Buswell Bulletin: Book Highlights – July 2022
Each month we highlight recently acquired books that are of particular interest or importance. (Inclusion on this list is not an endorsement.)
The Cambridge Companion to Biblical Wisdom Literature
Edited by Katharine J. Dell, Suzanna R. Millar, and Arthur Jan Keefer
Cambridge University Press, 2022
Publisher Description:
Study of the wisdom literature in the Hebrew Bible and the contemporary cultures in the ancient Near Eastern world is evolving rapidly as old definitions and assumptions are questioned. Scholars are now interrogating the role of oral culture, the rhetoric of teaching and didacticism, the understanding of genre, and the relationship of these factors to the corpus of writings. The scribal culture in which wisdom literature arose is also under investigation, alongside questions of social context and character formation. This Companion serves as an essential guide to wisdom texts, a body of biblical literature with ancient origins that continue to have universal and timeless appeal. Reflecting new interpretive approaches, including virtue ethics and intertextuality, the volume includes essays by an international team of leading scholars. They engage with the texts, provide authoritative summaries of the state of the field, and open up to readers the exciting world of biblical wisdom.
Alumnus Arthur Keefer’s other books on Proverbs are also available.
Jonah: Introduction and Commentary (Illumination Commentary Series)
Amy Erickson
Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2021
Publisher Description:
The dominant reading of the book of Jonah—that the hapless prophet Jonah is a lesson in not trying to run away from God—oversimplifies a profound biblical text, argues Amy Erickson. Likewise, the more recent understanding of Jonah as satire is problematic in its own right, laden as it is with anti-Jewish undertones and the superimposition of a Christian worldview onto a Jewish text. How can we move away from these stale interpretations to recover the richness of meaning that belongs to this short but noteworthy book of the Bible?
This Illuminations commentary delves into Jonah’s reception history in Christian, Jewish, and Islamic contexts while also exploring its representations in visual arts, music, literature, and pop culture. After this thorough contextualization, Erickson provides a fresh translation and exegesis, paving the way for pastors and scholars to read and utilize the book of Jonah as the provocative, richly allusive, and theologically robust text that it is.
2 Corinthians (Reformation Commentary Series)
Edited by Scott M. Manetsch; general editor, Timothy George
InterVarsity Press, 2022
Publisher Description:
In this volume of the Reformation Commentary on Scripture, Reformation scholar Scott Manetsch guides readers through a wealth of early modern commentary on the book of 2 Corinthians. Readers will hear from familiar voices and discover lesser-known figures from a diversity of theological traditions, including Lutherans, Reformed, Radicals, Anglicans and Roman Catholics. Drawing upon a variety of resources—including commentaries, sermons, treatises, and confessions—much of which appears here for the first time in English, this volume provides resources for contemporary preachers, enables scholars to better understand the depth and breadth of Reformation commentary, and seeks to encourage all those who would be newly created in Christ.
Matthew V. Novenson
Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2022
Publisher Description:
Matthew Novenson has become a leading advocate for the continuing relevance of historical-critical readings of Paul even as some New Testament scholars have turned to purely theological or political approaches. In this collection of a decade’s worth of essays, Novenson puts contextual understandings of Paul’s letters into conversation with their Christian reception history. After a new, programmatic introductory essay that frames the other eleven essays, Novenson explores topics including:
• the relation between theology and historical criticism
• the place of Jews and gentiles in Paul’s gospel
• Paul’s relation to Judaism
• the relevance of messianism to Paul’s Christology
• Paul’s eschatology in relation to ancient Jewish eschatologies
• the aptness of monotheism as a category for understanding antiquity
• the reception of Paul by diverse early Christian writers
• the peculiar place of Protestantism in the modern study of Paul
• the debate over the recent Paul-within-Judaism movement
• anti-Judaism in modern New Testament scholarship
• disputes over Romans and Galatians
• the meta-question of what it would mean to get Paul right or wrongEngaging with numerous schools of thought in Pauline studies—Augustinian, Lutheran, New Perspective, apocalyptic, Paul-within-Judaism, religious studies, and more—while also rising above partisan disputes between schools, Novenson illuminates the ancient Mediterranean context of Paul’s letters, their complicated afterlives in the history of interpretation, and the hermeneutical struggle to make sense of it all.
Revelation through Old Testament Eyes: A Background and Application Commentary
Tremper Longman III; series editor, Andrew T. Le Peau
Kregel Academic, 2022
The third volume in this relatively new commentary series.
Publisher Description:
Through Old Testament Eyes is a new kind of commentary series that illuminates the Old Testament backgrounds, allusions, patterns, and references saturating the New Testament. This knowledge was second nature to the New Testament authors and their audiences, but often isn’t the case for today’s readers. Bible teachers, preachers, and students committed to understanding Scripture will gain insight through these rich Old Testament connections, which clarify puzzling passages and explain others in fresh ways.
In Revelation Through Old Testament Eyes, Tremper Longman demonstrates that the confusion associated with the images throughout Revelation arises from unfamiliarity with symbolism that Revelations first readers would have readily comprehended. Avoiding overly technical discussions and interpretive debates to concentrate on Old Testament influences, Revelation Through Old Testament Eyes combines rigorous, focused New Testament scholarship with deep respect for the entire biblical text.
William E. Boyce; foreword by Carl F. Ellis, Jr.
Wipf & Stock, 2022
The author is a Covenant alumnus and PCA pastor. This book comes out of his doctoral research at Trinity School for Ministry.
Publisher Description:
Can Christian community be racially exclusive and still call itself faithful? In the United States, the story of Christianity has been intertwined with the story of race since the beginning. All too often, Christian leaders have fostered cultures that wound minority members instead of creating cultures that heal division. With this history of exclusion, all Christians must ask whether our churches practice the racial hospitality envisioned in the Scriptures. In this necessary conversation, minority pastors voice fatigue, signaling that church cultures are not as welcoming as they often claim to be. Outsiders on the Inside explores the history of race in the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), comparing the denomination's core theological convictions with the experiences of Black PCA pastors. This is a story of racial fatigue and resilience, of learning to thrive in the midst of challenging environments. This study reveals areas for growth and opens up possibilities for Christians of all races and confessions to come together, creating a diverse, hospitable, and healing community.
Kyle Dillon summarizes in his review published on All Kirk Network (May 31, 2022):
The book is divided into two parts: Part I establishes a historical, biblical, and theological framework for understanding the principles of racial inclusivity and diversity, and Part II reports the results of Boyce’s personal interviews with twelve black PCA pastors, in which he asks them a series of questions regarding what it is like to be black in the PCA. The results of his interviews reveal a recurrent three-stage pattern in the experiences of these pastors: 1) being initially welcomed into the denomination, 2) experiencing subsequent racial fatigue as an outsider, and 3) finally learning to thrive in a renewed commitment to ministry in the PCA. These interviews are quite sobering, and I think they are essential reading for all pastors interested in bridging racial divides in their congregations and communities. It can be easy to underestimate just how many cultural hurdles minorities have to overcome in majority-culture spaces.
And Mark Ryan writes on the back cover:
Standing at the intersection of pastoral ministry, Reformed theology, and current concerns, Outsiders on the Inside makes its case for racial inclusivity as part of the church's mission with scriptural sensitivity and in dialogue with one denomination's history, Herman Bavinck's theology, and the experiences of Black pastors. It models the kind of discussion many congregations and networks need to have and the tone with which to have it. I highly recommend it.
Anchor Yale Bible Commentary Series
The Library has acquired online access to 86 volumes from the Anchor Yale Bible commentary series, an important resource for advanced students and scholarly engagement, on the Bloomsbury Theology & Religion Online platform.
John Evans writes in A Guide to Biblical Commentaries and Reference Works:
The series has changed markedly since the mid-1960s and now includes some of the most exhaustive commentary efforts ever attempted (Leviticus, Song of Songs, Jeremiah, Amos, 1 Peter, John’s Epistles). … You will find AB/AYB to be rather uneven. Many contributions are quite thin in theological interpretation (particularly the older volumes) and reflect varying critical approaches. A number of the commentaries can be safely ignored, but others are successful efforts and can be put to good use by the discerning, scholarly pastor (e.g., Proverbs, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Jonah, Thessalonians, Timothy, James). Hebrew and Greek are transliterated.
The series includes coverage of the Apocrypha.