Buswell Bulletin: Book Highlights – November 2022
Each issue we highlight recently acquired books that are of particular interest or importance. (Inclusion on this list is not an endorsement.)
Catena Manuscripts of the Greek New Testament: A Catalogue
Georgi R. Parpulov
Gorgias Press, 2021
Publisher Description:
The book is a synoptic catalogue of a large class of Greek manuscripts: it describes all pre-seventeenth century copies of the Greek New Testament in which the biblical text is accompanied by commentary. Manuscripts where this commentary consists of combined excerpts (catena) from the works of various authors are described in particular detail. Those that have similar content are grouped together, so that the potential relatives of any given manuscript can be easily identified. Several previously unknown types of catenae are distinguished and a number of previously unstudied codices are brought to light for the first time. To ensure its longer shelf-life, the volume systematically references on-line electronic databases (which are regularly updated). It will be of use to anyone interested in Byzantine book culture and in biblical exegesis.
Our catalog record links to two resources: first is the open access PDF of the book (released under a Creative Commons license), which provides a brief introduction, the full catalog of manuscripts, and several indices; and second is the searchable online database of the manuscripts listed in the book, which is perhaps the more efficient means to initially interact with the data.
Handbook on the Jewish Roots of the Gospels
Edited by Craig A. Evans and David Mishkin
Hendrickson Publishers, 2022
Publisher Description:
The Jewish context of Jesus and his movement is better understood today thanks to archaeology, the ongoing publication of ancient texts, and changes in the way scholars think about Jewish society in late antiquity.
A Handbook on the Jewish Roots of the Gospels, whose contributors are well-known in the field, updates all of the relevant topics relating to Jesus and the Gospels in light of these exciting new developments.
A companion to A Handbook on the Jewish Roots of the Christian Faith (ISBN 9781683071648), the book is split into five sections: (1) Textual Roots, (2) Intertextual Roots, (3) Narrative Roots, (4) Theological Roots, (5) Intercultural Roots.
Written by an international group of Jewish and Gentile followers of Jesus as Messiah, A Handbook on the Jewish Roots of the Gospels is for all who want to learn more about these four biblical accounts and how they portray the man from Nazareth within his own historic and cultural setting. Contributors include Daniel M. Gurtner, Darrell Bock, Craig A. Evans, Sheila Gyllenberg, Craig L. Blomberg, Eckhard J. Schnabel, Catherine Sider Hamilton, David Mishkin, Mark L. Strauss, Michael L. Brown, and more.
Church History: An Introduction to Research Methods and Resources, 2nd ed.
James E. Bradley and Richard A. Muller|
William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2016
Publisher Description:
In their Church History, James Bradley and Richard Muller lay out guidelines, methods, and basic reference tools for research and writing in the fields of church history and historical theology. Over the years, this book has helped countless students define their topics, locate relevant source materials, and write quality papers. This revised, expanded, and updated second edition includes discussion of Internet-based research, digitized texts, and the electronic forms of research tools. The greatly enlarged bibliography of study aids now includes many significant new resources that have become available since the first edition's publication in 1995. Accessible and clear, this introduction will continue to benefit both students and experienced scholars in the field.
The Cambridge Companion to Genesis
Edited by Bill T. Arnold with the assistance of Brian Shockey
Cambridge University Press, 2022
Table of Contents:
Introduction: Genesis and the status quaestionis / Bill T. Arnold
Part I. Composition and structure of Genesis
Genesis in the history of critical scholarship / Jean-Louis Ska
Genesis in the source and redaction criticism today / Jan Christian Gertz
Genesis in form and tradition criticism today / Christoph Levin
Rhetorical features and characteristics: The literary function of genealogies, itineries, and other etiologies in the book of Genesis / Michaela Bauks
Part II. Social world of Genesis
Genesis and its ancient literary analogues / Alice Mandell
Genesis and the conceptual world of the ancient near east / John H. Walton
Family, clan, and tribe in the book of Genesis / Naomi A. Steinberg
Women's status and feminist readings of Genesis / Sarah Shectman
Part III. Themes and literary motifs of Genesis
From Imago to imagines: The image(s) of God in Genesis / Brent A. Strawn
Genesis, science, and theories of origin / Jitse M. Van Der Meer
Genesis and ethics / Eckart Otto
Genesis and the problem of evil: Philosophical musings on the bible's first book / Paul M. Gould
Part IV. Reception history of Genesis
Modern philosophical receptions of genesis / Frederick D. Aquino
Jewish reflections on universalism and particularism in Genesis / Joel S. Kaminsky
Before Moses: Genesis among the Christians / Iain Provan.
Rob A. Fringer
Pickwick Publications, 2019
Publisher Description:
Paul's Christophany (i.e., his Damascus Road Experience) has been the subject of much scholarly analysis. However, treatments of this phenomenon, while widely varied, have tended to extract the various references from their literary contexts in order to reconstruct the event, to discover the foundations and content of Paul's Christology, or to analyze Paul's experience of conversion and/or call. The current study, focused on the undisputed Pauline epistles, evaluates how and why Paul employed the various Christophanic references in their particular literary and sociohistorical contexts. Through this assessment, the importance of Paul's Christophanic references as part of his larger arguments is established. It is shown how Paul uniquely shapes the various Christophanic references to fit the needs of his argument and through it, the needs of each community. Furthermore, this study demonstrates that Paul's Christophanic references do not primarily establish his apostolic status or assert his apostolic authority. Through this study, the corporate nature of Paul's Christophanic references becomes increasingly evident, and multiple general conclusions are drawn, which provide a possible glimpse into Paul's understanding of his Christophanic experience.
The Story of Creeds and Confessions: Tracing the Development of the Christian Faith
Donald Fairbairn and Ryan M. Reeves
Baker Academic, 2019
Publisher Description:
Creeds and confessions throughout Christian history provide a unique vantage point from which to study the Christian faith. To this end, Donald Fairbairn and Ryan Reeves construct a story that captures both the central importance of creeds and confessions over the centuries and their unrealized potential to introduce readers to the overall sweep of church history. The book features texts of classic creeds and confessions as well as informational sidebars.
Robert M. Copeland and D. Ray Wilcox
Crown & Covenant Publications, 2022
Publisher Description:
American Covenanters were very active and outspoken in the abolitionist movement before the U.S. Constitution was even written. Because of their background and convictions, they held what co-author Robert Copeland calls “an outsized role in the crusade against American slavery.” They may have been the first denomination to enforce an absolute prohibition against slaveholders in the church. Copeland builds on a body of research that D. Ray Wilcox submitted as his thesis at the University of Northern Colorado over 70 years ago. Chock-full of stories and original source material, this book will fascinate and inspire you.
Martha L. Moore-Keish
Brill, 2020
Publisher Description:
The purpose of this research guide is to show that contemporary Reformed theology is rethinking the doctrines of God, humanity and their relationship in significant ways that challenge old stereotypes and offer fresh wisdom for our world today. As expected, the result on many of the investigated tenets goes in different directions. But the reader gets a trustworthy introduction into specific tendencies in Reformed theology and at the same time an impression of the ecumenical potential and responsibility of the Reformed Church. There is no doubt that Reformed theological themes overlap with other confessional traditions.
Siang-yang Tan
Wipf & Stock, 2022
Publisher Description:
What does a Christian approach to counseling and psychotherapy involve? The 2021 Fuller Integration Symposium Lectures by Dr. Siang-Yang Tan, published in this book, cover this topic with the overall title of: "A Christian Approach to Counseling and Psychotherapy: Christ-Centered, Biblically Based, and Spirit-Filled." The three lectures in three chapters are on: (1) "A Christian Perspective on Human Nature and Effective Counseling and Psychotherapy"; (2) "Implicit and Explicit Integration in Christian Counseling and Psychotherapy: Christian Faith in Clinical Practice"; and (3) "The Role of the Holy Spirit in Christian Counseling and Psychotherapy."
Theology for Ministry: How Doctrine Affects Pastoral Life and Practice
Edited by William R. Edwards, John C.A. Ferguson, Chad Van Dixhoorn
P&R Publishing, 2022
Publisher Description:
Deeply connecting theology with practice, this volume seeks to recover the rich scriptural framework for ministry that is grounded in key Christian doctrines such as the Triune God and his decrees, the person and work of Christ, and the application of all the benefits and blessings that come to us through the Spirit in our union with Christ. Contributors such as Joel Beeke, Ligon Duncan, Michael Horton, and Robert Letham write out of their experience both as pastors and theologians, providing a pattern of rich biblical-theological reflection that a vibrant ministry demands and that those engaged in ministry need in order to be sustained in their work.
Warrior, King, Servant, Savior: Messianism in the Hebrew Bible and Early Jewish Texts
Torleif Elgvin
William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2022
Publisher Description:
An exegetical and diachronic survey of messianic texts from the Hebrew Bible and Jewish tradition up through the first millennium CE.
Jewish messianism can be traced back to the emerging Kingdom of Judah in the tenth century BCE, when it was represented by the Davidic tradition and the promise of a future heir to David's throne. From that point, it remained an important facet of Israelite faith, as evidenced by its frequent recurrence in the Hebrew Bible and other early Jewish texts. In preexilic texts, the expectation is for an earthly king—a son of David with certain ethical qualities—whereas from the exile onward there is a transition to a pluriform messianism, often with utopic traits.
Warrior, King, Servant, Savior is an exegetical and diachronic study of messianism in these texts that maintains close dialogue with relevant historical research and archaeological insights. Internationally respected biblical scholar Torleif Elgvin recounts the development and impact of messianism, from ancient Israel through the Hasmonean era and the rabbinic period, with rich chapters exploring messianic expectations in the Northern Kingdom, postexilic Judah, and Qumran, among other contexts. For this multifaceted topic—of marked interest to Jews, Christians, and secular historians of religion alike—Elgvin's handbook is the essential and definitive guide.
Interpreting Your World: Five Lenses for Engaging Theology and Culture
Justin Ariel Bailey
Baker Academic, 2022
Publisher Description:
Whether we interpret Scripture or culture, it matters what we do, not just what we think or feel. How do we live with our interpretation, and how do we live it out? This book helps us understand how culture forms us as political actors, moves us aesthetically, shapes the rhythms of our lives, and connects (or disconnects) us from God and neighbors we are called to love. The goal is to be equipped to engage culture with greater fluency and fidelity in response to the triune God.
This short, accessible introduction to the conversation between theology and culture offers a patient, thoughtful, and theologically attuned approach to cultural discernment. It helps us grow our interpretive skill by training our intuition and giving us a slower, more deliberate approach that accounts for as much of the complexity of culture as possible. The book explores 5 dimensions of culture--meaning, power, morality, religion, and aesthetic--and shows how each needs the others and all need theology. Each chapter includes distinctive practices for spiritual formation and practical application. Foreword by Kevin J. Vanhoozer.
Justo L. González, Catherine Gunsalus González
Westminster John Knox Press, 2022
Publisher Description:
While many histories of Christian worship exist, this project undertakes a task both more focused and more urgent. Rather than survey the whole history of the Christian church, it focuses on the formative period between the first and fifth centuries CE, when so many of the understandings and patterns of Christian worship came to be. And rather than include such developments as the monastic hours of prayer and the history of ordination, the authors deal primarily with those aspects of worship that recur on a weekly or regular basis: preaching, Eucharist, and baptism. The book divides its subject into three period. It begins with the emerging worship of the New Testament era. It moves to the second and third centuries, when the church's main tasks of establishing its identity in relation to its Jewish roots and making its way in a hostile Roman environment showed up in its theology and practice of worship. And it concludes with the fourth and fifth centuries, when introducing the increasing numbers of converts after Constantine to Christian faith became one of the highest priorities of the church's worship. This resource will serve as a valuable guide to the historical developments that brought about Christian worship as we know it today.
The Gospels as Stories: A Narrative Approach to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John
Jeannine K. Brown
Baker Academic, 2020
Publisher Description:
Popular writer and teacher Jeannine Brown shows how a narrative approach illuminates each of the Gospels, helping readers see the overarching stories. This book offers a corrective to tendencies to read the Gospels piecemeal, one story at a time. It is filled with numerous examples and visual aids that show how narrative criticism brings the text to life, making it an ideal supplementary textbook for courses on the Gospels. Readers will gain hands-on tools and perspectives to interpret the Gospels as whole stories.
O. Palmer Robertson
P&R Publishing, 2022
Publisher Description:
At the moment when Jesus entered the realm of redemptive history, God’s people and the hurting world needed no further promises or prophecies. The one thing they lacked was fulfillment—they needed the promised Messiah and his consummate kingdom to come.
Noted theologian O. Palmer Robertson’s three-volume The Christ of the Consummation explores progressive revelation across the redemptive history of the New Testament. The first volume, The Testimony of the Four Gospels, emphasizes the eyewitness character of the four men who attest to the supernatural in-breaking of the Christ. In the rich tapestry of the Gospels, we see Christ overcome the powers of Satan, gradually unveil his identity by words and works, call and commission disciples, die on the cross, be raised, and ascend to heaven. By each witnessing distinctive aspects of the coming of the King and the establishment of his kingdom, the gospel writers boldly describe a new phase in redemptive revelation.
God’s Righteousness and Justice in the Old Testament
Jože Krašovec
William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2022
Publisher’s Description:
A semantic study of God’s righteousness and justice in the Hebrew Bible that draws exegetical, theological, and philosophical conclusions about the character of God and God’s relationship with humanity.
God’s work of creation and salvation for the good of Israel, humanity, and the world manifests the nature of God’s being. Thus, if we can understand God’s characteristics of righteousness and justice, we can better understand God.
In the Hebrew Bible, these aspects of God are not expressed by abstract concepts but by semantic elements within literary structures. From this premise, Jože Krašovec undertakes the present study to put semantics into dialogue with exegesis and theology to illuminate exactly how God’s righteousness and justice in the Old Testament should be understood.
In the first part of the book, Krašovec analyzes occurrences of the Hebrew root ṣdq (meaning righteous) and other synonyms, working systematically through the entire Old Testament canon. In the second part, he builds off this lexical study with a more broadly exegetical, theological, and philosophical exploration of guilt, punishment, mercy, forgiveness, and reconciliation. Krašovec concludes, among other things, that the biblical writers use “righteousness” as an expression of God’s affection for faithful people, especially those in distress because of persecution. God’s righteousness therefore exists in the Hebrew Bible in relation to the righteousness of human individuals and communities. Justice—whether in the form of forgiveness for the penitent or punishment for those who have hardened their hearts against God—is always carried out with the goal of building better community among God’s people.
Worshipping a Crucified Man: Christians, Graeco-Romans and Scripture in the Second Century
Jeremy Hudson
James Clarke & Co, 2021
Publisher Description:
By the mid-second century Christian writers were engaging in debates with educated audiences from non-Jewish Graeco-Roman cultural backgrounds. A remarkable feature of some of the texts from this period is how extensively they refer to the Jewish scriptures, even though those scriptures were unfamiliar to non-Jewish Graeco-Romans. In Worshipping a Crucified Man, Jeremy Hudson explores for the first time why this should have been so by examining three works by Christian converts originally educated in Graeco-Roman traditions: Justin Martyr's First Apology, Tatian's Oratio and Theophilus of Antioch's Ad Autolycum. Hudson considers their literary strategies, their use of quotations and allusions and how they present the Jewish scriptures; all against the background of the Graeco-Roman literary culture familiar to both authors and audiences. The scriptures are presented as a critically defining feature of Christianity, instrumental in shaping the way the new religion presented itself, as it strove to engage with, and challenge, the cultural traditions of the Graeco-Roman world.
Honor, Patronage, Kinship & Purity: Unlocking New Testament Culture, 2nd ed.
David A. deSilva
Inter-Varsity Press, 2022
Publisher Description:
In this thoroughly revised and expanded edition of a milestone study, a careful explanation of four essential cultural themes offers readers a window into how early Christians sustained commitment to distinctly Christian identity and practice, and with it, a new appreciation of the New Testament, the gospel, and Christian discipleship.
God’s Heart for Children: Practical Theology from Global Perspectives
Edited by Rosalind Tan, Nativity A. Petallar, Lucy A. Hefford
Langham Global Library, 2022
Publisher Description:
In the New Testament, Jesus is explicit in communicating God's heart for children. Yet what does it look like for that heart to encounter the contextual realities of life in the twenty-first century? This book explores the theological implications and practical realities of ministry with children in a globalized world. Affirming eight core beliefs regarding the place of children in creation - that they are created with dignity and intended to be placed in families, cared for in community, advocated by society, secured in hope, affirmed in God's church, included in God's mission, and engaged in creation care - this book traces the impact of such far-reaching issues as displacement, climate change, human trafficking, persecution, and gender discrimination on childhood development. Written by over twenty contributors from around the world, each section roots its premise in contextual theology, examines the implications for praxis, provides a case study, and includes questions for discussion and reflection. Through each chapter the conversation around childhood development is broadened, prioritizing the experiences of children and practitioners to truly reflect the realities of our changing world. This is an excellent resource for all those concerned with the current risks facing children, especially among the world's most vulnerable populations, and what best practice looks like as the people of God work to bring God's heart, and hope, to children in their communities and beyond.
The Illustrated Westminster Shorter Catechism
Andrew Green, Saško Nezamutdinov, Ben Preston; Illustrator Ira Miniof
Christian Focus Publications, 2022
Publisher Description:
For almost 400 years families have been using The Westminster Shorter Catechism as a guide to understanding the basics of the Christian faith. This new, illustrated edition breathes fresh life into these timeless questions and answers, helping a new generation to learn the primary truths drawn from the Bible and laid out by our fathers in the faith. Ira Miniof’s striking images will help families engage with and meditate on the meaning of each entry. A valuable addition to any family’s library. Also includes a short glossary of practices and concepts used, and an index of Scripture proofs.