Review: Psalms for Young Children

Psalms for Young Children by Marie-Helene Delval
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I purchased this book last week from Eerdmans going off of the Google Preview only. I am very impressed and have not been disappointed! Per the copyright page, this little book, published in 2008 by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, was first published in 2003 in French by Bayard Editions Jeunesse.

The artwork, by Arno, is bright, creative, engaging and well-suited to the selected texts. I was struck by the way the artist did not gloss over the lament passages making everything to look bright and cheerful. Rather, when the text is solemn, the characters appear to be solemn, when sad, likewise, and when joyful, the same. This is an example of careful, artistic interpretation.

The texts are "summary-paraphrases" of selected psalms. One question I had concerning the text was, "Will a child be able to smoothly transition from each "summary-paraphrase" to the full translation?"
After comparing many of the texts with the full translation, I'm confident that this will be a smooth transition. In fact, the value of a "summary-paraphrase" is that it seeks to pinpoint the mood and major theme of a text. I believe that Marie-Hélène Delval did an excellent job here.

This book will be an excellent introduction to the Psalter for children.

Unfortunately, this book is not available for purchase at Westminster Bookstore, but it is available in Hardcover and Kindle format from Amazon.com.

Review: Psalms for Young Children

New General Editor of the NICNT Series Announced

Joel B. Green

Eerdmans has announced that Joel B. Green will be the new General Editor of the NICNT series.  The NICNT volumes are a staple in the libraries of many evangelical Christians.  The reputation of this series for excellence is remarkable.

Joel Green will be the fourth General Editor of this series following Ned B. Stonehouse (1946-1962), F. F. Bruce (1962-1990) and Gordon D. Fee (1990-2011).

Congratulations!

Note: Joel B. Green is the author of the NICNT volume on The Gospel of Luke (1997).

With regard to the future of this commentary series, Green writes:

Gordon’s fingerprints will remain on the series for years to come. New volumes will appear soon, written by authors he recruited. These include commentaries on Hebrews [by Gareth L Cockerill], for example, as well as on the Gospel of Mark [Rikki Watts] and Galatians [David A. deSilva]. Longer-term, we will witness the ongoing renewal of the series, with new authors and new emphases keeping pace with the ongoing work of New Testament scholarship. And the NICNT will continue to model the priority given to engagement with the biblical text in the service of pastors and students – carrying on the good work for which the series has long been known.

The New International Commentary on the New Testament

New General Editor of the NICNT Series Announced

Theological Meditations from Dorothy Sayers

Over the past few years I have noticed a number of references to and quotations from the writings of Dorothy Sayers in books that I have read.  These repeated references have piqued my curiosity, so I decided to keep an eye out for one of her books at either the library or in bookstores, but just the other day I found a book in my own library containing a selection from Sayers's writings.  How about that for a bargain?

The book I found is a two-part volume, A Matter of Eternity: Selections from the Writings of Dorothy L. Sayers chosen and introduced by Rosamond Kent Sprague / Are Women Human? by Dorothy L. Sayers, with an introduction by Mary McDermott Shideler (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm B. Eerdmans [1973]).

The first part is described by Sprague as "a devotional book."  The second part is an address given to a Women's Society in 1938.

As I read, I am tweeting statements that have caught my attention (and that fit within the 140 character limitation).  Here are the tweets I've posted thus far:

#DorothySayers on Dogma: The Christian faith is the most exciting drama that ever staggerd the imagination of man--and the dogma is drama.

#DorothySayers: The Christian formula is not: "Humanity manifests certain adumbrations of the divine", but: "This man was very God."

#DorothySayers: He had "a daily beauty in His life that made us ugly,".... So they did away with God in the name of peace and quietness.

#DorothySayers: The people who hanged Christ never...accused Him of being a bore--on the contrary; they thought Him too dynamic to be safe.

#DorothySayers: ...if the Church is to make any impression on the modern mind we will have to preach Christ and the cross.

Still reading and enjoying the Christ-centered meditations...

Theological Meditations from Dorothy Sayers

Brand New: Dearman on Hosea (NICOT) + NICOT Sale

Not long ago the Westminster Bookstore partnered with Eerdmans Publishing to offer a special deal on The Letter to the Hebrews by Peter T. O'Brien along with a discount on the rest of the Pillar NT Commentary series.  I took advantage of this and am very glad I did.

Well, Westminster Bookstore is at it again with another great opportunity.  They are partnering again with Eerdmans Publishing to offer a special deal on J. Andrew Dearman's New International Commentary Series volume, The Book of Hosea.

View the Table of Contents here.

Below is a sampling of the high praise that Dearman's commentary is receiving:

"This is a welcome addition to the NICOT series. Dearman's commentary provides the most recent deep engagement with the ancient text of Hosea the prophet. Dialoguing with the best of scholarship, the commentary offers both detailed exegesis of the text with accompanying translation from the original Hebrew, as well as general overviews at key literary junctures to orient the reader to the progressive development of the book as a whole. Particularly helpful is Dearman's sensitivity to the social context of ancient Israelite households. He restores the vivid metaphorical colors of the book of Hosea long faded by history."
Mark J. Boda— McMaster Divinity College, McMaster University

"Serious engagement with the book of Hosea now starts with Dearman's commentary."
Tremper Longman III— Westmont College

"This is a welcome addition to the NICOT series on one of the most important prophets of ancient Israel.... readers will not be disappointed by Dearman's thorough and penetrating exegesis."
Bill T. Arnold— Asbury Theological Seminary

Until August 19th, Westminster Bookstore is offering Dearman's new Hosea volume for 45% off of its list price. At the same time, they are offering an extra 10% off of every NICOT volume's already discounted price with a purchase of 2 or more (so if someone buys 2 NICOT volumes they will receive and extra 10% off of each).

Here is a list of the NICOT volumes:

The Book of Genesis 1-17 (NICOT) by Hamilton, Victor P.  
The Book of Genesis 18-50 (NICOT) by Hamilton, Victor P.  
The Book of Leviticus (NICOT) by Wenham, Gordon J.  
The Book of Numbers (NICOT) by Ashley, Timothy R.  
The Book of Deuteronomy (NICOT) by Craigie, Peter C.  
The Book of Joshua (NICOT) by Woudstra, Marten H.  
The Book of Ruth (NICOT) by Hubbard, Robert L., Jr.  
The First Book of Samuel (NICOT) by Tsumura, David Toshio  
The Books of Ezra and Nehemiah (NICOT) by Fensham, F. Charles  
The Book of Job (NICOT) by Hartley, John E. 
Book of Proverbs: Chapters 1-15 (NICOT) by Waltke, Bruce K. 
Book of Proverbs: Chapters 15-31 (NICOT) by Waltke, Bruce K. 
Song of Songs (NICOT) by Longman, Tremper 
The Book of Ecclesiastes (NICOT) by Longman, Tremper 
The Book of Isaiah 1-39 (NICOT) by Oswalt, John N. 
The Book of Isaiah 40-66 (NICOT) by Oswalt, John N. 
The Book of Jeremiah (NICOT) by Thompson, J. A. 
The Book of Ezekiel 1-24 (NICOT) by Block, Daniel I. 
The Book of Ezekiel: 25-48 (NICOT) by Block, Daniel I. 
The Books of Joel, Obadiah, Jonah, and Micah (NICOT) by Allen, Leslie C. 
The Books of Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah (NICOT) by Robertson, O. Palmer 
The Books of Haggai and Malachi (NICOT) by Verhoef, Pieter A. 

Brand New: Dearman on Hosea (NICOT) + NICOT Sale

Pillar NT Commentary Sale at WTS

Get an extra 10% off of EVERY Pillar
volume when you purchase 2 or More.
*Sale ends March 9th

Example of Pillar Sale:
	+		Retail Price: $110.00 WTS Price:   $70.37 Extra 10% Off:  - $7.03 Final Price: $63.34
WTS: $39.65 (39% Off)		WTS: $30.72 (36% Off)

Available Commentaries in the Pillar New Testament Commentary Series:

• The Gospel According to Matthew by Leon Morris
• The Gospel According to Mark by James R. Edwards
• The Gospel According to John by D. A. Carson
• The Acts of the Apostles by David G. Peterson
• The Epistle to the Romans by Leon Morris
• The Letter to the Ephesians by Peter T. O'Brien
• The Letter to the Philippians by G. Walter Hansen
• The Letter to the Colossians and to Philemon by Douglas J. Moo
• The Letters to the Thessalonians by Gene L. Green
• The Letter to the Hebrews by Peter T. O'Brien
• The Letter of James by Douglas J. Moo
• The Letters of 2 Peter and Jude by Peter H. Davids

The only volume I currently own is James Edwards' commentary on Mark.  I am using it alongside of Guelich (WBC), Cranfield and a few others.  It is helpful especially in that it draws upon the New Exodus motif drawn out in greater detail by Rikki Watts and Joel Marcus.  Although I haven't found it to be "the best" commentary on Mark, it is very profitable.

I'd like to know which commentaries in this series you have used and would recommend to me.  O'Brien's commentary on Hebrews is the latest release (March 2010) and it is drawing a good bit of attention around the blogosphere.  I've heard many times that Carson's is a "must have" on John.  What about the others?

Pillar NT Commentary Sale at WTS

The Oral Roots of the NT

In the case of either the Gospels or the Epistles the Word was oral well before it was written. We reverse the process today when we read the text of the New Testament out loud and then proclaim and declaim on the basis of it. Thus, it is fair to say that when we tell the story of the New Testament, we are telling the story of a second-order phenomenon, the story of the literary residue of a largely oral movement which grew on the basis of preaching and teaching, praying an praising, and other forms of oral communication. It was not mainly, in the earliest period of Christian history, the texts that spread the Word, but rather the oral proclamation.

(Ben Witherington III, The New Testament Story. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2004, p. 5.)

The Oral Roots of the NT

Eerdmans' Library of Religious Biography

I would like to commend to you Eerdmans' Library of Religious Biography. This series is edited by Mark A. Noll, Nathan O. Hatch and Allen C. Guelzo. As you will note, the series is very broad, including individuals from various ends of the spectrum of American and British religious history.

This morning we have posted Doug Brown's review of the following volume in this series:

Tyson, John R. Assist Me to Proclaim: The Life and Hymns of Charles Wesley. Library of Religious Biography. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2008. Paperback, 328 pages. $22.00

Purchase: Eerdmans | Amazon | CBD

A Limited Preview is available via Amazon’s Online Reader: here.

Book Review: Assist Me to Proclaim (Reviewed by Doug Brown)

The Publisher's Description of this Series:

The Library of Religious Biography is a series of original biographies on important religious figures throughout American and British history.

The authors are well-known historians, each a recognized authority in the period of religious history in which his or her subject lived and worked. Grounded in solid research of both published and archival sources, these volumes link the lives of their subjects — not always thought of as “religious” persons — to the broader cultural contexts and religious issues that surrounded them. Each volume includes a bibliographical essay and an index to serve the needs of students, teachers, and researchers.

Marked by careful scholarship yet free of footnotes and academic jargon, the books in this series are well-written narratives meant to be read and enjoyed as well as studied.

Titles in this Series:

Billy Sunday [1862-1935]

Lyle W. Dorsett, Billy Sunday and the Redemption of Urban America (Eerdmans, 1991) - Eerdmans | Amazon (Note: this title has since been republished by Mercer University Press in 2004.)

George Whitefield [1714-1770]

Harry S. Stout, The Divine Dramatist: George Whitefield and the Rise of Modern Evangelicalism (Eerdmans, 1991) - Eerdmans | Amazon

William Ewart Gladstone [1809-1898]

David W. Bebbington, William Ewart Gladstone: Faith and Politics in Victorian Britain (Eerdmans, 1993) - Eerdmans | Amazon

Aimee Semple McPherson [1890-1944]

Edith L. Blumhofer, Aimee Semple McPherson: Everybody's Sister (Eerdmans, 1993) - Eerdmans | Amazon

Thomas Jefferson [1743-1826]

Edwin S. Gaustad, Sworn on the Altar of God: A Religious Biography of Thomas Jefferson (Eerdmans, 1996) - Eerdmans | Amazon

Charles G. Finney [1792-1875]

Charles E. Hambrick-Stowe, Charles G. Finney and the Spirit of American Evangelicalism (Eerdmans, 1996) - Eerdmans | Amazon

Blaise Pascal [1623-1662]

Marvin R. O'Connell, Blaise Pascal: Reasons of the Heart (Eerdmans, 1997) - Eerdmans | Amazon

Thomas Merton [1915-1968]

Lawrence S. Cunningham, Thomas Merton and the Monastic Vision (Eerdmans, 1999) - Eerdmans | Amazon

Abraham Lincoln [1809-1865]

Allen C. Guelzo, Abraham Lincoln: Redeemer President (Eerdmans, 2002) - Eerdmans | Amazon

Horace Bushnell [1802-1876]

Robert Bruce Mullin, The Puritan as Yankee: A Life of Horace Bushnell (Eerdmans, 2002) - Eerdmans | Amazon

Arthur Tappan Pierson [1837-1911]

Dana L. Robert, Occupy Until I Come: A. T. Pierson and the Evangelization of the World (Eerdmans, 2003) - Eerdmans | Amazon

Orestes Augustus Brownson [1803-1876]

Patrick W. Carey, Orestes A. Brownson: American Religious Weathervane (Eerdmans, 2004) - Eerdmans | Amazon

Emily Dickinson [1830-1886]

Roger Lundin, Emily Dickinson and the Art of Belief (2nd edition, Eerdmans, 2004) - Eerdmans | Amazon

Fanny J. Crosby [1820-1915]

Edith L. Blumhofer, Her Heart Can See: The Life and Hymns of Fanny J. Crosby (Eerdmans, 2005) - Eerdmans | Amazon

Jonathan Edwards [1703-1758]

George Marsden, A Short Life of Jonathan Edwards (Eerdmans, 2008) - Eerdmans | Amazon | WTS | CBD

Ellen G. White [1827-1915]

Ronald L. Numbers, Prophetess of Health: Ellen G. White (3rd edition, Eerdmans, 2008) - Eerdmans | Amazon

William Miller [1782-1849]

David L. Rowe, God's Strange Work: William Miller and the End of the World (Eerdmans, 2008) - Eerdmans | Amazon

Charles Wesley [1707-1788]

John R. Tyson, Assist Me to Proclaim: The Life and Hymns of Charles Wesley (Eerdmans, 2008) - Eerdmans | Amazon

Francis Schaeffer [1912-1984]

Barry Hankins, Francis Schaeffer and the Shaping of Evangelical America (Eerdmans, forthcoming Nov, 2008) - Eerdmans | Amazon | WTS

Eerdmans' Library of Religious Biography

New Book on the History of Andover Newton Theological School

Last October I wrote up a small piece on Richard Furman in which I made mention of his efforts to establish Baptist seminaries. I wrote,

In 1814 Furman was elected as the first president of the Baptist Triennial Convention. As president of the Baptist Convention, Furman continued to press the burden of education upon his brethren. His plans were brilliant, but they did not unfold as he had intended. His original plan was for a central institution in Washington D. C. with preparatory institutions in each state, or between states. From this original plan emerged the Columbian College (now a part of George Washington University). Other institutions that grew out of this plan are Furman Institution (now University), the Mercer Institute (now University), the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and probably Newton in Massachusetts (now Andover-Newton Theological Seminary). (emphasis added)

Another impetus behind the formation of Newton Theological Seminary was the booming interest in foreign missions. Adoniram Judson, then a student at Andover Theological Seminary (1810), and his friends strongly urged the ministers Massachusetts to address the pressing need of missions to the heathen. This era of missionary zeal saw a handful of new training and supportive institutions birthed.

Needless to say, there is a lot of important history concerning the genesis of Andover Theological Seminary and Newton Theological Seminary. The story of these two early American schools, their union in 1931, and their joint contribution to the evangelical church to this day has been documented in a new book by Margaret Lamberts Bendroth. This week Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishers announced the release of this historical-critical work.

What follows are details about this book and about its author. Researching Bendroth's literary output has given me good reason to think that this book will be a valuable contribution to American Evangelical historical studies. I also expect that we will find plenty of Bendroth's evaluation of the Fundamentalist movement as it pertains to this historic school (note the table of contents listed below).

Bendroth, Margaret Lamberts. A School of the Church: Andover Newton Across Two Centuries. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2008.

Format: Hardback. 240 pages; dimensions (in inches): 6 x 9; 29 b&w illustrations; List Price: $28.00 USD

ISBNs: 0802863701 / 978-0-8028-6370-6

Purchase: Eerdmans | Amazon | CBD

Description from the publisher:

Andover Newton Theological School has a storied 200-year history. Margaret Lamberts Bendroth has written a compelling account of this historic institution and its two original sources — Andover Seminary, a Congregational school established in 1808 and the model for theological education in the United States, and Newton Theological Institution, a Baptist school established in 1825 — which merged in 1931. The book offers entirely new material on the development of the school after the 1931 merger.

As part of Andover Newton’s history, Bendroth explores the unquestionable intellectual contributions of the faculty, including Moses Stuart, Alvah Hovey, Gabriel Fackre, Max Stackhouse, Phyllis Trible, and many others. She also examines the many paths intersecting with the school’s story, from American education in general to the development of Protestant thought, to the complex histories of race and gender in American society.

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION

Andover Seminary and the Origins of Theological Education in America

New England Baptists and the Cure of Souls: The Early Years of the Newton Theological Institution

Andover, Newton, and the Benevolent Empire

The New Theology Comes to Andover: The Story of the Future Probation Controversy

Newton and the Fundamentalist-Modernist Debate

Andover’s Harvard Years: From Cambridge to Newton Center

Andover Newton and Pastoral Education in the World War II Era

Earthquake Years: A Mainline Seminary Weathers the Sixties

Andover Newton’s Turn of the Century

EPILOGUE: The Andover Newton Legacy
INDEX

Margaret Lamberts Bendroth is a historian, executive director of the American Congregational Association and director of the Congregational Library in Boston.

Bibliography -

• Co-edited and contributed to Faith Traditions and the Family. The Family, Religion and Culture series. (WJK, 1996)
• Preview this book via Google
  

• Fundamentalism and Gender: 1875 to the Present (Yale UP, 1996)
• Press Release
• "Bendroth's sensitivity to the religious integrity of fundamentalism is matched by her awareness of its ambiguities about women. The book as a whole breaks new ground in both research and analysis. It is a fine piece of work."—Mark A. Noll


• The Living Theological Heritage of the United Church of Christ: Outreach and Diversity. Volume 5. (Pilgrim Press, 2000)
• 
  
• Women and Twentieth-Century Protestantism Edited by Margaret Lamberts Bendroth and Virginia Lieson Brereton (University of Illinois Press, 2001)
• Press Release
• Preview this book via Google
  

• Growing Up Protestant: Parents, Children and Mainline Churches (Rutgers UP, 2002)
• Kindle edition

• Fundamentalist in the City: Conflict and Division in Boston's Churches, 1885-1950 (Oxford UP, 2005)
• Kindle Edition
  
• Press Release
• "'All religion is, in the end, local,' observes Margaret Bendroth in this important study. Bendroth provides an engaging history of revivalist Protestantism in Boston in the era from Dwight L. Moody to Billy Graham. She shows that in the formerly Puritan city the movement that in the 1920s became known as 'fundamentalist' had a distinctive local background and eventually helped shape a broader 'new evangelicalism,' associated with Graham." -- George Marsden, author of Fundamentalism and American Culture: The Shaping of Twentieth-Century Evangelicalism, 1870-1925

• A School of the Church: Andover Newton Across Two Centuries (Eerdmans, 2008)

New Book on the History of Andover Newton Theological School

Book Review: The Courage To Be Protestant by David Wells

The following title has been reviewed by Greg Long. We have posted this review at SharperIron.org this morning.

Wells, David F. The Courage to Be Protestant: Truth-lovers, Marketers, and Emergents in the Postmodern World. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2008. Hardcover, xiv + 253 pp. $25.00

Purchase: Eerdmans | WTS | CBD | Amazon | Monergism

ISBNs: 0802840078 / 9780802840073

Includes an Index

Excerpts: Table of Contents and Preface, Chapter One: The Lay of the Evangelical Land (click on “Excerpt”)

Subjects: Protestantism, Evangelicalism, Postmodernism

David F. Wells is the Andrew Mutch Distinguished Professor of Historical and Systematic Theology at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. Also an ordained Congregationalist minister, Wells has authored more than a dozen previous books.

Book Review: The Courage To Be Protestant by David Wells

Types of Commentaries & a fairly New Series by Eerdmans

Biblical commentaries vary in method and approach and a fair balance of these different kinds of commentaries ought to exist in the expositor's library. The type of commentary that is most useful to the majority of preachers is one that is an expository handling of the Biblical text. This is usually a verse-by-verse dealing with the text highlighting important words, providing definitions, alternate interpretations, and theological insights. (Examples might be The Expositor's Bible Commentary or the Tyndale OT & NT series.)

Along with expository commentaries the preacher/student ought to have at least one commentary for each Biblical book that is considered Technical or Semi-Technical. This is a commentary that deals specifically with the biblical languages, grammar and historical settings. Such a commentary may also interact with extra-biblical literature and cognate languages. (Examples would be the Word Biblical Commentary series, the New International Commentary series, or the International Critical Commentary series.)

Finally, I have come to appreciate having commentaries that are more devotional in nature. Reading this type of commentary is good for the purpose of warming the heart. Most of these would be older commentaries such as Matthew Henry's Commentary, or those of the Puritans, or even Calvin's Commentaries. Also, reading through collected sermons sometimes helps the expositor to see how others have developed the argument of a passage. Sometimes you find examples of what not to do with a passage, and even that can be helpful in a negative way.

The point is that variety is a good thing and we, English readers, are blessed with a plethora of choices. This said, some commentary series are attempting to wed exposition with theological reflection and contemporary application. Zondervan's NIV Application Commentary series is a good example of this. I've enjoyed using Gerald Wilson's Psalms: Volume 1. This approach has made for a very lengthy book, but it is very useful.

Eerdmans is producing a new type of commentary. This series is an effort to combine Biblical studies and contemporary theology. The name of this series is Two Horizons. The publishers description of this series is as follows:

Seeking to bridge the existing gap between biblical studies and systematic theology, this distinctive series offers section-by-section exegesis of the New Testament texts in close conversation with theological concerns. Written by respected scholars, the THNTC volumes aim to help pastors, teachers, and students engage in deliberately theological interpretation of Scripture.

I was not aware of this series until this evening when I got an email announcing the latest installment in the OT series--Genesis by James McKeown. I followed the link to eerdmans.com and found that the next volume in the OT series to be released is by Geoffrey Grogan on Psalms. Grogan's book Prayer, Praise and Prophecy: A Theology of the Psalms (Christian Focus, 2001) has been a great help to me and I had hoped to see a commentary written by him. Now I have.

This series looks like it would fit into my third category. Although this does not seem to be a devotional series, from what I've read it seems as though the intent of these commentaries is to challenge expositors to think theologically and applicationally about the texts. I'm eager to try this out.

In 1999, Between Two Horizons: Spanning New Testament Studies and Systematic Theology, edited by Joel B. Green & Max Turner, was published by Eerdmans. This volume is describes as having set the stage for and introducing the Two Horizon Commentary series.

Book Description
This pioneering work bridges the long-standing gap between biblical studies and theology. In BETWEEN TWO HORIZONS nine prominent scholars constructively discuss the relationship of biblical studies to the task of doing theology in our contemporary context. Though serving as an excellent text in its own right, this volume also introduces the forthcoming Two Horizons Commentary series--a completely new kind of commentary on the New Testament designed to reintegrate biblical studies with contemporary theology in the service of the church.

Contributors--Stephen E. Fowl, John Goldingay, Joel B. Green, Trevor Hart, Steve Motyer, John Christopher Thomas, Max Turner, Robert W. Wall, and N.T. Wright.

Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover

Here is a list of the commentaries that are already available:

Two Horizons Old Testament Commentaries (THOTC)
Series Editors: J. Gordon McConville (editor), Craig Bartholomew (editor)

• Genesis by James McKeown (Eerdmans, 2008). 376 pages, Paperback.
  
• Details at Eerdmans
• Purchase: CBD ($17.99) | Amazon ($16.50)
• Numbers by Nathan Macdonald (Eerdmans, forthcoming).
  
• Psalms by Geoffrey Grogan (Eerdmans, forthcoming 2008)
• Details at Eerdmans
• Purchase: CBD ($17.99) | Amazon ($16.50)
• Ecclesiastes by Peter Enns (Eerdmans, forthcoming 2008).

Two Horizons New Testament Commentaries (THNTC)
Series Editors: Joel B. Green (editor), Max Turner (editor)

• Philippians by Stephen E. Fowl (Eerdmans, 2005). 264 pages, Paperback.
• Details at Eerdmans
• Review:
• Sean A. Adams (McMaster Divinity College): reviewed in the Journal of Greco-Roman Christianity and Judaism
• Suzanne Watts Henderson (Salem College): reviewed in Interpretation.
  
• Purchase: WTS ($13.00) | CBD ($14.99) | Amazon ($13.60)
• Colossians & Philemon by Marianne Meye Thompson (Eerdmans, 2005). 297 pages. Paperback.
  
• Details at Eerdmans
• Purchase: WTS ($13.00) | CBD ($14.99) | Amazon ($15.60)
• 1 Peter by Joel B. Green (Eerdmans, 2007). 345 pages, Paperback.
  
• Details at Eerdmans
• Purchase: CBD ($17.99) | Amazon ($13.60)
• 2 Peter & Jude by Ruth Anne Reese (Eerdmans, 2007). 234 pages, Paperback.
  
• Details at Eerdmans
• Purchase: CBD ($17.99) | Amazon ($15.00)
• The Apocalypse by John Christopher Thomas & Frank D. Macchia (Eerdmans, forthcoming).
  

Types of Commentaries & a fairly New Series by Eerdmans

Apostolic Preaching of the Cross

Westminster Bookstore recently received a stock of Leon Morris’ classic study of the death of Christ, The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross, and they are offering it for 34% off. According to Wikipedia this book is the fruit of Morris’ Ph.D. studies at the University of Cambridge. It was first published in 1955 and revised in 1965.

As far as I know, Morris, who died in 2006, did not revise his book more recently to include interaction with New Perspective authors. So the book is a bit dated when it comes to that aspect of current theological discussion. But the reader will gain a wealth of understanding concerning the significance of Christ’s death, which is an ongoing debate in many circles.

Morris says that his book is “an attempt to understand certain key words, words which are crucial to the New Testament picture of the atonement, by seeing them against the background of the Greek Old Testament, the papyri, and the Rabbinic writings” (p. 8). Then he examines these terms “in their New Testament setting, always bearing in mind the possibility that the early Christians may modify or enrich any terms they may borrow” (p. 8).

The author has informative chapters on Redemption, Covenant, The Blood, The Lamb of God, Propitiation, Reconciliation, and Justification. I received much help through his two chapters on Propitiation, and you will be richly rewarded by working your way through Morris’ material. I recommend The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross.

__________________________

Also available from:

CBD — $13.99

Monergism Books — $12.99

Cumberland Valley Bible Book Service — $11.99

Apostolic Preaching of the Cross