Atonement, Law and Justice: The Cross in Historical and Cultural Contexts

Adonis Vidu
Baker Academic (August 2014)

Publisher’s Description

Tackling an issue of perennial interest in the Christian academy, Adonis Vidu provides a critical reading of the history of major atonement theories by exploring selected patterns, recurrent concepts, and attempts to discern broader themes. Vidu also offers an in-depth analysis of the legal and political contexts within which these atonement theories arose. The book engages the latest work in atonement theory and serves as a helpful resource for contemporary discussions.

Vidu suggests that the history of atonement thinking can be read as an ongoing conversation with the history of thinking about justice and the law. This is the only book that explores the impact of theories of law and justice on major historical atonement theories. Understanding this relationship yields a better understanding of atonement thinkers by situating them in their intellectual contexts. The book also explores the relevance of the doctrine of divine simplicity for atonement theory.

Students and scholars interested in understanding historic views of the atonement and their relation to theories of law and justice will value this work. It will also work well as a textbook for graduate courses in theology, ethics, and law.

Jesus, the Temple, and the Coming Son of Man

Robert H. Stein
IVP Academic (October 5, 2014)

Publisher’s Description

The Gospels contain many hard sayings of Jesus, but perhaps none have puzzled and intrigued readers as much as Jesus’ discourse on the coming of the Son of Man in Mark 13. Is Jesus speaking entirely of an event in the near future, a coming destruction of the temple? Or is he referring to a distant, end-of-the-world event? Or might he even be speaking of both near and distant events? But in that case, which words apply to which event, and how can we be sure?

Seasoned Gospels scholar Robert Stein follows up his major commentary on Mark with this even closer reading of Mark 13. In this macro-lens commentary he walks us step by step through the text and its questions, leading us to a compelling interpretive solution.

Institutes of the Christian Religion: Calvin’s Own Essentials Edition

John Calvin
Banner of Truth (Sept 18, 2014)

Publisher’s Description

The Institutes of the Christian Religion are Calvin’s single most important work, and one of the key texts to emerge from the Reformation of the sixteenth century. The book accompanied the Reformer throughout his life, growing in size from what was essentially an expanded catechism in 1536 to a full-scale work of biblical theology in 1559/1560.

Among the intermediate editions of the Institutes, none deserves to be better known than the first French edition of 1541. Avoiding the technical details and much of the polemics of the final work, the Institutes of 1541 offer a clear and comprehensive account of the work of Father, Son and Holy Spirit in creation, revelation and redemption, in the life of the individual Christian and in the worship and witness of the church.

Not doctrine only but its practical use is Calvin’s abiding concern. The author of the Institutes invites us both to know and to live the truth, and thus allow God’s Spirit to transform us.

The present translation is newly made from the French of 1541. It has been designed and annotated with the needs of a wide readership in mind.

For the Glory of God: Recovering a Biblical Theology of Worship

Daniel I. Block
Baker Academic (August 2014)

Publisher’s Description

Current discussions about worship are often driven by pragmatics and personal preferences rather than by the teaching of Scripture. True worship, however, is our response to God’s gracious revelation; in order to be acceptable to God, worship must be experienced on God’s terms.
Respected Old Testament scholar Daniel Block examines worship in the Bible, offering a comprehensive biblical foundation and illuminating Old Testament worship practices and principles. He develops a theology of worship that is consistent with the teachings of Scripture and is applicable for the church today. He also introduces readers to a wide range of issues related to worship. The book, illustrated with diagrams, charts, and pictures, will benefit professors and students in worship and Bible courses, pastors, and church leaders.

Biblical Theology: Volume 1: The Common Grace Covenants

Jeffrey J. Niehaus
Weaver Book Company (September 1, 2014)

Publisher’s Description

The first of two volumes, this study explores the two common grace covenants: the Adamic and Noahic. The second volume will examine the special grace covenants: the Abrahamic, Mosaic, Davidic, and New covenants. The volumes present covenant as an expression of the nature of God, and show a paradigm of activity by which God works in covenantal relations first to create the world and then, through a redemptive program after the fall, to redeem what was lost.

This month’s new and noteworthy books include a several important works in Biblical Theology along the continuation of Poythress’ Kuyperian project, and an enormous work on the Lord’s Supper by Hughes Oliphant Old. Check them out below and leave your own feedback as you have the opportunity to work through the following. Don’t forget as well, that you can now support Reformed Forum through your Amazon purchases by using Amazon Smile.

Divine Covenants and Moral Order: A Biblical Theology of Natural Law

David VanDrunen
Wm. B. Eerdmans (May 2014)

Publisher’s Description:

This book addresses the old question of natural law in its contemporary context. David VanDrunen draws on both his Reformed theological heritage and the broader Christian natural law tradition to develop a constructive theology of natural law through a thorough study of Scripture.
The biblical covenants organize VanDrunen’s study. Part 1 addresses the covenant of creation and the covenant with Noah, exploring how these covenants provide a foundation for understanding God’s governance of the whole world under the natural law. Part 2 treats the redemptive covenants that God established with Abraham, Israel, and the New Testament church and explores the obligations of God’s people to natural law within these covenant relationships.

In the concluding chapter of Divine Covenants and Moral Order VanDrunen reflects on the need for a solid theology of natural law and the importance of natural law for the Christian’s life in the public square.

Biblical Theology: The History of Theology from Adam to Christ

John Owen
Soli Deo Gloria Publications (May 2014)

Publisher’s Description:

The major portion of this volume is a history of theology from Adam to Christ. It includes an appendix with Owen’s Defense of Scripture against Fanaticism, affirming that the Bible is the perfect, authoritative, and complete Word of God. Owen considered this work his magnum opus.

Table of Contents:

• Book 1: Natural Theology
• Book 2: Theology from Adam to Noah
• Book 3: Theology from Noah to Abraham
• Book 4: Theology from Abraham to Moses
• Book 5: Theology from Moses to Christ
• Book 6: Evangelical Theology

Songs of a Suffering King: The Grand Christ Hymn of Psalms 1–8

John V. Fesko
Reformation Heritage Books (April 2014)

Publisher’s Description:

Our Lord has wisely given the Psalms, the songbook of the Bible, for the benefit of the church. But for many people, the Psalms’ contents are mysterious because they no longer have a place of prominence in the church’s worship. Author J. V. Fesko hopes to awaken the church to the majesty, beauty, and splendor of the Psalms through a devotional exploration of Psalms 1–8, a “grand Christ hymn,” in which David, as the suffering king, prefigures the king of kings, Jesus Christ. To encourage readers to come to a greater appreciation for the Psalms, the author includes with each chapter questions for further reflection and study and a metrical version of each psalm. He also recommends Internet resources that provide digital files of the tunes.

Holy Communion in the Piety of the Reformed Church

Hughes Oliphant Old
Tolle Lege Press (April 2014)

Publisher’s Description:

All across the United States, Protestant churches have forgotten their sacramental roots. The Lord’s Supper has often been reduced to an empty memorial if it is even celebrated at all, and the contemporary Protestant church suffers greatly from this lapse.

In Holy Communion in the Piety of the Reformed Church, Hughes Oliphant Old uncovers the central importance of Holy Communion in the Reformed tradition. Beginning with Calvin and moving into modern times, Old pinpoints and explains the most pivotal developments in Reformed eucharistic theology–from the true nature of the communion elements to preparatory services and seasons. Along the way, he shows that our doctrine of the Lord’s Supper is not merely an intellectual exercise; it has the profound influence on the church’s life and operations–on her piety.

This volume is both a scholarly exploration of Reformed tradition and a pastoral call to the contemporary church to rediscover the most potent truths and edifying practices of our Christian forefathers. In our day of debilitating liturgical innovations, Holy Communion proves yet again that God’s truth on any subject is timeless and evergreen. Before we can display Christ fully in our day, we must recover a full commitment to biblical worship–in the Word preached as well as the Word made visible in the Lord’s Supper.

Chance and the Sovereignty of God: A God-Centered Approach to Probability and Random Events

Vern Poythress
Crossway (April 2014)

Publisher’s Description:

What if all events—big and small, good and bad—are governed by more than just blind chance? What if they are governed by God?

In this theologically informed and philosophically nuanced introduction to the study of probability and chance, Vern Poythress argues that all events—including the seemingly random or accidental—fall under God’s watchful gaze as part of his eternal plan. Comprehensive in its scope, this book lays the theistic foundation for our scientific assumptions about the world while addressing personal questions about the meaning and significance of everyday events.

Union with Christ in the New Testament

Grant Macaskill
Oxford University Press (January 2014)

This book, now several months old, is highlighted in order to direct you to the recent review in the latest issue of Themelios.

This month’s new and noteworthy books offer many exciting and helpful incites on Scripture, Christology, the Christian life, and the relation between reason and faith. Check them out below and leave your own feedback as you have the opportunity to work through the following.

God at His Word: Why the Bible Is Knowable, Necessary, and Enough, and What That Means for You and Me

Kevin DeYoung
Crossway (April 2014)

Publisher’s Description:

Can we trust the Bible completely?
Is it sufficient for our complicated lives?
Can we really know what it teaches?

With his characteristic wit and clarity, award-winning author Kevin DeYoung has written an accessible introduction to the Bible that answers important questions raised by Christians and non-Christians. This book will help you understand what the Bible says about itself and the key characteristics that contribute to its lasting significance.

Avoiding technical jargon, this winsome volume will encourage you to read and believe the Bible—confident that it truly is God’s Word.

How God Became Jesus: The Real Origins of Belief in Jesus’ Divine Nature, A Response to Bart D. Ehrman

Michael F. Bird
Zondervan (March 2014)

Publisher’s Description:

In his recent book How Jesus Became God: The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher From Galilee historian Bart Ehrman explores a claim that resides at the heart of the Christian faith— that Jesus of Nazareth was, and is, God. According to Ehrman, though, this is not what the earliest disciples believed, nor what Jesus claimed about himself. The first response book to this latest challenge to Christianity from Ehrman, How God Became Jesus features the work of five internationally recognized biblical scholars. While subjecting his claims to critical scrutiny, they offer a better, historically informed account of why the Galilean preacher from Nazareth came to be hailed as ‘the Lord Jesus Christ.’ Namely, they contend, the exalted place of Jesus in belief and worship is clearly evident in the earliest Christian sources, shortly following his death, and was not simply the invention of the church centuries later.

Calvin on the Christian Life: Glorifying and Enjoy God Forever

Michael Horton
Crossway (March 2014)

Publisher’s Description:

John Calvin, a man adored by some and maligned by others, stands as a legendary figure in Christian history. In Calvin on the Christian Life, professor Michael Horton offers us fresh insights into the Reformer’s personal piety and practical theology by allowing Calvin to speak in his own words.

Drawing not only from his Institutes and biblical commentaries, but also from lesser-known tracts, treatises, and letters, this book will deepen your understanding of Calvin’s theology and ministry by exploring the heart of his spiritual life: confident trust and unwavering joy in the sovereign grace of God.

Reason and Religion in the English Revolution: The Challenge of Socinianism

Sarah Mortimer
Cambridge University Press (January 2014)

Publisher’s Description: 

This book provides a significant rereading of political and ecclesiastical developments during the English Revolution, by integrating them into broader European discussions about Christianity and civil society. Sarah Mortimer reveals the extent to which these discussions were shaped by the writing of the Socinians, an extremely influential group of heterodox writers. She provides the first treatment of Socinianism in England for over fifty years, demonstrating the interplay between theological ideas and political events in this period as well as the strong intellectual connections between England and Europe. Royalists used Socinian ideas to defend royal authority and the episcopal Church of England from both Parliamentarians and Thomas Hobbes. But Socinianism was also vigorously denounced and, after the Civil Wars, this attack on Socinianism was central to efforts to build a church under Cromwell and to provide toleration. The final chapters provide a new account of the religious settlement of the 1650s.

Oxford Handbook of Aquinas

Edited byBrian Davies and Eleonore Stump
Oxford University Press (February 2014)

Publisher’s Description:

Thomas Aquinas (1224/6-1274) lived an active, demanding academic and ecclesiastical life that ended while he was still comparatively young. He nonetheless produced many works, varying in length from a few pages to a few volumes.
The present book is an introduction to this influential author and a guide to his thought on almost all the major topics on which he wrote. The book begins with an account of Aquinas’s life and works. The next section contains a series of essays that set Aquinas in his intellectual context. They focus on the philosophical sources that are likely to have influenced his thinking, the most prominent of which were certain Greek philosophers (chiefly Aristotle), Latin Christian writers (such as Augustine), and Jewish and Islamic authors (such as Maimonides and Avicenna). The subsequent sections of the book address topics that Aquinas himself discussed. These include metaphysics, the existence and nature of God, ethics and action theory, epistemology, philosophy of mind and human nature, the nature of language, and an array of theological topics, including Trinity, Incarnation, sacraments, resurrection, and the problem of evil, among others. These sections include more than thirty contributions on topics central to Aquinas’s own worldview. The final sections of the volume address the development of Aquinas’s thought and its historical influence.
Any attempt to present the views of a philosopher in an earlier historical period that is meant to foster reflection on that thinker’s views needs to be both historically faithful and also philosophically engaged. The present book combines both exposition and evaluation insofar as its contributors have space to engage in both. This Handbook is therefore meant to be useful to someone wanting to learn about Aquinas’s philosophy and theology while also looking for help in philosophical interaction with it.

Anthony T. Selvaggio
P & R Publishing (January 2014)

Publisher Description:

It is difficult to overestimate the importance of Moses to the unfolding of God’s plan of salvation. Arguably, Moses is the most significant Old Testament figure because of his unique role as mediator of the old covenant. In this sense, Moses is the only parallel to Jesus Christ who is the mediator of a new and better covenant.

This book focuses on the redemptive-historical aspects of Moses’ life and ministry as manifested in the books of Exodus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

Apostle of the Last Days: The Life, Letters, and Theology of Paul

C. Marvin Pate
Kregel Academic (November 7, 2013)

Publisher Description:

A single-volume treatment based on the eschatological center of Paul’s message.
Paul’s life, letters, and theology are unified by the theme of the overlapping of two ages—this age and the age to come. With the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the age to come (i e , kingdom of God) broke into this present age but didn’t end it. Where other important doctrines such as justification by faith, reconciliation, and the cross of Christ were key players in Paul’s theology, Marvin Pate compellingly demonstrates that the overarching theme driving the Pauline corpus was indeed Paul’s inaugurated eschatology. In fact, Paul’s apocalyptic framework was only one of a number of other rival eschatologically focused religious perspectives of the day, such as the Imperial Cult, Hellenistic/syncretistic religion, and the merkabah Judaizers. Paul’s vigorous debates with the churches he served centered on the exclusivity of the gospel of Christ that he preached: the nonnegotiable apocalypse of Jesus the Messiah. Apostle of the Last Days will be welcomed in the classroom as a one-volume treatment of Paul’s life and letters as well as his theology.

Encyclopedia of Ancient Christianity

General Editor: Angelo Di Berardino
Consulting Editors: Thomas C. Oden, Joel C. Elowsky and James Hoover
IVP Academic (March 28, 2014)

Publisher Description:

This 3-volume encyclopedia, produced by the Institutum Patristicum Augustinianum, comprises 3,220 entries by a team of 266 scholars from 26 countries, covering 8 centuries of the Christian church and addressing such topics as archaeology, art and architecture, biography, culture, doctrine, ecclesiology, geography, history, philosophy, and theology.

Reformed Confessions of the 16th and 17th Centuries in English Translation: 4 Vols. Set (1523-1693)

Dennison, James T., Jr.
Reformation Heritage Books (February 28, 2014)

Publisher Description:

James T. Dennison’s Reformed Confessions project compiles numerous English translations of Reformed confessions of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. For many of these texts, this is their debut in the Anglo-Saxon vernacular. Such a collection provides the English-speaking world a richer and more comprehensive view of the emergence and maturation of Reformed theology in these foundational centuries—foundational centuries for Reformed thought and foundational summaries of Reformed doctrine for these centuries.

Each confessional statement is preceded by a brief introduction containing necessary historical and bibliographical background. The confessions are arranged chronologically, with all for volumes presenting a total of one hundred twenty seven documents covering the years 1523–1693. The final volume also contains indexes for the complete set, covering Scripture references, names of persons, and subjects.

Encountering God Together: Leading Worship Services That Honor God, Minister to His People, and Build His Church

David G. Peterson
P & R Publishing (February 2014)

Publisher Description:

Does Sunday morning leave you with a sense of awe? It should!

Church services are an opportunity to gather together and encounter God. More than that, God builds the church through us as we use his gifts to minister to one another.

Yet . . . have you experienced services that downplayed their focus on God’s presence to emphasize fellowship and ministry? Or ones whose “worship” had little sense of believers’ coming together to minister to one another? How do we regain the right balance in our services?

Here David Peterson will teach you:

• The biblical foundations of worship
• The meaning and purpose of gathering together
• What acceptable worship is
• How to plan corporate worship biblically and creatively
• A true measure of church growth
• How we edify the church
• Patterns and varieties of service models
• How to structure each service to take worshipers on a meaningful journey together

An Able and Faithful Ministry: Samuel Miller and the Pastoral Office

James M. Garretson
Reformation Heritage Books (March 2014)

Publisher Description:

Samuel Miller (1769–1850) played an integral part in founding Princeton Theological Seminary, which became one of the most influential training grounds for Presbyterian ministers in the nineteenth century. While Miller is most commonly remembered for his writings on church office, he also played a significant role instructing students and shaping their theology of preaching and pastoral ministry. In the present volume, Jim Garretson highlights the narrative of Miller’s life and the major ministerial emphases found in his published writings, sermons, and unpublished lecture notes. As a result, readers will come to know the spiritual convictions of Miller’s heart and understand the theology of ministry he imparted over the course of his lifetime.