1. Reading Ruth in context… through the centuries across the cultures

2. Ambrose of Milan C 340 – 397 One of the eight Great Doctors of the ‘Undivided Church’: the four Latin (Western) Doctors (Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine, and Pope Gregory the Great), and four Greek (Eastern) Doctors (Athanasius, John Chrysostom, Basil the Great, and Gregory of Nazianzus).

3. Isidore of Seville c 560 – 636 Bishop of Seville, prolific writer and promoter of learning.

4. Nicholas of Lyra c 1270-1349 French, author of the first printed commentary on the Bible and one of the foremost Franciscan theologians and influential exegetes of the Middle Ages.

5. Richard Bernard c 1568-1644 16 th century Church of England clergyman and writer; lifelong non- conformist.

6. John Wesley 1703-1791 Churchman, scholar, evangelist, struggler with God, shaper of English Methodism.

7. Charles Spurgeon: 1834 - 1892 Baptist pastor, preacher and evangelist, sometimes called ‘the last of the Puritans’.

8. Julie Li-Chuan Chu Taiwanese biblical scholar and co- pastor with her husband in the Presbyterian church of Taiwan.

9. Musimbi Kanyoro Kenyan theologian and biblical scholar; leader in the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians; YWCA general secretary.

10. Richard Bauckham Professor of New Testament Studies, St Andrews University, Scotland. Prolific writer and specialist on the theology of Jürgen Moltmann.

11. Eugene Peterson American pastor of pastors, Bible scholar, writer and translator of The Message.

12. Ruth in our day… because there is famine in the land…

13. because there is political and economic turmoil…

14. Naomi and Ruth are among us… in Kosovo …and Burundi

15. in Haiti… …and Iraq

16. … in the USA and the UK

17. … in Israel and Palestine

18. on the roads… of the world’s cities and rural areas…

19. What might it mean to embody God’s Kingdom to people like these? How can we be Boaz today?

20. To what extent do these readings from different centuries and different cultural perspectives change and enrich our understandings of the book of Ruth? What aspects of the readings you’ve heard today would you want to question and why?

21. For next week… With the help of the 3 lenses, and by talking with the text, explore Luke’s account in Acts 5:1-11. What might it mean for us today? How shall we live it?