Jonathan L. Walton - A Lens of Love: Reading the Bible in Its World for Our World

Advance Praise for A Lens of Love

Jonathan L. Walton is one of the very few grand figures in American culture who is both public intellectual and prophetic preacher. His brilliant work and visionary words are legendary at Harvard and throughout the country and the world. This timely book is another testament to his calling, rooted in the legacies of Martin Luther King Jr., Benjamin Elijah Mays, Reinhold Niebuhr, and Fannie Lou Hamer!

Cornel West, Professor of the Practice of
Public Philosophy, Harvard University

A Lens of Love: Reading the Bible in Its World for Our World excels in bringing together intellectual engagement and a passionate love of God and Scripture. Clearly and beautifully written, it sets a model for how to do biblical theology righthow to come together and reason, how to live faithfully toward justice. It shows how to bring practical theology and social ethics together and inspires its readers to live out a just and faithful Christian identity.

Laura S. Nasrallah, Professor of New Testament
and Early Christianity, Harvard Divinity School

Springing from the questions, anxieties, and frustrations of the millennials whom he serves, this text gives voice to many of the reasons why people of Christian faith have become either activated or disillusioned by the tyrannies of this moment. Through the powerful narratives of his young constituents and a reclamation of a historical lineage of progressive evangelicalism, Walton contends that the development of a just, contextual, and informed biblical hermeneutic is a critical tool for showing up and speaking up.

Neichelle R. Guidry, Dean of Sisters Chapel
and Director of the WISDOM Center, Spelman
College, and creator of shepreaches organization

In a culture of extreme polarization and otherizing, Im grateful for the voice of Dr. Jonathan L. Walton and his latest book, A Lens of Love. In a society that tends to place ourselvesintentionally or unintentionallyin an echo chamber where our assumptions and beliefs are merely affirmed, this book both prophetically and pastorally creates space for the reader to bring their questions and doubts as we engage the Bible. During a time of so much pain, fear, and division, we desperately need to be reminded of Gods reconciling truth, grace, and love.

Eugene Cho, pastor, humanitarian, and author of
Overrated: Are We More in Love with the Idea of
Changing the World than Actually Changing the World?

Love is stronger than death, and this honest, compelling, insightful book on the ethical lens of love by Professor Jonathan L. Walton will resurrect your biblical interpretation. Your ethics of reading Scripture will be guided by a hermeneutic of love. By this approach, Walton stands in a long tradition of biblical interpreters who believe that the rule of love is the greatest rule to follow when reading and living. When you open the pages of this book, youll feel the love, too, and remember once again that the greatest of these is love.

Luke A. Powery, Dean of Duke University
Chapel and Associate Professor of Homiletics,
Duke University Divinity School

A dynamic scholar, passionate teacher, and prophetic preacher, Jonathan L. Walton is one of our most respected and effective leaders in occupying the intersections of biblical and contemporary context and content. We are fortunate to receive his principled voice in the midst of this important moment. As our local and global communities are increasingly connected yet isolated, diverse yet distant, and filled with hope and optimism yet also with panic and aggression, A Lens of Love: Reading the Bible in Its World for Our World provides us with a timely trajectory to move us toward matters that matter most. I highly recommend this book for both personal and public study among learners of all ages.

Brian E. Konkol, Dean of Hendricks
Chapel, Syracuse University

Waltons text is a labor of love. His words sponsor empathy. His erudite, conversational style opens up dialogue about responsible approaches to Scripture. In this current political moment, A Lens of Love offers Christian communities a better language by which to engage some of our most pressing social issues.

Keri Day, Associate Professor of Constructive Theology and
African American Religion, Princeton Theological Seminary

With luminous wisdom and an expansive heart, Jonathan Waltons A Lens of Love provides fresh and challenging ways to rediscover the biblical messages of love. These are courageous words of compassionate invitation from a vibrant mind and a loving spirit. Walton gifts us with love-saturated readings that will be ready guides for so many of us seeking hope and possibility in these challenging times.

David Kyuman Kim, Professor of Religious
Studies, Connecticut College

A Lens of Love

A Lens of Love

Reading the Bible in Its World
for Our World

Jonathan L. Walton

2018 Jonathan L. Walton

First edition

Published by Westminster John Knox Press

Louisville, Kentucky

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All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Westminster John Knox Press, 100 Witherspoon Street, Louisville, Kentucky 40202-1396. Or contact us online at www.wjkbooks.com.

Scripture quotations from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible are copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. and are used by permission.

Excerpt from Andra Crouch, Oh, It Is Jesus, copyright 1984 Crouch Music Corp. (ASCAP) (Adm. at CapitalCMGPublishing.com).All rights reserved. Used by permission.

Book design by Sharon Adams

Cover design by Nita Ybarra

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Walton, Jonathan L., author.

Title: A lens of love : reading the Bible in its world for our world / Jonathan L. Walton.

Description: Louisville, Kentucky : Westminster John Knox Press, [2018] | Includes bibliographical references and index. |

Identifiers: LCCN 2018007903 (print) | LCCN 2018021808 (ebook) | ISBN 9781611648898 (ebk.) | ISBN 9780664263546 (pbk. : alk. paper)

Subjects: LCSH: BibleCriticism, interpretation, etc.

Classification: LCC BS511.3 (ebook) | LCC BS511.3 .W355 2018 (print) | DDC 220.6dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018007903

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992.

Most Westminster John Knox Press books are available at special quantity discounts when purchased in bulk by corporations, organizations, and special-interest groups. For more information, please e-mail .

I dedicate this book to the eldest and youngest living members of my bloodlinethe two individuals who bookend my life with faith and promise. They were born at two very different moments into very different circumstances: one on a farm in rural, segregated Dudley, North Carolina, and the other in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on the campus of Harvard University. Beyond blood, it is the acknowledgment of Gods love coupled with the powerful stories found in the Bible that will keep their worlds forever united.