Shelf Life

Michael P. Winship. Godly Republicanism: Puritans, Pilgrims, and a City on a Hill . Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2013, 339 pp. $45.00/£32.00 Michael Winship's Godly Republicanism offers an engaging, meticulously-researched tale of the religious zealots whose conscientious scruples...

"You Just Might Be an Antinomian" A review of Mark Jones' Antinomianism: Reformed Theology's Unwelcome Guest? Phillipsburg: P&R Publishing, 2013, 176pp, $15.00/£11.00 It's refreshing to read a book whose author has done his homework. Antinomianism is such a book, characterized both by...

N. T. Wright, The Case for the Psalms: Why They are Essential . New York: HarperOne, 2013, 208 pp There was a bit of hesitation when I was asked to write a review of N. T. Wright's book on the Psalms. People react differently to the work of N. T. Wright. Some love his reading of the apostle Paul,...

Frances Young, God's Presence: A contemporary recapitulation of early Christianity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013, xiv + 474 pp., pb $29.99/£16.99 In 2011 Frances Young delivered a series of eight Bampton Lectures in the University of Oxford which, by all accounts, were well-received...

John Frame. Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Christian Belief . Phillipsburg: P&R Publishing, 2013. $49.99/£39.99 John Frame has managed to write a systematic theology (1280 pages). This is an extraordinary achievement when one considers that he has already written several significant...

Stephen Westerholm. Justification Reconsidered: Rethinking a Pauline Theme . Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2013. pp. viii + 104. $15.00, paperback. Stephen Westerholm, professor at McMaster University, has long been known in critical scholarship for upholding the "Lutheran" Paul (his term) against all...

Brian S. Rosner, Paul and the Law: Keeping the Commandments of God . NSBT 31; Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity, 2013, 249 pp. $24.00./£15.00 The apostle Peter famously said that "in all [Paul's] letters ... there are some things ... that are hard to understand" (2 Pet 3:16). These words can hardly...

Bradley, J. Longfield, Presbyterians and American Culture: A History . Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2013. xiii + 262 pp. $30.00 In the introduction of the republication of Charles Hodge's What is Darwinism? co-editors Mark Noll and David Livingstone contend that Hodge's famous book was...

Oliver O'Donovan. Self, World, and Time: Ethics as Theology, volume 1, An Induction . Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2013. xiii + 138 pp. Oliver O'Donovan, the now-retired doyen of Christian ethics and political theology, has always posed a unique challenge to the would-be-reviewer. The reviewer's task,...

James K. A. Smith, Desiring the Kingdom: Worship, Worldview, and Cultural Formation . Cultural Liturgies, vol. 1. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2009, 240pp. $22.99/£12.99 In Desiring the Kingdom , James K. A. Smith sets forth a vision of Christian formation that seeks to challenge preconceived...