaphorical approaches or approaches that argue for a particular meaning or a single interpretation especially those attempting to tie a parable's meaning to the kingdom of God diverges sharply from the modern consensus and breaks new ground in parable studies.Jesus told parables. Gospel writers give them diverse readings. Modern exegetes give them even more diverse readings. Hedrick chronicles both diversities and then poses a new question. How would those parables, precisely as poetic but realistic stories, have sounded to Jesus' first hearers 'in the context of Israel's fictions about itself'? His book emphasizes original audience reaction, and its signal achievement is to have said something new, interesting, and provocative in the very crowded field of parables research.\u003cbr\u003e John Dominic Crossan, Professor of Biblical Studies, De Paul UniversityCharles Hedrick's Parables as Poetic Fictions places the story character of Jesus' parables at the center of attention. His innovative use of Aristotle's poetics pioneers the place of sound in the structuring of the parables and provides a way of understanding how the story is organized. 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The rapid advances made by the physical sciences in the 19th and 20th centuries and the corresponding reliance on scientific accomplishments in American life have been matched by the growing influence of reason in the way Americans think about religion. Except for pockets of resistance, these developments have negatively influenced the practical role of traditional religion in American life. These essays-published over a twenty-year period as newspaper editorials addressed to the general public-confront popular beliefs and morals with the challenge of human reason. At issue in this meeting of faith and reason is nothing less than the nature of religion in the twenty-first century. Will faith embrace reason to create a House where both dwell in harmony or will faith ignore the claims of reason and continue to live in an Enchanted Forest? Each essay, written in the practical language of the streets, attempts to dialogue with the general reader and gently provoke critical thinking on sensitive issues of belief. Charles Hedrick is a scholar who has come clean. From the buckle on the Bible Belt comes this honest, intelligent, and creative reflection on the struggle between reason (and\/or science) and personal faith. Charlie's reminder to take our personal absolute truths (house of faith) a little less seriously and enjoy the diversity of thought and experience (enchanted forest) is practical, powerful, and incredibly timely. --Glenna S. Jackson, Professor, Department of Religion and Philosophy at Otterbein College. House of Faith or Enchanted Forest? is a personal and lively journey along the path of faith and doubt. Charles Hendrick poses deep questions that for centuries have haunted philosophers, historians, and theologians alike. This book awakens and celebrates critical thinking yet remains warmly accessible and resolutely honest. Anyone who wishes to re-think life's great questions in light of the changing face of Christianity will find joy in reading this book. Here is an excellent resource for discussion groups, book clubs, and inquiring individuals. --David Galston, Director of the Eternal Spring Learning Centre, Hamilton, Ontario Charlie Hedrick asks a lot of questions in this provocative collection of short essays. One specific question that, perhaps, sums up the others, 'Can a critical thinker also be a person of traditional religious faith?' Spanning a wide range of topics, Hedrick offers readers challenging questions to ponder, rather than easy answers to swallow. Yet, by pondering such questions, careful readers will find themselves closer to honest answers than they were before they read this helpful book. --J. Bradley Chance, Professor and Chair, Department of Religion, William Jewell College Charles W. Hedrick is Distinguished Profesor of Religion Emeritus at Missouri State University. He is also the author of Parables as Poetic Fiction, When History and Faith Collide, and Many Things in Parables.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52473863962897,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52473865306385,"sku":"NLS9781498211208","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781498211208.jpg?v=1759840566"},{"product_id":"parabolic-figures-or-narrative-fictions-book-charles-w-hedrick-9781498224871","title":"Parabolic Figures or Narrative Fictions?","description":"Hedrick contends that parables do not teach moral and religious lessons; they are not, in whole or part, theological figures for the church. Rather, parables are realistic narrative fictions that like all effective fiction literature are designed to draw readers into story worlds where they make discoveries about themselves by finding their ideas challenged and subverted--or affirmed. The parables have endings but not final resolutions, because the endings raise new complications for careful readers, which require further resolution. The narrative contexts and interpretations supplied by the evangelists constitute an attempt by the early church to bring the secular narratives of Jesus under the control of the church's later religious perspectives. Each narrative represents a fragment of Jesus's secular vision of reality. Finding himself outside the mainstream of parables scholarship, both ecclesiastical and critical, Hedrick explored a literary approach to the parables in a series of essays that, among other things, set out the basic rationale for a literary approach to the parables of Jesus. 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