Book Review: Commentary & Reference Survey, John Glynn

Glynn, John. Commentary and Reference Survey: A Comprehensive Guide to Biblical And Theological Resources, 10th Edition. Forward by Darrell L. Bock. Grand Rapids: Kregel Academic & Professional, 2007. Paperback, 380 pages.

(Review copy courtesy of Kregel Publications.)

Purchase:

Read an Excerpt

ISBNs: 0825427363 / 9780825427374

LCCN: Z7770 .G59 2003 BS511.3 / DCN: 016.22 22

John Glynn (d. 2007) (graduated from Emerson College in Boston, MA (1977) and completed further studies, after his conversion, at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, IL (1990-92) and Dallas Theological Seminary (1992-94). He was a freelance writer and proofreader and was a member of the Evangelical Theological Society. He also authored the "2006 Survey Of Bibles And Bible References"... the annual retrospective of Bible and Bible references for Preaching magazine.

I have enjoyed Glynn's Survey for nearly 10 years. Now his Survey is in it's 10th edition. This is the second edition published by Kregel, the first having been published in 2003.

As I began collecting book recommendations from my pastor, friends, and teachers, I also began searching the internet for recommendation lists. One of the lists I found early on was John Glynn's Survey posted at bible.org (it has since been removed). Glynn's work offers a great format for categorizing and labeling books. He is interested in the level of difficulty as well as the theological viewpoint--two very important pieces of information when it comes to selecting books.

Glynn's method is to collect recommendations from reputable evangelical sources and to consolidate them into categorized lists. For each book of the Bible, Glynn distinguishes between technical, semi-technical and expositional commentaries. He usually adds a section for monographs dealing with special subjects on each Biblical book. He also has a system of noting the theological perspective of each author (such as evangelical, evangelical/critical, conservative/moderate, and liberal/critical). In the introductory sections to the book and each division Glynn spells out his method and criteria.

Along with listing commentaries, Glynn covers reference works, introductory works, theological works, church history works, language works and even Bible software (such as Logos, Accordance, and BibleWorks). Some of his previous reviewers have noted that the Survey bears the obvious marks of Glynn's strengths and weaknesses. This is partly the case because Glynn decided to highlight his own recommendations. While this is a nice feature it truly distracts from his intent to provide a list of books most recommended by scholars and professors. However, it does provide the reader with someone to associate with the recommendations offered which leads to my greatest criticism of this volume (to be dealt with below). In many places it is obvious where Glynn spent the greatest amount of time.

• In the commentary section the greatest concentration is on the Gospels, Jesus, Paul, and the Book or Revelation.
• In the Classic Theologies section he omits any reference to Calvin (other reviewers have noted the absence of Barth and Acquinas), and he highlights none of them.
• He is very heavy in pneumatology, especially Charismaticism; and in eschatology, especially Dispensationalism.
• The Church History section is a nice start, but leaves much to be desired. You can spot Glynn's predispositions best in this section.
  

Chapters 19 and 20 have a lot of helpful analysis of available computer resources.
Chapter 21 provides a selection of web sites which is greatly lacking, but a fair start for the person unfamiliar with the many online used book dealers, academic sites, and theological journals. Finally, a very helpful addition to this volume is "The Ultimate Commentary Collection" which is a quick listing of the top 2-4 commentaries for each book of the Bible.

Another feature of this volume worth mentioning is the footnotes regarding forthcoming volumes. Of course, these notes will quickly become obsolete, but it is a very helpful service that deserves being perpetuated.

Really, this entire project is worth being continued. The concept of cataloging the most recommended books is extremely helpful to students and teachers alike. I've read a handful of notes from professors who direct their students to this Survey when they are asked for book recommendations. However, there is room for improvement. Here are a few of my observations:

1. One of the greatest weaknesses of this volume is the fact that we are not told who has recommended each title. To that, we don't know which books are the most recommended except for the ones highlighted by Glynn himself.
2. There are very few annotations. I'm not a fan of lengthy annotations, but some basic information about the usefulness of each volume would be ideal.
3. Glynn only identifies the theological perspective of the authors in the commentary section. Granted this is an ambitious task to begin with. However, similar labeling would be of great benefit throughout the theology section.
4. This volume is great for listing the most recently published works and is spotty when it comes to classic works. A true "comprehensive guide" would include the best classic works, too (even puritan, neo-orthodox, and liberal works).
5. A work like this would be most beneficial if it were offered in a searchable, digital format. I would love to see this made available online and/or as an add-on to the popular Bible software packages. Making this Survey available in this way would allow for more room to add extra notations, labels, bibliographic information, author details, etc. Really the sky's the limit.
   

Of course, there are space constraints and noting all of these features would take up too much space to make this book manageable in print. However, a reasonable compromise could be agreed upon or the project could be printed in different volumes--one for commentaries, one for theological works, etc. The plan of this Survey is great and highly useful for a fairly broad range of students. It is a project that requires constant updating and expansion. I truly hope that Kregel will find someone (or a team) able to take up this project and carry it on through many more editions.

UPDATE [9/12/08]: I have learned that the next edition of this Survey is being edited by professors at Dallas Theological Seminary.

Other Reviews:

1. Andy Naselli
   
2. Noah at Two Tack's Thoughts
   
3. Preaching.com
4. Preaching.org
5. Ray Van Neste (PastoralEpsitles.com)
   

Reviews of the 9th edition:

1. Peter-Ben Smit (RBL 6/12/2004)
• Critique - numerous omissions spotted; some imbalanced sections; lack of non-English titles
• "Probably the most serious weakness of the work lies in its total neglect of “application.” Even if popular commentaries are listed, one will wonder what happened to homiletics and all other practical disciplines (nothing on “how to conduct a sensible Bible study.”)"
• Positive review with minor exceptions.
  
2. Henning Graf Reventlow (RBL 6/6/2004)
• Critique - "one detects many titles the original of which was written by European, mostly German, authors, and too infrequently this origin is noted."
• Positive review.
  
3. J. Daniel Hays (JETS 9/2003)
• Critique - "no price data"
• Positive review.
  

Book Review: Commentary & Reference Survey, John Glynn