Feels good to get that off my chest. Now onto the post!
Trinity's bookstore had a store-wide 40% off sale. Needless to say, the phrase "book sale" is my bat signal. So I swooped into action, and here are my little treasures:
These two are simple overviews of the past few decades of study on the OT and NT respectfully. They both average around 500 pages, each chapter written by a specialist on their own specialty. Topics covered (to name a few): textual criticism (OT and NT), linguistics (Stanley Porter writes this for the NT edition), historical issues, and each genre/body of writings (Pentateuch, Gospels, etc.). Each chapter is basically a "here's what people are saying about (insert subject), so nothing new is going to be said in these books. Unless anyone wants to do further biblical study or is extremely curious, I can't really recommend this series. But for my purposes I find them quite useful, maybe even invaluable.
This little number comes from a theology conference a few years ago. I'm not sure why I bought it. I have really enjoyed other things I have read by Markus Bockmuehl, and the opportunity to read an essay of his along with essays by Kevin Vanhoozer and N.T. Wright (and many others) pulled me in. From what I gather so far, the book is based on the popular movement (not sure if that is the right word) of 'theological interpretation of scripture.' And this book uses that foundation to investigate how the NT influences and prescribes theology. So I'm curious. Pray that I'll remain orthodox :]
This book comes highly recommended by a fellow blogger and patristics/trinity buff. This is a wonderful textbook that gives brief overviews of the life and writings of a great many church fathers. Since my familiarity with the fathers/early church history is painfully little to none, this is great for me to be able to taste a little bit of information about a lot of people. And if I find something that interests me, the book's massive bibliographies on each entry provide more than enough direction for future study. If you are like me and need a gentle intro to early church history, go here first.
Lastly, I had to pick up another book in Carson's New Studies in Biblical Theology series. And what better volume to buy than 'Thanksgiving' by Dr. David Pao (who is also known as 'my academic adviser'). This volume looks at the uses of thanksgiving language throughout the Bible--especially in Paul (as well as extra-biblical/intertestamental literature), and shows the seriousness of thanksgiving (yes, it is serious thanks!). This book is an easy skim-read (unlike other volumes in this series), and Pao's pastoral sensitivity shines through. If you have ever read anything by Paul, read this. I'm not sure Dr. Pao would like me to say that.
