{"id":6181,"date":"2016-11-17T08:25:14","date_gmt":"2016-11-17T14:25:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/?p=6181"},"modified":"2016-11-17T14:18:38","modified_gmt":"2016-11-17T20:18:38","slug":"cmu-to-celebrate-publication-of-philippians-with-book-launch-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/2016\/cmu-to-celebrate-publication-of-philippians-with-book-launch-event\/","title":{"rendered":"CMU to celebrate publication of Philippians with book launch event"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3 class=\"p1\"><em>Commentary by Gordon Zerbe emphasizes citizenship, partnership, and joy<\/em><\/h3>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Canadian Mennonite University invites the public to a book launch celebrating the release of <em>Philippians<\/em>, a new Bible commentary by New Testament scholar <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/about.php?s=faculty&amp;id=495\" target=\"_blank\">Dr. Gordon Zerbe<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The event takes place Thursday, November 24 at 7:00 PM in Marpeck Commons (2299 Grant Ave.). In addition to hearing from Zerbe, who will lead attendees on a \u201cvirtual tour through Paul\u2019s Philippi,\u201d people will have the one-time opportunity to purchase copies of the book at a 30 per cent discount at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.commonword.ca\/Home\" target=\"_blank\">CommonWord Bookstore and Resource Centre<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Philippians_Launch_Poster.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright wp-image-6184\" src=\"http:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Philippians_Launch_Poster-197x300.jpg\" alt=\"Philippians Book Launch Poster\" width=\"300\" height=\"457\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Philippians_Launch_Poster-197x300.jpg 197w, https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Philippians_Launch_Poster-672x1024.jpg 672w, https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Philippians_Launch_Poster.jpg 787w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>Admission to the book launch is free, and all are welcome to attend.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Published by Herald Press, <i>Philippians<\/i> is the 31<\/span><span class=\"s2\"><sup>st<\/sup><\/span><span class=\"s1\"> volume in the Believers Church Bible Commentary series.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">In the commentary, Zerbe challenges readers to allow Paul\u2019s prison letter to interpret their own lives\u2014not by extracting lessons out of historical and cultural context, but by imagining themselves in the ancient Roman world.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cPaul\u2019s wisdom in the letter can mirror back to us some of our own circumstances and questions,\u201d says Zerbe, who is Vice President Academic at CMU. \u201cOnce we live into the world of that text, we can look back at ourselves in a new way.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">He adds that to understand Paul and his beloved and beleaguered congregation in Philippi, we must learn to see him as a leader transformed by grace and passionate about enlivening patriotic loyalty to Jesus alone.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">In the commentary, Zerbe emphasizes four main themes: citizenship, partnership, high-low inversion, and joy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cWhat it means to fully realize the vision of partnership and mutuality that Paul articulated, and what it means to faithfully practice the way of being in solidarity with the lowly, are imperatives as relevant today as they were two thousand years ago,\u201d Zerbe says.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">He adds that he accepted the invitation to write the commentary because he has been absorbed in work on Paul and his letters ever since the days of his doctoral studies at Princeton Theological Seminary.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cThis was a great opportunity to deepen my understanding of one letter,\u201d Zerbe says. \u201cIn addition, I was already convinced that some new thinking about Paul and Philippians could make for an exciting new venture in a commentary.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The Believers Church Bible Commentary series is designed to be accessible to lay readers, useful in preaching and pastoral care, helpful for Bible study groups and Sunday school teachers, and academically sound. The series also carries an underlying Anabaptist reading of Scripture.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The volumes are a cooperative project of Brethren in Christ Church, Brethren Church, Church of the Brethren, Mennonite Brethren Church, Mennonite Church Canada, and Mennonite Church USA.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">In addition to a PhD from Princeton, Zerbe holds degrees from Western Washington University, Mennonite Brethren Biblical Seminary, Tabor College, and Columbia Bible College. He is the author of <i>Citizenship: Paul on Peace and Politics<\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">After growing up in Japan as a child of mission workers, a highlight in his career was a series of years (1996\u201398, 2002\u201304) in the Philippines as visiting professor at the Silliman University Divinity School under the auspices of Mennonite Central Committee.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>About CMU<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A Christian university in the Anabaptist tradition, CMU\u2019s Shaftesbury campus offers undergraduate degrees in arts, business, humanities, music, sciences, and social sciences, as well as\u00a0graduate degrees in theology,\u00a0ministry, peacebuilding and collaborative development, and an MBA. CMU has over 800 full-time equivalent\u00a0students, including those enrolled in degree programs at the Shaftesbury and Menno Simons College campuses and in its Outtatown certificate program.<\/p>\n<p>For information about CMU visit <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/\">www.cmu.ca<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>For additional information, please contact:<br \/>\nKevin Kilbrei, Director of Communications &amp; Marketing<br \/>\nkkilbrei@cmu.ca; 204.487.3300 Ext. 621<br \/>\nCanadian Mennonite University<br \/>\n500 Shaftesbury Blvd., Winnipeg, MB\u00a0 R3P 2N2<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Commentary by Gordon Zerbe emphasizes citizenship, partnership, and joy Canadian Mennonite University invites the public to a book launch celebrating the release of Philippians, a new Bible commentary by New Testament scholar Dr. Gordon Zerbe. The event takes place Thursday, November 24 at 7:00 PM in Marpeck Commons (2299 Grant Ave.). In addition to hearing [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6182,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[20,25,5],"tags":[269,596,489,817],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6181"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6181"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6181\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6191,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6181\/revisions\/6191"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}