About this item
It is traditional to think we should praise Abraham for his willingness to sacrifice his son as proof of his love for God. But have we misread the point of the story? Is it possible that a careful reading of Genesis 22 could reveal that God was not pleased with Abraham's silent obedience?Widely respected biblical theologian, creative thinker, and public speaker J. Richard Middleton suggests we have misread and misapplied the story of the binding of Isaac and shows that God desires something other than silent obedience in difficult times. Middleton focuses on the ethical and theological problem of Abraham's silence and explores the rich biblical tradition of vigorous prayer, including the lament psalms, as a resource for faith. Middleton also examines the book of Job in terms of God validating Job's lament as "right speech," showing how the vocal Job provides an alternative to the silent Abraham.
About the Author
J. Richard Middleton is Professor of Biblical Worldview and Exegesis at Northeastern Seminary, located on the campus of Roberts Wesleyan College in Rochester, NY. He also serves as adjunct Professor of Old Testament at the Caribbean Graduate School of Theology in Kingston, Jamaica. He served as president of the Canadian Evangelical Theological Association 2011-2014.
A native of Jamaica, Middleton moved to Canada for graduate studies, before settling in the United States. While in Canada he coauthored (with Brian Walsh) "The Transforming Vision" (InterVarsity Press, 1984) and "Truth is Stranger Than It Used to Be" (InterVarsity Press/SPCK, 1995) . The former book has been published in Korean, French, Indonesian, Spanish, and Portuguese. The latter book received a Book-of-the-Year award (1996) from Christianity Today magazine and has been published in Korean.
He holds a B.Th. from Jamaica Theological Seminary, an M.A. in Philosophy from the University of Guelph (Canada) , and a Ph.D. in Theology from the Free University in Amsterdam (in a joint-degree program with the Institute for Christian Studies, Toronto) .
Middleton has authored "The Liberating Image: The Imago Dei in Genesis 1" (Brazos Press, 2005) and "A New Heaven and a New Earth: Reclaiming Biblical Eschatology" (Baker Academic, 2014) , both of which have been translated into Korean, and has also co-edited a volume of essays entitled "A Kairos Moment for Caribbean Theology" (Pickwick/ Wipf & Stock, 2013) . He is working on two new books: a comparison of Abraham and Job and a study of divine and human power in 1 and 2 Samuel for the Abingdon Old Testament Commentary series.
Published essays address topics such as biblical creation theology, "salvation" in the Old Testament, eschatology, the problem of evil, the theology of popular music, and the interpretation of Old Testament narratives and poetry (in Samuel and the Psalms) .
His essay "Let's Put Herod Back into Christmas" was awarded the Canadian Church Press prize for best theological reflection (1993) and another essay, "Why the 'Greater Good' Isn't a Defense: Classical Theodicy in Light of the Biblical Genre of Lament," received the annual Fall essay award of the Princeton Graduate Theological Forum (1997) .
Before beginning at Northeastern Seminary in 2011, Middleton taught at Roberts Wesleyan College for ten years, and before that at Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School (Rochester, NY) , Redeemer University College (Ancaster, ON) , and the Institute for Christian Studies (Toronto, ON) . He has also served as campus minister at two universities in Canada (the University of Guelph and Brock University) and two in the United States (Syracuse University and the University of Rochester) .
Richard is married to Marcia, his teenage s
