Down in the library I encountered a little gem of a book for undergrads called Encountering God's Word: Beginning Biblical Studies , edited by Phil Duce and Daniel Strange from IVP
· Beginning to study the Old Testament (Peter J. Williams)
· Beginning to study the New Testament (Alistair I. Wilson)
· Encountering biblical interpretation (Antony Billington)
· For the Bible tells me so? The roles of faith and evidence in believing the Bible (David Gibson)
Some of the authors will be known to others such Peter Williams of ETC and Dave Gibson of Beginning with Moses.
What was interesting was that I am just about to give a lecture on the parables and I was umming and ahhring over whether to use a Griemas diagram to outline the narrative structure of the parables. Would a structuralist approach be a bit too heavy for first year undergrads? My confidense was lifted when I realized that my predecessor (Alistair Wilson) who wrote the NT chapter recommended the griemas diagramatical approach as a way of analyzing passages in the Gospels - I then felt at ease (thanks Alistair!).
The book is a little gem for those starting serious biblical studies at either a seminary or a university. The volume is a good resource for both students and lecturers to use as an introduction to the rigours of scholarly debate and challenges to faith for biblical studies can pose.
I think I'll make my first year NT 101 class read the NT section before I set them into DeSilva's NT Intro.
6 comments:
Did AIW use Andrew Lincoln's model for John or NTW on the synoptics? Terence Donaldson?
I had no idea AIW did that!!! Did I tell you I'm planning on using that a bit?
This book is the third in a series of 3 (same publisher and editors, different contributors).
The first one is: 'Keeping Your Balance: Approaching Theological and Religious Studies' (2001). This book deals with issues like pesuppositions,;devotional life; a survivor's guide to studying theology; preaching.
The second: 'Getting Your Bearings: Engaging with Contemporary Theologians' (2003). The theologians treated are Hick, Moltmann and Pannenberg and there's a chapter on Postmodernism.
Jase,
From memory I think he used NTW on Synoptics, I haven't looked at his John comments yet.
Dave, thanks for the tip on the other volumes, they are a good series.
Hmm. I have no idea that that means. Probably couldn't hurt 'em, much. :0)
Hi Michael
I check your blog regularly, and (not least as a fellow reformed baptist!) enjoy reading your reflections. I contributed the chapter on biblical interpretation to this book. It’s effectively a distillation of my 20 or so lectures for a second-year undergraduate module, which is itself a superficial distillation of... etc.
Thanks
Antony
Anthony,
Always good to hear from a fellow Reformed Baptist, enjoyed the article, it is useful for students, and hope to bump into you some time.
Post a Comment