Book Reviews – Page 5 – The Two Cities

Review of Reality, Grief, Hope: Three Urgent Prophetic Tasks by Walter Brueggemann

Jul 12, 2014

Brueggemann, Walter. Reality, Grief, Hope: Three Urgent Prophetic Tasks. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2014. 165 pages. Softcover. Retail: $15.00. In Reality, Grief, Hope: Three Urgent Prophetic Tasks, Walter Brueggemann suggests that the ancient Israelite ideological crisis caused by the destruction of Jerusalem can act as an analogy for the modern American ideological crisis caused by 9/11 and that the prophetic response of ancient Israel should act as the pattern for the modern church’s response. This...

Review of The Role of Works at the Final Judgment edited by Alan P. Stanley.

Jul 10, 2014

Wilkin, Robert N., Thomas R. Schreiner, James D. G. Dunn, Michael P. Barber, and Alan P. Stanley.Four Views On the Role of Works at the Final Judgment. Edited by Alan P. Stanley. Counterpoints. Bible and Theology. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2013. 234 pages. Softcover. Retail: $17.99. ISBN: 9780310490333 “The Role of Works at the Final Judgement,” edited by Alan Stanley admirably expands Zondervan’s “Counterpoints” series. For those unfamiliar with the series, these volumes bring together divergent...

Review of Jesus Research, ed. James H. Charlesworth

Jun 21, 2014

Edited by James H. Charlesworth; with Brian Rhea and Petr Pokorný. Jesus Research: New Methodologies and Perception. Eerdmans, 2014. 1053 pgs. $35.00 (Paperback). ISBN 978-0-8028-6728-5. The recently released compendium, Jesus Research (2014), is a collection of papers originally presented at the Second Princeton-Prague Symposium on Jesus Research (2007). The volume combines the insights of at least 40 of the world’s leading scholars—a true “Who’s Who’ of specialists in Jesus Research” (Charlesworth, 1). Due to the...

Review of Union with Christ in the New Testament by Grant Macaskill

Jun 14, 2014

Macaskill, Grant. Union with Christ in the New Testament. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013. 308 pages + 45 pages bibliography and indices. Hardcover. Retail: £75.00 ISBN: 978-0199684298. Long a pillar of Eastern Orthodox theology, theosis has been generating increasing interest across denominational lines in recent years. In Union with Christ in the New Testament, Grant Macaskill (University of St Andrews) utilizes an exegetical, historical, and theological approach to offer significant biblical insights that have far-reaching...

Review of Evangelical Faith and the Challenge of Historical Criticism

Jun 7, 2014

Hays, Christopher M. and Christopher B. Ansberry, eds. Evangelical Faith and the Challenge of Historical Criticism. London: SPCK, 2013. 241 pgs. Paperback. £17.99 ISBN: 9780281067329. Evangelical Faith and the Challenge of Historical Criticism is a collection of essays written in response to the challenges that historical criticism brings to traditional evangelical approaches to the Bible. Rather than being an apologetic defense of conservative methods, this book is unique in helping the reader to think through the implications for faith...

Review of The Father’s Will by Nicholas E. Lombardo

May 31, 2014

Nicholas E. Lombardo. The Father’s Will: Christ’s Crucifixion and the Goodness of God. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013. 270 pages. Hardcover. £65. ISBN – 978-0-19-968858 In The Father’s Will, Nicholas Lombardo provides an apologetic angle on the crucifixion, seeking to prove the consistency of God’s justice in light of the apparent injustice of Christ’s crucifixion. In the process he provides a moral framework for judging different theories of redemption and in the end, suggests a...

Review of Union with Christ by Constantine Campbell

May 29, 2014

Constantine Campbell. Union with Christ: An Exegetical and Theological Study. Zondervan: Grand Rapids, 2012. 463 pgs. (Paperback). $34.99. 0310329051 Campbell seeks to approach the subject “union with Christ” as a New Testament theologian, that is, his approach is exegetically grounded and theologically motivated. The first concern is represented by detailed exegetical work on the phrases relating to “union with Christ.” The theological concern is woven into this, but is then fully fleshed out in the final...

Review of The Present Task of New Testament Studies by C.H. Dodd

May 24, 2014

C.H. Dodd. The Present Task of New Testament Studies: An Inaugural Lecture Delivered in the Divinity School on Tuesday 2 June 1936. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1936 (reprint 2014). Pp. 41. Paper. £7.99. 978-1-107-63545-6. This reprint of Dodd’s 1936 inaugural lecture at the University of Cambridge is a short treasure wherein Dodd lays bare the field of New Testament Studies in the period between the wars. He begins by gracefully offering a remembrance of his...

Christians in an Age of Wealth by Craig L. Blomberg: A Review

Apr 28, 2014

Stewardship is something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. I currently work in the Purchasing department at Biola University. From office supplies and furniture, construction and facilities projects, materials and rentals for university events, cadavers and live specimens for biological sciences, books for various departments, to travel requests for professors, staff members, and student groups, we really do buy everything. I never expected to end up working in the financial sector of the university,...

A Brief History of Old Testament Criticism—by Mark S. Gignilliat (A Review)

Apr 22, 2014

On my trip to India over spring break—which you can read a little bit about here—I brought along a delightful little introduction to Old Testament Criticism by Mark S. Gignilliat, called, A Brief History of Old Testament Criticism: From Benedict Spinoza to Brevard Childs (check it out on Amazon). Gignilliat, who is Associate Professor of Divinity/Old Testament at Beeson Divinity School (Samford University), holds a doctorate from the University of St Andrews (which is, btw,...