All in Art
May's Book Reviews
So around here I do a lot of book reviews. Ask my wife and she'll tell you all the gory details. I'm working
Elders is an outstanding book for Baptist pastors and laymen seeking to understand the issues involved in this polity discussion. For those preparing for, going through or recovering from a transition to elder polity this book could be balm for congregational wounds.
Book Review: Death Before the Fall by Ronald Osborn
As an entryway for new thinking on the Scriptures, many will find the book thought provoking and insightful. Osborn does faithfully show that certain theories of evolution need not be discarded while taking the Bible at its word (chapter 1). However Death Before the Fall does not deal sufficiently with the Bible to demonstrate to literalists that these theories need to be taken seriously.
Book Review: The Cross & Gendercide by Elizabeth Gerhardt
I couldn’t help but weep internally at the devastation that sin has produced. It put me in a sour mode for days. We in the cultured west have hidden
he New Testament and Ethics is a valuable and brief resource. It seems best suited for classroom teaching and education. However the purposeful brevity minimizes the consultation value for extensive study in any particular New Testament book.
Though Creeds and Councils is unable to cover all the creeds, catechisms and councils of church history, its attempt is valiant and marginally successful. In relatively few pages, Holcomb is able to cover all of the important ecumenical councils (chapters 1-7), the great Reformed creeds (chapters 9-11) and even a recap of recent modern activity (chapters 12-13). The glaring absence however is the Lutheran tradition.
The name John Broadus may not ring bells to Baptist anymore. But at one time the name John Broadus could not be separated from the entity that is now the Southern Baptist Convention. Thus John A. Broadus: A Living Legacy (hence referred to as A Living Legacy) was compiled to restore the memory of this one-of-a-kind pastor, preacher, professor, and seminary president. Edited by David Dockery and Roger Duke, the book presents the life and history of John Broadus and his monumental efforts in educating Baptists, especially Southern Baptists, throughout his life.
A People’s History may present some “biased, disrespectful—even subversive” (8) content but is valuable to conservative laymen and pastors seeking a new perspective on the many topics covered. The book therefore is to be recommended for an alternative look at church history.
Ultimately, The Return of the Kosher Pig presents a stunning and beautiful set of arguments for the Divine Nature of Israel’s Messiah. God did not leave His people in the dark but promised the greatest of His blessings in the Scriptures of the Jews and in the minds of their greatest teachers. In writing, Rabbi Shapira has made these truths even more evident.
Book Review: The Sign of the Gospel
By describing so succinctly the arguments of Barth against the soteriological and covenantal view, McMaken has ably navigated Barth’s hermeneutics and theology so that they may be a starting point for future investigations of baptism.