New Commentary Series (Eerdmans): Guess Who Wrote the Launch Volume?

There are some folks who think the production of new commentaries series is foolish or bound to fail. But I am on the side that has always appreciated commentaries and I welcome new perspectives and fresh contributions. Eerdmans has a long and distinguished reputation for producing sterling commentaries, not least NICNT, NIGTC, and Two Horizons series.

Eerdmans is announcing a new series called Commentaries for Christian Formation (CCF). Here is the series description:

The Commentaries for Christian Formation (CCF) series serves a central purpose of the Word of God for the people of God: faith formation. Some series focus on exegesis, some on preaching, some on teaching, and some on application. This new series integrates all these aims, serving the church by showing how sound theological exegesis can underwrite preaching and teaching, which in turn forms believers in the faith.

Uniting these volumes is a shared conviction that interpreting Scripture is not an end in itself. Faithful belief, prayer, and practice, deeper love of God and neighbor: these are ends of scriptural interpretation for Christians. The volumes in Commentaries for Christian Formation interpret Scripture in ways aimed at ordering readers’ lives and worship in imitation of Christ, informing their understanding of God, and animating their participation in the church’s global mission with a deepened sense of calling.

Now, it is crucial that a new series launches strongly, and CCF went big with the first volume coming from the one and only NT Wright on Galatians (~400 pp.; $40). I am really excited about this commentary, as I am currently in the throes of writing a commentary on Galatians myself (Story of God, Zondervan). But, alas, we will have to wait until May—which feels like an eternity—but it is something to look forward to in 2021.

Book Description: Galatians is often read by Christians as being primarily concerned with the traditional doctrine of justification through faith, but it is also a text focused deeply on the political concerns of its specific historical moment. This commentary from N. T. Wright—the inaugural volume of the Commentaries for Christian Formation series—offers a theological interpretation of Galatians that puts that historical context of the book in dialogue with present questions, so that readers can understand both what Paul meant and what his writing might mean for us today. 

Each section of verse-by-verse commentary in this volume is followed by Wright’s reflections on what the text says about Christian formation today, making this an excellent resource for individual readers and those preparing to teach or preach on Galatians. The focus on formation is especially appropriate for this biblical letter, in which Paul wrote to his fellow early Christians, “My children—I seem to be in labor with you all over again, until the Messiah is fully formed in you!”