Darian Lockett

The overarching goal of a specifically Christian liberal arts education, in a word, is wisdom. It is Darian Lockett's desire to display Godly wisdom in teaching, writing and service, in order to serve the church of Jesus Christ by equipping individuals for life and ministry. Lockett is particularly interested in the General Letters, hermeneutics, theological interpretation and political/economic philosophies in Scripture. He is the author of Purity and Worldview in the Epistle of James and has published chapters on James and Jude in various edited volumes. Lockett has contributed articles to Tyndale Bulletin and Neotestamentica and has published several reviews in Scottish Journal of Theology, Review of Biblical Literature, Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, and Midwestern Journal of Theology.

Affiliation Faculty
Position Professor of New Testament

Author's books

intro-catholic-epistles
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An Introduction to the Catholic Epistles

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This book introduces the Epistles and discusses the different interpretive approaches which have been used to gain a clearer understanding of them. An introductory chapter defines the Epistles and describes the history of their canonization, following chapters are devoted to each of the texts with each chapter including: 1) historical-cultural background; 2) the social-scientific context; 3) social-rhetorical purposes; 4) narrative discourse; 5) postcolonial and 6) feminist insights; and finally 7) theological perspectives. At the end of each chapter there are suggestions for further reading and a list of reflection questions. A final chapter takes up the relationship between the Pauline Epistles and the Catholic Epistles within the New Testament.

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biblical-theology
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Biblical Theology: Past, Present, and Future

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This book offers two things in particular: first, these are papers that have been commented on and re-worked in the context of a set of lively sessions from (International) SBL conferences from 2012 to 2014 (Amsterdam, St. Andrews, Vienna). Second, they offer an insight into the origins of the discipline as one which became conscious of itself in the early modern era and the turn to history and the analysis of texts, to offer something exegetical and synthetic. The fresh wind that the enterprise received in the latter part of the twentieth century is the focus of the second part of the volume, which describes the recent activity up to the present “state of the question” The third part takes a step further to anticipate the way forward for the discipline in an era where “canon”–but also “Scripture” and “theology”–seem to be alien terms, and where other ideologies are advanced in the name of neutrality.

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cosmology-nt-theology
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Cosmology and New Testament Theology

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Cosmology and New Testament Theology systematically examines the NT documents to show how cosmological language and concepts inform, interact with, and contribute to the specific theological emphases of the various NT books. In some NT books, the importance of cosmology can be easily discerned, while in others what is required is a new and close examination of key cosmological terms (e.g., heaven, earth, world, creation) with an eye to the themes and theology of the book.

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explorations-reading
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Explorations in Interdisciplinary Reading: Theological, Exegetical, and Reception-Historical Perspectives

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The tension between reading Scripture as primarily a historically situated text on one hand and binding canon addressed to a community of faith on the other constitutes a crucial issue for biblical interpretation. The goal of this project was to foster a sustained discussion where exploratory papers might be proposed, composed, and rewritten for final form using a collaborative process. This research project, and the present volume resulting from it, offers valuable insights into the integration of Biblical Studies and Theology as subdisciplines within the academy. The essays collected here fall naturally into the following sections: Exegetical Explorations, Reception-Historical Explorations, and finally Theological-Practical Explorations.

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letters-for-the-church
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Letters for the Church: Reading James, 1-2 Peter, 1-3 John, and Jude as Canon

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The Catholic Epistles often get short shrift. Tucked into a few pages near the back of our Bibles, these books are sometimes referred to as the “non-Pauline epistles” or “concluding letters,” maybe getting lumped together with Hebrews and Revelation. Yet these letters, Darian Lockett argues, are treasures hidden in plain sight, and it’s time to give them the attention they deserve. In Letters for the Church, Lockett reveals how the Catholic Epistles provide a unique window into early Christian theology and practice. Based on evidence from the early church, he contends that the seven letters of James, 1–2 Peter, 1–3 John, and Jude were accepted into the canon as a collection and should be read together. Here Lockett introduces the context and content of the Catholic Epistles while emphasizing how all seven letters are connected. Each chapter outlines the author, audience, and genre of one of the epistles, traces its flow of thought, and explores shared themes with the other Catholic Epistles.

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letters-pillar-apostles
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Letters from the Pillar Apostles: The Formation of the Catholic Epistles as a Canonical Collection

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Rather than reading the Catholic Epistles in isolation from each other–understanding their individual historical situations as the single, determinative context for their interpretation–this study argues that a proper understanding of these seven letters must equally attend to their collection and placement within the New Testament canon. Resisting the judgment of much of historical-critical analysis of the New Testament, namely, that the concept of canon actually obscures the meaning of these texts, it is the canonical process by which the texts were composed, redacted, collected, arranged, and fixed in a final canonical form that constitutes a necessary interpretive context for these seven letters. This study argues that through reception history and paratextual and compositional evidence one can discern a collection consciousness within the Catholic Epistles such that they should be read and interpreted as an intentional, discrete canonical sub-collection set within the New Testament. Furthermore, the work argues that such collection consciousness, though not necessarily in the preview of the original authors (being perhaps unforeseen, yet not unintended), is neither anachronistic to the meaning of the letters nor antagonistic to their composition.

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mounces-dictionary
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Mounce’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words

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William Mounce, whose Greek grammar has been used by more than 100,000 college and seminary students, is the editor of this new dictionary, which will become the layperson’s gold standard for biblical word studies. Mounce’s is ideal for the reader with limited or no knowledge of Greek or Hebrew who wants greater insight into the meanings of biblical words to enhance Bible study. It is also the perfect reference for busy pastors needing to quickly get at the heart of a word’s meaning without wading through more technical studies.

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purity-worldview-james
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Purity and Worldview in the Epistle of James

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Arguing against restricting the meaning of purity language to the individual moral sphere (as many commentaries do), the central argument of Purity and Worldview in the Epistle of James is that purity language both articulates and constructs the worldview in James’s epistle. Lockett offers a taxonomy of purity language, applied as a heuristic guide to understand the function of purity and pollution in the epistle. Through this analysis the study concludes that James is not calling for sectarian separation, but rather demonstrates a degree of cultural accommodation while calling forth specific socio-cultural boundaries between the readers and the world.

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reading-james-new-eyes
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Reading James with New Eyes: Methodological Reassessments of the Letter of James

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The letters of James, 1 and 2 Peter, and Jude are among the most neglected letters of the New Testament. Reading James With New Eyes is the first of four volumes that incorporate new research in this area. The essays collected here examine the impact of recent methodological developments in New Testament studies to the letter of James, including, for example, rhetorical, social-scientific, socio-rhetorical, ideological and hermeneutical methods, as they contribute to understanding James and its social context. Each essay has a similar three-fold structure, making them perfect for use by students: a description of the methodological approach; the application of the methodological approach to James; and a conclusion identifying how the methodological approach contributes to a fresh understanding of the letter.

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reading-james-students
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Reading the Epistle of James: A Resource for Students

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This accessible introduction to contemporary scholarship on the Epistle of James begins with chapters that consider possible sources and backgrounds used by the author of James, the genre and literary structure of the book, and its major theological themes. Building on this foundation, subsequent chapters examine James through social-scientific readings, perspectives of Latin American immigrants and the marginalized, and major recent developments in textual criticism. The final chapters in the volume address the relationship between the epistle and the historical James, reception of the epistle in the early church, and major Catholic and Protestant interpretations of the book in the Reformation era. The contributions in this volume distill a range of important issues for readers undertaking a serious study of this letter for the first time.

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The Bible Knowledge Background Commentary: John’s Gospel, Hebrews Revelation

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This powerful reference tool is a book-by-book, chapter-by-chapter, detailed look at the historical, cultural, and economic background of the Gospel of John, and Hebrews—Revelation. Much more than simply theology or a Word study, The Bible Knowledge Background Commentary opens a window to transport the reader back into the setting of the New Testament to see, touch, and hear as much of the world of that time as possible. The better acquainted you become with the background of the New Testament, the better you’ll be able to avoid misunderstanding the allusions and references that run throughout the writings of the New Testament. Historical events, social customs, religious beliefs, figures of speech, turns of phrase, and institutions all contribute to how the Bible’s first readers would have understood it.

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the-catholic-epistles
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The Catholic Epistles: Critical Readings

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This reference volume aims to be a kind of comprehensive status quaestionis for the Catholic Epistles. Here Darian Lockett has collected some of the highest quality scholarship concentred upon the Letters of James, Peter, John, and Jude, creating an introduction and orientation to the wide ranging avenues of scholarly investigation into these New Testament texts all in a single-volume. Divided into four distinct sections, the volume begins with an analysis of the Catholic Epistles as a collection, before moving to discuss historical-critical and theological studies, methodological approaches, and, finally, reception history. Taking care to situate foundational essays in the history of scholarship that may be hard to find or contextualize, Lockett offers a brief introduction to each section and draws each section to a close by providing a list of annotated readings which prompt further study and engagement with some of the last literature to be settled upon in the New Testament canon.

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Understanding Biblical Theology: A Comparison of Theory and Practice

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Understanding Biblical Theology provides an expert and clarifying look at the catch-all term “biblical theology,” a movement that tries to remove the often-held dichotomy between biblical studies for the Church and as an academic pursuit. Using a spectrum between history and theology, each of the five “types” of biblical theology are identified as landing somewhere on the continuum from “more theological” to “more historical” in concern and practice. Readers will gain an appreciation for each of these approaches and understand how any student of the Bible can learn from them.

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