Best Books for Academics Learning Their Craft

So you have your PhD. Now what? If you're fortunate enough to land a job, even a contingent one, how do you transition from slaving away at a dissertation in the bowels of the library to joining a faculty and standing at a lectern? The books below have helped me navigate this transition. I wish I could share them with every academic I know. 

Disclaimer: I didn't set out to write a commercial for InterVarsity Press. IVP just happens to consistently hit home runs by publishing books that I want to read! They aren't paying me to write this. I'm sharing it in hopes that these books can help you reach your full potential.

Trying to engage a classroom of 18-year olds is a far cry from spending long hours in the library laboring over a dissertation. Mike Kibbe (Great Northern) gets this, and he's written a wonderful guide to navigating the transition from what you've been trained to do (i.e., research and write) and what you're now hired to do (i.e., captivate students and help them learn). From Research to Teaching: A Guide to Beginning Your Classroom Career (IVP 2021) should be required reading for every newly minted PhD in Bible, theology, and related disciplines. Honestly, I couldn't put it down. Mike writes with candor and teaches with creativity. 

I'm 5 years in to the teaching profession, and I still believe it's the #bestjobintheworld. However, its rhythms and challenges are so unique that only an experienced insider can help someone like me find sustainable ways to navigate the academic year. Christina Bieber Lake (Wheaton) is the faculty mentor I wish I had in real life. The Flourishing Teacher: Vocational Renewaal for a Sacred Profession (IVP 2020) procedes month by month through the academic year, offering honest reflections and sage advice. I have savored each month's chapter for most of this school year. Last weekend I indulged myself by reading to the very end. What a gift to help me find perspective and cultivate joy in the journey!

THIS is the book I wish I'd had ten years ago. Power Women: Stories of Motherhood, Faith, and the Academy (IVP 2021) is a collection of essays by academic mothers about how they've navigated the dual callings of raising children and being a professor -- simultaneously. Men, before you tune out, you need this book, too, especially if you work in academic administration. This book will show you proven ways to recruit and retain female faculty in your institution. It's a treasure trove of ideas for how to help academic moms flourish. I had no women to model for me how to get an MA with small children, and few who could strategize with me about how to navigate a PhD with school-aged children. I am currently the only academic mom at my institution. How many other women out there are alone and need support? Power Women is a wonderful first step. Editors Nancy Wang Yuen (Biola) and Deshonna Collier-Goubil (Azusa) have done us a great service by bringing us the voices of a diverse group of women who have approached the quest for work-life balance in unique ways.

Write Better: A Lifelong Editor on Craft, Art, and Spirituality (IVP 2019) is a winsome guide written by one of IVP's star editors, Andrew T. Le Peau. His practical advice will revitalize your writing. Not everyone senses a calling or desire to write, but in most educational institutions it's a must. Writing is the currency of the academy -- the surest path to tenure, to impacting your field, to building a brand, and to reaching a broader audience with important ideas. Learn to do it well.

I read Institutional Intelligence: How to Build an Effective Organization (IVP 2017) when I transitioned from adjunct to full-time faculty. I wanted to know how to serve effectively in my institution. Gordon T. Smith is president of Ambrose University in Calgary. He has a keen sense of how to lead well and how to help others learn to lead well. Every generation has a tendency to try to re-invent the wheel, but lasting change comes through healthy institutions. My own passion will give out in time. A healthy institution harnesses the passion of a whole team and makes it last a generation or more. Though most professors would not identify the faculty meeting as the highlight of their week, a well-led faculty meeting can be a tangible generator of lasting change. I blogged about this book over at The Well if you'd like to learn more.

Gary Burge (Wheaton) has been around the block a few times. Looking back at a productive career, he reflects on distinct seasons of his own life in which priorities shifted and new goals coalesced. Where The Flourishing Teacher is a month-by-month guide to the academic year, Burge's book delivers on its title: Mapping Your Academic Career: Charting the Course of a Professor's Life (IVP 2015). It takes a much longer view and identifies the promises and pitfalls of each decade. I plan to keep this handy throughout my career.

Do you have another favorite that I haven't listed here? I'd love to hear about it in the comments below. I never want to stop improving at the art of being a professor!

TIME, Trump, The Death of Socrates, and The Art of Biblical Interpretation

Journalism ethics is all the rage this week (literally), with a provocative TIME magazine cover on the topic of immigration. (With apologies to readers interested in the politics of immigration and assurances to those weary of the debate, this post is not about immigration, but rather the relationship between art and truth). Are the facts at odds with the truth?

The Facts: President Trump has never met this girl from Honduras. Her separation from her mother at the border was only momentary, as her mom was searched. Afterward they were (at least temporarily) reunited as they awaited processing.

The Truth: Still, the girl comes to represent the many hundreds of children who have been separated from their parents while seeking a better life. The moral outrage following the public's realization of this is understandable, no matter how you propose to handle illegal immigration.

TIME's cover reminds me of a painting from the 1700's -- "The Death of Socrates," by Jacques-Louis David. David depicts Socrates surrounded by his disciples, on the verge of drinking his death sentence in poison. He teaches until the final moments of his life, remaining stoic in the face of death.

"The Death of Socrates" by Jacques-Louis David (1786)
Public Domain / Wikimedia Commons

Here's the connection with TIME's cover: Plato, from whom we learn the story of Socrates' death, was not present when it happened, yet David depicts him seated at the foot of the bed, slumped over and facing away.

Why include such an inaccuracy in this painting?

The Facts: David knew from Plato's own writings that he was not present at Socrates' death.

The Truth: Plato was deeply affected by Socrates' death and opposed it. By positioning him at the foot of the bed, looking away, the artist accurately captured Plato's disposition toward the death of his esteemed colleague. If Plato had been missing from the painting, we would lose this central point the artist is trying to make -- a point that coveys the truth of history creatively.

From time to time, feathers are ruffled when someone dares to suggest that the writers of Scripture  were brilliant artists. To some, this implies a disconnect with truth and a denial of divine inspiration. The second objection is easily solved. The God who created all things endows humans with creativity and invites us to participate in his work. As a prime example, take Bezalel and Oholiab, the men charged with designing the tabernacle (Exodus 31). These men were Spirit-filled and skilled creatives, in spite of the fact that their task was to construct something that already had very detailed blueprints. If their creativity was not a valuable asset for this project, God would have been better served finding an automaton. No, he chose humans, men who had spent years honing their skills in weaving and engraving and woodworking and all types of art.

But does art imply a disconnect with truth? Put another way, would the exercise of artistic license in the production of sacred Scripture get in the way of truth?

A great place to test this theory is in the Gospels. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John each tell us the story of Jesus. With their words they paint a portrait for us of his life and ministry. They share much in common, at times even whole episodes or chapters. But there are differences, and some of these are rather puzzling. Did Jesus drive out the money changers in the temple at the beginning of his ministry (as John tells it)? or at the end (as Matthew, Mark, and Luke recount)?  Some Christians assume that Jesus must have driven them out twice -- once at the beginning and another time at the end of his ministry. But could this be an example of creative license?

Each Gospel writer introduces us to the historical Jesus by showing us something distinct about who he really is -- the Jewish Messiah (Matthew), the suffering Son of God (Mark), the Savior for all people (Luke), the Son who reveals the Father (John). To show us what is true about Jesus, in some instances they are best served by rearranging events so that everything will point in the direction they want us to look. This is not because they are trying to hide the truth, but because truth is their main concern. They arrange the details so that we as readers don't get muddled -- so that we can see what they see.

Matthew, Mark, and Luke may have saved this story until the end to illustrate how the opposition to Jesus gained momentum, resulting in his crucifixion. On the other hand (I suspect this is the better explanation), John may have chosen to tell us about the temple cleansing earlier because he's arranging the episodes of Jesus' life topically. The temple cleansing fits a string of stories illustrating Jesus' redefinition of Jewish institutions (sacred vessels, temple, rabbis, and sacred sites; John 2:1-4:54).* The cluster of stories among which the temple cleansing sits is followed by a series of stories in which Jesus redefines Jewish festivals (Sabbath, Passover, feast of Tabernacles, and feast of Dedication). Together, these two clusters make up the "Book of Signs," where John presents 7 signs that reveal Jesus' identity and call people to faith, setting us up for the "Book of Glory," where Jesus is glorified by offering his life on the cross.

However you slice it, artistic license is clearly at work. Either somebody moved this event out of chronological order, or all four gospel writers chose to omit a second occurrence. In my opinion, the truth has been gloriously served.

*For a fuller discussion of John's arrangement of material, see Gary M. Burge, Lynn H. Cohick, and Gene L. Green, The New Testament in Antiquity (Zondervan, 2009), 216-219.

Time Travel, New Testament-Style

The world of the New Testament is foreign to us -- languages, customs, religions, geography, and politics are so different from our own -- and crossing that gap can be challenging. Thankfully, two esteemed New Testament professors have made it a little bit easier for the rest of us to experience that world. Bruce Longenecker (Baylor University) and Gary Burge (Wheaton College) have each written an imaginative work of historical fiction to illuminate the New Testament.

Burge's book, A Week in the Life of a Roman Centurion (IVP, 2015) follows an officer of the imperial army, Appius, and his trusted servant, Tullus, as they are assigned to various locations around Syria and Palestine. At the end of the book, they are assigned to Capernaum and their paths cross that of a simple prophet from Galilee, an encounter that changes everything. Burge's novel is easy to read and hard to put down. The story pulled me in. Informative text boxes are placed strategically throughout the book, offering background information on 1st century practices.

Longenecker's book, The Lost Letters of Pergamum (Baker, 2003/2016), is set a few decades after Jesus' resurrection, in the Asian city of Pergamum. His main character is a Roman nobleman named Antipas whose life revolves around the acquisition of both wealth and honor and the avoidance of shame. The story itself is the collected correspondence of Antipas and Luke, who had been a traveling companion of the apostle Paul and the author of a 2-part Gospel (known to us as Luke and Acts). Luke and Antipas share a love of history and a familiarity with the Roman way of life. However, when Antipas begins reading a copy of Luke's Gospel and associating with Christians, his world begins to unravel. A surprise ending brings the book to a satisfying finish. The genius of Longenecker's book is that we encounter Jesus and his teachings through the eyes of someone at home in the Roman empire. His sophisticated tale takes a bit more effort than Burge's to engage, given the appropriately stilted style of letter-writing, but it is well worth the energy.

The two novels are exactly the same length (187 and 189 pages, respectively). Both are rooted in extensive research on New Testament backgrounds, and involve real figures such as the Emperor Domitian and Herod Antipas. Burge takes his point of departure from the New Testament stories recorded in Matthew 8:5-13 and Luke 7:1-10. Longenecker's inspiration is Revelation 2:13, and he clarifies in an appendix which points of the narrative are fictional and which are not.

Sensitive readers should be forewarned that both books are rather bloody, giving detailed descriptions of gladiatorial games, and (in the case of Burge) battle scenes. Burge also incorporates aspects of the sexual lives of his characters (with concubines and prostitutes in particular), illuminating age-old problems. I read both of these within the past week, hoping to decide which to assign for my students to read in "Gospels, Acts, and Revelation" next semester. Unfortunately, it didn't make my decision any easier! I loved them both. Which one will you read first?

and the winners are . . .

After many happy hours perusing possible textbooks for my spring course on the Gospels/Acts at Multnomah, I have selected my favorites.

Because I have had little training in New Testament Greco-Roman backgrounds, I found The New Testament in Antiquity to be especially helpful. A trio of esteemed Wheaton professors - Gary Burge, Lynn Cohick, and Gene Green - pooled their expertise to produce a beautiful volume filled with crisp photographs, clear maps, helpful diagrams, and the latest in New Testament research, written for the non-specialist. Although the other volumes I considered would have worked, this seemed to be a book students could continue to use for years to come as they study the rest of the New Testament. It includes the right amount of information, written at the right level for college students.

It's a special bonus to know each of the authors and to have grown personally from interactions with each of them, but what was even more important to me was the testimony of a recent MA graduate from Wheaton who said this was her favorite book from grad school. The New Testament in Antiquity is the next best thing to taking students on a tour of the holy land. Having just been there myself in May, it was easy to tell that the photos in this book (as compared to others I saw) were the most up-to-date.

One of the strategic priorities of Multnomah's new president, Dr. Craig Williford, is to cultivate a diverse learning community. This not only includes variety in the types of students who populate our classes, but also variety in the authors and perspectives to which students are exposed during their studies. For this reason, I'm delighted to introduce students to Kenneth Bailey's Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes: Cultural Studies in the Gospels.

Bailey lived and taught in the middle east for 40 years, and his book helps readers take off their western lenses so they can read the text from a cultural perspective much closer to the ancient New Testament world. More than anything else, Bailey helps us consider new ways of reading and understanding the Bible. His book is endorsed by an impressive cadre of New Testament scholars, including Lynn Cohick and Gary Burge (above), Craig Keener, and Craig Evans.

Finally, students will need a good atlas as they follow Jesus' steps through the Gospels and the travels of the early apostles in the book of Acts. I considered a number of atlases, but in the end my favorite happened to be the most compact and affordable as well (that should make students happy!). It's paperback and slightly smaller than our main textbook. My biggest priorities were crisp photos, pleasing graphics, and maps that would give students a sense of the physical topography of the land of Israel. Now that I've been there, I feel that this aspect is so important. Carl Rasmussen's Zondervan Essential Atlas of the Bible provides all of these and more.

Here's my personal favorite, shared with permission from Zondervan:

Just a few months ago I sat on the edge of the ridge just south of Nazareth, looking out over the Jezreel Valley at Mt. Tabor and the Hill of Moreh. Now I can see that just over the ridge beyond Mt. Tabor is the Sea of Galilee. That would have been quite a hike!

I'm grateful to Zondervan and IVP for free exam copies of these books and others as well, and to Zondervan for providing free access to digital photos and maps for use in teaching. While I was not required to write a review of these books, I felt compelled to share these great resources with you.