Book Review: Divided by Faith, by Michael Emerson and Christian Smith

Divided by Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America is a historical and sociological study of white evangelical attitudes toward white-black relations.  I found it fascinating.  I should also try to read some reviews by trained sociologists who may be able to offer some insight into their research methods.
Emerson and Smith state [...]

The European Heritage of Zionism

I’ve been episodically reading David Engel’s Zionism in Pearson’s “Short Histories of Big Ideas” series.  It seems like a good, fair, and readable introduction to the topic.
He distinguishes Zionism from “activist messianism.”  The latter, a religious movement,  grew in the 16th and 17th centuries and resulted in migration to Palestine in the 18th and 19th [...]

Book Review: “Black and Tan” by Douglas Wilson

While looking at Doug Wilson’s blog one day, I happened to notice that he wrote a book on slavery and culture wars.  Black and Tan: Essays and Excursions on Slavery, Culture War, and Scripture in America seemed to be a great book to pair with America’s God, since both books discuss 19th-century American Christianity.
The story [...]

Book Review: Mark Noll, America’s God: From Jonathan Edwards to Abraham Lincoln

My first response to Noll’s work is to express my appreciation and respect for the amount of research and expertise that went into writing America’s God.  Noll has a tremendous grasp of the different theological traditions of 18th- and 19th-century America, and displays impressive familiarity with the broader history of the United States in the [...]

Lincoln Bests the Theologians

The last major chapter of America’s God compares the subtlety and humility of Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address in March 1865 with the way that theologians talked about the Civil War, which Noll finds predictable and self-righteous.  Noll writes that while American theologians in the mid-19th century often believed that they could interpret God’s sovereign will [...]

American hermeneutics and slavery

After chronicling the Americanization of Calvinist and Methodist theology, Mark Noll in America’s God turns to American biblical hermeneutics, the way that Americans read the Bible, in Chapters 18-20.  Noll argues that the American approach to Scripture in this period also came from both their Protestant heritage and their revolutionary/early national circumstances.  Noll has argued [...]

Calvinism and Methodism get Americanized

Chapters 13-17 of America’s God consider the process by which the two major theological traditions in early America became Americanized; in other words, each began using the language and assumptions that fit with the broader culture’s republican and commonsense philosophies.  This meant the softening of beliefs about man’s inherent and inherited depravity into a more [...]

Book Review: “The Meaning of the Millennium: Four Views”

This is a bit dated but each of the contributors’ essays represent well the dispensational pre-mill, historic pre-mill, amill, and post-mill views. There hadn’t been much more to add to these views as they were here represented.
First off, Hoyt’s defense of a dispensational pre-mill view follows the standard dispy hermeneutic. The one strength of [...]

Book Review of “Understanding Four Views on Baptism”

First off, I want to say that I am fairly convinced of ‘believer’s baptism’, having taken a sabbatical leave in my past to study the issue, after having even studied it pretty intensely prior to that. I only say that as a disclaimer so you knwo where i am coming from.
I read this couterpoint [...]

John Polkinghorne on “The Nature of Science”

That’s the title of the second chapter of his book One World: The Interaction of Science and Theology (2007, originally 1986).  He argues that the triumphal view that science comprehends the universe with complete objectivity is false, just as the postmodern critiques of science as a purely social phenomenon that depends only on the judgment of the [...]

Book Review of George Montague’s “Holy Spirit: Growth of a Biblical Tradition”

Montague, G.T. (1994). Holy Spirit: Growth of a Biblical Tradition. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson.
 Commenting on Joel, Montague suggests the following:
This passage from Joel, written probably in the fourth century B.C., stands on the divide between classical prophecy and apocalyptic or “end-time” prophecy. Although the immediate occasion for the prophecy seems to have been a plague of [...]

Review of Charles Holman’s “Till Jesus Comes: Origins of Christian Apocalyptic Expectation”

Holman, Charles L.: Till Jesus Comes : Origins of Christian Apocalyptic Expectation. Peabody, Mass. : Hendrickson Publishers, 1996
For more information on Dr. Charles Holman, visit: http://www.regent.edu/acad/schdiv/holman/charles.shtml
Holman comments on Joel 2-3 as follows:
Following material blessing, a deluge of the Spirit “on all flesh” is foreseen, answering to the downpour in verse 23 which replenished the earth [...]

Review of Greg Carey “Ultimate Things: An Introduction to Jewish and Christian Apocalyptic Literature”

Carey, G. (2005). Ultimate Things: An Introduction to Jewish and Christian Apocalyptic Literature. St. Louis, MO: Chalice.

Commenting on Joel 2:28-32, Carey (2005:61) says:
…it proclaimed an eschatological age marked by prophetic and visionary activity…Peter recites part of the passage to interpret the manifestations of the Spirit at Pentecost (2:16-21). Likewise, Paul, who testifies to prophetic activity [...]

Book Review of O. Palmer Robertson “Christ of the Prophets”

Robertson, O. P. (2008). The Christ of the Prophets (Abridged ed.). Phillipsburg, N.J.: P&R Pub.
“Yet despite this image of a universal judgment of the nations, Joel cannot be perceived as narrowly nationalistic in his attitude toward the peoples of the world. For in connection with the promised restoration of Israel after its judgment, Joel declares [...]

Review of G.K. Beale’s “The New Testament and New Creation”

                                          
Beale, G.K. (2002). The New Testament and New Creation. In Hafemann, S.J. (ed), Biblical Theology: Retrospect & Prospect. Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity.
 
 The phrase “latter days” occurs approximately twenty-seven times in the NT, and only sometimes [...]

Geerhardus Vos = Charismatic Theologian?

Okay, I know that some are about to stone me for even mentioning Geerhardus Vos and charismatic in the same sentence. It was intended to be provocative, but I must say that Vos’ pnuematological insights align well with a Redemptive-Charismatic hermeneutic. He quotes:
The position of Jesus in the development of pneumatology as between the Old [...]

Book Review of Max Lucado’s “For These Tough Times”

I have never read a Max Lucado book before and must admit that I thought it would be a waste of time. I was pleasantly surprised  by most of what Lucado had to say.
For one, Lucado adresses the issue of tragedy and pain by beginning with God. He doesn’t even emphasize God’s imminence,nearness, or the [...]

Review of Max Turner’s “’The Spirit of Prophecy’ As the Power of Israel’s Restoration and Witness”

Turner, Max. 1998. The ‘Spirit of Prophecy’ As the Power of Israel’s Restoration and Witness. In “Witness to the Gospel: The Theology of Acts” edited by Marshall, I.H. & Peterson, D.

The essential background for Luke’s pneumatological material is Jewish and deeply rooted in the OT (Turner 1998:328).

Most folks tend to recognize the Gospel of Matthew [...]

Review of Thomas Oden’s “Life in the Spirit” and thoughts on Pentecost as Precursor to Global Harvest, and Sign of New Covenant Blessing for ALL Who Call on the Name of the Lord, and the Overflow of the Spirit beyond Jerusalem unto ALL Nations

 
Oden, T.C. (1992). Life in the Spirit. San Francisco, CA: Harper Collins.

Fifty days after firstfruits, two loaves of bread were offered, the yeast of which prefigured the formation of the church on the day of Pentecost (Oden 1992:59).
The Christian Pentecost referred backward to the Levitical Feast of Weeks and forward to the celestial banquet in [...]

Thoughts on W. Hildebrandt’s “An Old Testament Theology of the Spirit of God”…and thoughts on the Ramifications of the “Prophethood” of all Believers to New Testament Ecclesiology

Hildebrandt, W. (1995). An Old Testament Theology of the Spirit of God. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson.

Yahweh’s action in pouring out the Spirit has extensive effects. “I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on my servants, [...]

Thoughts on the Missiological Intent of Pentecost …and F.D. Bruner’s “A Theology of the Holy Spirit: The Pentecostal Experience and the New Testament Witness”

Bruner, F.D. (1998). A Theology of the Holy Spirit: The Pentecostal Experience and the New Testament Witness. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock.

It is in Luke’s interest as he develops the Pentecost events in Acts 2 that the meaning of Pentecost be found not in the interior spiritual life of the disciples nor even in the [...]

Thoughts on R.V.G. Tasker’s, “The Old Testament in the New Testament”, as it relates to Pentecost

Tasker, R.V.G. (1947). “The Old testament in the New Testament”, Phila: Westminster Press.
St. Peter’s speech, however, which follows the incident, interprets it not just as another occurrence of common religious phenomenon, but as something unique. He interprets it as the fulfillment of words of the prophet Joel, prophetic of the Messianic age, when [...]

Book Review of Marcus Buckingham’s “The Truth About You”

 

More information about this book can be found at the publisher’s site: http://www.thomasnelson.com/consumer/custom/top_titles/The_Truth_About_You_Marcus_Buckingham.asp
The author, Marcus Buckingham, offers yet another title in what is becoming an increasingly popular genre of “self help” or “leadership development”. There is honestly nothing much new in this book that I haven’t already seen in some of the few “leadership” books [...]

Book Review of Dan Lioy’s “The Divine Sabotage”

Dr. Lioy’s recent monograph, “The Divine Sabotage”, reflects upon the book of Ecclesiastes and offers the reader analysis of its text and broader purpose within the fuller canon of Scripture. Lioy comments:
When we candidly and objectively look at the facts, we should not be surprised that at times our existence seems vague, in­congruous, and antithetical. [...]

Book Review Part 9 of Dan Lioy’s, “Jesus as Torah in John 1-12″

 
This 9th review will cover Dr. Lioy’s treatment of John 6 in his monologue. He subtitles this section, “Jesus as Torah Offers the Bread of Life”.
 
Lioy notes that Jesus shifts his ministry from Jerusalem to Galilee, which immediately leads to the miracle of feeding a great multitude. Such a sign would hearken, or should have [...]

Book Review of “Miraculous Gifts for Today? Four Views”, Sam Storms Response to Richard Gaffin Jr.

Storms C S 1996. A Third Wave Response To Richard B. Gaffin, Jr. In Grudem W A (ed), Are Miraculous Gifts For Today? Four Views . Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
 
Dr. Storms (1996:73), in his response to respected scholar Dr. Richard B. Gaffin, deals specifically with Gaffin’s contention that Pentecost should be viewed as the climax [...]

Book Review of Ronald Kydd’s “Charismatic Gifts in the Early Church”…Well Documented Defense of Spiritual Gifts into the 3rd Century

 

 
Kydd, Ronald A. (1997). Charismatic Gifts in the Early Church: An Exploration Into the Gifts of the Spirit During the First Three Centuries of the Christian Church. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson.
For more on author Dr. Ronald Kydd, visit:  http://www.tyndale.ca/seminary/viewfaculty.php?id=85
 
This very brief book analyzes the theology and presence of Spiritual gifts in the Post-Apostolic era. Kydd examines [...]

Book Review of W. Bingham Hunter’s “The God Who Hears”

Prof. Hunter doesn’t deal in a shallow fashion with prayer, but engages the major theological mysteries concerning prayer with a scholars mind and a prayers’ heart. The book is easy to read and I felt as if Prof. Hunter was having a conversation with me.
The insights on questions such as: “Does prayer change God’s mind?”; [...]

Book Review of Sam Storms’ “The Beginner’s Guide to Spiritual Gifts”

Storms, Sam. (2002) The Beginner’s Guide to Spiritual Gifts. Ventura, CA: Regal Books.
Dr. Storms stays true to the title and offers an insightful introductory primer on Spiritual gifts, namely the “charismata” mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12 by the apostle Paul. Storms weaves non-technical exegesis in related texts, personal testimonies of his relation to the exercise [...]

Book Review Part 8 of Dan Lioy’s “Jesus as Torah in John 1-12″; Chp. 5 “Jesus as Torah in John 5-6″

  
Chapter 5 “Jesus as Torah in John 5-6”
Part 1 (Examining treatment of Jesus as Torah in John 5)
Dr. Lioy views a shift in John’s emphasis from chps. 1-4 as emphasizing Jesus as the eternal Tanakh against the backdrops of Jewish piety and history towards a comparison of Jesus with some of the major festivals of [...]