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Europeans are increasingly challenged by the multiplicity of languages that surround them. In this paper I offer a thought experiment on what our best answer regarding the phenomenon of language in the new creation might be, and I suggest that this might help Christians to engage positively with the multiple languages in their daily lives and local churches. I argue that we should expect the presence of a diversity of languages in the new creation. I do so on the basis of a biblical-theological analysis of key scriptural passages, support from the doctrine of the resurrection, and an appreciation of the significance of missions for language in the eschaton. These steps lead to a weighing of conceivable alternatives and a defence of my preferred solution. I conclude that these results encourage a generous and hospitable attitude towards speakers of other languages and provide a renewed incentive to make space for them in our churches and our lives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the content and the context of some key Old Testament passages that speak of the resurrection of the body (Is 25:8, Ez 37:1-14 and Dan 12:1-3). The results are then compared to the teaching of the New Testament about the end-time resurrection. In a third step, the article explores how the earliest church came to understand Jesus' bodily resurrection as the first instance of the end-time resurrection and which implications his resurrection has according to the New Testament. The article concludes with some practical reflections on the meaning of the hope of bodily resurrection for the Christian life and witness today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores biblical teachings about the afterlife in the Old Testament. Topics discussed include the way death has been considered a part of the normal progression of life, the biblical references which suggest an understanding of the concept of afterlife among Israelites, and the interpretation of phrases regarding the concept of individual resurrection in the Old Testament.

This article re-reads John 20:1–29 to foreground the normal, the post-normal and the new normal realities within the Johannine resurrection narrative. The narrator of John demonstrates the normal situational aspects by taking into consideration the setting, characterisation, thematic development, point of view and plot development of the story in closer relationship with the temporal and spatial mechanisms. The ordinary, local and existent realities are expressed to reveal the colourless human experiences in relation to the divine aspects within the narrative framework. The resurrection of Jesus introduces a post-normal situation within the Sitz im Leben Jesu and the Sitz im Leben Kirche. The post-normal situation was introduced by placing the story of Lazarus at a strategic place (Jn 11:1–45) and thereafter by unfolding the essentials such as speed, scope, scale and spontaneity. The unfolding of the divine within the existential human realities created a post-normal situation where the Johannine community had to undergo expulsion and persecution from the side of the dominant structures. The narrator gives the reader a hope about a new normal situation above and beyond the existent struggles of the Johannine community. Contribution: This article presents a new perspective concerning the normal, the post-normal and the new normal realities and dynamism within John 20:1–29 and suggests a new way forward in interpreting the Fourth Gospel by taking into consideration the existential aspects of the COVID-19 and Omicron pandemic situations. As a contextual and theological interpretation of the Fourth Gospel, this article fits well within the scope of HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the standard translation of John 2:20 is endorsed by a large majority of commentaries during the last century, a few voices during the last fifty years have proposed an alternate rendering. This study examines the manifold problems that confront the standard translation of this verse. The results demonstrate that the alternate rendering is superior on syntactical, semantic, and historical grounds. Implications for the dating of Jesus's ministry are explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The resurrection of the dead has been among the articles that defined Christian belief since the earliest days of the church. However, scholars have not considered its place in sixteenth-century debates about what it meant to be a Christian. Notably, the doctrine of bodily resurrection was a subject on which Christians in the Reformation remained remarkably united. Yet despite their basic agreement, sixteenth-century writers paid extensive attention to resurrection, and in so doing, they articulated very different understandings of why it mattered. Writings on resurrection by Martin Luther, Menno Simons, and John Calvin and texts promulgated by the Council of Trent each suggested that the promise of resurrection implicated a different relationship between Christianity and the human body, and in turn, it was to play a particular role in the formation of the true Christian community and the conduct of a Christian life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims at reinstating an older interpretation (offered e.g. by R. H. Lightfoot) of the astonishment, fear, and silent flight with which three women responded to the message they heard from the angel in Jesus's open and empty tomb. It was an appropriate reaction to the astonishing revelation of the resurrection. The article argues that this reaction is not to be reckoned as an unexpected failure on the part of the women. Throughout Mark's Gospel they proved exemplary in their following of Jesus, right through to being present at his crucifixion. Mary Magdalene and her two companions remained temporarily silent until they could deliver the angel's message to the appropriate audience, the male disciples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Edmund Lazzari in "Would St. Thomas Aquinas Baptize an Extraterrestrial," maintains that Aquinas would disagree with those who would baptize a fallen extraterrestrial on the grounds that they "disregard the necessity of a human nature for incorporation into the Mystical Body of Christ," baptism being the means whereby human beings are so incorporated. Lazzari maintains that, "Because of the crucial role that that assumption of a human nature plays ... in Thomistic soteriology, it is not possible to simply transfer the effects of the life of Jesus Christ to other intellectual beings who are not sharers in human nature." I first intend to show that Aquinas does not hold that a being must have a human nature to belong to the Mystical Body; rather having a rational nature suffices. Secondly, I intend to show that while the effects of Christ's death and resurrection are not such as to be automatically applicable to intelligent extraterrestrials (ETIs), much less to be automatically transferred to them through baptism, Aquinas would maintain that God is capable of ordering things in these ways, as they do not imply contradiction. Thus, if there are fallen extraterrestrials, Aquinas would not assume that it would be inappropriate to baptize them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Religious traditions that wait for the end of the world, believe that it is imminent. According to them, the world has been lost in the current system, the death will come, and the creation will stand. Consequently, in the opinion of Jesus' followers, he was a man chosen by God, the promised Messiah of David's generation, who was harassed and crucified because of Adam's sin. On the third day, he ascended to heaven, changed the image of death by his ascension and determined the way of reward and punishment by his returned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay argues that Paul's discourses in 1 Corinthians 12 and 15 concerning the church as the Body of Christ and the resurrection of the body offer a biblical challenge to colorblind white supremacy when read in conversation with feminist and womanist theologians. Reading Paul through feminist and womanist treatments of the body and trauma provides a nuanced theology of the body and a complex account of the concrete wounds of white supremacy while also presenting theological and ethical resources for resisting colorblindness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The central event of Christian belief, the Resurrection, could make theologians raise various questions. But for moral theologians, the main question in this regard is: how could the believers live the Resurrection? This article is an effort to respond to this question. In the process, it shows how the Resurrection could shape moral theology and Christian ethics. The Author claims that this article is a part of the wider project which aims to focus itself on the person of the Risen One, keeping in mind the contemporary claims that moral theology ought to be personalistic. Using a few selected works of reputed Biblical scholars such as Rudolf Schnackenburg, Ceslas Spicq, Xavier Léon-Dufour, and last but not least, the document of the Pontifical Biblical Commission The Bible and Morality: Biblical Roots of Christian Conduct, the Author highlights how one could link theologically the Synoptic Gospel account of the Kingdom and the related moral teaching with the Pauline doctrine of resurrection and his moral teaching. Thus, he tries to establish the necessary intrinsic link between the central event of the Resurrection and a believer's way of life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alan Segal rejected the claim that the "empty tomb" must be taken as the fulcrum of analysis for Jesus' Resurrection. He characterized that argument as the project of "a small group of scholars made up entirely of the faithful trying to impose their faith in the form of an academic argument." 1 Although Segal's criticism is too broadly articulated to be convincing, it identifies a weakness in recent discussion. The tomb of Jesus, judged by the statements of the texts involved and their developing tendencies, is better described as "emptying" as time went on than as "empty" from the outset. More importantly, reference to the tomb conveyed differing emphases among tradents, and distinctive outlooks on the Resurrection. Awareness of both the exegetical trajectory of the relevant texts and their varying perspectives leads to the suggestion that the "empty tomb" needs to be replaced as the point of departure in discussion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study seeks to demonstrate that John did not interpret the OT promises to Israel as if they had to be fulfilled by ethnic or national Israel in the present or the future. He freely applied such promises to the community of God's people in his time, which was made up of both Jew and Gentile, or to the new creation. For John, God's promises to ethnic and national Israel were fulfilled by the community of both Jews and Gentiles brought into existence by the sacrificial death and resurrection of Israel's Messiah. In the Apocalypse of John, there is no sense that the church (as some Gentile association or organization distinct from God's people) had replaced Israel but that God's renewed people, centered on her Messiah, welcomed Gentiles into Israel's restoration which had begun and would after a period of tribulation culminate in eternal life in God's new creation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An essay is presented on the reclamation of Mary Magdalene and the issue associated with touch. Topics discussed include the Biblical account on the encounter of Mary Magdalene with Jesus Christ after His resurrection, the feminist concept of her reclamation of this touching incident, its political aspect, and the translation gap between articulation and experience.

This article aims to analyze the understanding of death in the Old Testament, showing the three ways how it appears - as a linguistic element, a cosmic power, and biological end. The death, expressed by darkness and the desert, is the source of impurity and suffering, completely opposed not only to life but also to the creation. Like with life, death also defines the human being, once it is understood as the end of the relationship with God, that only God can remake. The afterlife, very different from what many imagine, is not a positive reality in Old Testament, but a lonely and absent situation, far from being something to wish for. The human, completely marked by mortality, finds in death his tragic end, which only light of hope isn't in his nature but in the power of God that being the Creator of all things, can create man again by resurrection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the possibility that John’s reference to ‘the sanctuary of his body’ (2.19) may have been influenced by Paul’s images of the church as Christ’s body and as a sanctuary. Paul describes both the church (1 Cor. 6.16) and the bodies of individual Christians (6.19) as sanctuaries of the Holy Spirit. Similarly, he describes Christians as ‘limbs of the body of Christ’ (12.17) and ‘limbs of Christ’ (6.15). The question arises as to whether the two images are related. Discussing his own mortality (2 Cor. 4–5), Paul uses imagery connected with the sanctuary – ‘tent’, and ‘a house not made with hands’ (a possible dominical saying); he then reminds the Corinthian church of their calling to fulfil Israel’s mission to be ‘the sanctuary of the living God’ (ch. 6). Elsewhere, the work of the Spirit is vital for the church, whether described as ‘body’ or as ‘sanctuary’. Paul seems to have linked the two ideas, and John may have been aware of this when he used the phrase ‘the sanctuary of his body’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the work of Jewish philosopher Saadia Gaon on Syriac Christianity and the Biblical term "Resurrection of the Dead." It mentions more attention given by Gaon to Christianity than Islam. Also it discusses literature of the Syriac Churches of ninth and 10th Century Mesopotamia, and the theme "Resurrection of the Dead" and the afterlife.

The article focuses on metaphysics, death and future. Topics discussed are metaphysical theory as per Aristotelian hylomorphism, human perspective of death, immortality and the Christian belief of resurrection, and English mathematician and philosopher Alfred North Whitehead's reflection on the need for adventure for a civilization to continue and need for Christians to avoid mimetic rivalry, fear of the future, and follow Jesus Christ.

The article discusses the 1 Corinthians 15:35–58 part of the "Bible," focusing on the discussion on the resurrection of the dead, physical and spiritual bodies in the scripture by Saint Paul. Topics discussed include the things to consider for a preacher before delivering a sermon on resurrection, the Corinthian Christians, and the theological speculation about resurrection.

William Lane Craig is a prolific Christian apologist who has written many articles and popular books on the mainly philosophical arguments for God's existence, and is famed for his debating, and his engaging with the public. His work with philosophical arguments is significant, as there is no confirmed empirical evidence for the existence of God, nor can there be any good historical evidence; sound historical methodology necessarily being dismissive of supernatural claims. Craig has formulated a number of arguments that he presents in a clear and accessible cumulative case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses passages from the Bible concerning the resurrection of Jesus Christ on the third day. It examines two events in the Scripture which offer symbolic representations of resurrection including the rising up of some element out of the ground and rising up out of water. It explores the connection of the concept of resurrection to the creations of dry land and vegetation by God in the book of Genesis.

The article focuses on texts in the Book of Genesis about the hope for resurrection. It explores the New Testament (NT) support for the resurrection hope in the Torah, including the words of Paul in Acts 24 and the words of Jesus in Matthew 22. It examines several passages from Genesis about the subject including God's creation of the world, the tree of life and immortal physicality, and the defeat of the serpent.

This article addresses what will occur to those who will be alive at the time of Jesus Christ's Second Coming. There is much discussion about the nature of the transformation that will take place in the lives of the redeemed who will not be liable to resurrection, since they will not experience death during the Parousia. Initially, the author considers the Old Testament idea of a future transformation. He also pays attention to the intertestamental period, in which one sees no common doctrine about the subject. Then he proceeds to analyze the New Testament texts, with special emphasis on the Pauline passages of 1 Corinthians 15.50-54 and 2 Corinthians 5.1-5. Jesus' transfiguration is also considered since it can serve as a proleptic manifestation of the transformation that the saved will undergo in the future. After analyzing the passages, the article discusses the need for and the nature of such transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water often moves us to wonder, joy, terror or peace, and many times, water moves us to prayer. On the other hand, it is projected that, because of water shortages, by 2020, several African countries will experience a 50% reduction in crop yields. Between 75 and 250 million Africans will confront freshwater shortages. Water plays an important role in baptism: the requirements of Christian baptism are the use of water and calling upon the name of the Triune God. Baptism as a water bath is the fulfilment of the Old Testament washings. Nobody could and still can appear before God as an unclean person; baptism stresses the importance of cleansing. The research question that is discussed in this article is the following: in what way may baptism, as holy sign and seal of the washing away of sins by the blood and Spirit of Jesus Christ, contribute to sensitise believers to combat waste in our rivers and dams and the pollution of our waters? Two aspects of baptism are discussed, namely cleansing and going under and coming up from the water as sign and seal of partaking in Christ's death and resurrection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Like some fantasies (including Lord of the rings and the Chronicles of Narnia), the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling makes a social comment on a particular dominant discourse within a particular sociocultural context. One of Rowling's social comments is the dehumanising and fragmenting effect of the power and consumerist discourse in Western society - where great value is placed on what a person owns. An example of this theme in the series is the characters of the Dursleys, as prime examples of 'Muggles'. Although it is not power that Muggles seek, but rather to fit in by having what the Jones' have, which fits in well with the capitalist discourse as developed by Lacan - as discussed by Meylahn. Rowling juxtaposes this discourse with the alternative sacred story of the Christ discourse (community and fellowship are more important than material possessions), that she has subtly woven into her narrative. This alternative discourse challenges adolescents' identity and spirituality by offering the Christ discourse as an alternative discourse to the dominant discourse of consumerism and power they live in. In his article, 'Holistic redemptive pastoral ministry in the fragmented transit hall of existence', Meylahn (2010) speaks of a 'wounded Christ' healing a 'wounded community' and this ties in well with the Christ discourse presented by Rowling. Meylahn gives us a useful hermeneutical tool to interpret the actions of some of Rowling's characters. Hence, Meylahn's 'wounded Christ', will be brought into conversation with the actions of some of Rowling's characters. By bringing Rowling into conversation with Meylahn, pastors and youth workers are presented with an ideal tool to help guide adolescents towards a more spiritual life that is not bound to the dehumanising discourse of consumerism and power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author focuses on the historically-reliable gospel pericopes in which a woman is the lead character. She argues that these women provide the complete gospel - Jesus teaches, heals, preaches and is anointed in the context of female-based stories and, of course, the women take him from conception to resurrection. Jackson argues, not only from an analysis of the texts themselves, but also from her personal experiences in the Middle East and Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article draws on spatial theory to analyse the final chapter of Mark’s Gospel, describing a setting full of religious and cultural significance. The analysis reveals a narrative of building tension, leading to a decisive angelophany. Three main arguments are advanced. Firstly, Mark takes a characteristic and subversive approach to space by deliberately bringing events into the challenging (typically, unclean) setting of a tomb. Secondly, Mark explores the borderland between life and death through themes of space and time. Thirdly, the understanding of the tomb space ultimately is transformed, making it the site of a well-constructed angelic revelation, and casting the women visitors as prophetic recipients of the Gospel commission. In light of these points, Mk 16.1-8 may be considered a carefully built and decisive ending to the Gospel, based upon the author’s thoughtful manipulation of narrative space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This doctoral dissertation explores the origin of the belief in the resurrection of the dead in II Temple Judaism by means of the analysis of the fundamental conceptions of apocalypticism. it consists of an examination of the historic and sociological context in which the apocalyptic movement emerged, together with the imprint of biblical theology, Hellenism, and the surrounding religions, and of how its representations of the world, of mankind, and of history shaped its eschatological believes. Following a classification ot the main positions in current research, there appears a systematic consideration of apocalyptic theology, and a study of the main biblical and intertestamental texts referring to this notion. The thesis addresses the main levels of signification adopted by the idea of resurrection in apocalyptic theology, paying special attention to the response to the problem of theodicy and to its critical and emancipatory potential from the present reality. The main conclusion concerns the influences of the cosmopolitan, universalist picture of history encouraged be Hellenism in giving birth to a less ethnocentric perspective, which would have favoured the assumption of an eschatological projection of the divine action to the end of times, highlighting the common fate of humanity rather than the destiny of the nation (collective restoration). The emphasis on the membership in the nation of Israel becomes substituted by the vision of a common, universal judgment which shall affect all human beings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract This Canadian study qualitatively analyzed the texts of 35 conservative and 34 mainline Protestant Easter Sunday sermons. With the goal of indentifying similarities and differences between the conservative and mainline texts, the sermons were examined to determine 1) what they said about the purpose and meaning of Jesus' resurrection and 2) the degree to which those explanations more broadly reflected adherence to the doctrine of Biblical authority. Among other findings, it was determined that sermons in both groups linked Jesus' resurrection to supernatural boons for believers (i.e., eternal life, divine power in this life, or both). However, when referencing these supernatural gains the two groups differed in terms of proportion and manner of explication. All the conservative Protestant sermons referenced one or more supernatural benefits but less than two-thirds of the mainline sermons did so; the remaining mainline texts posited that the resurrection's theological meaning was metaphorical and served to reveal a key existential lesson. Furthermore, conservative Protestant sermons always supported their theological claims with scriptural proof-texts while the vast majority of mainline sermons did not (the exception being sermons preached in rural mainline churches). Overall, strong adherence to the doctrine of Biblical authority was evidenced in the conservative Protestant sermons while the mainline sermons did not evidence strong adherence to that doctrine. Implications and possible explanations of these results are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

1 Thessalonians 4.16–17 has occasioned much scholarly speculation regarding Paul's conception of the resurrected body, the character of those caught up in Christ, the ultimate fate of those who are caught up in the air, and Pauline eschatology in general. The interpretation of the passage may be illuminated by comparison with rabbinic traditions in which the righteous escape judgment and destruction in Sheol by flying and being borne aloft by clouds, traditions that, given Paul's Jewish heritage, could well stand in the background of 1 Thess 4.16–17. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Paul, the one New Testament author who states clearly that Jesus appeared to him, has been cited as one who understood the resurrection of Jesus as fleshly, or physical. This article examines whether Paul himself understood the result of what happened to Jesus after his death to be a physical reality akin to the return of Jesus alive in the flesh. By investigating the three passages in which Paul refers to his own life-changing experience of the risen Christ (Gal 1:16; 1 Cor 9:1; 1 Cor 15:8), the article shows that there is just as much evidence to argue that Paul’s encounter with the risen Lord was a real, but interior, experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The history of the interpretation of Ezekiel's vision of the dry bones (Ezek 37:1-14) reveals that while this passage is a metaphor for Israel's exile and restoration, it has also served as the source text for Jewish and Christian reflection on the resurrection of the dead. That the same passage can be read in both ways has implications for the way all of Scripture can be read. In the Talmud, Rabbi Judah calls Ezekiel's vision 'emeth mashal: a true metaphor. This is an apt image for the entire Bible, as a text both historically specific and theologically multivalent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers the author's insights on the relationship of poetry and religion. Topics discussed include the Mennonites, the presence of God's love, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Also mentioned are the Amish people of Pennsylvania, the violence against women, and the attitudes of religious community in facing violence.

The article focuses on the author's perspective regarding the article "Resurrection as Blasphemy in Canto 5 of Edmund Spencer's "The Legend of Holiness"," by Åke Bergvall. He highlights the context of blasphemy which Bergvall asserts to be textual and linguistic. He mentions the traditional understanding of Christ's harrowing of hell which the Bible originates. He also mentions blasphemy in relation to a religious, theological, or Christ-related context. He presents A. J. MacCulloch's perception about hell as well as the notion about spiritual healing.

The article presents a lectionary which focuses on the impact of the resurrection of Jesus Christ on the lives of the Christians. It cites passages from the books Jeremiah, Psalms, 1 Corinthians and Luke to explore the morality of two ways, which refers to the two separate ways which either lead to life or death. It also discusses the significance of trust in having a relationship with God. Furthermore, it also poses introspective questions related to the passages of Jeremiah and Paul.

Among the questions related to the Fourth Gospel, which have not yet received a response widely agreed, are those related to present and future aspects of johannine eschatology. Although in agreement with the other books of the New Testament, the johannine eschatology has a characteristic emphasis: Judgment, Resurrection, eschatological gifts are not only future but also belong to the present. How should we understand them? Are the two complementary aspects of johannine eschatology or rather opposite one another and irreconcilable? In the latter case, an explanation must be given concerning the origin and paternity of the verses that support the aspect considered illegitimate. Our exegesis of In. 5,19-30 will advocate for the balance retained by the evangelist John between the two aspects of its eschatology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines theological scholarship in the early history of the Christian church. If focuses on a work by Augustinus Hibernicus titled "De mirabilibus Sacrae Scripturae," that analyzed the nature of miracles in the Bible. The author claims the work represents unique proof of an individual grappling with problematic religious questions instead of relying on previous dogma.

This study offers an example of 'standing theology', as distinguished from sitting theology and kneeling theology. The occasion was Passion Sunday 2020 when at the request of the Archbishops of Canterbury and York all churches were locked up. The Gospel reading and the address were read by the Dean standing outside the cathedral on a windswept day. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the social context of Saint Paul's eschatological discussion of the resurrection of the dead found in 1 Thessalonians 4:13 to 18. Subjects discussed include the pervasiveness of death in the community-building discourse of living members of voluntary associations in the city of Thessalonica, funerary associations that were organized to ensure proper burial of deceased members, and the social implications of burial with associations.

The article presents an examination into the contextual arguments behind the dispute of the Pharisee and Sadducee sects seen in the New Testament passage of Acts 23. Details are given analyzing the precise views of the Sadducees and Pharisees on the issues of the resurrection of the dead, the existence of angels and spirits, and of an intermediate state between life and the afterlife.

The article presents a thematic comparative analysis of the Biblical passages of 1 Corinthian 15: 50-57 and 2 Corinthian 5: 1-5, asserting that they have a similar theme and style of argumentation. Topics addressed include an overview of dominant interpretations of both passages, description of the major shift in the Apostle Paul's thought from 1 Corinthians to 2 Corinthians, and the passages' focus on the resurrection of the body.

The article provides the author's reaction to the response of writer Matthew A. Fike regarding the context of resurrection as blasphemy. He mentions his stand regarding Fike's objection that blasphemy overstates author Edmund Spencer's technique to the extent that the "Aeneid" is the critical antecedent. He stresses the overarching religious allegory in the book 1 of "The Fearie Quenne." He highlights the notion about the harrowing of hell as well as the allegoric depiction of Christ's death and resurrection.

The article presents sermons delivered on the First Sunday of Christmas on December 27, 2015, featuring the texts including "1 Samuel 2:18-20,26," "Psalm 148," and "Colossians 3:12-17." It focuses on engaging and pastoral reflections of the texts, focusing on the themes of tenderness and anxiety, and trust in the work of God in thje families and relationships, depicting mix of stories of terror and favor, and death and resurrection.