Three More for Christmas
December 10, 2012
Here are three more books which might make fine gifts for Christmas:
Richard A. Muller, Calvin and the Reformed Tradition: On the Work of Christ and the Order of Salvation. For the serious reader. Muller's scholarly work is aimed at setting the Reformed theological developments of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in their broader intellectual context. This is a fine collection of essays which serves both as an introduction to his thinking and as a good example of sound historical method. It was Richard who first told me the key methodological truth: not every problem which appears in the text as a doctrinal problem is necessarily doctrinal in origin or in resolution. In other words, pace Ms. Sayers, for historians, the dogma is not always and exclusively the drama. Plenty of examples of that here.
Andrew Woolsey, Unity and Continuity in Covenantal Thought: a Study in the Reformed Tradition to the Westminster Assembly. The study of post-Reformation Reformed Orthodoxy has undergone something of a revolution in the last thirty years. While it is still common at a popular level to find sharp and simple generalisations being made about Reformers and post-Reformers such as the Puritans, the actual scholarly field has long ago abandoned such binary taxonomies as inappropriately unnuanced for mapping the terrain. Woolsey's Glasgow PhD dissertation was one of the earliest examples of the new approach but has sadly remained unpublished and thus little-known. Until now, that is. I do not know how Joel and the gang at RHB do it, but they consistently put out important dissertations as decent priced paperbacks and this is a real addition to the body of material in the field.
Neil Tolsma, This Is Love: Tracing the Love of God Throughout the Biblical Story. This is a great little book which traces the love of God from the inner-Trinitarian life of God in eternity to the church's mission today. With study questions at the end of each chapter, this would be ideal for group Bible study, Sunday School or simply more informed personal devotional times. Easy to read and thought provoking. Recommended.
Richard A. Muller, Calvin and the Reformed Tradition: On the Work of Christ and the Order of Salvation. For the serious reader. Muller's scholarly work is aimed at setting the Reformed theological developments of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in their broader intellectual context. This is a fine collection of essays which serves both as an introduction to his thinking and as a good example of sound historical method. It was Richard who first told me the key methodological truth: not every problem which appears in the text as a doctrinal problem is necessarily doctrinal in origin or in resolution. In other words, pace Ms. Sayers, for historians, the dogma is not always and exclusively the drama. Plenty of examples of that here.
Andrew Woolsey, Unity and Continuity in Covenantal Thought: a Study in the Reformed Tradition to the Westminster Assembly. The study of post-Reformation Reformed Orthodoxy has undergone something of a revolution in the last thirty years. While it is still common at a popular level to find sharp and simple generalisations being made about Reformers and post-Reformers such as the Puritans, the actual scholarly field has long ago abandoned such binary taxonomies as inappropriately unnuanced for mapping the terrain. Woolsey's Glasgow PhD dissertation was one of the earliest examples of the new approach but has sadly remained unpublished and thus little-known. Until now, that is. I do not know how Joel and the gang at RHB do it, but they consistently put out important dissertations as decent priced paperbacks and this is a real addition to the body of material in the field.
Neil Tolsma, This Is Love: Tracing the Love of God Throughout the Biblical Story. This is a great little book which traces the love of God from the inner-Trinitarian life of God in eternity to the church's mission today. With study questions at the end of each chapter, this would be ideal for group Bible study, Sunday School or simply more informed personal devotional times. Easy to read and thought provoking. Recommended.
