For the Classroom

This is the time of year when publishers offer new books for the classroom — and I want to mention five splendid ones, and I will be blogging about some of these too.

David P. Capes, Rodney Reeves, E. Randolph Richards, Rediscovering Jesus: An Introduction to Biblical, Religious and Cultural Perspectives on Jesus. The heart of the gospel is christology; the heart of the NT is christology; here is a textbook, then, that takes us to the heart of the gospel and the NT.

Aaron Chalmers, Interpreting the Prophets: Reading, Understanding and Preaching from the Worlds of the Prophets. Let’s face it, folks in the church need to experience a steep learning curve before it will be common knowledge that prophets are social critics and providing God’s view of the present more than (but not denying) God’s vision of the future. They do forth-telling more than fore-telling.  Aaron Chalmers’ new book is the place to begin.

Eerdmans has a wonderful new series underway, and it will introduce each book of the NT to students who need a solid, academically-responsible but accessible-for-students volumes. They will focus on central ideas, main lines of interpretation, and the significance of the book for today.

Ian Boxall, Discovering Matthew: Content, Interpretation, Reception.

Ruth B. Edwards, Discovering John: Content, Interpretation, Reception.

B.C. Blackwell, J.K. Goodrich, J. Maston, eds., Reading Romans in Context: Paul and Second Temple Judaism. Romans is hard enough to read; made harder by the deep tension of scholarship over how to read Paul; and this gets more complex when we attempt to discern Romans in historical context. This book is a good place to begin.