Andreas Kostenberger gives us a second edition of this 20-year old work in the New Studies in Biblical Theology (NSBT). This time there is no co-author other than T. Desmond Alexander contributing a chapter on mission in the Old Testament.
Though I hadn’t used the first edition, the preface explains how he organized his discussion of the theology of mission in such a way as to recast the material even if ultimate conclusions remain the same. Gone are chapters on Paul and the General Epistles and hello to one like, say, Matthew, James and Hebrews. The strikes me as merely shuffling the deck and re-dealing the same 52 cards, but if that helps crystallize the material for him to present it to us there’s no harm in it. There’s a Scripture index too so you can get when you need.
Two things stand out about this book. First, it is thorough and thoughtfully presented. I can’t think of anything he left out or any place he wasn’t clear and helpful. Perhaps you will find more or less (more likely) of mission in the passage he discusses, but I doubt you will find omissions of passages themselves. There’s also the passion that you would expect to find in a missional work.
Second, this book does not take a narrow focus on one aspect of a doctrine as is often the case in the NSBT series, but instead takes in the broad horizon of a grand biblical subject. For that reason, it will be an asset to a broader swath of Bible students too.
Kostenberger needs no recommendation from me as his scholarly work speaks for itself. I’m sure you already have some of his works around you. Add this good work to the pile!

I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.

Here’s a book of theology that is at once timely for our days and provocative to the mind. He delves deeply in Scripture to formulate a theology of the body. With a world that’s lost its way in viewing our own bodies and a church that in some sectors has gone wobbly, such guidance as found in this book is nothing short of a tonic.

Don’t start imaging some sort of political plea, nor even much of a cultural critique. The author assumes that you know that we are culturally in a different time (though some similarities with ancient periods exist). Further, he beautifully assumes the Bible is where truth is found. He never argues how the Bible has the better blueprint. Of course it does! Let’s just find out what it says. He writes, too, with Christian love yet without fear or apology for truth. Most authors can’t score that balance.

To be sure, he writes with a Lutheran perspective that I do not share. If you are like me and don’t share his background, don’t sweat it. It was little distraction to me. He would often speak of something like, say, baptism that would make me momentarily bristle, but it was easy to keep focused on his theme and find so much that helped and even challenged me.

After a chapter on “body matters” to orient us he divides his subject into the created body, the redeemed body, the spiritual, the sexual body, the spousal body, and the living body. The chapter on the created body was top notch on issues that we used to call “the doctrine of man” (anthropology). The two chapters on the redeemed and spiritual bodies are where you most might run into his Lutheran sensibilities on salvation issues, but good things to process still abound. The chapters on the sexual and spousal bodies (this is more than you think) are interconnected as well and address burning current issues. As started earlier, it’s not presented so much as a harbinger of the end as that of what is true, what has always been true, and what will always be true. The last chapter on the living body is really a conclusion.

The world is falling apart for sure, so it’s especially nice to read a book that keeps its head as this one does. By the way, it can hold up as a solid work of theology as well. This book is theology as it should done.

I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.