What Are You Reading?
I have a lot of friends that are bibliophiles, and whenever we talk I always get asked that question: "So what are you reading lately?"
My problem is that I'm so A.D.D. that I always have 30 different books in my "currently reading" stack, and although I have a generally vague sense that what I've been reading this week has been "good stuff," I can never recall specifics (until I sit down to write an article, of course; then, somehow, I remember names, phrases, page numbers, etc.).
So here's a current list of what's on my reading menu for the next few weeks.
Soskice, JM. After Eve. London: Marshall Pickering, 1990. A collection of essays on religion and feminism, feminist readings of Scripture, etc. This book is way too liberal (and even hostile) for my tastes, but there is one very interesting article in here by S. Brock on the concept of a "feminine" Holy Spirit in the early Syriac Fathers of the Church.
Rofé, Alexander. Deuteronomy: Issues and Interpretations. Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 2002. This promised to be a good read, judging from some of the chapter subject titles, but it turned out to be very dry and technical. Too much time spent discussion source-criticism and not enough time on the texts themselves.
McConville, JG. Grace in the End: A Study in Deuteronomic Theology. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 1993. A much better read on Deuteronomy, and I especially enjoyed the way he traced "Deuteronomistic thought" from Dt. all the way through the books of the Kings.
Brock, Sebastian. The Luminous Eye: The Spiritual World Vision of Saint Ephrem. Kalamazoo, Mich.: Cistercian Publications, 1992. Fascinating book, I have to say. Lots of selections from St. Ephrem's hymns, a good discussion of theology-as-poetry, and I'm really looking forward to the last chapter (or at least "latter" chapter) on St. Ephrem as a unique Father among the Greek/Latin Fathers.
Wenham, Gordon. Genesis 16-50. Dallas, TX: Word Books, 1994. One of the best modern commentaries on Genesis I've come across. Wenham pays attention to literary structure (chiastic passages, word-order, syntax, etc.) and is able to explain a lot just based on this analysis; he's also good at showing the continuity between the major sections of Genesis and the minor "interruptions" (e.g., the interruption of Genesis 38 and Judah/Tamar in the midst of what would otherwise be seen as a "Joseph cycle). I appreciate that, because he's not as quick (like many modern scholars) to just simply write off those anomalies as the fault of some faceless editor.
Allison, Dale. The New Moses: A Matthean Typology. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1993. This book is absolutely fantastic. I would take notes on it, but it might be faster just to photocopy the whole thing. Allison shows so many parallels within the Old and New Testament narratives: Joshua's parallels to Moses; Gideon's parallels to Moses; David's parallels to Moses; John the Baptist's parallels to Moses and Jesus; Jesus' parallels to His own disciples; and, of course, Moses' parallels to Jesus. He even goes further and shows various parallels between Moses and later Christians persons, such as St. Peter, St. Stephen, and even Church Fathers such as St. Cyprian - and these are not parallels he necessarily thought up on his own, so much as they are parallels that he found being referenced in other early writers. Fascinating, fascinating work.
St. Thomas Aquinas (Larcher, tr.). Commentary on Saint Paul's Epistle to the Galatians. Albany, N.Y.: Magi Books, 1966. Classic stuff. It's St. Thomas Aquinas, so what can you say?
Strauss, Mark. The Davidic Messiah in Luke-Acts. Sheffield, Eng.: Sheffield Academic Press, 1995. I can't really say anything about this book just yet, since I haven't done anything more than skim it to check chapter-subject headings. However, since this is one of my favorite subjects (the Messiah and Davidic Kingship in the NT), it promises to be good.
Dunn, James D.G. Jesus, Paul, and the Law: Studies in Mark and Galatians. Louisville, Ky.: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1990. Contains the famous essay on "The New Perspective on Paul," along with some very interesting essays on the meaning of "works of the Law" in Galatians, and related issues. He ends up in the wrong place, ultimately, but some of his insights into Galatians are quite good.
Boyd, Gregory. God of the Possible: A Biblical Introduction to the Open View of God. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Books, 2000. A very short book, very non-technical and non-scholarly (I don't recall if I saw even one footnote - but there must have been), written at a popular level. It's good for what it promises: a quick introduction to the "openness of God" theology that's becoming so popular these days. He summarizes the classical view of St. Augustine/John Calvin (his equation, not mine) that God knows exactly what the future holds, then contrasts it with his own view (the "biblical view") of a God who does not know the future, because the future itself is "open" to possibilities. Not a very satisfying book, but mostly because I need something a little more scholarly and academic if the author is going to be making such serious challenges to classical theology.
Boyd, Gregory. God at War: the Bible and Spiritual Conflict. Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1997. A much larger and more technical book on the same basic subject as above: it all boils down to the problem of evil in the world. Bad things happen - but do they happen because God planned them or willed them? Did He even know about them? Is He as surprised by them as we are? Does He know they're going to happen, but chooses to allow them? If so, why? Boyd's proposed solution, that the future (or at least, parts of it) is still "open" to God (i.e., unplanned and even unknown) - and therefore bad things happen as the result of our choices, not as the result of His pre-ordained plans - doesn't really solve any problems. It just pushes the problem back a few steps. Boyd says God can know certain things about the future because certain things have been fixed and cannot change - but this only changes the question: now, instead of asking, "Why did God let my friend die in a car wreck if He knew it was going to happen," or "Why did God pre-ordain my friend to die so young," now the question becomes, "Why didn't God choose to make Himself aware of this event, so He could have done something about it?" Ultimately, if Boyd is going to convince me to deep-six the classical theology of St. Augustine, he's going to have to come up with a better reason than "bad things happen, and it's just unthinkable to accept that God had any control over them."
Westermann, Claus. Genesis 12-36: A Commentary. Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Pub. House, 1985. So-so commentary. I didn't enjoy this nearly as much as I have been enjoying Wenham.
My problem is that I'm so A.D.D. that I always have 30 different books in my "currently reading" stack, and although I have a generally vague sense that what I've been reading this week has been "good stuff," I can never recall specifics (until I sit down to write an article, of course; then, somehow, I remember names, phrases, page numbers, etc.).
So here's a current list of what's on my reading menu for the next few weeks.
Soskice, JM. After Eve. London: Marshall Pickering, 1990. A collection of essays on religion and feminism, feminist readings of Scripture, etc. This book is way too liberal (and even hostile) for my tastes, but there is one very interesting article in here by S. Brock on the concept of a "feminine" Holy Spirit in the early Syriac Fathers of the Church.
Rofé, Alexander. Deuteronomy: Issues and Interpretations. Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 2002. This promised to be a good read, judging from some of the chapter subject titles, but it turned out to be very dry and technical. Too much time spent discussion source-criticism and not enough time on the texts themselves.
McConville, JG. Grace in the End: A Study in Deuteronomic Theology. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 1993. A much better read on Deuteronomy, and I especially enjoyed the way he traced "Deuteronomistic thought" from Dt. all the way through the books of the Kings.
Brock, Sebastian. The Luminous Eye: The Spiritual World Vision of Saint Ephrem. Kalamazoo, Mich.: Cistercian Publications, 1992. Fascinating book, I have to say. Lots of selections from St. Ephrem's hymns, a good discussion of theology-as-poetry, and I'm really looking forward to the last chapter (or at least "latter" chapter) on St. Ephrem as a unique Father among the Greek/Latin Fathers.
Wenham, Gordon. Genesis 16-50. Dallas, TX: Word Books, 1994. One of the best modern commentaries on Genesis I've come across. Wenham pays attention to literary structure (chiastic passages, word-order, syntax, etc.) and is able to explain a lot just based on this analysis; he's also good at showing the continuity between the major sections of Genesis and the minor "interruptions" (e.g., the interruption of Genesis 38 and Judah/Tamar in the midst of what would otherwise be seen as a "Joseph cycle). I appreciate that, because he's not as quick (like many modern scholars) to just simply write off those anomalies as the fault of some faceless editor.
Allison, Dale. The New Moses: A Matthean Typology. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1993. This book is absolutely fantastic. I would take notes on it, but it might be faster just to photocopy the whole thing. Allison shows so many parallels within the Old and New Testament narratives: Joshua's parallels to Moses; Gideon's parallels to Moses; David's parallels to Moses; John the Baptist's parallels to Moses and Jesus; Jesus' parallels to His own disciples; and, of course, Moses' parallels to Jesus. He even goes further and shows various parallels between Moses and later Christians persons, such as St. Peter, St. Stephen, and even Church Fathers such as St. Cyprian - and these are not parallels he necessarily thought up on his own, so much as they are parallels that he found being referenced in other early writers. Fascinating, fascinating work.
St. Thomas Aquinas (Larcher, tr.). Commentary on Saint Paul's Epistle to the Galatians. Albany, N.Y.: Magi Books, 1966. Classic stuff. It's St. Thomas Aquinas, so what can you say?
Strauss, Mark. The Davidic Messiah in Luke-Acts. Sheffield, Eng.: Sheffield Academic Press, 1995. I can't really say anything about this book just yet, since I haven't done anything more than skim it to check chapter-subject headings. However, since this is one of my favorite subjects (the Messiah and Davidic Kingship in the NT), it promises to be good.
Dunn, James D.G. Jesus, Paul, and the Law: Studies in Mark and Galatians. Louisville, Ky.: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1990. Contains the famous essay on "The New Perspective on Paul," along with some very interesting essays on the meaning of "works of the Law" in Galatians, and related issues. He ends up in the wrong place, ultimately, but some of his insights into Galatians are quite good.
Boyd, Gregory. God of the Possible: A Biblical Introduction to the Open View of God. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Books, 2000. A very short book, very non-technical and non-scholarly (I don't recall if I saw even one footnote - but there must have been), written at a popular level. It's good for what it promises: a quick introduction to the "openness of God" theology that's becoming so popular these days. He summarizes the classical view of St. Augustine/John Calvin (his equation, not mine) that God knows exactly what the future holds, then contrasts it with his own view (the "biblical view") of a God who does not know the future, because the future itself is "open" to possibilities. Not a very satisfying book, but mostly because I need something a little more scholarly and academic if the author is going to be making such serious challenges to classical theology.
Boyd, Gregory. God at War: the Bible and Spiritual Conflict. Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1997. A much larger and more technical book on the same basic subject as above: it all boils down to the problem of evil in the world. Bad things happen - but do they happen because God planned them or willed them? Did He even know about them? Is He as surprised by them as we are? Does He know they're going to happen, but chooses to allow them? If so, why? Boyd's proposed solution, that the future (or at least, parts of it) is still "open" to God (i.e., unplanned and even unknown) - and therefore bad things happen as the result of our choices, not as the result of His pre-ordained plans - doesn't really solve any problems. It just pushes the problem back a few steps. Boyd says God can know certain things about the future because certain things have been fixed and cannot change - but this only changes the question: now, instead of asking, "Why did God let my friend die in a car wreck if He knew it was going to happen," or "Why did God pre-ordain my friend to die so young," now the question becomes, "Why didn't God choose to make Himself aware of this event, so He could have done something about it?" Ultimately, if Boyd is going to convince me to deep-six the classical theology of St. Augustine, he's going to have to come up with a better reason than "bad things happen, and it's just unthinkable to accept that God had any control over them."
Westermann, Claus. Genesis 12-36: A Commentary. Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Pub. House, 1985. So-so commentary. I didn't enjoy this nearly as much as I have been enjoying Wenham.
