Here’s another fine entry in the excellent ESBT series. I’m shocked this series isn’t even more widely known. It has so many things in its favor. Its theology is rich, it always holds its page count under 200, and it sticks to the pattern of tracing its subject across biblical theology from Genesis to Revelation. I’ve read all the titles so far, and I have not found one that failed to keep to these constraints. Apparently, this series has some good editors. This latest entry on the Holy Spirit well holds the standard, so you are getting something of value.

The best way I can describe where this author lands is to tell you that Beale’s The Temple and the Church’s Mission: A Biblical Theology of the Dwelling Place of God is by far his most quoted work in it. I didn’t actually count, but I saw it repeatedly. He would follow Beale in the big picture as most authors in this series would, but he particularly seized on the centrality of the idea of Eden as a cosmic Temple and that the Lord is taking us to a new cosmic Temple to enjoy with Him.

I’m not suggesting this isn’t an original work, but only explaining what it builds upon. Mr. Echevarria is an excellent writer and reading this book is not a difficult task even if its subject is weighty. Having read a lot on this subject, I can’t say that anything was totally new to me, but the presentation of helpful material was top-notch. Still, I underlined several little nuggets that I appreciated.

There’s not much to criticize here. I think, perhaps, he bogged down a bit about the spiritual gift of preaching in the context of gender. I’m not sure that was the hill to die on even temporarily for what this book was aimed at. It’s still not a serious enough flaw to detract from a great book.

I recommend this book just as I do the whole series. 

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.

Carl Trueman is one of the most influential Christian writers of our day. He has been able to impact his generation by taking the timeless truths of Scripture with a keen philosophical understanding and assess our culture with profound results. Just notice which podcasts want him as a guest and you will see what a far reaching phenomenon he really is. On a personal level, I’m moved when reading him or listening to him.

Having said all that, this book is a more modest offering. These 70 pages are more of an elaborate essay. It almost assumes you’ve taken in his more blockbuster writings. He mines one of his ideas developed before writing this book that western culture has a therapeutic mindset. To my mind, he spends some time tracing how we must look to earlier times of Christianity for consistency and then spends the most time tracing a very specific line of creedal literature as the natural result of that look to earlier times. I don’t have any problem with his favorites, but some are going to argue at how narrow his look backwards finally becomes. Could that defeat his premise? At the end of the day, he is a Presbyterian and when he sizes up where we should finally land, he doesn’t have much but Presbyterian writings left.

If you follow his church, you will love this book. If not, you might not like it quite as much. This book does not change my thinking that he is one of the most outstanding writers of our time, but I just could not hold this up beside his more famous works. I think my only little criticism is that he doesn’t develop the theme, that could’ve been quite interesting, as much as getting in the weeds of where he wanted our journey to end. Still, this is Trueman and so it’s still a four out of five stars. 

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.

I’ve always enjoyed reading Kelly Kapic. I’ve also noticed that he’s always ready to talk about John Owen as often as possible. Probably, then, this title was inevitable. Though I wasn’t as familiar with Ty Kieser, he must live in Kapic’s usual domain. As for John Owen, though clearly a brilliant writer, I’m really not sure what has brought on the phenomenon of his fairly recent ascendancy in popularity. Whatever it is, it must be catching because I too was intrigued by this title.

The design of this book was quite novel for a theological title. It takes various (random ?) subjects and compares Owen’s take versus that of some other famous theologian. Sometimes the difference is substantial while at other times it is minute. What is consistent is the breadth of knowledge displayed in every comparison.

After an Introduction to Owen and particularly his themes of writing, the book dives into comparing Owen and Didymus the Blind on the subject of Inseparable Operations. It was one of the best in the book, but perhaps that’s because I’ve always been fascinated by that subject and once had to spend a lot of time studying it. Owen agreed far more than he sparred on this one.

The chapter comparing Owen with Macrina on Christian dying was warm and compelling. I enjoyed it more on a devotional level than other chapters in the book. The next chapter on Cain as the prototypical sinner again did not have wide divergences between Owen, and in this case Augustine, but was just enough to be great teaching.

The next chapter put Owen and Bernard of Clairvaux in dialog on the Song of Solomon. I love hearing these older writers talk about the Song because I tend to believe their approaches over modern writers. What modern scholarship has reduced the Song to is a sad thing in my opinion.

Next, when John Owen meets Thomas Aquinas on divine simplicity it seems more a splitting of hairs to me, but maybe that was my own shortcomings. From there, Owen and Luther on justification was exactly what you’d expect. The following chapter was like a powerful joint presentation between Owen and Calvin on the Ascension.

I would have preferred a different subject for the heavyweight comparison of Owen and Jonathan Edwards. Owen with Lemuel Haynes was the most unexpected of the book and was far better than I expected while the battle between Owen and Barth was more nuanced than I expected.

While this book will not appeal to everyone, it is rich fare for lovers of theology. Members of Owens’ fan club are likely to salivate over it too. Mark me down (even if the design is a bit far fetched) as really liking this book as well.

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.

This book offers a mass of help. As an added bonus, it is a gorgeous book. I guess the publishers knew they had something special and so gave it the gold treatment. The authors are widely respected and were a good choice to handle what must have been a Herculean task. When Mr. Goswell listed William Dumbrell as major influence, it all made sense.

Chapter 1 sets the agenda on what biblical theology is exactly as they carefully distinguished it from other approaches (You can sure tell D. A. Carson guided their thinking here). They even present a case study to explain the practice of biblical theology. I appreciate how they uphold biblical inspiration, which is the vitality of biblical theology. As you have probably surmised, this chapter serves as the introduction for the entire book.

The next chapter talks about book order, though that is something that’s never particularly interesting me, but it’s laid out in great detail for you. From there, the next chapter dives into the Pentateuch. Now it’s time to slow down because this book starts getting really good. Many of the things you find are written in other places, but it is a boon to us to have it all brought together here. Each book in the Pentateuch is discussed in terms of themes, ethics, and the book in the storyline of scripture. That is a fantastic way to approach the biblical theology of these books. I found myself agreeing with so many points that were made. Finally, the Pentateuch is looked at as a whole in the same three categories as mentioned above.

From there, he tackles the Prophets (remember he follows the Jewish organization of the OT rather than that in our Bibles), followed by the Writings. He follows the same pattern mentioned above. Some books of the Bible take less pages for him to describe than others, but obviously that makes sense.

The NT follows the same pattern. There’s coverage of book order but with little consensus. Next there’s discussion of the relationship between the testaments. The look at parallels was the most fascinating part there. When the NT use of the OT is explained, it’s taken book by book. Then each book of the NT is looked at exactly as done in the OT section. The farther I get into the book, the more I like that set up.

This is an epic book. I have a few others in my library that try to tackle biblical theology in this way, but I found this one to be more consistently even. The amount of research that went into this volume is mind-boggling. If you don’t believe me, just notice the footnotes! I’ve heard the publisher may be printing the Old and New Testament sections of this book in separate editions in the future. You simply can’t go wrong with this gorgeous book.

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.

This book fooled me. Late in chapter one I simply didn’t like it. It struck me as a book working down a political list attempting to place its checkmark line by line. The Introduction showed the subject, what the desert is biblically, had great potential. But in chapter one I was about to grab my parachute and jump. Had the ideological pronouncements been more in line with my own perhaps I would not have really cared. But they weren’t and I felt they really did not touch the desert motif at all.

With faint amounts of hope I entered chapter two and everything flipped. What the author shared about the desert resonated now and pulled me in. More importantly, the biblical text was expertly parsed to arrive at her conclusions. Her writing was engaging. She even worked in some of her own experiences without crossing the cringe line. Suddenly, I was finding myself underlining many lines.

The chapter on the darkness of disorientation was particularly captivating. Our God who is light is still often described as being in the thick darkness and that is a fascinating study. What really makes the book a success is how she is able to draw out the theology while leaning into what we might call spiritual formation concerns. That’s a hard balance to pull off for many writers, but she did it well.

Since our times are so divided, and since Christians are as well on the issues of the day, it is so much better to just dig into the timeless truth of scripture and allow that to speak to current issues as it will. This book is perfect proof. I am on the other side of some current issues from this author, and her little foray in those issues almost pushed me away. To what purpose? In any event, I think the theology of the wilderness as described in this book could be a blessing to you no matter where you fall on the theological spectrum. It is that rare theological book that also has potent devotional qualities as well.

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.

If you have encountered Ian Vaillancourt, you likely noticed that he thrives in a biblical theology mode when looking at Scripture. His previous writings all seem in that vein. In fact, I thought his “The Dawning of Redemption” a really fine book. Here he rises to a higher altitude to look at the Old Testament as a whole.

The higher altitude view, obviously, has strengths and weaknesses. On the one hand, it really helps connect dots and take in the big picture. On the other hand, details are of necessity flown over. In a nutshell, that is exactly an evaluation of this book. That’s not a problem as no book can be everything. In fact, I can easily tell you the greatest attribute of this book—it’s a book to put in the hands of folks just starting to get serious about taking in biblical theology. It’s especially accessible without being superficial. More seasoned readers will appreciate how it’s written but might not find a lot they don’t already know.

This book focuses on the historical portions of the OT (Joshua to Chronicles). He creatively uses ideas to moor the reader to the text, such as “land” for Joshua. The most creative one is “ingrafting” for Ruth. The other asset is how each chapter ends with ties to the NT. It’s quite gospel friendly.

Here’s a fine book that can help bring along those ready to dive into biblical theology.

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.

 Kelly Kapic is one of the best theological writers of our day. He gears his writings a bit toward scholars, but don’t let that stop you. Accept the challenge of this book and you won’t be sorry. The title of the series (“New Studies in Dogmatics”) might scare off some readers, but don’t allow that to camouflage a great read. Yes, scholars will likely eat it up as a book that shows an artisan at work in their trade, but I say pastors and thoughtful Bible students ought to claim this one as their own.

The only part that might appeal more to scholars than the rest of us is how he loves to delve into some historical personage or creed to illustrate his point. That is only an issue because sometimes that takes more explanation than the point at large he is making. I doubt he can help it. He seems like a walking encyclopedia; a passionate one to be sure, but it is amazing the scope at which he views his subject.

His clearly stated thesis is that “Christian life is a response to the love of God”. Not only does that make sense, especially as he develops it, but it also gave him free reign to write across most of the systematic theology corpus as he desired. That could easily degenerate in a muddled mess that said little, but in his skilled hands it became something really special. In fact, the first chapter on why we need a theology of Christian life shows his clear vision of the argument of this book. For the record, I was bought in part way through that first chapter.

Part Two with its three chapters fills in “the love of God” part of his thesis. He approaches it as love, grace and fellowship. Those three are often thrown about with a perverse shallowness. Not here. It seems that the depths of the heinousness of sin that he so astutely explains is the key to bringing those three out in all their resplendent glory. Here they sparkle.

Next, he has a section that he called an “interlude” on the Law-Gospel distinction. His Reformed orientation comes out strongest here and this section is likely to be the most controversial. In fact, even some Reformed thinkers might quibble with him.

From there, he develops the “response to” part of his thesis. This last section covers Messiah, ego and ecclesia to great effect. That our Messiah is the key is painted with the right significance. The chapter on ego was profoundly done. I thought he brought in current thinking on ego and held it up to Scripture and came up with clear thinking in the process. The two chapters on ecclesia surprised me. I was sure that he was going to champion a certain strain of liturgy, but actually he explained that every worship style is a liturgy. It was convincing to me.

I nominate this book as the theological title of the year. It is that good.

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.

What I thought about the first edition still holds true. Christopher J. H. Wright is an author who never disappoints. Though he has written commentaries, theological works, and Bible studies, this book on the mission of God now available in paperback is likely his most influential. In fact, his specialty on the mission of God elevates all those other books that he has written, but this one is where he makes his grand case that the narrative of the Bible has mission as its overarching theme. You will likely agree when you take in what he has said.

This book succeeds on so many levels that you might debate where to put it on your shelves. There’s the obvious choice of your mission section, but then you may wonder if it should be among your Bible theology or even Bible survey sections. Finally, it could hold its head high among titles in your deeper theology section too. That is not to say the book is unfocused, but that its explanation of the broad sweep of the Bible gets the job done from all those various vantage points.

The book is divided into four parts: the Bible and mission, the God of mission, the people of mission, and the arena of mission. As you can see, that begins in championing mission as the proper hermeneutic, continues to see God’s hand in mission, followed by the final two parts looking at the Bible from beginning to end and seeing how it sticks without wavering to God on mission. At over 560 pages, it is never shallow nor possessing omissions while never bogging into minutia either.

I’ve always felt that Wright could hold his own with any scholar while outpacing most of them on spirituality. You will see that here. This book will be the top of its class on this subject for decades to come and no Bible student should be without it.

What do we have in the 60 extra pages of this edition? Well, it’s not his overall thinking on the subject for sure. It seems he took seriously what some reviewers and colleagues criticized in the first edition. In many cases, the clarifications strengthen the original work. Perhaps the criticisms both of his “holistic” view of mission and on the “linear” nature of his work are overblown, rendering his response something along the line of shooing a fly. Isn’t that broad view the essence of good biblical theology? I say that as one who doesn’t even hold to supersessionism myself. You don’t have to hold to every detail Wright gives to find the book superlative.

You can’t think of the mission of God without this book. There are several points I disagree with, yet I must rate this book as particularly important.

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.