best books in 2015

Check out Christianity Today's top picks for 2015. Perhaps this list can help you with some last-minute Christmas shopping!

Studying at Wheaton put me at the heart of the Christian publishing world. CT was right up the road, as were Tyndale Publishers, Crossway, and InterVarsity Press. Grand Rapids, the other big hub, was just a hop over Lake Michigan, with Eerdmans, Baker, and Zondervan. Wheaton professors actively publish with all of these companies, so I found myself in a web of new connections. I could safely spend the rest of my teaching career requiring my students to read only books written by people I know. How cool is that?!

But on to the book awards. Here are the highlights (i.e. people I know and/or books I've read):

My own doctoral advisor, Daniel Block, received an Award of Merit in Biblical Studies for his latest: For the Glory of God: Recovering a Biblical Theology of Worship (Baker Academic). I had no part in this one, but I'm so glad to see it making a splash! It also appeared on Janet Mefferd's Top 10 Books of 2014 and an Honorable Mention on Kevin DeYoung's list at The Gospel Coalition.

In the area of Spirituality, an Award of Merit goes to a book I recommended earlier this year: Called to be Saints: An Invitation to Christian Maturity, by Gordon T. Smith (IVP Academic), president of Ambrose University College in Calgary, Alberta.

For Theology and Ethics, first place was awarded to Kevin Vanhoozer's Faith Speaking Understanding: Performing the Drama of Doctrine. I had the honor of studying with Dr. Vanhoozer at Wheaton (he's now at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School). You might be interested to know that this book is a more popular version of his weighty Drama of Doctrine, released in 2005.

One of Dr. Vanhoozer's doctoral students, my friend and colleague Jeremy Treat, received the Award of Merit in the same category for a book based on his Wheaton dissertation, The Crucified King: Atonement and Kingdom in Biblical and Systematic Theology. Congratulations, Jeremy!

And now for a few more titles that caught my eye and are landing on my wish list:

First place in Spirituality: What's in a Phrase? Pausing Where Scripture Gives You Pause by Marilyn Chandler McEntyre

First place in Christian Living: Teach Us to Want: Longing, Ambition, and the Life of Faith, Jen Pollock Michel (InterVarsity Press)

Award of Merit in Christian Living: Visions of Vocation: Common Grace for the Common Good, Steven Garber (InterVarsity Press)

Award of Merit in Fiction: The Invention of Wings, by Sue Monk Kidd (Viking Adult)

Life is too short to read everything. You might as well start with the best!

FAQ re:PhD @ Wheaton

Wondering what this is all about? Here are some questions that others have asked about what we're doing here in Wheaton. If you have more questions of this sort, feel free to ask!


What program are you in at Wheaton?

I'm working on a PhD in Biblical Theology with a concentration in Old Testament.

How long is your program?

It's a 3-year, full-time program. Many students take 4 or 5 years to complete it.

What classes are you taking?

I still have to pinch myself some days to see if this is real. I get to study with some of the world's best Evangelical scholars! This fall I am taking:

Intro to Doctoral Research - with Daniel Block

Biblical Theology - with Kevin Vanhoozer

Isaiah - with Richard Schultz

Guided Research (background reading for my dissertation) - with Daniel Block

What sort of work are you doing for Dr. Block?

I'm working as a TA for his Exegesis of Deuteronomy class. I get to sit in on the class and learn from him, grade students' translations and diagrams of the passages we're studying, and keep records. He has also had me edit some of his writing. So far I've edited his ETS and SBL papers for next month and the bibliography for a commentary on Ezekiel by Jacob Milgrom, who died before he could complete his manuscript. Dr. Block took over the project at the request of his family. All together I work for him about 10 hours/week, in exchange for a stipend funded by a generous donor to the college.

Do you have a dissertation topic yet?

Yes! At Wheaton a dissertation proposal is part of the application to the program. I've been chewing on my topic for about 20 months already. I'll be exploring the interpretation of the second command of the Decalogue (otherwise known as the 'Ten Commandments'): "You shall not take the name of the LORD, your God, in vain." A more literal translation is "You shall not bear the name of Yahweh, your God, falsely." I'll be discovering whether the command should be interpreted more broadly than it typically has. Most people in the history of interpretation have understood it as a command not to swear, misuse, or mispronounce God's personal name. However, there is a possibility that this command connects with the wider biblical theme of 'bearing the name of the LORD,' that is, representing him well. If that is the case, the command would be warning God's people not to claim allegiance to him while living in a way that is inconsistent with his character. I am very eager to dive into this project because it is such a crucial one for believers to grasp.

What are you working on these days?

I'm more than halfway done with the 6,000 pages I need to read this semester (it's ok, you can gasp here), and I've turned my attention to the 3 papers that need to be written.

(1) A paper I'll be presenting in San Francisco later this month at the Evangelical Theological Society meetings: "Psalm 24:4 and the Decalogue: A Mutually Illuminating Relationship?" Psalm 24:4 has a very similar statement to the second command of the Decalogue. The Psalmist describes the righteous person who may approach Yahweh (in Yahweh's own words) as one "who does not bear my soul falsely." I'm exploring whether this is the same figure of speech as the one used in the Decalogue, and if so, what the implications are for our understanding of both passages.

(2) A paper on the use of the word segullah ("treasured possession") in Deuteronomy. This is an extension of my MA thesis on the 'Peter's Use of the Old Testament in 1 Peter 2:9-10.' Dr. Block and I are hoping that I can use this paper as an additional chapter for my MA thesis and then have it published.

(3) A paper on the interpretation of Isa 63:19. This is a key text for the biblical theme that I mentioned above on 'bearing the name of the LORD.' If you compare the NIV and the NAS on this passage, you'll see that the translators understood it in completely different ways. I'm going to dig into this issue and decide how I think it should be translated.

Are you overwhelmed?

Yes, some days more than others. The first month of the semester was really rough. I dealt with stress and anxiety continually, and felt like someone was squeezing the life out of me. After prayer and some really helpful conversations with colleagues, family, and friends, I'm happy to say that things have really turned around. Most days I'm filled with joy that I get to do what I love. Writing these papers by the deadline is going to require a class B miracle, though, so I do appreciate your prayers for divine guidance and anointing for the task!

gem for the day

No diamond yet, but I did find a real gem this morning while reading the concluding pages of Kevin Vanhoozer's book Is There a Meaning in This Text?: The Bible, The Reader, and the Morality of Literary Knowledge.  He raises the issue of the ethics of interpretation.  That is, do I have a moral obligation as a reader?  Is there something expected of me that I would be wrong not to do?

He concludes, “The vocation of the biblical interpreter is not simply to point at biblical meaning, but to embody it – to walk the way the Word goes” (440).  I am free to read the Bible and walk away unchanged, but if that is my response then I cannot say that I have truly understood it. 

N. T. Wright and Friends

Wheaton's Theology Conference was outstanding! N. T. Wright's work was in the spotlight, and scholars from all over were invited to come and respond to him -- highlighting where they think Wright is right, and where he is wrong. Almost all the lectures are available for download, including his chapel message to Wheaton College students on Friday morning, so you can listen to the stimulating conversation for yourself.

Friday's theme was "Jesus and the People of God." The highlights of the day were hearing Richard Hays (from Duke) and N. T. Wright's evening lecture. Listen to Wright first for an entry-level explanation of his reading of the gospels. Hays has much in common with Wright but wants to see more attention to the literary shape of the gospels (as opposed to the history behind them). For what it's worth, Wright's book Jesus and the Victory of God was not written on a blank slate, but rather in response to the Jesus Seminar's discrediting of the Gospels. He puts himself squarely on their playing field, using only the synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) and emphasizing their historical reliability. He wishes that he had been able to give more attention to the ways in which each of the four Gospels present Jesus in a unique way, but constraints of time and space did not permit that.

Saturday was devoted to "Paul and the People of God." If you've heard about the current scholarly debate over 'justification' then you will want to listen to Wright's evening lecture, followed by Kevin Vanhoozer's hilarious yet substantive critique of Wright's position. It may be helpful to know in advance that Wright has been drawn (by John Piper) into the debate reluctantly. He does not feel that justification is the main point of Paul's writings. Community concerns are primary (the uniting of Jew and Gentile as the one people of God). Wright says that the Reformers did a great job answering late medieval questions, but that those questions have been allowed to set the agenda ever since. He wants to re-situate our reading of Paul in its 1st-century Jewish historical context. Vanhoozer (who teaches at Wheaton Graduate School) argued for a mediating position (between Piper and Wright).

Jeremy Begbie (from Duke) gave a fascinating lecture on the relationship between the emerging church and N. T. Wright. Hopefully the audio version includes his original piano composition in honor of Wright. The panel discussions were a lot of fun and very interesting, but they will probably only make sense if you first listen to all the presenters from that day. Let me know what you think!

http://www.wheaton.edu/wetn/lectures-theology10.htm

a budding philosopher?

Easton is approaching 21 months old, but his only words so far are 'Dada', 'Mama', Emma, and (if we ask him to say it) 'hot'.  I suppose we could be worried (since we've met many kids his age who can say dozens of words by now), but his comprehension is great, and he communicates very effectively by pointing and using a system of grunts that we suspect is highly developed (think: tonal language). :)

Over the weekend I was reading Kevin Vanhoozer's Is There a Meaning in This Text? I was startled to find the following discussion of Plato's Cratylus, a dialogue on language theory.  Bear with me:

"Cratylus [one of the characters in the dialogue] does not really appear to believe what we might call the 'imitation theory' of meaning.  He follows Herclitus's notion that 'all is flux' and concludes that one ought not to say anything but only point with one's finger, since no true statement can be made about what is constantly changing." (17, emphasis mine)

So you see that we have confirmation of our son's brilliance.  His apparent lack of verbal skills are a actually a deliberate attempt to represent postmodern theories of language.  Who could have guessed?!