Craig Bartholomew on Old Testament Wisdom and Politics

Most of the recent issues of Ethics in Conversation from the Kirby Laing Centre have been book reviews, and I haven’t bothered posting them here. But the latest is a piece by Craig Bartholomew on ‘Old Testament Wisdom and Politics’, which unpacks the following main points:

1. Faith and wisdom embrace and include in their remit politics and government

2. Faith and wisdom recognise that politics can go horribly wrong.

3. Wise politics prioritises the afflicted, the poor, the needy and those without a voice

4. OT Israel was never a democracy, but OT wisdom orients us in important ways

It’s available as a pdf here.

Proverbs #2: A Wisdom That Builds

By wisdom the LORD laid the earth’s foundations,

by understanding he set the heavens in place;

by his knowledge the deeps were divided,

and the clouds let drop the dew.

Proverbs 3:19-20

By wisdom a house is built,

and through understanding it is established;

through knowledge its rooms are filled with rare and beautiful treasures.

Proverbs 24:3-4

It sometimes comes as a surprise for readers of Scripture to learn that the Book of Proverbs hardly ever refers to the major themes of the Bible – like covenant, redemption, law, kingship, and temple. Of course, given that ‘the fear of the LORD’ is the first principle of wisdom (Proverbs 1:7), it could be said that the book everywhere presupposes the special, saving relationship established between ‘the LORD’ (‘Yahweh’ – God’s covenant name) and his people at Mount Sinai.

As it turns out, however, wisdom is rooted even further back in the biblical story – in creation. Wisdom is grounded in the orderly regulation of the world by the creator God.

In using the words ‘laid’ and ‘set in place’, Proverbs 3:19 portrays God as an architect and builder who lays down a strong foundation and sets in place a building’s walls or columns. And he constructs this cosmic house (creation) by his wisdom, understanding, and knowledge. Incidentally, these are the same sort of qualities of those involved in the building of the tabernacle (Exodus 31:1-3) and the temple (1 Kings 7:14). Those constructions are understood to be microcosms – mini versions – of God’s creation, and are also built with wisdom, understanding, and knowledge.

Proverbs 24:3-4, using the same words (wisdom, knowledge, understanding), reminds us that we too build in harmony with God’s own work, in God’s own way. The wisdom used by God in building and sustaining the house of creation is the same wisdom now given back to his people, to be eagerly desired by his people, in order to live wisely in his world.

And, as the rest of the book demonstrates, the call to wisdom is applicable in different spheres of life – at the city gates and in the market squares, in our homes and in our workplaces, in our bedrooms and in our boardrooms – where God’s people are called to wise ‘building’ in God’s house of creation. Far from being removed from the rhythms of our everyday life, such ‘building’ embraces a range of skills and practices, worked out concretely in the kitchen, on the field, and at the desk, wherever God has called us, and where the model for such activities is God’s own wise work.

Whatever you’re turning your hand to this week, do it with wisdom, understanding, and knowledge – follow the pattern set by the creator God.

Recommendations on Biblical Wisdom

I wrote the following mini reviews for a recent edition of Highlights, produced by the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity.

The Bible Project – Wisdom series

With their combination of creative animation and careful narration, The Bible Project videos – freely available online – say a lot and say it well. Their ‘Wisdom Series’ introduces Proverbs, Job, and Ecclesiastes, exploring how all three show what living well in God’s world looks like, each one offering their distinctive perspective on the ‘good life’, and all affirming that the journey to becoming wise begins with the fear of the Lord.

Tremper Longman III, The Fear of the Lord is Wisdom: A Theological Introduction to Wisdom in Israel (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2017).

This is the best work for those looking for a comprehensive treatment of wisdom in the Bible. In addition to introducing the main biblical wisdom books, Longman explores the presence of wisdom elsewhere in the Old Testament, the characteristics of Israelite wisdom in its ancient setting, some debated issues in the study of biblical wisdom, and the presence of wisdom in subsequent Jewish writings and the New Testament. Highly recommended.

Elaine A. Phillips, An Introduction to Reading Biblical Wisdom Texts (Peabody: Hendrickson, 2017).

Reading this book is like having a personal tutorial with an expert teacher and guide, someone with that rare ability to communicate complex ideas concisely and well. With brief chapters, engagingly written but rooted in careful scholarship, Phillips offers a wonderfully accessible introduction to wisdom and an overview of the Bible’s wisdom books (including Song of Songs), with a mixture of reflection on content and discussion of issues of interpretation.

The Whole of Life for Christ (2): Whole-Life Wisdom

I contributed today’s ‘Word for the Week’, a weekly email service provided by the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity. It’s the second in a series introducing themes explored more fully in the book, The Whole of Life for Christ: Enriching Everyday Discipleship, written with Mark Greene.

God gave Solomon wisdom and very great insight, and a breadth of understanding as measureless as the sand on the seashore. Solomon’s wisdom was greater than the wisdom of all the people of the East, and greater than all the wisdom of Egypt. He was wiser than anyone else... He spoke about plant life, from the cedar of Lebanon to the hyssop that grows out of walls. He also spoke about animals and birds, reptiles and fish. From all nations people came to listen to Solomon’s wisdom, sent by all the kings of the world, who had heard of his wisdom.

1 Kings 4:29-34

Something greater than Solomon is here.

Matthew 12:42

There are many things a king might ask of God given the opportunity to do so: good health and long life, numerous descendants, prosperity for himself and his people, the subjugation of enemies. Yet, Solomon asks for ‘a discerning heart’ (1 Kings 3:9) in order to govern the nation.

Although God gave Solomon wisdom, it didn’t arrive as a ready-made package from heaven. 1 Kings 4:29-34 describes how Solomon became a student of both the ‘natural’ creation and neighbouring cultures. The comparison of his wisdom to that of renowned wise figures beyond Israel’s borders implicitly pays tribute to the value of the wisdom of surrounding nations, even while claiming that Solomon surpassed it.

But such insight and understanding was not for Solomon alone. Biblical wisdom is grounded in the ongoing regulation of the world by the creator God, and its first principle is the ‘fear of the Lord’ (Proverbs 1:7), flowing out of reverent relationship with the covenant God – and it’s available for all those who seek to live wisely in God’s world.

Far from removing us from the rhythms of our everyday existence, such wisdom embraces a range of skills and practices, worked out in different spheres of life – at the city gates and in the market squares, in our homes and in our workplaces, with our children and with our colleagues, in our bedrooms and in our boardrooms – wherever God has called us.

If all this seems too challenging, from James comes the encouragement that if any of us ‘lacks wisdom’, we may ‘ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given’ to us (James 1:5) – a reminder that wisdom still comes as a gift from God, even as we seek to cultivate it in our lives.

In the light of how he starts, Solomon’s ultimate failure is all the more tragic, reminding us that wisdom can be misplaced, and encouraging us to look for one ‘greater than Solomon’ (Matthew 12:42). So it is that wisdom remains a key feature of the Christian life, as it did for the ancient Israelite, but is now focused on the person and work of Jesus. The ‘fear of the Lord’ and the way of life that flows from it find their fullest expression in relationship with Christ, ‘who has become for us wisdom from God’ (1 Corinthians 1:30).

Southern Baptist Journal of Theology 15, 3 (2011) on Ecclesiastes

The most recent edition of the Southern Baptist Journal of Theology is now online, this one devoted to Ecclesiastes.

In addition to the Editorial (‘Recovering the Message of Ecclesiastes for the Church Today’) by Stephen Wellum, and the Book Reviews, one article by Graeme Goldsworthy is available as a sample: ‘Wisdom and its Literature in Biblical-Theological Context’.

A flavour of the approach of the volume is indicated in Wellum’s editorial when he comments on the translation of the notoriously nebulous word, hebel (‘meaninglessness’, ‘vanity’, etc.):

‘[A] better translation is that of “vapor” which conveys a number of nuances depending upon the context, but it is clear that hebel does not teach that the author views life as mere vanity and futility. In the use of hebel, the Teacher is not affirming the meaninglessness of life; instead he is affirming that life lived under God’s providential rule in a fallen, sin-cursed world is rarely understandable to us and hence incredibly elusive and often enigmatic, hence the need to trust the Lord and to walk before him obediently... Parecisely because we are creatures and not the Creator, and we live in this sin-cursed world reserved for judgment, life is often inscrutable to us’ (3).

A Time to be Silent and a Time to Speak

[I contributed today’s ‘Word for the Week’, a weekly email service provided by the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity; it’s a contribution to an ongoing, but fairly unsystematic, series on Proverbs.]

Do not answer fools according to their folly,

or you yourself will be just like them.

Answer fools according to their folly,

or they will be wise in their own eyes.

Proverbs 26:4-5

Do not answer. Answer. So, which is it? Even some rabbis struggled with the ‘contradiction’ between the two sayings, deciding that one should correct the fool only when interpreting the Torah was at stake.

As it happens, the seemingly random mixture of individual proverbs throughout the book mean the sayings would work on their own if they were isolated from each other; placed side by side, however, they do something more.

As the second line in each case indicates, there is wisdom in both courses of action. On the one hand, in responding like a fool, we risk becoming like the fool. On the other hand, it’s not always wise to let fools have the last word, in case they mistake their folly for wisdom. All of which is even more significant when there are others around, listening in – during a team meeting, a presentation, or a coffee break conversation.

On their own, the pair of proverbs say nothing about the circumstances which require which type of response or even how the ‘fool’ should be identified. The point is that, at such and such a time one response is to be favoured over the other. Wisdom, in this case, is a matter of what is fitting and what is timely – knowing what to say and when to say it.

The two aphorisms also provide a helpful pointer to how proverbial sayings work more generally. Implicit in the book of Proverbs is the call to live with the ambiguities of life, often in relationship with others, and to navigate wisely through alternate courses of action. In such situations, individual proverbs are not moral absolutes which apply in all circumstances; no one saying contains the whole truth on a particular matter. And so the application of them requires discernment – careful reading of the proverb itself and the situation in which we find ourselves.

And we do all this with the encouragement that if any of us ‘lacks wisdom’, we may ‘ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given’ to us (James 1:5).

Jeremy Begbie on Theology

Buried in the Introduction to Jeremy S. Begbie’s Resounding Truth: Christian Wisdom in the World of Music, Engaging Culture (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2007) is a superb three-page treatment of the nature of theology.

He writes:

‘I am taking theology to be the disciplined thinking and rethinking of the Christian gospel for the sake of fostering a wisdom that is nourished by, and nourishes, the church in its worship and mission to the world’ (19, his italics).

He then unpacks that statement phrase by phrase...

• Disciplined thinking and rethinking – a form of thinking that ‘is affected by, and out to affect, every human faculty – including our willing, feeling, sensing, and bodily actions’ (19).

• Of the Christian Gospel – ‘the announcement that in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, the Triune Creator, the God of Israel, has acted decisively to reconcile the world to himself’ (20).

• For the sake of fostering a wisdom – a practical orientation, and ‘directed toward a lifestyle thoroughly “in tune” with God’ (20).

• Nourished by, and nourishes, the church in its worship and mission to the world – such that ‘the gospel finds its outworking in a people gathered by God’s Spirit to share God’s life and make known what he has done in Jesus Christ, a people of worship called to be in and for the world’ (20).

He reflects, in conclusion:

‘In the sense I have described it, theology can and should be practiced by all Christians, not only professionally trained academics. All Christians who think intelligently about their faith along these lines are theologians’ (21).

D.A. Carson on the Bible’s Literary Genres (2)

The London School of Theology 2011 Laing Lecture, given by D.A. Carson – on ‘The Bible’s Literary Genres: Reflections on What They Say About God’ – came in two main parts:

(1) What does the diversity of genres itself tell us about God?

(2) What do each of the genres individually say about God?

I’ve already posted on part 1 here, and summarise part 2 below. Once again, it’s worth recognising that I was scribbling notes furiously and so won’t necessarily have caught all the nuances Carson managed in the actual address.

The second main part of the lecture asked, What do each of the genres say about God? As with the first part, Carson developed a number of points:

1. Lessons from the occasional nature of New Testament letters and Acts.

When Paul writes Romans, he is not giving a complete summary of doctrine. He is responding to different pastoral needs. Particular occasions call forth particular responses – but there is no single document containing Paul’s entire theology. Through the letters, God addresses particular churches with particular needs. If we take any one of the letters and try to make it say all that needs to be said on a topic, we distort its teaching.

Carson cited the example of Paul refusing to circumcise Titus (Galatians 2), as (in that context) it would jeopardise the exclusive sufficiency of Jesus. And yet, he is happy to have Timothy circumcised (in Acts) in a different context where there is an issue of removing an unnecessary source of offence.

By way of application, Carson used the example of alcohol – and the different ways we might act in different situations – whether to avoid offence or to issue a challenge where a particular practice is jeopardising the exclusive sufficiency of Christ.

2. Lessons to be learned from the historical books.

God discloses himself in space-time history, and we have access to history through witnesses. According to Carson, if it could be proved that Gautama the Buddha never existed, it would not make any substantial difference to the buddhist system. Or, if it could be proved that Krishna never existed, nothing in Hinduism would be placed in jeopardy. In principle, in Islam, Allah could have given his final revelation to someone other than Muhammad, for Allah could give it to anyone he pleases. But it is quite different in Christianity where, if we pull Jesus out, there is nothing left. Jesus is not just a medium for the revelation of God, he is the revelation of God.

As Carson reminded us, in 1 Corinthians 15, for instance, certain entailments follow if Jesus did not rise from the dead. The truthfulness of faith’s object is necessary for faith. This is significant, Carson noted, because ‘faith’ on the street means either ‘religion’ (a particular faith) or ‘a personal subjective religious choice’, with no necessary connection to truth – which is not how Paul sees faith.

There are lessons from historical books which show how God works through history, attested by witnesses, which is why Christians are interested in historical issues.

3. Lessons from wisdom.

One of the most interesting features is the way wisdom thinks in polarities – lady wisdom or dame folly. Much of Jesus’ teaching also sets up simple polarities – two houses, two ways, etc., in this wisdom style.

Noting that wisdom literature can be abused from the pulpit, Carson used the example of Psalm 1, sometimes said to be a wisdom Psalm, drawing a polarity between the ‘righteous’ and the ‘wicked’. He noted the challenge of always living up to the criterion of, say, delighting in the law of the Lord and meditating on it day and night. Who of us always manages to do this, and never fails to do so? Constant preaching of simple polarities, Carson warned, will produce a congregation of legalists or hypocrites.

Narrative, however, allows more nuance. David might well be a man after God’s own heart, and yet he commits murder and adultery. In Judges, with its downward spiral, even the ‘good guys’ are disgusting by the end of the book.

When it comes to Job, Carson noted that some critics love the moral ambiguities expressed in the poetic portions of the book, but then assume the ending of the book (where everything is reinstated, and there is a happy ending) must have been written by a different hand. But it’s wisdom, Carson said, and so we should expect there to be polarities. Much of contemporary culture enjoys moral ambiguity for its own sake – and there is moral ambiguity, Carson noted – but it will be resolved by God in the end.

Carson ran out of time at this point, and so left off a further two sections on apocalyptic and typology.

•••

There was time afterwards for three questions.

• Someone asked whether Melchizedek could be understood to be an appearance of the pre-incarnate Christ. Carson responded that he thought nothing in the Old Testament account suggested that to be the case. Some of the description in Hebrews 7 might suggest it to be the case, but the writer here is simply exegeting the Genesis passage, noting Melchizedek’s lack of genealogy, etc. Moreover, the author of Hebrews says that Melchizedek is like the Son of God. He becomes a figure that prefigures someone else, and what’s picked up is that he is a priest-king – a prototype of the ultimate priest-king.

• Riffing (a tad cheekily, I think) on Carson’s lines about whether it would make any difference if Buddha or Krishna had not existed, someone asked about Genesis 1-2 and whether it would make any difference if Adam had not existed. Carson responded that this was a genre-identification question that he had not been addressing in the lecture, and that he would normally ask for four hours to deal with it. But he did express the opinion that if one denies a historical first couple and a space-time fall, it’s difficult to make sense of Paul. A historic Adam, he said, ‘is non-negotiable’.

• Someone asked about the negative side of Scripture’s diversity. Carson responded that he didn’t see it as a ‘negative’ so much as an ‘entailment’. We are finite, and God cannot download omniscience to us (it is one of his ‘incommunicable attributes’), which means that everything he says to us, and every way he communicates with us, will be, in some sense, necessarily limited. There would have been a ‘downside’ to any way he communicated. Moreover, Carson noted, there is a ‘hiddenness’ to God’s revelation. What was prophesied in the Old Testament is now fulfilled; but it is also said in some places that what was hidden in the past has now been revealed. Many truths are hidden in plain sight.

Daniel J. Treier on Theology as Wisdom

[A version of the following review was first published in August 2007 on the UK Christian Bookshops Directory website, which contains lots of other reviews, and is my first port of call for looking up the location of Christian bookshops when I visit towns and cities around the country – much to the chagrin of other members of my family... Thanks to Phil Groom for giving me the opportunity to review the book.]

Daniel J. Treier, Virtue and the Voice of God: Toward Theology as Wisdom (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2006), xvi + 278pp., ISBN 9780802830746.

Those who take courses in theology sometimes find themselves wrestling with particular tensions thrown up during the programme of study, or even by the nature of the subject itself. Should theology be done by the church or by the college? How does ‘theory’ relate to ‘practice’? What is the connection between what I study over here (in biblical studies) and what I study over there (in systematic theology)? Ostensibly a work in theological education, Daniel J. Treier, associate professor of theology at Wheaton College, Illinois, seeks to address some of these questions. In particular, the book is an extended discussion of two ongoing conversations: (1) the nature of theology understood in terms of ‘wisdom’, and (2) the theological interpretation of Scripture, where again wisdom has become a key concern in thinking about the role of virtue in understanding the Bible.

The volume contains seven chapters in three parts. The first part focuses on the nature of theology as wisdom. During the period of the Enlightenment, theology was treated as a kind of ‘science’, which excluded questions of virtue on principle, which was carried out in the university rather than the church, and which introduced the sorts of chasms we still live with today, between clergy and laity, for instance, or theory and practice. But for most of Christian history, theology was an enterprise which was done in and for the church, and was viewed in terms of wisdom rather than science – the kind of knowledge which is directed towards knowing and loving God, the kind of knowledge which forms the lives of Christians and churches. Exploring what the Bible itself says about wisdom, Treier argues that theology understood in terms of ‘wisdom’ embraces not just a select few, but everyone who is addressed by God and who is enabled to seek wisdom through the help of the Spirit.

A main way God forms the church is through Scripture, which means how Christians read the Bible is extremely important. In the second part of the book, Treier shows how Scripture is an authoritative word from God which stands over the church, which is illumined by the Spirit, who leads the church to develop virtues in reading it. The third part of the book then argues that Christians are able to speak of God publicly in the face of the world, not just privately in the context of the church. Reading Scripture wisely and being formed by it in the process involves reading it in the midst of present-day challenges.

This brief summary can’t begin to do justice to the ins and outs of Treier’s discussion, to the interweaving of historical, biblical, hermeneutical, and doctrinal reflection. In fact, although ultimately rewarding, following the involved argument is difficult, very difficult at times, and requires more than a nodding acquaintance with debates in contemporary theology and hermeneutics. In this sense, the book’s origin as a PhD dissertation (conducted under the supervision of Kevin Vanhoozer) is apparent. The demanding discussion is compounded by the fact that the publishers have put notes (46 pages of them) at the end of the book rather than at the foot of each page, which means keeping a finger in the back of the book and flicking back and forth whilst trying to keep the threads of the argument in mind.

If Treier himself is unable to do so, I hope that others will be inspired to make the fruit of the research digestible to a broader audience, that the theological wisdom of which the book speaks will indeed become an ‘every member’ reality for churches who seek to listen and respond to God’s voice in Scripture.

David Ford on the Future of Christian Theology

David F. Ford, The Future of Christian Theology, Blackwell Manifestos (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, forthcoming 2011), 256pp., ISBN: 9781405142731.

Having profited greatly from reading some of David Ford’s work, I’m really looking forward to the publication of this volume in the Blackwell Manifestos series.

The Table of Contents is available here, and chapter 1 is available as a sample here.

The first paragraph reads as follows:

‘Christian theology is thinking about questions raised by and about Christian faith and practice. That thinking is almost unavoidable in some form by anyone who tries to live a Christian life or who for some other reason is interested in Christianity. Theology by this broad definition is open to all and is part of ordinary life whenever any of a vast range of questions is raised. It is also many other things, but this manifesto is mainly concerned with the quality of theologies that, directly or indirectly, feed the minds and hearts of millions of people and are of interest to many more. That is why its key word for the goal of theology is wisdom, which unites understanding with practice and is concerned to engage with the whole of life.’

Later in the chapter he writes of ‘Four Elements of Wise Creativity’:

1. Wise and creative retrieval – ‘Christian theology must deal with the past, discerning how best to relate to it so as to resource the present and future’.

2. Wise and creative engagement with God, church, and world – expressing ‘the most essential accompaniment of retrieval: engagement with the present. The double immersion in past and present for the sake of the future is a mark of wise and creative theologians’.

3. Wise and creative thinking – ‘thinking goes on in all four aspects of theological wisdom-seeking and creativity’.

4. Wise and creative expression – ‘theology often does not read well. This does not disqualify it as creative theology by the other three criteria, but yet its purpose is not fulfilled unless it is made as accessible as possible’.

Milton P. Horne on Proverbs and Ecclesiastes

Milton P. Horne, Proverbs–Ecclesiastes, Smyth & Helwys Biblical Commentary Volume 12 (Macon: Smyth & Helwys, 2003), 579pp. ISBN 1-57312-069-3.

The publishers makes available the introduction to this commentary as an excerpt here.

It takes in the following areas:

• Literary dimensions of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes – including literary forms, literary art, and literary transmission

• Historical dimensions of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes – including authorship, date, social context, and ancient Near Eastern context

• Theological dimensions of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes – including the absence of the story of Yahweh’s revelation, wisdom’s anthropocentrism, and revelation through Creation

There is also a separate section introducing Ecclesiastes on its own, covering Ecclesiastes in the canon, authorship, ancient near Eastern context, date of origin, theology, message of the book, and literary genre and structure.

On the book’s message, Horne writes:

‘[T]he sage seems to be offering a confession that moves beyond the mere recognition of ambiguity and inconsistency in the universe. The thrust of the message concerns how the search for meaning continues rather than what that meaning is to be. The book portrays a teacher whose aim is to model for his students the importance of making relative judgments. He calls attention to the dangers of absolutes and the vulnerability of unquestioned assumptions... Nevertheless, enjoyment is still commended... Death is inevitable (3:19-22), life is full of pain and suffering (2:23), God is unknowable, and yet it is entirely possible to enjoy one’s lot in life (5:18-20).

‘So, without any delusion of getting ahead, of pleasing God, or of actually changing the inexorable facts of existence, it is still better to be wise than a fool (7:11-12), better to draw near to worship in an attitude of respect than in one of disrespect (5:1-5), better to live in the moment than in the past (7:10). One should make the most of one’s time – whatever it is (9:10) – should seek God while youth allows (12:1-2), and should take advantage of every opportunity to enjoy what has been made available for one’s enjoyment (9:7; 11:7-8). In other words, the meaning of life is not found in the macro-assumptions one holds, but in the way one manages life’s micro-significances. The little things count the most to make life full and meaningful’ (377).

And on literary genre and structure, he notes (more helpfully, in my opinion):

‘The strategy for readers is... not so much one of finding a logical argument as much as listening to a sage debate with himself. The point-counterpoint movement reinforces the sage’s attention to subtleties. For everything that moves forward, there is a force tugging in the opposite direction. He raises questions based upon his experiences and readers must listen to the different perspectives; some traditional, others quite untraditional. As we understand Qoheleth’s point of view, we also enter into his arguments, rejecting some and retaining others. But even more than detecting some resolution in Qoheleth’s thinking, readers themselves learn by experience a process of deliberating on life’s and faith’s riddles (378).

New and Forthcoming Books from P&R Publishing

There are several new and forthcoming books from P&R Publishing; the ones that that I’ll be checking out are listed below, along with brief blurb from the publisher and links to excerpts:

Paul K. Helseth, “Right Reason” and the Princeton Mind: An Unorthodox Proposal (Phillipsburg: P&R Publishing, 2010), ISBN 9781596381438.

Overturns the historical consensus that Old Princetonian theologians were nothing more than enlightenment rationalists – and re-establishes them within the reformed spiritual tradition that considers the renewed mind as a servant to the Holy Spirit.

[Having read articles by Helseth on this topic some years back – when it was trendy in some quarters to accuse the Old Princetonians of being dry-as-dust rationalists – I’ve been looking forward to a fuller treatment.]

Excerpt here.

Peter Enns, Douglas J. Green, and Michael B. Kelley (eds.), Eyes to See, Ears to Hear: Essays in Memory of J Alan Groves (Phillipsburg: P&R Publishing, 2010), 288pp., ISBN 9781596381223.

Groves was a pioneer of modern biblical studies, using computers to analyze the Hebrew Old Testament. These articles have been collected to honor his work and also his character as a loving Christian exemplar.

[This looks like a interesting collection of some pieces of biblical-theological reflection.]

Excerpt here (which includes an essay by Tremper Longman on suffering, worth checking out).

John M. Frame, The Doctrine of the Word of God, A Theology of Lordship Volume 4 (Phillipsburg: P&R Publishing, 2010), 720pp., ISBN 9780875522647.

‘The Word of God’ is a multi-faceted concept. God speaks but Word is one of Jesus’s names. God’s personal communications take other forms, through prophets, apostles, and the written Word. Frame investigates them all.

[This is the fourth volume in Frame’s ‘Theology of Lordship’ series, each successive one seeming to be larger than the previous one; I caught some of this as the chapters were serialised online, and there’s no doubt it will come to stand as one of the fullest evangelical treatments of Scripture for years to come.]

Excerpt here.

Arie C. Leder, Waiting for the Land: The Story Line of the Pentateuch (Phillipsburg: P&R Publishing, 2010), 224pp., ISBN 9780875521961.

How should Israel’s waiting for their land shape our reading of the Pentateuch, and how should this shape the hope of the church today? Treating the Pentateuch as a coherent and progressive story, Waiting for the Land is the first book-length exploration of these questions. Following an introduction to the Pentateuch, Leder examines each book, showing that the promise of the land was not realized. He then shows how the contemporary church should wait for its land.

[Looks like it will provide a careful holistic reading of the Pentateuch.]

Excerpt here.

Christopher W. Morgan, A Theology of James: Wisdom for God's People, Explorations in Biblical Theology (Phillipsburg: P&R Publishing, 2010), ISBN 9781596380844.

Chris Morgan accomplishes a seldom-attempted task, laying out a biblical, coherent theology of the epistle of James. He connects the particulars of James to the big picture of the Bible and argues that its instruction is both grounded in theology and is theology applied.

[Part of P&R’s growing ‘Explorations in Biblical Theology’ series, this is the first title devoted to a particular book of the Bible rather than a distinct theme.]

Excerpt here.

Ron Gleason, Herman Bavinck: Pastor, Churchman, Statesman and Theologian (Phillipsburg: P&R Publishing, 2010), 512pp., ISBN 9781596380806.

Highlighting the breadth of Herman Bavinck’s experience in theology and politics, Ronald N. Gleason offers the English-speaking world a vivid picture of the Dutch theologian’s life. Gleason, a leading authority on Bavinck’s life and ideas, brings to light Bavinck’s rich family heritage and contends that his family background played a crucial role in the development of the man who wrote the magisterial Reformed Dogmatics.

[This will nicely complement the recent-ish four-volume English translation of Bavinck’s Reformed Dogmatics, especially for those of us unable to read Dutch.]

Excerpt here.

Bryan Gregory, Longing for God in an Age of Discouragement: The Gospel According to Zechariah (Phillipsburg: P&R Publishing, 2010), ISBN 9781596381421.

[Part of P&R’s ‘The Gospel According to the Old Testament Series’, with some volumes stronger than others, in my opinion; I’m looking forward to this one.]

Excerpt here.