Creation and the Persistence of Evil

Creation and the Persistence of Evil
Princeton University Press
Published in 1994
ISBN 9780691029504

Review by David Burnett

“Creation and the Persistence of Evil: The Jewish Divine Drama of Omnipotence” has become one of my favorite books in OT Theology.  This title, for some conservative evangelicals, will open your  mind to the reality of some difficult subjects in the OT.  Granted many conclusions or interpretive decisions that are made in the book may be called into question, he deals with many themes in the Hebrew scriptures that are often read over by mainline evangelicals which are critical to OT theology.  Not only this, but the book will help all those who are unfamiliar with the warfare motifs in apocalyptic literature and allow them to begin making connections, not only in the OT genre, but in NT apocalyptic as well.  Theologically the Christian may run into some difficulties, but keep the big picture in mind.  Anyone entering into the study of the OT and is curious with many mythical sounding texts will be challenged with Levenson’s reading of the texts and their context.  This is an important book and there is much to be gleaned from it in terms of the mythopoeic background for many of the polemics in the Hebrew Bible.  Levensons grasp of the language, culture, and background of the Hebrew Bible is displayed in this creative and provacative book that will challenge the Christian theologian.

 

Guest reviews

Since starting this blog, I’ve had a number of people ask me if they can write reviews for us. Because of the nature of the site, I’ve chosen to keep the reviews limited to bookcenter staff (although I may reference a faculty member now or then). Still, I do appreciate the interest that people have in contributing material to our site, and I want to have a venue where they can do so.

Unfortunately, due to the limitations of wordpress.com, I cannot create more than one page at a time that allows posts. So, until I figure out a better way to both display and distinguish posts by our staff and our customers, I am going to have to make due with this separate Guest Review page.

If you have a review that you’d like to present to us, feel free to post it on this new page, in the comments box.  I may edit or delete a comment for content but I don’t intend to do so much.  I’m particularly interested in books on theology, church ministry, or Bible study/commentary. Please only review books that you’d recommend, and try not to get too wordy with your reviews–no more than 500 words, please.

We look forward to seeing what you think is worth reading!

 

Bestcommentaries.com

I’ve had a link up to this site for some time in our blog roll, but haven’t said anything officially about it up to this point. Bestcommentaries.com is a website that was created and is maintained by one of our fellow DTSers, John Dyer. He’s compiled commentary ratings and reviews from some of the best sources available and devised a scoring method by which he can assign each commentary a numerical rating based on these ratings and reviews. In so doing, John’s provided an excellent resource for anyone that’s trying to decide what commentaries to buy. All you commentary addicts–make sure you visit John’s website!

 

We remember and honor Dr. Hoehner

We here at the Book Center remember and honor the life of Dr. Harold Hoehner and mourn his passing this morning. Dr. Hoehner was a faithful servant of the Lord who impacted the lives of countless people. He was also a dear friend of ours here at the Book Center. We will definitely miss him.

http://www.dts.edu/about/news/20090212_tribute_to_harold_w_hoehner/

 

Tony Evans’ Book of Illustrations

Tony Evans’ Book of Illustrations
Tony Evans
Moody Publishers
Published in 2009
ISBN 9780802485786

Review by Ryan Ho

There are a lot of sermon illustration books on the market. Unfortunately, so many of them reproduce the same stories that were published in other volumes, simply re-categorizing them to make the sale. In addition, many of these volumes are heavy on one-sentence anecdotes and quotes but light on stories, providing little that can meaningfully fill out a sermon.

Tony Evans’ Book of Illustrations is a breath of fresh air in the midst of the plethora of stale material currently available.  I was pleasantly surprised to discover that I could not find a single story in Tony Evans’ book that I’d heard previously. This volume is jam-packed with new illustrations. Almost every story took about half a column of the two-columned page to print, some even taking up the entire page.  Even better, most of the stories are truly meaningful. I could see myself using nearly every one as a sermon relief point or as a sermon introduction–something I cannot say for any other sermon illustration book.

Each sermon illustration is arranged alphabetically by topic, like most other sermon illustration books. Unlike some other books, however, the topics are very relevant and should make finding meaningful illustrations easy. There aren’t too many, but they are also not too simple. Examples include “Fellowship,” “Holy Spirit,” “Sin,” and “Word of God.”

Of all the books that I have seen come through our bookstore this year, this volume is easily on my top three list and is vying for #1. If you do any amount of preaching or teaching at all, this is a book that you absolutely must purchase. For everything it offers, I’d gladly pay double the price that Tony Evans’ Book of Illustrations sells for. Buy this book today, say a word of thanks to your worn copy of Swindoll’s Ultimate Book of Illustrations as you put it back on the shelf, and start preparing a fresh and meaningful sermon for Sunday worship.

 

Crazy Love

Crazy Love
Francis Chan
Cook
Published in 2008
ISBN 9781434768513

Review by Kevin Stern

Crazy Love by Francis Chan may be my favorite read this year. Chan has cut to the heart of the Christian life – God is amazing and we are here to serve him. You will want to read the first few chapters a second time. Chapter one gives a look at a big God. For a sample, visit here and look at the “Awe Factor” video. It’s tough not to be moved by thinking of a God so amazing, who cares for us in a small corner of his universe. Each chapter has a mini video to introduce that chapter. The second chapter, “You Might Not Finish This Chapter,” talks about our human frailty. The third chapter talks about God’s love for us.

The remainder of the book is a look at how all this impacts your life. Let me warn you, though: This is not for the faint-hearted. Chan doesn’t pull any punches in the quest to have you examine your life. He leads by example in pastoring a church that gives over half its budget to helping the poor.

Crazy Love was a quick read with short chapters and an engaging style, but it will be working on me for a long time to come.

 

Experiencing God’s Story of Life and Hope

Experiencing God’s Story of Life and Hope
J. Scott Duvall
Kregel
Published in 2008
ISBN 9780825425387

Review by Kevin Stern

J. Scott Duvall has produced a really good spiritual formation workbook in Experiencing God’s Story of Life and Hope. The book guides people through a process of belief, behavior, and becoming on a road to spiritual maturity. His approach walks through a doctrine that needs to be believed, followed by behavior that needs to be practiced, and finally creating character qualities in your life. For example, believing the authority of the Bible leadds to the habit of studying the Bible which in turn leads to living a truthful life.

The book walks us through a short systematic theology. What really caught my attention, though, was the Bible-study-methods style of unlocking the Biblical passage presented in each chapter. This isn’t a flat one-question, one verse study. Instead, the book teaches how to study Bible passages as part of the process. This would be great to follow up new believers or for somall groups wanting to grow deeper.

Each chapter of the book is filled with quotes, cross-references, and a bibliography for further study. I like the approach. I like the execution. I highly recommend this book for helping Christians grow deeper.

 

Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament

Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament
(To Be) Published in 2008
ISBN 9780310244028 (James)

Review by Kevin Stern

Timed for a launch at SBL/ETS in November, Zondervan releases the first in its series of Exegetical Commentaries on the New Testament. The opening volume on James is written by Craig Blomberg and Mariam Kamell (with Clinton Arnold as general editor). I’m an avid commentary reader and not easily impressed, but this series presents some great scholarship. Several volumes are already on my wish list.

Here’s the series list:

• Matthew- Grant R. Osborne
• Mark- Mark L. Strauss
• Luke- David E. Garland
• John- I. Howard Marshall
• Acts- Eckhard J. Schnabel
• Romans- Frank Thielman
• 1 Corinthians- Paul Gardner
• 2 Corinthians- Bruce W. Winter
• Galatians- Thomas R. Schreiner
• Ephesians- Clinton E. Arnold
• Philippians- George H. Guthrie
• Colossians & Philemon- David W. Pao
• 1 & 2 Thessalonians- Gary S. Shogren
• 1 & 2 Timothy and Titus- Gregory K. Beale
• Hebrews- Douglas J. Moo
• James- Craig L. Blomberg and Mariam Kamell
• 1 Peter- Michael J. Wilkins
• 2 Peter & Jude- Robert W. Yarbrough
• 1-3 John- Karen H. Jobes
• Revelation- Buist M. Fanning III

As impressive as the list of authors is, my real excitement is in the format for the series. Too often commentators treat the details, but give no help with the flow of the passage. Each section in this series begins with a Literary Context that connects the material to passages before and after. There  is also a one or two sentence statement of the main idea of the section and an exegetical outline. The structure sections help you understand the internal structure of the passage as well. This helps immensely in sermon preparation and helps you think through a passage.

Something I’ve never seen before in a commentary but instantly like is the way the author’s translation is organized. The passage is broken down into a phrase-by-phrase outline. The main clause is in bold print and pushed left; subordinate clauses are indented. Those trying to diagram sentences have a ready outline each with an interpretive label to tell the function of the phrase. Those preaching and teaching the text can see the passages in a quick, easy format that helps with exposition and understanding.

The Explanation section clearly separates verses by putting the English text in bold type, then follows it with the Greek text. Speaking of Greek – for those a little rusty on their language, each mention of Greek is preceded by an English translation, so although the commentary has depth, it isn’t intimidating. The commentary is thorough but also to the point. The explanations had limited interaction with other writers, using them for quick explanations rather than cataloging adherents of various views.

The Theology in Application section which closes each passage provides a helpful summary of the theology. The applications in the James volume didn’t suffer from the often forced applications in the NIVAC volumes. You also felt it more of an extension of the exposition. At the end of the book was a summary of the major themes.

I’m now planning room on my shelves for this set of commentaries. One look at the format and authors in this series will soon have it rise to the top of many lists.

 

Greek for the Rest of Us

Greek for the Rest of Us
William D. Mounce
Zondervan
Published in 2007
ISBN 9780310282891

Review by Ryan Ho

Let’s face it–there’s a lot of bad Greek usage present in many of today’s sermons. Far too many pastors with no training or experience in the biblical languages seek to use Greek to support their points, spouting out terms like “Genitive case” or “middle voice” without any clue as to what they mean. Really, there’s only two solutions to the problem: 1) Somehow convince untrained pastors and laymen to stop their Greek attempts altogether, or 2) Train these individuals to use Greek tools correctly.

Dr. William Mounce, former director of the Greek language program at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, has made every effort to implement that second solution. Practically every Greek language student is familiar with Dr. Mounce; his Basics of Biblical Greek is a staple textbook in many Greek 101 classes, and he’s authored numerous language titles ranging from workbooks to analytical lexicons to morphology studies. Certainly, he’s no newcomer when it comes to Biblical Greek.

Now Mounce has turned his attention to a new group of students–those outside of the academic classroom. One of his more recent titles, Greek for the Rest of Us, targets those who can’t spare the time to study Greek for years, yet who still long to understand the Bible better.

In Greek for the Rest of Us, Mounce does a great job of covering the basics. He breaks the book down into six sections, or “weeks.” He begins with an introduction to the Greek language, alphabet, and pronunciation, then moves into a discussion on the various Bible translations. In the second section, Mounce examines the various elements of English Grammar, explaining “if you don’t understand the basics of English grammar, then you can’t make sense of what the Bible is saying with its groups of words” (p43).  In the third section, Mounce discusses conjunctions, adjectives, phrases, and clauses. In the fourth section, Mounce looks at how Greek verbs work, something that he delves into deeper in the fifth section. In the sixth and final section, Mounce moves onto nouns and their cases. Mounce ends the book with an appendix titled “Hebrew for the Rest of Us,” a short but sweet summary/analysis of the Hebrew language that he certainly didn’t have to include in this volume but did out of a commitment to help the church community.

Let me say off the bat that this book wasn’t developed to enable you to master Biblical Greek. Even if you were to read it from cover to cover, there would still be a great deal about the Greek language that you probably didn’t understand. Mounce’s point in this book wasn’t to cover every element of Greek. Instead, he developed this book to enable people to glean more out of the usage of good biblical study tools than they could otherwise. As the preface  demonstrates, Mounce wrote this book for several reasons: to help people understand why translations are different, to find out what the Greek words mean, to see the author’s flow of thought and central message, and to enable anyone to read good commentaries and other biblical tools that make use of Greek.

Personally, I’ve found Mounce’s work to be an incredibly helpful review, since it’s been several years since I studied Greek in a classroom setting. I think Greek for the Rest of Us (as well as Mounce’s accompanying title, Interlinear for the Rest of Us) would be a great tool for someone who had never studied Greek academically. It’s written very clearly and intentionally. The Greek language isn’t easy for anyone to understand, but Mounce clearly went to great effort in order to communicate it in a manner that anyone could understand. If you’re wanting to become a Greek scholar, this probably isn’t the volume for you–I recommend picking up Basics of Biblical Greek. If, however, you’re interested in learning a little bit about how the Greek language worked, why it makes a difference in Bible study today, and how it can help you in your own personal study, I highly recommend Greek for the Rest of Us.

 

How to Read Genesis

How to Read Genesis
Tremper Longman
InterVarsity Press
Published in 2005

Review by Kevin Stern

How to Read Genesis by Tremper Longman sheds light on some tough questions. Longman begins with fourteen questions as to how to approach Genesis. In trying to understand what the book said to the original audience, it’s helpful to note what it isn’t speaking about as well. In asking who wrote the Pentateuch, Longman engages critical scholarship with reasonable explanations. He also does an effective job of explaining how Genesis should be seen in comparison with Ancient Near Eastern texts.

The second half of the book provided an interpretive reading of Genesis. This distillation of the story of Genesis was very helpful in understanding the big picture. Longman ends with a look at how Christ and a New Testament understanding impacts Genesis. This book helped me think through some critical issues in new ways and helped me understand that many of the questions we want Genesis to answer aren’t what the book is trying to address. More importantly, I felt that it gave me a handle on what Genesis was trying to communicate both to the original readers and to me.

Tremper also has How to Read Psalms and How to Read Proverbs in this series.