School of Theology Undergraduate Faculty Books

The School of Theology faculty has published more than 50 books, on topics that include global Christianity, missiology, theodicy, pneumatology, ecclesiology, discipleship, women and Christianity, Christian ethics, popular culture and Christianity, Christian imagination, race and Christian identity, Christian reconciliation, and Wesleyan studies — as well as commentaries and scholarly monographs on numerous books and topics of the Bible.

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Miriam Adeney

Refugee Diaspora: Missions amid the Greatest Humanitarian Crisis of the World's cover image

Refugee Diaspora: Missions amid the Greatest Humanitarian Crisis of the World

William Carey, 2018

Refugee Diaspora is a contemporary account of the global refugee situation and how the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ is shining brightly in the darkest corners of the greatest crisis on our planet. These hope-filled pages of refugees encountering Jesus Christ presents models of Christian ministry from the front lines of the refugee crisis and the real challenges of ministering to today’s refugees. It includes biblical, theological, and practical reflections on mission in diverse diaspora contexts from leading scholars as well as practitioners in all major regions of the world.

Wealth, Women and God: How to Flourish Spiritually and Economically in Tough Places, with Sadiri Joy Tira's cover image

Wealth, Women and God: How to Flourish Spiritually and Economically in Tough Places, with Sadiri Joy Tira

LifeChange Publishing, 2014

Kingdom Without Borders: The Untold Story of Global Christianity's cover image

Kingdom Without Borders: The Untold Story of Global Christianity

InterVarsity, 2009

Amazon | SPU Library

"A visceral call to Christians worldwide to engage in something bigger than their own culture and church...Adeney's work can be read by adherents of any religion as a primer to a new view of world Christianity...Not primarily a book about American Christians and what they should do, this is a humble and complex anthem to the diverse kingdom of Christ found in worldwide cultures." (Publishers' Weekly, 10-12-09).

How to Write: A Christian Writer's Guide's cover image

How to Write: A Christian Writer's Guide

Regent College Publishers, 2006

Daughters of Islam: Building Bridges With Muslim Women's cover image

Daughters of Islam: Building Bridges With Muslim Women

InterVarsity Press, 2002

Amazon | SPU Library

Received an award from the International Bulletin of Mission Research as one of the 15 best mission books of the year. More than 30,000 copies sold in five languages.

God's Foreign Policy: Practical Ways to Help the World's Poor's cover image

God's Foreign Policy: Practical Ways to Help the World's Poor

Regent College Publishers, 1993

Amazon | SPU Library

Received an award from the International Bulletin of Mission Research as one of the 15 best mission books of the year.

Matthew Benton

Religious Disagreement and Pluralism's cover image

Religious Disagreement and Pluralism

Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022

Religious Disagreement and Pluralism

Edited with Jonathan L. Kvanvig. Epistemological questions about the significance of disagreement have advanced in concert with broader developments in social epistemology concerning testimony, the nature of expertise and epistemic authority, the role of institutions, group belief, and epistemic injustice (among others). During this period, related issues in the epistemology of religion have reemerged as worthy of new consideration, and available to be situated with new conceptual tools. This volume explores many of the issues at the intersection of the epistemology of disagreement and religious epistemology: in particular, how to think carefully about religious diversity and disagreement, balancing epistemic humility with personal conviction, the place of religious belief in our social lives, and how best to think about truths concerning religion.

Knowledge, Belief, and God: New Insights in Religious Epistemology's cover image

Knowledge, Belief, and God: New Insights in Religious Epistemology

Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018

Edited with John Hawthorne and Dani Rabinowitz.  Recent decades have seen fertile theorizing within mainstream epistemology which has had a dramatic impact on how epistemology is done. Religion is the place where such rethinking can potentially have its deepest impact and importance. Yet there has been surprisingly little infiltration of these new ideas into philosophy of religion and the epistemology of religious belief. Knowledge, Belief, and God incorporates these new developments in mainstream epistemology, and extends these developments to questions and arguments in religious epistemology. The investigations proposed in this volume offer substantial new life, breadth, and sophistication to issues in the philosophy of religion and analytic theology. (For more, see: Revitalizing the Epistemology of Religion from the OUP blog.)

Kerry Dearborn

Drinking from the Wells of New Creation: The Holy Spirit and the Imagination in Reconciliation's cover image

Drinking from the Wells of New Creation: The Holy Spirit and the Imagination in Reconciliation

Cascade Books, 2014

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“Dearborn provides us with the gift of deep insight into the heart of God and the ways of the Spirit to open our eyes, our hearts, our homes, and our lives to God and others. Through profound theological reflection interwoven with compelling stories, this book draws us into God's healing love and new creation.”

Baptized Imagination: The Theology of George MacDonald's cover image

Baptized Imagination: The Theology of George MacDonald

Ashgate Publishing, 2006

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"The imagination has been called 'the principal organ for knowing and responding to disclosures of transcendent truth.' This book probes the theological sources of the imagination, which make it a vital and reliable tool for knowing and responding to such disclosures. It approaches this study through focus on the theological and imaginative writer George MacDonald." (1)

Katherine Douglass

Cultivating Teen Faith: Insights from the Confirmation Project's cover image

Cultivating Teen Faith: Insights from the Confirmation Project

Eerdmanns, 2018

What are churches doing to form the faith of their young people? Many church denominations that practice infant baptism offer confirmation or an equivalent ministry when children reach adolescence and enter a new phase of spiritual growth—but all churches, regardless of tradition, wrestle with how to get young adults to actively join the church. What really works?

In this book twelve authors draw on a three-year study of more than three thousand US congregations across five denominations—United Methodist Church, African Methodist Episcopal Church, Episcopal Church, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and Presbyterian Church (USA)—to answer this pressing question. They tell stories of excellent and innovative confirmation programs that work and that show, above all, what good discipleship with young people looks like. Youth pastors, church leaders, and parents alike will benefit from the practices and new ways of teaching presented here that have proven helpful in forming and enhancing the faith of youth.

Jeffrey Keuss

Paul Ricoeur and the Hope of Higher Education's cover image

Paul Ricoeur and the Hope of Higher Education

Lexington Books (division of Rowman & Littlefield), 2021

Live The Questions: How Searching Shapes Our Convictions and Commitments's cover image

Live The Questions: How Searching Shapes Our Convictions and Commitments

InterVarsity, 2019

Life is full of questions: questions about our identity, our relationships, our faith. Sometimes it seems like there are no easy answers. But our questioning can lead us on a journey into greater understanding and purpose.


Blur: A New Paradigm For Understanding Youth Culture's cover image

Blur: A New Paradigm For Understanding Youth Culture

Zondervan, 2014

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Today’s blurred youth culture is mobile, connected, and wired in. This is a generation that skips over perceived cultural boundaries and resists definition. How does one reach a demographic that is so difficult to pin down? Dr. Jeff Keuss argues a qualitative approach to describing young people is needed, one that recognizes the “blurred” nature of today’s mobile youth culture. As we learn to see youth culture through this new lens, we will become better informed and better equipped to minister to the teens of today’s rapidly changing world.

Your Neighbor’s Hymnal: What Popular Music Teaches Us About Faith, Hope, and Love's cover image

Your Neighbor’s Hymnal: What Popular Music Teaches Us About Faith, Hope, and Love

Wipf and Stock, 2011

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"Christian rock pioneer Larry Norman once sang, 'Why should the devil have all the good music?' In reality, most of the good music belongs not to the devil but to our neighbor — those that Jesus calls us to love as ourselves. 'Your Neighbor’s Hymnal' is an opportunity to spend some time reflecting on the wide bandwidth of popular music that our neighbor listens to across the many genres of the FM dial and iTunes catalog — jazz, folk, pop, rock, electronic, and others — and see that our neighbor is not only listening to the music that many Christians listen to but also listening for the very things that animate the hearts and minds of those sitting in the pews on a Sunday morning." (5–6)

Sara M. Koenig

Bathsheba Survives's cover image

Bathsheba Survives

USC Press, 2018

Bathsheba is a mysterious and enigmatic figure who appears in only seventy-six verses of the Bible and whose story is riddled with gaps. But this seemingly minor female character, who plays a critical role in King David's story, has survived through the ages, and her "afterlife" in the history of interpretation is rich and extensive. In Bathsheba Survives, Sara M. Koenig traces Bathsheba's reception throughout history and in various genres, demonstrating how she has been characterized on the spectrum from helpless victim to unscrupulous seductress.

Isn't This Bathsheba?: A Study in Characterization's cover image

Isn't This Bathsheba?: A Study in Characterization

Pickwick, 2011

Amazon | SPU Library

"I offer a reading of Bathsheba that critiques some other readings of her, specifically those that see her as simple, stupid, seductive, or unchanging. I offer this different reading, first, because the text suggests it. But second, those other readings of Bathsheba are misogynistic, with harmful and even dangerous implications for the way women are viewed." (2)

 

Douglas Koskela

The Radiance of God: Christian Doctrine through the Image of Divine Light's cover image

The Radiance of God: Christian Doctrine through the Image of Divine Light

Cascade Books - An Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2021

Amazon | SPU Library

Winner of the “Timothy L. Smith and Mildred Bangs Wynkoop Book Award”
The image of God as light abounds in Scripture and the Christian tradition. In The Radiance of God, Douglas M. Koskela explores the theme of divine radiance across the span of Christian doctrine. The book develops a constructive account of the Christian gospel that traces the journey from darkness into the marvelous light of God. Drawing on an ecumenical range of voices in the tradition, Koskela frames the discussion in terms of three central concepts: allure, movement, and joy. The image of divine radiance suggests the sheer beauty of God that captivates the attention of God’s creatures in wonder, love, and praise. The brilliance of this light initiates a process of movement toward it as the Holy Spirit transforms us in the image of Christ, the light of the world. The culmination of this journey is inexpressible and unending joy as we are immersed in the divine light. By following this threefold pattern through the classic loci of Christian doctrine, this volume offers a sustained and coherent treatment of the economy of salvation from creation to consummation.

Immersed in the Life of God: The Healing Resources of the Christian Faith: Essays in Honor of William J. Abraham <em>(with Gavrilyuk, Paul L., and Vickers, Jason E.)</em>'s cover image

Immersed in the Life of God: The Healing Resources of the Christian Faith: Essays in Honor of William J. Abraham (with Gavrilyuk, Paul L., and Vickers, Jason E.)

Eerdmans, 2008

Amazon | (with Gavrilyuk, Paul L., and Vickers, Jason E.)">SPU Library

"Douglas M. Koskela reflects on ecclesial reconciliation as a healing practice. With attention to both ecumenical and intra-ecclesial relationships, he examines the impetus toward and patterns of reconciliatory practice ... He suggests that, by approaching reconciliation in a posture of humility and attentiveness to its own canonical riches, the church has genuine hope of restoration and revitalization." (x)

Michael D. Langford

Eugene Lemcio

A Man of Many Parts: Essays in Honor of John Westerdale Bowker on the Occasion of His Eightieth Birthday's cover image

A Man of Many Parts: Essays in Honor of John Westerdale Bowker on the Occasion of His Eightieth Birthday

Pickwick Publications, 2015

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This collection of essays by colleagues, former students, and friends illustrates something of the breadth and depth of subjects that have engaged the life and thought of the Reverend Doctor John Westerdale Bowker. His clerical and academic appointments in Cambridge, Lancaster, London, and North America further illustrate the integrative nature of his spiritual and intellectual way of being and acting.

Soaring With St. John: Flight Paths of the Eagle — A Pedagogical Aid's cover image

Soaring With St. John: Flight Paths of the Eagle — A Pedagogical Aid

Wipf & Stock, 2013

Wipf & Stock

Not a reference tool, this unique work is a teaching-learning guide to understanding the Fourth Gospel. The focus is on showing how rather than on telling. Thirty-five "Flight Paths," followed by leading questions and statements, help both faculty and students to see as well as read how the Evangelist plotted his itinerary: adopting, adapting, and arranging the texts (both biblical and extra-biblical) that constituted his horizon.

Travels with St. Mark: GPS for the Journey: A Pedagogical Aid's cover image

Travels with St. Mark: GPS for the Journey: A Pedagogical Aid

Wipf & Stock, 2012

Amazon | SPU Library

Not a reference tool, this unique work is a teaching-learning guide to studying the earliest Gospel. The focus is on showing how rather than on telling what. "Maps" followed by leading questions and statements help both faculty and students to see how the Evangelist adopted and adapted his sacred texts (as well as Jewish and Greco-Roman resources) in light of his convictions about and experience of Jesus.

The New Testament as Canon: A Reader in Canonical Criticism <em>(with Wall, Robert W.)</em>'s cover image

The New Testament as Canon: A Reader in Canonical Criticism (with Wall, Robert W.)

Academic Press, 1992

SPU Library

"A New Testament theology of the church ... must be the yield of an interpretive strategy that seeks to relate the parts together as an interdependent whole; only then can the biblical theologian create a dynamic portrait of how the whole New Testament defines the church ...." (22)

Bo H. Lim

Hosea (Two Horizons Old Testament Commentary), with Daniel Castelo's cover image

Hosea (Two Horizons Old Testament Commentary), with Daniel Castelo

Eerdmans, 2015

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"In this commentary Bo Lim, an Old Testament scholar, and Daniel Castelo, a theologian, come together to help the church recover and read the prophetic book of Hosea in a way that is both faithful to its message and relevant to our contemporary context."

The 'Way of the LORD' in the Book of Isaiah's cover image

The 'Way of the LORD' in the Book of Isaiah

T&T Clark, 2010

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"The focus of this study will be to define the way of the Lord and to trace the development of this theme in conjunction with the growth of the book of Isaiah." (3)

Brian Lugioyo

Jennifer McKinney

David Nienhuis

A Concise Guide to Reading the New Testament: A Canonical Introduction's cover image

A Concise Guide to Reading the New Testament: A Canonical Introduction

Baker Academic, 2018

The New Testament came together, and comes to us, not as a randomly sorted set of individual books but as a definitely shaped and ordered whole. This concise, theological introduction to the New Testament sheds light on the interpretive significance of the canon's structure and sequence and articulates how the final shape of the canon is formative for Christian discipleship. Providing an essential overview often missing from New Testament books and courses, this book will serve as an accessible supplement to any New Testament or Bible introduction textbook.

A Compact Guide to the Whole Bible: Learning to Read Scripture’s Story, with Rob Wall's cover image

A Compact Guide to the Whole Bible: Learning to Read Scripture’s Story, with Rob Wall

Baker Academic Press, 2015

Amazon | SPU Library

This compact, one-semester introduction to the Bible prepares students to begin reading the biblical text as Christian Scripture, focusing on the meaning of Scripture for the church. The editors and contributors—experienced teachers with expertise in different parts of the Bible—orient students to the whole of Scripture so that they may read the biblical text for themselves. The book first explains what Christians believe about Scripture and gives a bird's-eye survey of the whole biblical story. Chapters then introduce the story, arrangement, style, and key ideas of each division of the Old and New Testament, helping readers see how the books of the Bible make a coherent whole.

Reading the Epistles of James, Peter, John, & Jude as Scripture: The Shaping & Shape of a Canonical Collection, <em>with Robert W. Wall</em>'s cover image

Reading the Epistles of James, Peter, John, & Jude as Scripture: The Shaping & Shape of a Canonical Collection, with Robert W. Wall

Eerdmans, 2013

Amazon | with Robert W. Wall">SPU Library

Through a detailed examination of the historical shaping and final canonical shape of seven oft-neglected New Testament letters — James, 1 & 2 Peter, 1-2-3 John, and Jude — Reading the Epistles of James, Peter, John & Jude as Scripture introduces readers to the historical, literary, and theological integrity of this indispensable apostolic witness. It is the only treatment of the Catholic Epistles that approaches these seven letters as an intentionally designed and theologically coherent canonical collection.

Not By Paul Alone: The Formation of the Catholic Epistle Collection and the Christian Canon's cover image

Not By Paul Alone: The Formation of the Catholic Epistle Collection and the Christian Canon

Baylor University Press, 2007

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"This book makes a brilliant and original and (to my mind) convincing contribution to the current attempt to rethink the relationship between text and community, Scripture, and church" –Francis Watson

"This book proposes that the letter of James was written with the nascent apostolic letter collection in view, in order that it might forge together a discrete collection of non-Pauline letters, one shaped according to a particular logic of apostolic authority (that is, 'not by Paul alone') in order to perform a particular function in the larger Christian canon (the correction of Paulinist misreadings of the whole apostolic message)." (5)

Brenda Salter McNeil

Roadmap to Reconciliation: Moving Communities into Unity, Wholeness and Justice's cover image

Roadmap to Reconciliation: Moving Communities into Unity, Wholeness and Justice

IVP Books, 2016

Amazon | SPU Library

"It's time for the followers of Jesus to embark on the prophetic journey that leads to reconciliation and transformation around the world. Many of us may already be aware of the need for reconciliation in our own backyards. . . . We cannot ignore the plight of the people around us and as globalization continues its relentless march onward, we cannot turn a blind eye to the world at large either. We have to face the realities here at home and we must also embrace the stories of people all around the world."

A Credible Witness's cover image

A Credible Witness

InterVarsity Press, 2008

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Matthew Sigler

Methodist Worship: Mediating the Wesleyan Liturgical Heritage's cover image

Methodist Worship: Mediating the Wesleyan Liturgical Heritage

New York, NY: Routledge, 2019

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What makes Methodist worship "Methodist" or "Wesleyan?" How do Methodists evaluate emerging forms of worship in light of their own liturgical heritage? This book considers these questions by bringing to light the work and significance of three Methodist liturgists who have until now received precious little scholarly focus: Thomas O. Summers (1812-1882), Nolan B. Harmon (1892-1993), and James F. White (1932-2004). Exploring each one’s contribution to the Methodist movement, it evaluates their continuing legacies as scholars and practitioners of Methodist worship.

Frank Spina

The Faith of the Outsider: Exclusion and Inclusion in the Biblical Story's cover image

The Faith of the Outsider: Exclusion and Inclusion in the Biblical Story

Eerdmans, 2005

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"If someone were going to invent a story designed to make a people look good and therefore deserving of divine election, the result would never have been the Old Testament depiction of Israel... Just as Israel did not deserve to be divinely elected, the world did not deserve to receive the benefits of God’s grace either; but in both cases God’s limitless and amazing grace was operative." (7-8)

Les Steele

Richard Steele

Christian Ethics and Nursing Practice's cover image

Christian Ethics and Nursing Practice

Cascade Books , 2020

WIPI and Stock Publishers

Christian Ethics and Nursing Practice shows how the religious and moral teachings of the Christian Bible compare, contrast, and correlate with the ethical standards of modern nursing, as stated in the Code of Ethics for Nurses. It describes four main strands of moral discourse in the Bible — law, holiness, wisdom, and prophecy — and shows the relevance of those strands for contemporary bedside and advanced practice nursing. The work could serve as a textbook for courses in nursing ethics at Christian colleges and universities or as a guidebook for practicing nurses, who have devoted their lives to caring for the sick, the injured, the elderly, the disabled, and the dying as a way of living out their commitment to Jesus Christ.

1 & 2 Timothy and Titus 's cover image

1 & 2 Timothy and Titus 

Eerdmans, 2012

Eerdmans | SPU Library

This theological commentary powerfully demonstrates the ongoing relevance and authority of the Pastoral Epistles for the church today. This innovative yet reverent volume will help revive the interest of students, pastors, and other Christian leaders in the Pastoral Epistles.

I've Been Wondering: Conversations With Young Theologians's cover image

I've Been Wondering: Conversations With Young Theologians

Paternoster Press, 2007

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"[P]aradox cannot be resolved 'on paper,' that is on purely exegetical and dogmatic grounds. It can only be resolved in the living of the Christian life, where gratitude for undeserved mercies merge with a commitment to public service." (76)

"Heart Religion" in the Methodist Tradition and Related Movements

Scarecrow Press, 2001

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"This volume defends the cogency of [Methodism’s conviction that 'authentic knowledge of God is both an ineffably delightful experience and a life-transfiguring process'], and argues that a better understanding of what it does and does not mean may help us to overcome some of the chilling fractiousness which it has spawned. We take it that our founder would approve, for he insisted that Methodism is the religion of the heart warmed by divine grace and employed in neighbor love." (xxxviii)

Douglas M. Strong

Robert W. Wall

Reading Hebrews's cover image

Reading Hebrews

Smyth & Helwys Books, 2024

Studies in Canonical Criticism's cover image

Studies in Canonical Criticism

T&T Clark - Bloomsbury, 2020

Wesleyan One Volume Commentary's cover image

Wesleyan One Volume Commentary

Abingdon Press, 2020

A Compact Guide to the Whole Bible: Learning to Read Scripture’s Story, with David Nienhuis's cover image

A Compact Guide to the Whole Bible: Learning to Read Scripture’s Story, with David Nienhuis

Baker Academic Press, 2015

Amazon | SPU Library

This compact introduction to the Bible prepares students to begin reading the biblical text as Christian Scripture.

Why the Church? (Reframing New Testament Theology)'s cover image

Why the Church? (Reframing New Testament Theology)

Abingdon Press, 2015

Amazon | SPU Library

“Given the way many in the West have read the New Testament in the last century, the church might be regarded as an afterthought at best. But at the worst, it can be viewed as an unnecessary, perhaps even problematic, institutionalization of genuine faith especially in our post-denominational context. These perspectives fly in the face of the robust ecclesiological concerns and commitments of the New Testament documents when read as witnesses from, to, and for congregations of God’s people. Why the church? Because this peculiar fellowship of saints, whose loving communion is with the risen One, has been appointed by the triune God as God's herald.”

Reading the Epistles of James, Peter, John, & Jude as Scripture: The Shaping & Shape of a Canonical Collection, <em>with David Nienhuis</em>'s cover image

Reading the Epistles of James, Peter, John, & Jude as Scripture: The Shaping & Shape of a Canonical Collection, with David Nienhuis

Eerdmans, 2013

Amazon | with David Nienhuis">SPU Library

Through a detailed examination of the historical shaping and final canonical shape of seven oft-neglected New Testament letters — James, 1 & 2 Peter, 1-2-3 John, and Jude — Reading the Epistles of James, Peter, John & Jude as Scripture introduces readers to the historical, literary, and theological integrity of this indispensable apostolic witness. It is the only treatment of the Catholic Epistles that approaches them as an intentionally designed and theologically coherent canonical collection.

1 & 2 Timothy and Titus's cover image

1 & 2 Timothy and Titus

Eerdmans, 2012

Eerdmans | SPU Library

This theological commentary powerfully demonstrates the ongoing relevance and authority of the Pastoral Epistles for the church today. This innovative yet reverent volume will help revive the interest of students, pastors, and other Christian leaders in the Pastoral Epistles.

Called to Lead: Paul's Letters to Timothy for a New Day, <em>with Anthony B. Robinson</em>'s cover image

Called to Lead: Paul's Letters to Timothy for a New Day, with Anthony B. Robinson

Eerdmans, 2012

Eerdmans | with Anthony B. Robinson">SPU Library

Featuring both exegetical study and dynamic contemporary exposition, each chapter of Called to Lead first interprets the text of 1 and 2 Timothy as Scripture and then engages 1 and 2 Timothy for today's church leaders. The book covers many vexing issues faced by church leaders then and now — such issues as the use of money, leadership succession, pastoral authority, and the role of Scripture. Through it all, Called to Lead shows how Timothy remains a text of great value for the church today.

For a taste of this important book, read “Preachers of Least Resistance” (PDF), a brand-new chapter, on 2 Timothy 3:1-9, not included in the book.

The New Testament as Canon: A Reader in Canonical Criticism <em>(with Lemcio, Eugene)</em>'s cover image

The New Testament as Canon: A Reader in Canonical Criticism (with Lemcio, Eugene)

Academic Press, 1992

Amazon

"A New Testament theology of the church, then, must be the yield of an interpretive strategy that seeks to relate the parts together as an interdependent whole; only then can the biblical theologian create a dynamic portrait of how the whole New Testament defines the church, which we argue is a truer and more useful portrait than merely describing the sum of the definitions found within the New Testament letters."

Revelation <em>(New International Biblical Commentary)</em>'s cover image

Revelation (New International Biblical Commentary)

Hendrickson, 1991

Amazon | (New International Biblical Commentary)">SPU Library

"At the very center of Revelation the good interpreter will always find the simple (not simplistic!) gospel of God. In this way, any interpretation worthy of the gospel will bear witness to the slain, yet exalted, Lamb through whom the salvation of God breaks into and radically transforms those who depend upon his dependable work; it will celebrate the triumph of God's kingdom, which is already realized in the Lamb's shed blood and which will be fully realized at its return."