Category Archives: Book Reviews

Book Review – Should Christians Embrace Evolution?

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Creation and evolution are not subjects I often read books on. Oftentimes it seems to me that both sides come to the argument with irreconcilable presuppositions and therefore end up talking past each other. However, since I read Francis Collins’ "The Language of God", which puts forth a case for theistic evolution (or "biologos" as he prefers to term it), I have been on the lookout for an appropriate book presenting the "other side" of the argument (see Prov 18:17). So this present volume piqued my interest, particularly since it brings a British perspective to what is often thought of as a particularly American controversy.

The book is made up of a collection of essays, many of which seek to respond to the arguments set forth by Denis Alexander, author of "Creation or Evolution: Do we have to choose". Interestingly the debate does not revolve around Genesis 1, with the familiar discussions of whether a "day" is 24 hours or a long period of time. Rather, the focus is on the historicity of Adam and Eve. Several contributors seek to demonstrate that the Bible not only presents them as historical characters, but relies on it to develop crucial doctrine.

And this is probably the major achievement of the book. It demonstrates that a denial of the historicity of Adam and Eve (or at least a denial that they are the ancestors of all human beings) results in some grave theological difficulties further along the line. These include making a nonsense of much of Paul’s teaching about Adam, and coming dangerously close to Gnosticism and Deism.

It is not until towards the end of the book that some scientifically focused essays are presented. This is no accident. For most (if not all) of the contributors, the bottom line is what the Bible teaches. They reject the notion that science should be given primacy over and above God’s written revelation. However, the essays on science seek to demonstrate several ways in which the scientific evidence bears more than one possible interpretation, and is not nearly so conclusive as is often suggested.

A couple of the scientific essays went a little over my head, as they dealt with some fairly complex biology. One key idea is that what was once thought of as "junk" in DNA, looks increasingly like it may actually be functional. In another essay, the statistical improbability of an amino acid forming in a primeval soup was well explained.

If I were to criticise this book, it would be along the lines that it would appear that not all the essays were originally written to be part of this book and hence there is a bit of overlap in arguments. Also the tone is forthright, and occasionally strident, meaning that it is likely to provoke a strong response from the opposite side of the argument.

Of course, to believe in creationism is to accept being branded a fool. R. T. Kendall’s essay offers the suggestion that this is true of some biblical doctrine or other in every age. In conclusion then, there is much food for thought here, and it should caution us against enthusiastically rushing to embrace evolution just because we fear looking stupid. I do have to agree with them that theistic evolution often ends up requiring super-human feats of hermeneutical gymnastics if it is to stand any chance of harmonising with the rest of Scripture.

The Word of God is unchanging, but scientific consensus slowly (and sometimes dramatically) shifts over time. I think that we should not be afraid to ask sceptical questions of evolution – there are still several very large leaps of faith required for those who hold to this theory.

Undoubtedly this book is not the final word on the subject, but it does make me wonder whether a simple faith in the historicity of Adam and Eve and their fall may end up turning out not to be so dumb after all.

Book Review – CBC Joel (Richard Patterson)

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I’ve finished the commentary on Joel from the Cornerstone Biblical Commentary by Richard Patterson, who is also the author of the commentary on Joel in the Expositor’s Bible Commentary series.

Introduction

The primary theme of Joel is the day of the Lord, with a secondary theme of repentance. Patterson tentatively leans towards a pre-exilic date.

Commentary

God’s people had become obsessed with the pursuit of pleasure, and times of ease had resulted in spiritual and moral lethargy. Their spiritual service had degenerated into meaningless theology. Into this context, Joel urged people to follow his example in fasting and pleading with God. Patterson understands Joel 1 as a literal locust invasion which Joel takes as a harbinger of the day of the Lord.

As with other commentaries in the series, the teaching of Joel is connected to the rest of the Bible, and Patterson has a strong emphasis on the importance of a consistent personal prayer life, and stresses the need for regular confession of sin.

On the prophecy of the outpoured Spirit (Joel 2:28-32), Patterson sees Joel’s prophecy as being fulfilled in four stages – Pentecost, the Preset Age, the End of the Age and the Second Advent. He focuses on explaining the prophetic significance of the three major feasts Passover, Pentecost and Shelters.

On Joel 3:1-8 he lists some of the historical defeats that the nations warned of judgement suffered. He also, as in his Hosea commentary, draws out some end times implications without managing to fully nail his colours to the mast. He hints at a belief in an end times battle near Jerusalem, and talks about “Zion theology” which is “integral to NT eschatology”. Probably the limited space available and the desire of the editors not to favour one end times view above the others explains the lack of clarity.

Book Review – CBC Hosea (Richard Patterson)

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It’s time for another in my series of commentary reviews from Volume 10 of the Cornerstone Biblical Commentary series, this time Hosea.

Introduction

Hosea was sent with a message of God’s undying love for his people, as well as a declaration of his unwavering standards. He portrays Israel as an unfaithful wife, as a harlot. They were covenant breakers, and their only hope lay in God’s redeeming love. Patterson also uses the introduction to explain some of the textual difficulties with the book of Hosea – there are many places where the correct translation is uncertain.

Commentary

For an overview of the format of this series, see my review of the volume on Malachi. I’ll just pick out a few points of interest. Patterson favours the view that Hosea married a woman with promiscuous tendencies – i.e. her adultery came later. Many of Patterson’s commentary sections are very New Testament focused – he is keen to show connections to the gospel and the Christian life.

Patterson shows how Israel’s infectious flirtation with Baal had spread everywhere, and though he must judge their waywardness, his love never fails. In one interesting hint about his end times theology, Patterson interprets the nation of Israel as still living in the “many days” of Hos 3:3-5 – they are back in their land, but without king, temple or sacrificial system. However, he is also quick to mention that the New Testament identifies Jesus as the promised heir to the throne.

His comments on Hos 6:1-3 are helpful in explaining the biblical significance of the “third day”. The subject of the end times again comes up in Hos 10:8, where Patterson ties it in with the teaching of Revelation on an end times tribulation.

Overall, this is another good introductory level commentary. It strikes a nice balance between illuminating the meaning of the text, and suggesting theological and practical applications.

Book Review – The Breeze of the Centuries (Mike Reeves)

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I have been highly anticipating the release of this book, ever since I read (and loved) Mike Reeves’ brief history of the Reformation (The Unquenchable Flame). I had assumed that this would be the prequel, filling in some church history. However, it appears that this book is the first of two(?) that introduces the life and writings of significant theologians of church history.

It gets its title from C. S. Lewis’ observation that every generation works with a large set of assumptions that seem to it so self-evident that they are never questioned. “The only palliative”, argues Lewis, “is to keep the clean sea breeze of the centuries blowing through our minds.”

Reeves starts us off with the Apostolic Fathers, which he characterizes as the “best-sellers” of the first century, rather than necessarily representing good theology. He gives a page or so to each writing. Each chapter of the book closes with a paragraph explaining where best to start for those who want to read the works discussed for themselves, and also suggested biographies. A timeline is also provided, giving dates of the key events and writings of the life of each author featured in the chapter.

A second chapter deals with Justin Martyr and Irenaeus, and in particular guides us through how they sought to demonstrate that Christianity was taught in the Old Testament. Another chapter is devoted to Athanasius, which includes a good deal of space to his life story, before summarising his key works.

In a chapter on Augustine, we are given summaries of each of the chapters of his “confessions” (which includes some of his life story), as well as briefer looks at his other works. The final two theologians to be considered are Anselm and Thomas Aquinas. The material on Anselm is fascinating as it explains his remarkable project of “proving” all major Christian doctrines from reason alone. For Aquinas, he takes us through each section of the Summa Theoligiae.

Overall, this is a little harder to read through than The Unquenchable Flame, although this is understandable since the task of explaining the thought processes of some of these ancient thinkers is no mean feat. Reeves does an admirable job, although some may find his superb talks on these theologians a little easier to digest, many of which can be found at www.great-theologians.org. His characteristic sense of humour shines through, as he likes to throw in a few of the more bizarre moments from the life and writings of these theologians. It has inspired me to make a bit more effort reading some older works, maybe venturing back into my copy of “City of God” which I made very little headway into.

Book Review – CBC Malachi (Andrew Hill)

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Continuing my series of commentary reviews from Volume 10 of the Cornerstone Biblical Commentary series, here’s one for Malachi. Andrew Hill is also the author of a much more detailed commentary on Malachi in the Anchor Bible series, so this present volume is able to benefit from much his prior work.

Introduction

Malachi writes to a tough audience – they are disillusioned, cynical, callous, dishonest, apathetic, doubting, sceptical, wicked. In their minds, God had failed his people. But he brings a simple message to them “I have always loved you”. Hill provides a very helpful timeline fitting together the post-exilic characters of Zerubbabel, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, Esther, Ezra and Nehemiah. Hill’s analysis of the structure of Malachi is that it falls into a series of “disputations”.

Commentary

The format of the CBC series is as follows:

  1. A section (usually around half a chapter) of Scripture from the New Living Translation (NLT) version
  2. Some “Notes”, mainly explaining the meaning and background of key words or phrases. There are usually one or two notes per verse.
  3. A “Commentary” section which seeks to explain the overall message of the section, often with an emphasis on showing how it fits with similar teaching in other books of the Bible. Sometimes it focuses in on a single key concept found in the section, rather than trying to cover everything in the passage.

Each section of commentary concludes with a paragraph or two of application, such as key lessons on marriage from Mal 2:10-16, or how to live in the light of the Lord’s coming on Mal 3:13-4:3. He shows how the concept of “covenant” is important to Malachi (four covenants are mentioned: Abrahamic, Levite, marriage and Mosaic). In the section on Mal 1:6-2:9 he adds his voice to Robert Webber’s appeal that the modern church needs “worship education” – teaching on the history and theology of worship. It would be interesting to read Webber’s "Worship Old and New” to see exactly what his “nine proposals” are.

As with the others in this series, this serves as a helpful Bible study aid for those wanting to go deeper on the minor prophets. It gives you enough information to understand what is going on without getting bogged down in the fine points of exegesis. The commentary section may not always address the questions you might bring to the text, but is a profitable guide for exploring the theological themes raised throughout the book.

Book Review – The Radical Disciple (John Stott)

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There is a certain poignancy to this book – it is John Stott’s "farewell" – his final publication. Over the years he has produced dozens of books covering Biblical exposition right through to engagement with all kinds of contemporary issues. His book "The Cross of Christ" is certainly a contender for the best Christian book I have ever read, and his contributions to the Bible Speaks Today series are amongst the best on offer (Sermon on the Mount, Romans, Acts, Galatians, Ephesians, 1 & 2 Thessalonians, 1 Timothy & Titus, 2 Timothy). He is one of the most (if not the most) widely respected evangelical leaders in the UK, and deservedly so. So when he writes a "farewell" book, it’s definitely going to be worth paying attention to.

The book is a call for us all to be "radical disciples". To be radical is to be deep-rooted and whole-hearted. Stott picks out eight areas to explore in which we can become more committed followers of Jesus.

Our common way of avoiding radical discipleship is to be selective; choosing those areas in which commitment suits us and staying away from those areas in which it will be costly. But because Jesus is Lord, we have no right to pick and choose the areas in which we will submit to his authority.

The first area is non-conformity. Both escapism and conformism are forbidden to the believer. We are called to engage with our culture without compromise. Stott identifies four areas in which we need to refuse to conform: pluralism, ethical relativism, materialism, and narcissism (love of self).

The second area is closely related – Christlikeness is the will of God for the people of God. Stott takes us on a Bible-study showing the call to Christlikeness, some specific ways in which we are to be like Christ, and some implications of our Christlikeness. One of the reasons our evangelistic efforts fail is that we don’t look like Christ.

God’s purpose is to make us like Christ, and God’s way is to fill us with his Holy Spirit

The third area is maturity. Stott laments the fact that the modern church can be summed up in the phrase "growth without depth". He draws on Col 1:28-29 to bring out some aspects of maturity. In particular, we need a fresh vision of Christ, from the pages of Scripture. We must look for Christ as we read the Scriptures, in order to love, trust and obey him.

"Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ."

A fourth area is creation care. The simple fact that this chapter is here shows Stott’s commitment to applying Scripture to contemporary issues. He starts by building a biblical case for our responsible stewardship of the earth, avoiding the two extremes of deification of nature and exploitation of nature. He commends the work of tearfund and A Rocha, and calls us to be deeply committed to care for the creation. He quotes Chris Wright:

It seems quite inexplicable to me that there are some Christians who claim to love and worship God, to be disciples of Jesus, and yet have no concern for the earth that bears his stamp of ownership. They do not care about the abuse of the earth and indeed, by their wasteful and over-consumptive lifestyles, they collude in it.

A fifth area is simplicity. John Stott speaks from a position of integrity on this subject, since his book sales and speaking engagements could have made him a millionaire, yet he practices what he preaches, giving all his book royalties towards the work of providing books for believers and pastors in poorer countries. He feels grieved that the International Consultation on Simple Lifestyle which took place in March 1980 received very little attention, and this chapter is simply given to republish their statement (which he co-wrote with Ron Sider). This is a very challenging chapter, and one that exposes deep-seated idols that we are reluctant to part with. It is sad that Stott seems to be something of a lone voice in the evangelical world on this subject.

The sixth area is balance. In this chapter Stott expounds 1 Peter 2:1-17 and brings out three areas to hold in balance:

  • Both individual discipleship and corporate fellowship
  • Both worship and work
  • Both pilgrimage and citizenship

The seventh area is dependence. He movingly speaks of his experiences of growing increasingly frail and weak. Humiliation is the road to humility. He notes that we start and end our lives completely dependent on others. We are not designed to be independent from one another: "You are designed to be a burden to me and I am designed to be a burden to you."

Christ himself takes on the dignity of dependence. He is born a baby, totally dependent on the care of his mother. He needs to be fed, he needs his bottom to be wiped, he needs to be propped up when he rolls over. And yet he never loses his divine dignity. And at the end, on the cross, he again becomes totally dependent, limbs pierced and stretched, unable to move. So in the person of Christ we learn that dependence does not, cannot, deprive a person of their dignity, of their supreme worth. And if dependence was appropriate for the God of the universe, it is certainly appropriate for us.

The final chapter deals with death. In it he explores from several angles the paradox of Christianity that death is the road to life. Our disicipleship involves a death to self. Our mission leads to the cross. He speaks of persecution and martyrdom, before moving finally to consider our mortality, and how death has been robbed of its horrors for the Christian.

Basic to all discipleship is our resolve not only to address Jesus with polite titles, but to follow his teaching and obey his commands.

In conclusion, this is a book you will want to read if you have had any contact with John Stott’s teaching ministry before. Though he is far too humble to say it about himself, it comes from a man who has fought the good fight, finished the race, and kept the faith (2 Tim 4:7). He has not asked us to do anything that he has not modelled first in his own life. It is a fitting farewell from a remarkable servant of God and I pray that his vision of radical discipleship will be fully embraced by the next generation.

Book Review – CBC Zechariah (Andrew Hill)

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It’s time for my another review from volume 10 of the Cornerstone Biblical Commentary.

Introduction

Zechariah is one of the longer minor prophets, and despite being easy to date, offers a number of challenges to commentators due to the variety of hermeneutical approaches that could be taken to the visions and “proto-apocalyptic” material. Hill briefly describes four options (preterist, futurist, historicist and idealist), and in the commentary he (very) briefly summarises what the preterist and futurist interpretations of the passage in question are. He hints that he views many of these prophecies as having a dual fulfilment.

The introduction is slightly longer than some others in this series, allowing Hill to discuss the relationship of chapters 9-11 and 12-14 to the rest of the book. Hill considers it entirely plausible that they were written by Zechariah at a later stage of his life.

Zechariah and Haggai were prophesying in the same period, and while Haggai exhorted the people to rebuild the temple, Zechariah’s focus was on a call to repentance and spiritual renewal. His central theme is encouragement although the book also includes rebuke and exhortation. Zechariah’s theological concerns include right relationship with God, covenant renewal, social justice, restoration of divine presence and the enabling of the Spirit. Zechariah portrays God as a covenant-making and a covenant-keeping God.

Commentary

As promised in the introduction, Hill does not lay out a variety of possible interpretations of the visions in the first section of the book. Space would not permit it in a commentary series of this type in any case. Instead, he focuses on explaining the meaning of the Biblical text, and highlighting the key theological truths that come out of the passage. The brief sentences at the end of each section outlining the preterist and futurist views tend to leave you with more questions than answers.

In Zechariah the translation choices of the NLT often require a little more explanation in the commentary. For example, “I am jealous … with great jealousy” in Zech 1:14 is translated as “My love is passionate and strong”, or in Zech 1:6 the NLT smoothes over an ambiguity concerning who is speaking, which more literal translations such as the ESV retain. But the NLT does make the reader’s job a lot easier, particularly when dealing with the vivid imagery found in Zechariah.

In several places, Hill highlights messianic titles (e.g. ‘servant’, ‘branch’) and pictures (e.g. priest, king, shepherd), and shows the way in which Jesus fulfils them (at least partially) in his first advent and (eventually completely) in his second advent.

In the latter part of Zechariah (chapters 9 onwards), the centre of gravity shifts slightly, with the ‘Notes’ section more detailed, and the ‘Commentary’ section being used to pick out key theological or application points. So for example, the commentary section for chapter 12 only really touches on Zech 12:1 and Zech 12:10. Over the course of the book, these theological reflections manage to cover a broad range of topics, and do a good job of showing how Zechariah builds on the prophetic hope held forth by Jeremiah and Ezekiel.

Conclusion

Overall I found this a helpful guide to Zechariah’s message. One of the big strengths of the Cornerstone series is the attention to finding links with the message of other books, both in the Old and New Testaments. Hill may not have explained everything in Zechariah, but he has taken us a step in the right direction by connecting the main points of the prophet’s message with the big picture of the whole Bible’s teaching.

Book Review – BEC John (Andreas Köstenberger)

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The Series

The Baker Exegetical Commentary series is one of my favourites in terms of layout, with very nice typesetting which sets it apart from series like the Word Biblical Commentary or even the Pillar New Testament Commentary series. It is good to see newer series following suit. The full text of the book is included in blocks at the start of each new section, usually the author’s translation. Comments are on groups of verses, sometimes up to six at a time. The commentary does use Greek characters, usually transliterated and translated (except in the footnotes).

Introduction

The introduction is surprisingly concise given the size of this commentary, although it touches on the subjects you will expect. He does include a table where he attempts to date all the incidents in the gospel. He breaks the book into two halves, the first as the book of signs, and the second the book of glory. In the first part there are seven “signs”, seven “I AM statements”, and quite possibly seven “witnesses” too.

Commentary

I read through this commentary in parallel with Don Carson’s commentary on John in the Pillar Commentary Series, and the similarities were striking. Not only are the same conclusions reached, but often the structure of the argument is extremely close. Disagreements between the two are rare, and usually only minor in any case. In many ways, these could be called “synoptic commentaries” – Köstenberger and Carson approach John from very similar points of view, unsurprisingly so, since Köstenberger refers to Carson as his mentor. He also highly rates the commentary of Herman Ridderbos.

Carson interacts with other commentators to disagree with them, whereas Köstenberger prefers to highlight the best of their comments. Carson says almost everything in the main text, while Köstenberger utilises footnotes a lot more. Sometimes well over half the page is taken up with footnotes. However, lists of references to other commentators whose views he is quoting or summarising do not get relegated to footnotes, which means that some sentences can get swamped amidst a mass of attributions. This means that, despite the two books having roughly the same size, reading through Köstenberger will be much quicker. Carson is happy to go off on excursuses teasing out the meaning of difficult phrases, while Köstenberger is much more concise (e.g. Carson spends 5 pages on “water and spirit” in 3:5, Köstenberger a paragraph or so).

In some ways, this functions as a digest of other commentaries on John, as he often selects good quotes from other commentators or summarises their arguments, without the need for him to add additional comments of his own (except in the footnotes).

There are a couple of features that make Köstenberger unique though. He has more interest than Carson in things like geography and historical details (for example, he fills us in on the types of lanterns and torches in 18:3). He is also very interested in placing events in the year they happened (it seems to be a couple of years later than others I have read – he has Jesus starting his ministry aged 33). One surprising feature, perhaps, is his choice not to translate or provide commentary on the story of the woman caught in adultery (though he does include an excursus on it). Clearly, he feels strongly that this should not be considered part of the canon of Scripture.

Conclusion

I guess the trouble with this commentary is that it is difficult to recommend it instead of Carson’s and it is also difficult to recommend it as well as Carson’s due to their close agreement on so many matters. His key advantage is his succinctness in the main text, allowing him to make very direct points that in Carson’s commentary are spread out over several pages of interaction with other views. This does not mean though that Köstenberger’s commentary is shallow. The copious footnotes allow you to choose the points at which you want to go deeper.

Book Review – The Gospel According to John (D A Carson)

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The Pillar New Testament Commentary Series

I have already blogged about the Pillar New Testament Commentary series, which is itself edited by Don Carson, so you can read my general thoughts on the layout and goals of this series there.

The Introduction

The introduction is fairly lengthy (80 pages), and dives straight in with a look at the distinctives of the gospel of John as compared to the Synoptics. Carson has of course also authored a commentary on Matthew that paid special attention to the relationship between the Synoptics, so this enables him to complete the picture.

He devotes several pages to the historical interpretation of John’s gospel, before embarking on a lengthy defence of the authenticity of the fourth Gospel. In particular, he addresses Bultmann’s antisupernaturalism and ‘demythologizing’ of the text. He points out that the Dead Sea scrolls find has removed the need to postulate a hellenistic background to the thought of John’s gospel.

Another sizable section is devoted to authorship, in which he casts doubt on the validity of efforts to detect several sources in the text. He concludes that a working assumption of Johannine authorship is the best way to approach the text. He very tentatively dates it at around AD 80.

Carson even includes some advice for those preaching from the book of John. Overall the introduction is a great read, and almost a book in its own right.

The Commentary

The commentary itself is densely packed in with little whitespace, and no inclusion of the biblical text. There are surprisingly few footnotes, since Carson prefers to do most of his interaction with other commentators in the main text. As with his Matthew commentary, he loves to take the time to defend the text against accusations of fabrication, and offers explanations for supposed problems. He is also quite happy to spend several pages digging deeper into a particular theological concern that is raised by the text.

The commentary itself is far too massive for me to attempt to summarise all the useful points. To list all the sections of John in which I found Carson’s comments particularly helpful I would be to list the entire contents.

Carson’s strengths as a biblical commentator are the comprehensive way he tackles the types of concern that an expositor will have. He incisively gets to the bottom of what the sayings mean, some of which are hard to unpack. He has a good eye for Old Testament allusions. He is willing to take on and reject other possible interpretations, both from skeptics and other Christian traditions (such as Roman Catholicism). He is also prepared to reject “sentimental” conclusions popular amongst evangelicals if the exegesis does not bear it out.

Conclusion

I cannot recommend this commentary on John highly enough. It is a magnificent work, and one that would greatly benefit any serious student or teacher of the Bible. Yes, it is quite long, but it is always interesting. It has actually taken me about five years to work my way through it, but I am glad I have done so, and this will almost certainly be one of the first commentaries I consult every time I am doing study on John.

Book Review – CBC Haggai (Andrew Hill)

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Here’s another review from volume 10 of the Cornerstone Biblical Commentary, this time on the short book of Haggai. Andrew Hill covers Haggai, along with Zechariah and Malachi, giving continuity to these three closely related books.

Introduction

One nice feature of Haggai’s ministry is that it can be precisely dated and located in Israel’s history. Haggai was a herald sounding a wake-up call to a community that was spiritually asleep. In particular he wanted to stir them up to rebuild the temple. He emphasised the abiding presence of God’s Spirit. Some key themes of Haggai include:

  • A call to reprioritize community life
  • Reiteration of promises of blessing and restoration
  • Ritual purity for priests and people – they are to be holy
  • The prominence of the Davidic line

Commentary

As with all the commentaries in this series, the authors explain the meaning of a section, and then move to some quick, theological reflection, often linking in other parts of Scripture. So for example, Hill offers helpful comments on putting the significance of the temple into its proper place. He highlights how Haggai makes regular use of the name “Lord of Heaven’s Armies” for God.

On the second chapter, Hill shows how Haggai draws on themes from Ezekiel and Jeremiah’s prophecies in previous times, and overturns Jeremiah’s curse on the Davidic line (Jer 22:24-30), rekindling the messianic hopes that had been dashed by the Babylonian exile. He points out that though the second temple did not outstrip the glory of Solomon’s temple in terms of architectural magnificence, the real glory consists of  God’s presence in and amongst his people.

Overall, this has been one of my favourite commentaries in this volume so far. Hill has made effective use of the short space available to make this a good companion to those wanting to do a brief study of Haggai.