Archive for the 'Biblical Studies' Category
Scot McKnight. A Community Called Atonement. Abingdon, 2007. 177 pp.
Scot McKnight has just published a book called A Community Called Atonement. McKnight is a first rate biblical scholar at North Park University and the man behind the curtain at the always engaging Jesus Creed blog. Using his exceptional writing skills, McKnight takes what can be a very tedious idea and brings it alive.
McKnight does a wonderful job of rescuing the debate from a narrow abstract battle to make this or that model prevail and relocates the discussion in the larger picture of God’s mission in the world. Atonement is not an end in itself. Atonement is a means toward accomplishing a mission; the mission of restoring of that which has been lost. McKnight locates the central themes of this restoration in the concepts of justice (mishpat), righteousness (tesedeq) and shalom. (128)
Reviewed by Michael Kruse.
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Dave Hunt & James White. Debating Calvinism: Five Points, Two Views. Multnomah, 2004. 432 pp.
One of the purposes of a debate in the formal sense of the word is to persuade. The object is to persuade the audience that your position is the appropriate view to adopt. Over several generations the debate over the theological views developed by John Calvin has become more and more heated. In response, James White (the champion of Reformed Theology) and Dave Hunt (the Opponent of Calvinism) have participated in a lengthy formal debate. The debate has been removed from the classical oral format and collected in the volume Debating Calvinism.
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Colin E. Gunton. The Barth Lectures. T&T Clark (London), 2007. 285 pp.
It is a book that you listen to rather than read, as you eavesdrop on Professor Gunton taking his class on a guided tour of Barth’s theology from its intellectual background and nineteenth century influences; through its development in the commentaries on Romans, the correspondence with Harnack, and the book on Anselm; and then on into the mature thought of the Church Dogmatics, where the focus is on theological epistemology, the doctrine of God, and the Christology-and-soteriology (the hyphens make a substantive point).
The lectures, of course, were well prepared, replete with handouts and diagrams, but what you hear is not only Gunton’s take on Barth but also his taking on Barth even as he speaks. That is, we not only get theology, we actually get theologising—Barth “is a great man to learn to think theologically with”—as Gunton probes on his feet, sometimes with touching tentativeness.
Reviewed by Kim Fabricius.
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J. Daniel Hays. From Every People and Nation: A Biblical Theology of Race. IVP, 2003. 240 pp.
Race as a theological category has not had much play in the history of theology. That’s what J. Daniel Hays says at the beginning of his book From Every People and Nation: A Biblical Theology of Race. This is of particular note given the fact that race has been such a major issue of discussion and contention in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Even though some contemporary systematic theologies have significant chapters on anthropology, few deal directly with the subject of race. Consequently, to write a book on a theology of race sounds foreign to our evangelical ears. But isn’t this kind of title and this kind of biblical theological discussion long overdue?
Reviewed by Anthony J. Carter.
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Max Lucado. 3:16: The Numbers of Hope. Thomas Nelson, 2007. 240 pp.
It’s a match made in heaven (or that’s what Thomas Nelson Publishers must believe). In 3:16: The Numbers of Hope, one of the world’s best-known and best-loved Christian authors takes on the world’s best-known and best-loved Bible verse. Max Lucado has authored over 50 books, with sales exceeding an incredible 50 million copies in print. His books are regularly on the New York Times list of bestsellers and continually dominate the Christian charts (where he has had up to eleven books present at one time). 3:16 is as close as we could expect for a sure-thing bestseller. An unparalleled marketing campaign will all but guarantee it. It is no coincidence that the book will release on 9/11, allowing people to contrast numbers of despair with numbers of hope. The book will also stand as the centerpiece of a major global ministry initiative launching on Palm Sunday, 3/16/08. This book is going to make a splash.
Reviewed by Tim Challies.
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R. C. Sproul. A Taste of Heaven: Worship in the Light of Eternity. Reformation Trust, 2006. 173 pp.
Though he has written more than 60 books for a variety of publishing companies, A Taste of Heaven is Sproul’s first for Reformation Trust, Ligonier Ministries’ own publishing imprint. Subtitled “Worship in the Light of Eternity,” this book “examines the key components of prayer, praise, and sacrifices that God gave to His people in the Old Testament.” It turns to the Old Testament to find there principles that can direct our worship even in this New Testament era. Of course Sproul is insistent that we cannot simply import Old Testament worship into the church today or we might be guilty of missing the shadow for the reality, the elements that pointed forward to Christ rather than Christ Himself. . . .
Reviewed by Tim Challies.
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J. I. Packer. Knowing God. IVP, 1993. 286 pp.
More than one of the books we have offered in the first year of our Book of the Month program have been treatments of the most basic issue of theology—the nature and character of the God we worship. To conclude the year, we are returning to the same theme again. Knowing God is a new classic of Christian literature, a book dedicated to the principle that intimate knowledge of the Creator is the lynch pin of true religion, and that salvation consists in knowing Him.
Packer has become one of the more controversial theologians of our day. Actions taken at the end of his career have rightly led the orthodox to read him with great caution, but while caution is warranted, it would be unwise to categorically disregard a book which has been of great value to the cause of evangelicalism, and particularly to the Reformed understanding of God’s majesty and glory. . . .
Reviewed by Tom Chantry.
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Hank Hanegraaff. The Apocalypse Code: Find Out What the Bible REALLY Says About the End Times . . . and Why it Matters Today. Thomas Nelson, 2007. 336 pp.
On the one hand, Hanegraaff does a very good job debunking the popular dispensational end-times scenarios set out by the likes of John Hagee and Tim LaHaye. Hanegraaff exposes the embarrassing problem faced by dispensationalists who claim to interpret the Bible literally, and who cannot make good on that promise. While John (Revelation 1:3; 22:10) tells us that the things recorded in his apocalyptic vision are soon to come to pass, dispensationalists are forced to tell us that “near” and “soon” don’t really mean “near” and “soon.” Instead, dispensationalists tell us, these things don’t come to pass until the end of the age—a rather embarrassing problem given their insistence that they take the Bible (especially prophecy) “literally.”
Reviewed by Kim Riddlebarger.
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Wayne Grudem. Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine. Zondervan, 1994. 1290 pp.
This book is available in two formats, the traditional hardback book and also in electronic form; Libronix has a particularly good (searchable) form of the electronic version. I personally have both editions. Do not think that you will get it cheaper by getting the electronic version! I was first introduced to this work when Dr. Kevin Giles (Jesus and the Father: Modern Evangelicals Re-invent the Doctrine of the Trinity) called Dr. Grudem a heretic for his doctrine of a hierarchical Trinity.
Continue reading ‘Systematic Theology | Wayne Grudem’
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The ESV Journaling Bible. Crossway, 2006. 1074 pp.
With great anticipation, I was able to take my first look at the new ESV Journaling Bible yesterday. My current everyday ESV is Crossway’s original edition, the hardback Classic Reference Bible. But now that its binding is weakening, I’m back in the market for a new ESV. When I heard about the Journaling Bible, I couldn’t wait to see it for myself. Here are some first impressions:
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