Institute of Advanced Theology

About the Institute

The Institute of Advanced Theology is designed to create the kind of genuine, critical understanding that will make real pluralism possible. We are not interested in general assertions of the necessity of religious tolerance. Well-meaning and useful though such imperatives are, they do not address the heart of the challenge of religious diversity. What is needed is not mere civility, but mutual understanding.

Dr. Chilton's book launch gathering on May 19th, 2024 at the Rhinebeck Reformed Church.

The First Family

Dr. Chilton’s book launch gathering on May 19, 2024, at the Rhinebeck Reformed Church.

Yahweh is not through. He continues (again, Genesis 3:16): “Your longing shall be for your man and he will rule over you".... The slide into this change is set by Adam’s dreadful example of blaming “the Woman” given to him by Yahweh for introducing him to the fruit. She also passes the blame, by saying, “The Serpent misled me, and so I ate” (Genesis 3:12–13). Within the Yahwists’ epic, the habit of attempting to conceal responsibility from Yahweh is what most enrages him, and Eve suffers as a result. In considering Adam in the last chapter, we noticed the contrast with David, who admitted to an egregious sin and was forgiven.
—excerpt from The First Family

The First Family: Innocence, Awareness, Estrangement, and the Nature of Eden

by Bruce Chilton

The Biblical story of Eden is one of innocence, awakening, separation and estrangement. It is about the costs of maturation and a reckoning with our own mortality. But it is also a story of hope, about the gaining wisdom and self-knowledge. Bruce Chilton's erudite and accessible analyses of the text reveals new dimensions that will help readers understand the origins of Western culture. In The First Family, Chilton presents a vision of a near, knowable Eden—an Eden that may have been damaged but is not lost and that still lives and breathes inside of us.

Bruce Chilton

Bernard Iddings Bell Professor of Philosophy and Religion; Director, Institute of Advanced Theology

Bruce Chilton is one of the foremost scholars in the world of early Christianity and Judaism. He wrote the first critical translation of and commentary for the Aramaic version of Isaiah (The Isaiah Targum), as well as academic studies that analyze Jesus in his Judaic context (A Galilean Rabbi and His Bible; The Temple of Jesus; and Pure Kingdom). His other principal publications include: Rabbi Jesus: An Intimate Biography; Rabbi Paul: An Intellectual Biography; Mary Magdalene: A Biography; Resurrection Logic: How Jesus’ First Followers Believed God Raised Him from the Dead; and, most recently, The Herods: Murder, Politics, and the Art of Succession. He has taught in Europe at the universities of Cambridge, Sheffield, and Münster, and in the United States at Yale University (as the first Lillian Claus Professor of New Testament) and Bard College. Currently Bernard Iddings Bell Professor of Philosophy and Religion at Bard, he directs the Institute for Advanced Theology.

Publisher: Natus Books

Print ISBN: 978-1-581772-29-6
ePub ISBN: 978-1-581772-29-6
Format: Paperback
Dimensions: 5x7
Distributor: Independent Publishers Group (312) 337-0747
Publication Date: February 14, 2024
Price: $17.95 (print); $8.95 (ePub) Pages: 266 Size: 5x7 Category: Non-fiction, Biblical studies

Contact: Sam Truitt, 120 Station Hill Road, Barrytown, NY 12507 (845) 758-5293

For further info email: [email protected]