Journal: Westminster Theological Journal
Volume: WTJ 65:2 (Fall 2003)
Article: Reviews Of Books
Author: Anonymous

WTJ 65:2 (Fall 2003) p. 363

Reviews Of Books

David E. Aune, ed., The Gospel of Matthew in Current Study: Studies in Memory of William G. Thompson, S.J. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2001. Pp. xii + 191. $25.00, paper.

“Don’t judge a book by its cover,” or, apparently, its title. If one is looking for a reasonably comprehensive treatment of current trends and issues in Matthean scholarship, one best consult Donald Senior’s What Are They Saying about Matthew (2d ed.; New York: Paulist Press, 1996). Another helpful, though a bit dated, source is G.N. Stanton’s Gospel for a New People ([Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1993], esp. pp. 1-84 for methodological issues), or “Matthew: A Retrospect” in Davies and Allison’s ICC commentary ([3 vols.; Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1988–1997], 3:692–727). Another helpful and concise source is John Riches’s Matthew (New Testament Guides; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1997). One will find little in The Gospel of Matthew in Current Study not already treated more comprehensively in these, and other, previously published sources. The book itself is a product of a 1998 colloquium at Loyola University in memory of the late William G. Thompson, S.J. It contains an initial chapter on his life and work, and most articles interact with some aspect of Thompson’s scholarship or pastoral sensitivities.

The first substantive chapter, “Directions in Matthean Studies” (pp. 5-21) by Donald Senior, is largely a summary of the aforementioned “Retrospect” found in the ICC volume. Here Senior summarizes Davies and Allison’s five main issues of Matthean studies: “Matthew’s Jewish Setting” (pp. 7-12), “Theology and Salvation” (pp. 12-14), “Literary Genre and Moral Instruction” (pp. 14-15), “Matthew’s Place in Early Judaism” (pp. 15-17), and “Matthew’s Place in Early Christianity” (pp. 17-21). While this concise summary is helpful, one is left wishing Senior himself provided more of his own synthesis of trends rather than the small handful of comments at the conclusion of each summary of Davies and Allison’s work.

Amy-Jill Levine’s contribution, “Matthew’s Advice to a Divided Readership” (pp. 22-41), seeks to arbitrate conflict between traditional, male-dominated historical-critical exegesis and a younger, feminist, “postcolonial,” and “postmodern” hermeneutic. Levine claims objectivity as a feminist, “historian,” and Jew with experience in Matthew and arbitrates the opposing views on the playing field of the story of the Canaanite woman (Matt 15:21–28). She concludes that Matthew is more concerned with “chosenness” and Christology than gender or ethnicity and that he affirms both the importance of Gentile women (from the ...