Timothy Beale The Book of Revelation: A Biography. Lives of Great Religious Books. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2018. Available at Amazon.com This book by Timothy Beale is a fun and readable exercise in reception-history. It is a fun ride into how Revelation has inspired also sorts of apocalyptic fantasies and expectations. Beale starts out discussion hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia, which fear of the number 666. He also notes debates over the canonicity of Revelation in the early church and how many feminists think the... Read more

Stephen G. Dempster  Micah  THOTC. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2017. Available at Amazon.com By Dr. Jill Firth This commentary on Micah was written in Cameroon, where wealth and poverty are strongly juxtaposed, and injustice in the courts, corruption and a prosperity mindset mirrored the setting of Micah in the seventh century BC. Dempster was challenged as an affluent Westerner, and also concerned for the development of a social conscience in the growing evangelical church in Cameroon. The introduction covers the Prophet... Read more

Barbara E. Reid  Wisdom’s Feast: An Invitation to Feminist Interpretation of the Scriptures  Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2016. Available from Amazon.com By Dr. Jill Firth “Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed.” Barbara Reid uses the invitation of Woman Wisdom in Proverbs 9.5–6 as a lens for accessing her feminist readings of Old and New Testament texts. Reid is professor of New Testament at Catholic Theological Union, Chicago, and a Dominican Sister of Grand Rapids.... Read more

Ellen F. Davis, with Austin McIver Dennis Preaching the Luminous Word: Biblical Sermons and Homiletical Essays  Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2016. Available at Amazon.com By Dr. Jill Firth Have you ever gone home from church, still chuckling about a funny anecdote from the sermon, or moved by a contemporary illustration, but unable to recall what the day’s Bible text was? In Preaching the Luminous Word, Ellen Davis offers an introduction to exegetical preaching, where we are invited to enter the world... Read more

I’m looking forward to recording a short video series on Paul with Seminary Now in the near future. Seminary Now is a new, on-demand streaming video platform that provides exclusive Bible, theology, and ministry courses from today’s leading teachers, ministry practitioners, and authors. In associating with InterVarsity Press, it will provide some great content for churches, colleges, and seminaries. Like Netflix or Disney+, subscribers get unlimited access to all courses—available on smartphone, tablet, and TV devices. You can earn also a certificate... Read more

Every now and then I pick up something on Paul, gender, and culture, to keep myself abreast of how biblical studies and gender studies interface – though I’m no expert in this field, it is a somewhat exotic area of discourse with its own lexicon and luminaries, quite different from the more mundane history and theology seminars that I usually inhabit. That said, there’s always interesting stuff to find here, and I’ve learned a lot. Most recently, I’ve had a... Read more

Nijay Gupta Reading Philippians: A Theological Introduction Cascade Companions Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2020. Available at Wipf & Stock. Nijay and I have written a Philippians commentary together, however, this little book by Nijay on Philippians is a great companion and an excellent summary of Philippians and its well worth getting if you are a pastor/teacher. The book has good descriptions of the Philippian’s situation, Paul’s ministry, letter writing and rhetoric. Gutpa regards 1:27 as something of a central thesis of... Read more

Okay, I’ve been slowly reading Tom Holland’s Dominion and it is easily one of the best books of the year. In sum, the book is a breath-taking analysis of western history and Holland shows through episode after episode how much of our western values and beliefs are umbilically connected to Christianity. A good summary of the book is this quote: Just as a bishop of Oxford refused to consider that he might be descended from an ape, so now are many... Read more

David J. H.  Beldman Judges Two Horizons Old Testament Commentary Series Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2020. Available at Eerdmans. Reviewed by Dr. Lindsay Wilson. This is a good book in a series that takes seriously the theological message of the Old Testament. It is more self-consciously theological than others in the series (the 3 sections are theological introduction, theological commentary and theological reflection). Amongst other volumes in this series, it surprisingly stands out in giving nearly 60% of the words to... Read more