Leaders and People in Biblical Stories

by James A. Fischer

In Leaders and People in Biblical Stories James Fischer, C.M., demonstrates how models of leadership have varied throughout Israel’s and the Church’s history as times and circumstances have necessitated change. Using a narrative method to study the stories of both the Old and New Testaments, he asks for a rethinking of the Church’s approach to authority today. Vatican II reinstated the ancient truth that it is the whole people of God who keep the faith. Analyzing the stories of leaders in both the Old and New Testament from the viewpoint of the people who told them illustrates how both the leaders and the people had needed one another to balance their view of how they were following God’s will as He led his people. Conflict was always a rule of life between them. Fischer asks if this is a helpful way to look at the present situation of the Catholic Church? Chapters are "Paradise—The Logion on Marriage—The People Speak?" "Moses—The Prophet and Leader," "Joshua and the Witnessing Stone," "Samuel, the Prophet of Doom," "David as the People Saw the Hero," "The Prophets—Persuaders of the Common People," "Ezra and the Rain," "The Canonizing of the Old Testament," "The Jesus Story at Its Beginning," "Marcion, the Necessary Heretic," and "A Postscript on John Henry Cardinal Newman."

153 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004