My time is running out, marriage is a few short weeks away and I will never be able to buy a book again. Here are the ones I bought with this pay check
Jonathan Edwards’s Bible: The Relationship of the Old and New Testaments by Stephen Nichols
I love Jonathan Edwards. I love typology. I love studying the New Testament use of the Old Testament. I also love Oliver Crisp. Having said that you should probably know by now why I bought this book. It is a book on Jonathan Edwards’s understanding typology and how the NT relates to the OT, with a forward written by Oliver Crisp. Enough said.
Here is the Wipf & Stock book description: New England colonial pastor and theologian Jonathan Edwards (1703-58) was well aware of the threat that Deist philosophy posed to the unity of the Bible as Christian Scriptures, yet remarkably, his own theology of the Bible has never before been examined. In the context of his entire corpus this study pays particular attention to the detailed notes Edwards left for “The Harmony of the Old and New Testament,” a “great work” hitherto largely ignored by scholars. Following examination of his “Harmony” notes, a case study of salvation in the Old Testament challenges the current “dispositional” account of Edwards’s soteriology and argues instead that the colonial Reformed theologian held there to be one object of saving faith in Old and New Testaments, namely, Christ.
Reading for Preaching: The Preacher in Conversation with Storytellers, Biographers, Poets, and Journalists by Cornelius Plantinga Jr.
I preach about 1/2 of the sermons at the college ministry I serve at. Over the years my preaching has gotten better (hopefully). I know I have a pretty intuitive grasp of scripture & I always try to make my sermons point back to Christ. All to say, the content good. However the packaging of my content isn’t so great. I think it can feel stuffy & a bit over-academic. My sermons don’t have much flare. Depending on who you are, that might not seem like much a problem, stick to the text use no illustrations, blah blah blah. But I don’t think that is the best route to take. You don’t want your people to doze off before you give them the real meat of the sermon. This book offers an argument for how reading, especially non-theological works can make your preaching better. Plus anything written by Cornelius Plantinga is solid gold.
Here is the Amazon description: Plantinga — himself a master preacher — shows how a wide reading program can benefit preachers. First, he says, good reading generates delight, and the preacher who enters the world of delight goes with God. Good reading can also help tune the preacher’s ear for language — his or her primary tool. General reading can enlarge the preacher’s sympathies for people and situations that she or he had previously known nothing about. And, above all, the preacher who reads widely has the chance to become wise.
Preaching Christ Today: The Gospel and Scientific Thinking by T.F. Torrance
I recently raided Archives bookstore at Fuller Seminary, snatching up a bunch of Torrance for a really good price. As I mentioned before I will probably do some further research on Torrance in the future (Th.M or Ph.D) so I want to get a jump on Torrencian literature. On Amazon this book goes for $30, but I bought it for $5.
The description on Amazon isn’t very descriptive though: Biblical scholar, former professor, and author Thomas Torrance suggests that great preaching today not only includes a faithful presentation of the Christian gospel, but that such presentation be expressed in ways that can be appreciated within the modern scientific understanding of the created universe upon which God has impressed his Word.
