We can not read every book that we’d like to read. That is why we need to take advantage of book reviews. If we find one that really stands out, we then can decide to buy it. With that in mind, here are a few books reviews you mind find interesting from the most recent issue of Themelios.

Old Testament, New Testament, & Ethics

Echoes of Exodus: Tracing Themes of Redemption through Scripture (by Alastair Roberts and Andrew Wilson)

According to the reviewers, the authors’ “stated purpose for Echoes of Exodus is to convince readers that “Scripture contains all sorts of connections, riffs, and themes” which may have heretofore been missed, and to do that by showing rather than telling (p. 13).”

Outsider Designations and Boundary Construction in the New Testament: Christian Communities and the Formation of Group Identity (by Paul Treblico)

I reviewed this book. At the end of the review, I conclude:

“The early church did not eradicate all social distinctions; in a sense, they reinforced the lines that distinguished insiders from outsiders. Trebilco concludes, “to undermine all outsider labels would be to destroy group boundaries and hence group identity” (p. 286). Accordingly, this book will benefit anyone who wants to consider how biblical writers both understood and shaped the church’s sense of identity amid diverse social groups.”

Known by God: A Biblical Theology of Identity (by Brian Rosner)

The reviewer opens,

“In Known by God, Brian Rosner offers a very satisfying study of biblical anthropology framed by the question of identity. Repeatedly, and rightly, he returns to the fact that being known by God is the ground of all human identity, and to be known by God is to be a child of God.”

From the Mission & Culture Section

In this issue, the M&C section is jam packed with book reviews. I will list them below.

God in the Movies: A Guide for Exploring Four Decades of Film by Catherine M. Barsotti and Robert K. Johnston, eds

Reading the Bible Missionally by Michael W. Goheen, ed.

Happiness in America: A Cultural History by Lawrence R. Samuel

Christianity in the Twentieth Century: A World History by Brian Stanley

The Scandal of Evangelism: A Biblical Study of the Ethics of Evangelism by Elmer John Thiessen

Evangelism in a Skeptical World: How to Make the Unbelievable News About Jesus More Believable by Sam Chan

Multiplying Churches in Japanese Soil by John Mehns

The End of Theology: Shaping Theology for the Sake of Mission by Jason Sexton and Paul Weston, eds

Encountering the History of Missions: From Early Church to Today by John Mark Terry and Robert L. Gallagher

All the News That’s Fit to Tell and How to Tell It: How to Write Christian Newsletters by Amy Young

Have you read any of these? What did you think? Which ones sound most interesting to you? Feel free to leave a comment with you own review. By the way, in the name of full disclosure, I am the book review editor for Themelios’ M&C section.

For previous noteworthy book reviews, click here.