Wyatt Graham

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Books

Review of the New Testament And Its World by Wright and Bird

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The quality of Zondervan’s book, from the cover art, to the colour pages, even up to the beautiful design within the book makes this new textbook on the New Testament attractive. But added to Zondervan’s intelligent design, two Protestant New Testament scholars have provided an introductory yet still robust introduction to the New Testament. 

In one sense, The New Testament And Its World appears to be an effort at summarizing the historical and exegetical work of N. T. Wight over the years. But readers will detect the influence of Michael Bird as well. For example, in a chapter on the pastoral epistles, N. T. Wright is noted as arguing for the authenticity of 2 Timothy; the rest of the argument for the authenticity of 1 Timothy and Titus almost certainly comes from the hand of Bird. 

However, it is fairly obvious that TNTAIW basically summarizes and repackages Wight’s voluminous writings and research into the New Testament and its world. For that reason alone, the volume may be worth a purchase.  [Read more…] about Review of the New Testament And Its World by Wright and Bird

Robert Alter’s translation of the Hebrew Bible

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Robert Alter’s translation of the Hebrew Bible is a delight to read, and his notes skillfully assist readers in understanding the text. That said, the notes have a limited purpose (mainly literary in focus) and the translation, while faithful and artistic, exposes readers to the oddity that is Hebrew prose and poetry. This exposure may jar readers used to translations like the NIV. [Read more…] about Robert Alter’s translation of the Hebrew Bible

Review of Douglas Campbell’s Pauline Dogmatics

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Douglas Campbell’s massive tome (740pp) on Paul looks intimidating. Yet because he writes in an inviting and skillful manner, almost any interested and motivated reader could grasp its content. In fact, it is one of the best-written theology books that I have ever read. Almost certainly, interested lay-persons, college students, and seminarians alike could read and understand this work of pauline theology. Added to that, the cross-disciplinary methodology of Campbell makes the content feel at home in the real world. Insights from sociology and other disciplines de-jargonize the theological arguments throughout. 

While I am praising the book’s ability to communicate, I by no means will praise every argument that Campbell puts forward. In fact, I find myself in a position of critical appreciation (sometimes highly critical). For example, the sachkritik method of Campbell (pressing a key, clear idea into a less clear idea to make sense of it) sometimes overrides the scriptural evidence; his hopeful universalism becomes too skewed because it says more than Scripture does; his ethics according to sachkritik and anti-foundationalism lead to infelicitous conclusions; and his admittedly nuanced social trinitarianism gives me pause.  [Read more…] about Review of Douglas Campbell’s Pauline Dogmatics

A Review of David Bentley Hart’s “That All Shall Be Saved”

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David Bentley Hart has faced the moral implications of the eternality of hell, found them wanting, and proposed that in the end, all shall be saved. At the heart of his argument lies, from his point of view, the moral hideousness of hell. 

Jason Micheli explains Hart’s moral vision well when recounting Hart’s experience of reading an article that detailed the death of a family:

The article highlighted a Sri Lankan father, who, in spite of his frantic efforts, which included swimming in the roiling sea with his wife and mother-in-law on his back, was unable to prevent his wife or any of his four children from being swept to their deaths. The father recounted the names of his four children and then, overcome with grief, sobbed to the reporter that “my wife and children must have thought, ‘Father is here . . . he will save us’ but I couldn’t do it.”

Hart wonders: If you had the chance to speak to this father in the moment of his deepest grief, what should you say? Hart argues that only a moral cretin would have approached that father with abstract theological explanation: “Sir, your children’s deaths are a part of God’s eternal but mysterious counsels” or “Your children’s deaths, tragic as they may seem, in the larger sense serve God’s complex design for creation” or “It’s all part of God’s plan.” 

This moral sensibility fills the pages of That All Shall Be Saved. Hart at once denounces the teaching of eternal conscious torment while affirming that in the end (even after a sojourn in hell) everyone shall be saved. 

Is he right?  [Read more…] about A Review of David Bentley Hart’s “That All Shall Be Saved”

Reviewing Martin Hengel’s Last Published Work

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Jesus and Judaism held my attention in ways that academic volumes rarely do. What makes Hengel’s and Scwemer’s work so engaging is its close attention to and citation of the sources that provide the historical context for Jesus. The skillful use of original sources wedded to a narrative presentation of the Jewish history and context around Jesus produces an engaging historical work.

Jesus and Judaism likely will be (and should be) a standard work on the history of earliest Christianity and Jesus in particular for the next decade.  [Read more…] about Reviewing Martin Hengel’s Last Published Work

The Elder Testament by Christopher Seitz. A Review.

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Professor Christopher Seitz self-consciously follows the canonical approach of Brevard Childs while also engaging in a theological interpretation of Scripture. In this way, Childs reads Scripture theologically and critically. This methodological mixture draws together two often competing ways of interpreting Scripture. 

To slightly exaggerate the case, Interpreters privilege either theological or critical tools depending on their social location (the church or the academy). Seitz attempts to do both. This attempt alone makes The Elder Testament an interesting and somewhat provocative read. 

I say “somewhat” because recent scholarship has made similar attempts. Seitz’s attempt, however, to my knowledge, most clearly builds on Brevard Childs’ canonical approach for the sake of theological understanding.  [Read more…] about The Elder Testament by Christopher Seitz. A Review.