Bookstore and Journal Pages Updated

Here's just a quick note to highlight two of our growing lists located on the sidebar:

• Best Brick-and-Mortar Bookshops and also, 
• Theological Journals

Thank you to the readers who have kindly informed me of possible additions to these pages.  I know that there must be many more bookshops that offer new and used theological books around the country.  Please send me the names and locations of your favorites.

Blessings,

Jason Button

Bookstore and Journal Pages Updated

Updated Blogroll

The Blogroll page has been updated.  Are there any blogs missing that you would recommend?

Updated Blogroll

New Dynamic View for TheoSource

I have been tinkering with Blogger's new Dynamic views and have finally switched the blog over to this format. I love how clean it looks and how quickly the pages load.  Because the sidebars are not available in this template I have moved much of the sidebar content to new pages.  Check it out!

UPDATE 11/14/11:  Apparently Google pushed out the Dynamic Views far to quickly and haphazardly.  Until they iron out a few major bugs, I have switched to another template.

New Dynamic View for TheoSource

New Updates to the Commentary Recommendation Lists

At the heart of this blog/website is a collection of book recommendation lists that I have been building for more than a decade.  I periodically draw attention to them, and they are always accessible by visiting the Book Rec's page.  I have recently updated many of the lists and corrected a few broken links.  All of the lists are now being stored in Google Docs and are free for public viewing/downloading.

While my aim in building these lists it to be comprehensive, I am constantly reminded of how impossible a task this is.  Nonetheless, this remains my goal.  The lists include more than just commentaries.  I have also added lists of recommended biographies and theological works.  In the future I will upload recommended works on Church History and Philosophy.  For now, the primary focus is on Biblical commentaries and supporting works.

One new feature that I am in the process of adding (out of necessity) is the division of commentaries by century.  Some of the lists have become so large, that it is difficult to get a sense of the progress of research over the centuries.  For this reason, I have begun dividing the Biblical commentaries by the century in which they were originally produced.  Thus far, I am about half way finished with this task.  In the meantime, here are links to the individual lists that have been uploaded.  As always, I'm interested in your feedback.  Thanks.

Classification Guide 

General Reference Works

Top Commentaries

Commentaries on the Whole Bible

Recommendations by Series

Old Testament Commentaries
OT Introduction
OT Pentateuch
OT Historical Books
OT Poetical Books
OT Prophetical Books 

New Testament Commentaries
NT Introduction
Gospels and Acts
Pauline Epistles
Hebrews, General Epistles, and Revelation 

Other Lists
Theological Works
Church History Works  (under construction)
Christian Biographies
Philosophy  (under construction)

Christian Chronology
Christian Missions Chronology

New Updates to the Commentary Recommendation Lists

Blog Update 2/22/10

 UPDATE

It's time for a bit of an update...

Maintaining this site over the past couple of years has been a blessing to me. It has allowed me to interact with others on a number of topics that are of great interest to me.  It has provided a place for me to share with others the commentary recommendations project I've been building over the past decade, or so.  And, through it I have been able to connect with a number of wonderful people whom I may not have met otherwise.

Posting activities has slowed quite substantially over the past six months because other relationships and opportunities have developed which have taken precedence.  The Lord has blessed my family by placing us in a church where we have made many wonderful friends and where we have found numerous opportunities to serve.  He has also provided me with an opportunity to preach two to three weeks per month at small country church.

Because of these wonderful changes in my life, I have ceased requesting new books to review and have begun to dig deeper into the scriptures and into my own library.  Not long ago our Sunday School class studied through 2 Timothy and a couple of us who taught used John R. W. Stott's commentary The Message of 2 Timothy: Guard the Gospel (BST series, 1973) as a guide.  From there we moved on to a study on evangelism in the Gospel of John using Richard Phillips' Jesus the Evangelist (P&R, 2007).  Both of these books are excellent resources and proved to be extremely helpful in leading group discussions.

This past December I began preaching through the Gospel of Mark which has gotten me into numerous commentaries and monographs (such as Cranfield, Guelich, Edwards, Nineham, Alexander, Ryle, DeSilva, Carson & Moo, Brown, Witherington, Scroggie, Bruce, Watts, Hengel, and others).

Finally, our Monday night Bible Study group just finished up a chapter-by-chapter study and discussion of Paul David Tripp's Broken Down House (Shepherd Press, 2009) which has been fantastic, and we are preparing to dive into a study of the book of Ecclesiastes.

So, my time and energy has been channeled elsewhere, but I still have not given up on TheoSource.  Whether or not I post regularly, I will continue to read and to collect recommendations of good books.

If you look around, you will see that I have been spending some time as of late revamping the look of the blog.  I recently found that Blogger has added a feature to create individual pages.  I also found some tips on editing the template of this blog and have been working with this over the past few days.  I hope that my efforts to clean up and simplify things will allow this site to be more user-friendly.  Please take a couple of minutes to look around and tell me what you think.

"Thank you," to all of you who follow TheoSource, interact with the posts and offer suggestions and recommendations.  "Thank you," also, to Tim Ashcraft who has offered a great deal of help over the past couple of years writing about good books and events in Church history.

For the sake of His Name,
Jason Button

Blog Update 2/22/10

Christian History Chronology Project

This morning a friend mentioned to me that he had been browsing through the Chronological Index that I have posted on this site. I can't tell you how much I appreciate feedback on these lists. They are all a work in progress, and every bit of encouragement is a blessing. If you're not familiar with this list, you will find a link on the sidebar (along with a Missions Chronology) under the title TheoSource Church History Project.

1. Christian Missions Chronology
2. Christian Chronological Index

Both of these lists draw from a supplemental project to the TheoSource Book Recommendation Lists (listed in the header). As I consider book recommendations, I am concerned to know as much as possible concerning the author of the book recommended. This is also true for reviewing books. All of the details I've learned about various authors are not contained in these lists. However, these lists display the results of what has been collected so far. This task is time consuming and requires a great deal of research, which I thoroughly enjoy. I have collected numerous biographies and biographical dictionaries to help me with the details. As I am introduced to new authors, find biographical information and time to enter the data, these lists will continue to grow.

The first list is filtered to only display information about persons categorized as a "missionary". The second list is a full display of all the names collected thus far. Each list is outlined by recognizable periods in Church History. Beyond this outline, each individual is listed in chronological order according to the year of birth (*see note below).

My interest in developing these lists is to gather basic information on authors and tie this data to a list of books authored and a list of biographical sources. In some cases, I have added photos either found on the internet (mostly Wikipedia) or scanned from books out of my personal library. Beyond the knowledge of basic details, I am always interested in locating authors among their contemporaries. I find this to be very helpful in gaining an appreciation for the original context of book.

For example: Here is a list of 34 persons contemporaneous with John Calvin.

Hübmaier, Balthasar

b. 1480

d. 1528

[German Anabaptist]

Oecolampadius

Protestant reformer at Basle and Berne.

b. 1482

d. 1531

[Protestant]

Luther, Martin

Wittenburg, Germany

b. November 10, 1483, at Eisleben, Germany, Europe

d. February 18, 1546, at Eisleben, Germany

[German Protestant Reformer]

Place of burial: Wittenberg, Germany

Zwingli, Huldrych

Theologian.

b. January 1, 1484, at Wildhaus, St. Gall, Switzerland, Europe

d. October 11, 1531, at Kappel am Albis,

Latimer, Hugh

Bishop of Worcester. Burned at the stake in Oxford

b. 1485, at Leicestershire, England

d. October 16, 1555, at Oxford, England

[English Protestant]

Coverdale, Miles

English translator or the first printed Bible.

b. 1488

d. 1568

[English Protestant]

Cranmer, Thomas

Archbiship of Canterbury turned reformer and martyr.

Farel, Guilaume

b. 1489

d. 1565

Bucer, Martin

Strasbourg Reformer

b. November 11, 1491, at Schlettstadt in Alsace, France, Europe

d. February 28, 1551, at Cambridge, England

[German Protestant Reformer]

Place of burial: university church

Recalde (de Loyola), Iñigo de (Ignatius of Loyola)

Co-founder of the Society of Jesuits, Mystic

b. 1491, at Basque, Gúipozcoa, Spain, Europe

d. July 31, 1556

Blaurock, Jörg

An effective Anabaptist preacher.

Baptized by the pouring of water in Zürich in January, 1525, by Conrad

Grebel. This has been noted as being the first Anabaptist baptism.

"He was captured in Tyrol and burned at Innsbruck."

b. 1492, Switzerland, Europe

d. 1529

[Swiss Anabaptist]

Gardiner, Stephen

Bishop of Winchester under Henry VIII, a persecutor of Protestants.

b. 1493

d. 1555

Tyndale, William

Bible translator.

b. 1494

d. 1536

[English Protestant Reformer]

Bilney, Thomas

b. 1495

d. 1531

Simons, Menno

A prominent Anabaptist & founding father of the Mennonites.

b. 1496

d. 1561

[Swiss Anabaptist]

Melanchthon, Philipp

b. February 16, 1497, at Bretten, near Karlsruhe, Germany, Europe

d. April 19, 1560, at Leipzig, Germany

[German Protestant Reformer]

Grebel, Conrad

b. 1498, at Zurich, Switzerland, Europe

d. 1526

[Swiss Anabaptist]

Lupset, Thomas

Cambridge scholar and friend of Erasmus and Cardinal Pole

b. 1498

d. 1530

Osiander, Andreas

Reformer.

b. 1498

d. 1552,

[German Lutheran]

Bora, Katherine von

Martin Luther’s wife.

b. 1499

d. 1552

[German Protestant Reformer]

Ridley, Nicholas

Studied at the Sorbonne and Louvain, as well as at Cambridge. Bishop of

Rochester (1547), and Bishop of London (1550). Burned at the stake with Hugh

Latimer.

b. 1500

d. October 16, 1555, at Oxford, England

[English Protestant Reformer]

Hamilton, Patrick

b. 1504

d. 1528

Bullinger, Johann Heinrich

b. July 18, 1504, at Bremgarten, Aargau, , Europe

d. September 17, 1575, at Zürich, Switzerland

[Swiss Prostestant Reformer]

Knox, John

Scottish Reformer

b. 1505, at Giffordgate ?, Scotland, Europe

d. November 24, 1572, at Edinburgh, Scotland

[Scottish Presbyterian]

Xavier, Francis

Co-founder of the Society of Jesuits

b. 1506, at Biscay, Spain, Europe

d. December 3, 1552

[Roman Catholic]

Buchanan, George

Scottish political theorist.

b. 1507

d. 1582

[Reformed Chruch of Scotland]

Calvin, John

Father of Calvinism. Genevan Reformer and the greatest systematic theologian

of the Reformation

b. July 10, 1509, at Noyon, Picardy in Northern France

d. May 27, 1564, at Geneva, Switzerland

[French Protestant Reformer]

Bradford, John

Burnt at the stake in Mary Tudor’s reign.

b. 1510

d. 1555

Servetus, Miguel

Heretic.

b. 1511, Europe

d. 1553

Hamilton, John

Archbishop of St. Andrews

b. 1512, at Scotland, Europe

d. 1571, at Stirling, Scotland

Wishart, George

Scottish martyr; Mentor to Knox

b. 1513, at Scotland, Europe

d. 1546

[Scottish Presbyterian]

Foxe, John

Church historian, martyrologist.

b. 1516

d. April 18, 1587

[English Protestant]

Ninian, Winzet

Publicly disputed with Knox at Linlithgow.

b. 1518, at Renfrew, Scotland, Europe

d. September 21, 1592, at Ratisbon,

[Roman Catholic]

Place of burial: St. James Church

Beza, Theodore

b. June 24, 1519, at Vezelay, Burgundy, France, Europe

d. October 13, 1605, at Geneva, Switzerland

[French Protestant Reformer]

Place of burial: in the monastery of St. Peirre

I've never seen a timeline exactly like the one I'm offering here. I'm certain that it can be improved. One note that I have made today is to include names of notable philosophers, scientists, and world leaders for an even greater context. For instance, the following names need to be added:

• Leonardo da Vinci (April 15, 1452–May 2, 1519)
• Niccolò Machiavelli (1469–1527)
• Copernicus (1473–1543)

John Calvin (July 10, 1509–May 27, 1564)

• Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)
• Francis Bacon (1561–1626)
• Galileo Galilei (1564–1642)
• René Descartes (1596–1650)
• Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (July 15, 1606–October 4, 1669)

What do you think?
I am also soliciting your feedback on this project. If you know of a way that these lists can be improved, I'd love to discuss it with you. If you have details that can be added, please leave a comment below or send them to me with sources.

*I am currently without access to MS Access since my previous computer recently crashed. As soon as I get all of my data transferred to this computer I can resume work on the lists. Also, I noticed today that the first few pages of the Christian Chronological Index consist of names that are out of order. This is due to incorrect tagging which will be corrected.

Christian History Chronology Project

TheoSource Updates: Theology & General Works

Last night I uploaded revisions and expansions of the Recommended Theological Works List (TW) and the Recommended General Reference Works Lists (GRW). The major changes are as follows:

• I added Biblical Theology, OT Theology & NT Theology to the TW list.
• I added Introductory topics to the GRW list.

I think that these two changes make better sense. Also,...

• I added recommendations cited in Bob Kauflin's recent book, Worship Matters (Crossway, 2008). Kauflin provides a very nice annotated bibliography of books on major theological issues with which worship leaders ought to be familiar (Worship, God, The Person and Work of Christ, The Holy Spirit, Theology, Growing in Holiness, The Church, Music, and Devotionals).
  

As always, I would be glad for any input on improving these lists.

TheoSource Updates: Theology & General Works

TheoSource Updates

It has been almost a year since the TheoSource lists were last updated on this site, so I have been working hard at burning new PDFs. All of the lists are now updated:

• Classification Guide (276k)
  
• General Reference Works (199k)
• Top Commentaries (227k)
  
• Commentaries on the Whole Bible (83k)
  

Old Testament Commentaries

• OT Pentateuch and Historical Books (491k)
  
• OT Poetical Books (392k)
• OT Prophetical Books (423k)
  

New Testament Commentaries

• Gospels and Acts (530k)
  
• Pauline Epistles (520k)
  
• Hebrews, General Epistles, and Revelation (392k)
  

Other Lists

• Theological Works (985k)
  
• Church History Works (147k)
  
• Christian Biographies (277k)
• Christian Chronology (2M)
• Christian Missions Chronology (236k)
  

I have also updated the Blogroll in order to share more of the blogs I follow. I generally do not read many posts; there are simply too many and too little time to do this. I browse through them periodically, read one or two, and highlight others that I expect to want to come back to in the future. Most of these blogs challenge me in areas that are unfamiliar to me. Some of these blogs are simply informative. Mostly all of these are academic in nature. Some very interesting blogs do not appear here, or have been removed, just because. If you know of a blog that seems to fit the purpose of TheoSource, please suggest it. I'd be glad to consider adding it to the list.

Not long ago, I added a label to the sidebar called Essential Tools. The CMS requires a subscripton, but the SBLHS is free to be downloaded. Both are excellent and complimentary style guides.

TheoSource Updates

Status Report

Posting has been very light over the past few weeks due my family's transition from South Carolina to Alabama. We are now in Alabama, but we still have a house that needs to be sold in Charleston. My wife is teaching 5th graders at a local Christian school and I am looking for work. We would appreciate your prayers for us during this time.

1. Please pray that the Lord would provide a buyer for our home and that it would sell for a fair price.
2. Please pray that the Lord would provide a ministry opportunity or a job for me.
3. Please pray that the Lord would open a way for me to be able to pick up and continue my education.
   

Status Report

Resurrection Tradition Etched in Stone?

The New York Times reports some interesting news from Jerusalem about an ancient stone tablet found near the Dead Sea that is believed to be related to the famous scrolls and dates to the 1^st Century BC. The tablet, nicknamed “Gabriel’s Revelation,” has two columns of text written on it, but the stone is broken and the text is faded in some areas. However, some scholars believe the text in question refers to a pre-Christian era Jewish tradition of a messiah dying and rising again on the third day. The “messiah” on the tablet may refer to a man named Simon, but scholars are unsure about this.

This might be a shock to many in academia, who have long held that Jesus’ prophecies of His death and resurrection (Mark 8:31; Mark 9:31) must have been added by later followers since no resurrection tradition existed in 1^st Century Judaism. Now some are saying that Jesus and His followers adopted an already existing tradition of a suffering messiah who would rise from the dead after three days. According to a professor of Biblical studies at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, the death referred to is for Israel’s redemption, not for the sins of individuals.

More will be written on this amazing find, which was actually discovered at least a decade ago but is just now being publicized. I doubt this will bring anyone around to the New Testament interpretation of Christ’s death or inspire belief in His literal resurrection. After all, “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the Word of Christ” (Romans 10:17). But at the very least, maybe Christ’s prophecies of His death and resurrection will finally be attributed to Him by unbelieving scholars. Who knows? God could use this to cause some to hear the Word of Christ and come to saving faith. It will be interesting to see how all this plays out.

Resurrection Tradition Etched in Stone?

Firefox Download Day

Download the NEW Firefox browser today. I've been using it and love it. It's a great improvement over the previous version which is also great.

My favorite feature is the integration of my search history and bookmarks into the address bar. What's your favorite feature?

To Download the New Version, Click Here:

Firefox Download Day

TheoSource Updates

This past weekend I've been doing a bit of updating on the Psalms posts. There have been a number of new books published on the Psalms and I've tried to add as many as I thought would be profitable. I've also found helpful reviews of some of these books at RBL and have added links where appropriate. Here is a list of the posts that have been updated:

• Special Topics on the Psalms
• 17th century & Earlier commentaries on the Book of Psalms
• 20th & 21st century commentaries on the Book of Psalms
• In this post I’ve added a section for commentaries that are best categorized as “Theological Interpretation”. This should be helpful in that they are not your normal exegetical commentary.
• Theology of the Psalms
• Critical Works on the Book of Psalms
• Introductory Works on the Book of Psalms

I’ve also been updating links to conversations on the subject of the 9Marks interview Mark Minnick.

Other than that, I’ve been picking away at the Logos Scholar’s Library [also at the Logos site] with the intention of posting a review. I’m fairly new to this software package and need a bit more time to find my way around it. Some initial impressions are as follows:

• Every student ought to own this!
• It’s worth the money!
• It takes a good bit of time to learn it in order to make the best use of it.
• It is set up primarily for Bible study, but it allows for building and searching a large database of e-books.
• I’ve already begun the hunt for more PC memory to speed up my searches. The default searches allow for a lot of unnecessary searching which extends the time the computer takes to produce search results. I’ve got some ideas of how to customize this and will share my suggestions in the near future.
• I LOVE THE REMOTE LIBRARY SEARCH FUNCTION! I search the Library of Congress and WorldCat.org numerous times per week as I research book data. This function has dramatically improved this process. It’s taking a little bit of work to figure out the full capabilities of this single function, but I’m already benefiting from it. Did I say I love this feature? Oh, yeah!
• I’m already making a list of other packages I want to add to this system, and other books that ought to belong on it. (Maybe, we could figure out a way to incorporate TheoSource into the database. J )
• More to come later…

Finally, I have been reading some fantastic books that I need to review:

• Salvation Belongs to Our God by Christopher J. H. Wright
• Kingdom of Priests: A History of Old Testament Israel, 2nd edition by Eugene H. Merrill
• Everlasting Dominion: A Theology of the Old Testament by Eugene H. Merrill
• Psalms. Two Horizons Old Testament Commentary by Geoffrey Grogan
• Genesis. Two Horizons Old Testament Commentary by James McKeown
• Reese Chronological Encyclopedia of Christian Biographies by Ed Reese

I have a handful of books that need to be reviewed and I need help. I direct the book reviews for SharperIron.org but I also am permitted to post reviews here on TheoSource. Many of the books I’ve received would not do well for reviews at SI, but I would like for them to be reviewed here. If you would be interested in receiving a free book in exchange for a book review, I’d be glad to hear from you.

The following is a list of books available to be reviewed:

TheoSource Updates

I Like Google Reader Even More

As time goes on, there seems to be, not only, more and more bloggers, but also, more and more blogs worth reading. However, time keeps ticking by getting more and more scarce. My good friend, AJ, introduced me to Google Reader some months ago and I was quickly hooked. Until then, I had been using Bloglines and had been relatively happy with it. I was amazed to find out what all I had been missing in the world of RSS readers.

Just this morning I found a resource listing keyboard shortcuts for Google Reader. It's like falling "in like" all over again! Or, something like that. Anyway, here are some links that should revolutionize the way you read your blogs:

• Google Reader Keyboard Shortcuts
• J-Walking with Reader

Some of my favorites:

• ? - this will pop up a list of shortcuts
  
• G then A - this will show you All Items
• P - Previous Item
• N - Next Item
• V - Show Original Post

Check it out for yourself and/or let us know what other RSS Reading tips you have. Have any of you moved from Google Reader to another RSS Reader?

I Like Google Reader Even More

TheoSource Recommended and Critiqued

I'm very happy to receive feedback on the TheoSource Book Lists. The following is a list of sites who have shared TheoSource with their readers and who have encouraged me to keep at this project. Many thanks to all of you!

1. Frank Sansone @ A Thinking Man's Thoughts - "Recommended Blogs for Pastors"
   
2. Brian LeStourgeon @ LeStrougeon Online - "More Commentary Recommendations and More!"
   

TheoSource Recommended and Critiqued

Just for Fun!!!

For the past year I've been using Google Analytics to track stats for this site. One feature that I particularly enjoy is the map overlay. We don't hear from everyone who visits but I'm always curious to know who's visiting. Today I was curious to find out if we have received visitors from each state in the Union. I was surprised to see that we have welcomed visitors from all but two, namely, Hawaii and Wyoming.


Wow! I'm surprised and very grateful. I would like to thank everyone who has visited our humble blog. We hope that we can be of service to you all as you study the Word of God.

Now for some fun with stats...

Here are the top five states:

State

# of Visits

1.	South Carolina	915
2.	Alabama	218
3.	Georgia	174
4.	(?)	154
5.	Indiana	121

Here is what most readers have visited (besides the main page):

URL		Pageviews
1.	Whetstone Conference	345
2.	Theological Library Sale	104
3.	Summing Up	56
4.	Pauline Christology by Gordon Fee	50
5.	223.2 Psalms	50

Thanks for reading!

Just for Fun!!!