John H. Walton and J. Harvey Walton. The Lost World of the Israelite Conquest: Covenant, Retribution and the Fate of the Canaanites. Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2017. Available at IVP. Review by Dr. Jill Firth The Israelite conquest of Canaan under Joshua is one of the most troubling biblical narratives for modern Western readers. ‘Is God some kind of moral monster that he would commit or condone genocide?’ This question distresses sceptics and Christians alike, and has motivated John Walton... Read more

David L. Baker. The Decalogue: Living as the People of God. Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2017. Availabe at IVP. Review by Dr. Jill Firth David L. Baker has been a deputy warden of Tyndale House, Cambridge, and a lecturer in biblical studies in Indonesia, Australia and the UK. He has published on Old Testament and the relationship between the Testaments. In The Decalogue: Living as the People of God, Baker gives a clearly written introduction to the Decalogue that is... Read more

Susan J. Wendel and David M. Miller (eds). Torah Ethics and Early Christian Identity. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2016. Available at Amazon.com Review by Dr. Jill Firth Torah Ethics and Early Christian Identity addresses a central question: ‘in what ways did the Mosaic law continue to serve as a positive reference point for Christ-believers regardless of whether they thought Torah observance was essential?’ To honour the work of Stephen Westerholm, Wendel and Miller gathered a stellar line up of experts alongside... Read more

Proud to announce that the second edition of my Evangelical Theology (2013) is now available for pre-order with a view to an October 2020 release. I’ve been elated by the success of the first edition, I’ve received positive feedback from professors, pastors, and students from all over the world, it was quite heartwarming. I think people have genuinely appreciated an attempt at systematic theology that makes the gospel the center, boundary, and integrating point of theology, that discipleship is about being... Read more

Peter Enns Inspiration and Incarnation: Evangelicals and the Problem of the Old Testament. Second edition. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2015. Available from Baker. Review by Dr. Jill Firth, This ‘tenth anniversary edition’ is slightly revised from the original, 2005 edition, which was written ‘firmly and self-consciously in support of a “progressive inerrantist” or “genre inerrantist” point of view. Enns notes in the Preface to this revised edition that he no longer uses the term “inerrancy” due to the ‘accumulated cultural... Read more

The evangelical blogosophere has been busy with some disputes over what is the gospel or, more properly, what is the correct emphasis in the gospel. On the one hand, there is the T4G crowd arguing for “justification by faith” as the centre of the gospel with some kingdom and kingship trimmings exemplified by Greg Gilbert in his book What is the Gospel? and more recently in his T4G talk What Is and Isn’t the Gospel. Gilbert critiques Scot McKnight and Matthew Bates... Read more

Lissa M. Wray Beal. Joshua. The Story of God Bible Commentary. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2019. Available through Zondervan. Reviewed by Andrew Judd. Lissa Wray Beal’s commentary on the book of Joshua is a superb and timely addition to Zondervan’s The Story of God Bible Commentary series. It will equip and embolden, I am sure, more preachers to tackle this important and often neglected part of God’s word in the pulpit. The Story of God Bible Commentary is a promising... Read more

Ron Highfield  The Faithful Creator: Affirming Creation and Providence in an Age of Anxiety  Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2015. Available at IVP. Review by Dr. Jill Firth Ron Highfield seeks to avoid the problems of openness and determinist theologies by examining the doctrines of creation and providence together. Openness theology may leave us feeling subject to ‘the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune’, while determinism may leave us feeling powerless and helpless to act in the face of anxiety. Highfield... Read more

J. Richard Middleton A New Heaven and a New Earth: Reclaiming Biblical Eschatology  Grand Rapids: Baker, 2014. Available at Baker Academic. By Dr. Jill Firth In the preface to A New Heaven and a New Earth, Richard Middleton recapitulates the intellectual underpinnings of his book in his undergraduate days in Jamaica and graduate studies in Toronto. The writings of Francis Schaeffer and George Eldon Ladd strengthened his understanding that ‘the Bible nowhere claims that “heaven” is the final home of... Read more

Andrew Abernethy is an Associate Professor of Old Testament at Wheaton College. You can follow him at Twitter @AbernethyOTProf. “Let us eat, drink, and be merry.” We should follow this advice. Yet, if you are like me, emotions of guilt flood moments of joy during this indefinite stay-at-home as thousands lose their lives. Thanks to Dave Matthews, many Gen X and Millennials learned “let us eat, drink, and be merry” from his hit song “Tripping Billies.” Few realize that this... Read more