"Entering the Fray" Reviewed in RBL

In today's edition of the Review of Biblical Literature, my book, Entering the Fray: A Primer on New Testament Issues for the Church and Academy, received an outstanding review. This is especially encouraging since, in certain circles on the internet, arguments have been raging about so-called "evangelical scholarship" and its value (or lack thereof) in the scholarly realm. Here's the final paragraph from the review but if you want to read the entire thing click HERE:

"Halcomb seeks to provide an accessible entry into an extensive, not comprehensive, array of issues debated in the field of New Testament studies. He did so in the hope of bridging the gap between scholarly conversation and church devotion. Halcomb succeeded. The book is understandable, to be sure. More than this, however, the book is inviting, respectful, and open. Finding texts that open up an already-intimidating scholarly world to those with little to no prior knowledge of biblical scholarship, much less any understanding of how that scholarship relates to conceptions of themselves as persons of faith, is difficult. Halcomb’s work is important on that front alone. In addition, Entering the Fray portrays scholarship at its best. Without becoming bogged down in the unnecessarily controversial, Halcomb shows the reader how biblical scholarship is an essential conversation partner with the church."

Want To Get Published? FREE Review Copies

Recently, I was approached by some folks who oversee the theology/biblical studies journal Religious Studies Review (RSR), which is based out of Rice University, and was asked if I would join the editorial team. I gladly accepted the offer as a sub-editor and am now overseeing books related to the Gospels, particularly the Gospel of Mark. Part of what this means is that if you are someone interested in Markan studies and someone also interested in getting awesome books in exchange for writing reviews (and by the way, RSR's reviews are typically about 600 words in length!), then it would be great for us to be in touch. Of course, I can't promise everyone who approaches me a book and I can't promise that I can get you a book, but if the situation avails the opportunity, I can work to try to make it happen. Having said that, at present, I have three books sitting on my shelves that need to be reviewed. If you are interested in any of the following, do let me know asap and we'll try to get things squared away. You can contact me directly through the form found HERE.

* D.T. Roth: Metaphor, Narrative, and Parables in Q (WUNT 315)
* A. Wypadlo: Die Verklärung Jesu nach dem Markusevangelium (WUNT 308)
* Eds. Wischmeyer, Sim, and Elmer: Paul and Mark: Comparative Essays Part I Two Authors at the Beginnings of Christianity (BZNW 198)

***UPDATE** (11/18/14 at 9pm EST): The work Paul and Mark has now been claimed as has Metaphor, Narrative, and Parables in Q.

     

Is "Intimacy With God" A Biblical Idea?

Recently, I had the opportunity to review William Goodman's book Yearning for You: Psalms and the Song of Songs in Conversation with Rock and Worship Songs for the Review of Biblical Literature. I quite enjoyed reading the book and it both touched the nerve of and articulated clearly some of the potential theological problems inherent to modern Christianity's obsession over "intimacy with God," especially within the context of worship. I commend this book to all, especially those interested in worship, worship studies, and/or worship leading. You can get your copy HERE. As a preview, here's a paragraph from the full review, which you can download and/or read HERE.

One of the major insights garnered from this chapter, which is now exegetically sustained, is the reiteration that “The Song presents the delights (and occasionally the challenges) of a human sexual relationship, with no overt reference to God at all” (183), while the “Psalms present a desire for God which is not overly expressed in the language of eros or romance” (184). While placing the texts in conversation with one another shows that throughout the biblical canon “sexuality and spirituality are not divorced or opposed” (183), it also reveals that sexual-intimate language was used by the writers of Scripture to describe human-to-human interactions, not divine-to-human interactions. This insight, in my view, should cause those who compose modern worship songs and lead worship in modern settings, to tread much more carefully in how they describe the type of relationship Christians should seek and have with God today.

My Book "Entering the Fray" Receives Another Very Favorable Review

Recently, my book Entering the Fray was reviewed by Steven Hunter (currently a Ph.D. candidate) and like others who've engaged the book, he gave it another very favorable review. He first posted it on Goodreads.com HERE and then Amazon.com HERE. For the sake of simplicity, I have simply reposted his review below. Have a look and pick up your copy HERE.

Have you ever heard a preacher say one thing and a read a scholar write another only to find that one seems pompous while the other seems ignorant? Entering the Fray is a great book that attempts to bridge the gap between the church and the academy. Halcomb shows the heart of a disciple and the prowess of a scholar. In his unique way, he explains "issues" pertaining to scholarship that both bless and plague the church. 

Each chapter has a link to an online video of Halcomb himself giving a brief synopsis of the material within that chapter. In the book, however, he gives a pithy introduction to draw the reader in, then he "tunes in" to some preliminary notes on what he'll discuss. Thereafter, he "takes note" by expositing the issue and concludes each chapter by focusing his attention on how this information should either be reconciled with the church if it can at all.  

What's remarkable about this book is Halcomb's modesty. He, at times, admits that there are certain problems, but he balances the information and dissemination of it very well. He weighs not only those scholars who would uphold the faith, but also those whom the faithful believer might find threatening. Why? To present all that's been said and what's currently being considered in the academy. Moreover, the reader -- lay or otherwise -- will be introduced into the "evolution" of thought within biblical scholarship.  

Here's something worth noting: some people will pick up this book and be enlightened by the history of theses presented therein. Others will pick it up and think that some of these scholar were desperate for a dissertation thesis. Whatever one might feel while considering this information, they'll not feel as threatened or unsafe when sophisticated people talk about issues with certainty. The reader is left to make up their own mind, but Halcomb does his best to reconcile these two worlds of the church and the academy which may have the opportunity to be one. He does this well on many points, but some may not agree with him on everything.  

I'd recommend this book to serious people within the church who want to dig deeper than what a Sunday sermon or Bible class will offer. You'll certainly enjoy this read if you're serious about the information and about understanding why some things are the way they currently are in commentaries and other biblical study aids.  

The only criticism that I'd offer is that -- considering that there was much to think about -- Halcomb sometimes saturated his chapters too heavily with information. However, the information isn't unimportant, but if he wants to appeal to church-going folk who are ignorant of academic theories, this may be too much at times for some. But, we all know that you can't please everyone. Even in the depth and breadth of information, the reader should understand Halcomb's reason -- he wants to "help congregants, pastors, students of the Bible enter into the fray of the discussions that have shaped the field of biblical studies, and in turn, the church" (p. xii).  

I've had the opportunity to meet and converse with Halcomb on a few occasions. He operates the Conversational Koine Institute (http://www.conversationalkoine.com/) where he offers classes via the internet to those who are interested in learning Koine Greek -- the language of the New Testament. He teaches in a conversational style, and he's great at it. The classes are very engaging. I took one last summer and enjoyed it but was unable to complete it due to my schedule. I'd recommend anyone taking these classes with Halcomb. He's a wonderful person, a thoughtful disciple, and he's talented in many ways as a teacher.  

I want to give a big thanks to WIPF and Stock Publishers who gave me a copy of this book to review.

An Incredible Amount of GOOD NEWS

Today has been an especially fruitful day. On the smaller side of these great things, I got an email from Pittsburgh Theological Journal telling me about one of my reviews they had just published; I had no idea they were going to as it’s been a while since I’ve heard from them. Moving on…in other news...our son crawled for the first time today :) That was fun to see.

On the more magnitdunious side of these great things, I’ve received a ton of phone calls and emails today regarding Korah, some being from very passionate and significant people! Through these conversations, I found out that yesterday’s “Tweet for Korah: The SHOE Campaign” has virtually been tripled and maybe even multiplied 5 or 6 times!!! How did this happen?

Well, we raised $300 on our own which is enough to buy somewhere around 50 pairs of shoes. Dave McIlrath, who is one of HelpKorah’s Awareness Team members and owner of the Ethiopia Guest Home (where I stayed when I was there a month ago), called me. He informed me that the organization Soles for Jesus had a team member traveling with his group that is leaving this Friday. They had somewhere around 175-200 pairs of shoes! Many of these will go to Korah!!! Dave will donate these along with those, which he purchases with our donations. Dave and I are beginning to forge what appears to be a great friendship and shared vision for Korah.

Second, as if the Soles for Jesus gig wasn’t enough of a supplement, through a number of emails and phone calls, Amanda Lawrence, executive director of Soles for Souls and I were able to speak on the phone; she is also working with the organization Visiting Orphans. She is sending a team to Addis in April and they plan on taking an extra 100-120 pairs of shoes, as well as blankets to Korah! Amanda and I have agreed to keep in contact and to begin partnering on things together.

If this wasn't enough, thirdly, I got a call from Sumer Yates, another one of our great Team Members. Sumer just returned from a trip to Africa where, on her last day, she visited the dump by Korah and spent Christmas day providing many with a very nice dinner. Sumer is incredibly passionate about HelpKorah and has tons of great ideas. We talked for about 45 minutes and we have decided to begin the creation of a “Life Sustenance” branch of HelpKorah. While we will have missionaries, mission teams, etc. go in and share the Gospel through teaching and preaching, a large part of what the Life Sustenance branch will do is help people with no income, generate life sustaining income. Our plan is to equip people with gifts. We have 3 small initiatives in mind: 1) To begin, through microloan, to teach some youth from Korah to raise chickens; 2) To begin, through teaching women jewelry making skills, how to make jewelry which they can sell, and 3) To begin teaching the children of Korah, especially those who attend the Great Hope Church, the English language, which will prepare them for jobs in the future. Our first small goal is to help the “Saturday Only” school become a “Friday and Saturday” school. The big picture is to have this as a 4-5 day / week school.

Wow! Want more? In addition to this, talks have begun with a clean water initiative based in Ethiopia called LifeWater. LifeWater plans to come out to Korah to survey the land to dig a well on the grounds of the Great Hope Church. LifeWater teaches people to maintain the well, sanitary & hygiene practices through the Gospel message. The major hurdle we have here is that Great Hope Church currently rents the land they are on, so, it must get purchased. We are looking into making this happen!

Even more: Talks have begun with another Team Member about teaming up with Compassion International to begin sponsoring children in the Korah community through the Great Hope Church.

You know, there is so much going on. See it from my perspective for a moment: 1 month ago, virtually NOTHING existed on the internet about Korah and yet, 4-5 weeks later, all of this has happened! So many people say things like “How can I help?” or “Where do we even begin?” or “It’s all so overwhelming, can we do anything that will really make a difference and if so, what?” but you know, it all happens 1 little step at a time. If you don’t believe me, look at what happened through just a few blog posts and the creation of a website! I’m totally excited to see what else will happen.

Well, there’s still more good news: 1) We had another new Team Member and blog follower join the mix today, and 2) I had someone offer to pay for my lodging in Addis this summer! That’s a huge relief, though, I still have about $1,9000 that needs covered. Anyway, this has been such a great day. HelpKorah is quickly becoming a sought after organization and things are growing much faster than I think I can handle. But you know, that’s why we have a “Team” and that’s why, if you think you can help, you should! All you really have to embody is a willing spirit, I am confident that the rest will fall into play.

On The Scholarly Map

When I first started my blog about a year and a half ago, I would occasionally Google my name or my website's name to see if it could be found. It was a great thing when, eventually, both were listed in the #1 spot. Well, yesterday, while I was doing research in Atla / Ebsco's scholarly database, I thought "what the heck" and typed in "Halcomb." To my surprise, 3 entries related to me popped up (even though my number of publications currently ranges somewhere in the double-digits). Regardless, I guess I'm on the scholarly map now (at least in another medium) which is quite cool. I imagine that in a few years I'll not be so impressed by it but yesterday, I admit, I was surprised. Click the photo to see the bibliographic information regarding the entries. If you have access to Atla / Ebsco, you can actually download one of the reviews!

ATR Book Review Up

One of my book reviews has shown up in the latest ATR. Here's the info:

Reviewed by T. Michael W. Halcomb in ATR/91:1 (150-51). Jesus: The Village Psychiatrist. By Donald Capps. Louisville, KY.: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008. 192 pp. $19.95 (paper).

Theological Hermeneutics: A Couple (More) Items For Review

In addition to a couple of recent posts where I've mentioned books I'm currently reviewing for journals, here are a couple more, each of which deals with hermeneutics: 1) Henry A. Virkler's Hermeneutics: Principles and Processes of Interpretation, and 2) Daniel J. Treier's Introducing Theological Interpretation of Scripture: Recovering a Christian Practice. I'm looking forward to getting into these books and am wholly expecting to find some thought-provoking and challenging material. If you've read either of these, feel free to share some of your thoughts here.

Jesus and the Miracle Tradition (by: P. J. Achtemeier)

Achtemeir, Paul J. Jesus and the Miracle Tradition. Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2008. Pp. 255.

Jesus and the Miracle Tradition, one of P.J. Achtemeier’s latest books is a great contribution to the field of biblical studies. The book, nearly 220 pages in length, is a fresh and timely piece of exegetical work. The point of the book, according to Achtemeier is not to question whether Jesus really performed the miracles, how they happened or whether Jesus was a magician of sorts. Instead, Achtemeier presupposes that they happened and that Jesus did them; this allows him to move past old disputes and on to another, and perhaps, more important issue/queestion: What did the miracles mean?

Of course, when asking what the miracles meant, one is really asking how the Gospel writers made them mean, interpreted and understood them or what meaning they infused them with. While I find the whole “community” behind the text approach lacking to a good degree and while I am not convinced that there were miracle “traditions” as such, there is a lot of good to be gleaned from this book. For example, the decision to pursue the meaning of the miracles is priceless. For too long, post-Enlightened readers of the Bible have tried to analyze the scientific aspects of the miracles (e.g. whether they could have happened or not, how they happened, etc.) at the cost of understanding them from literary and theological points of view.

Of course, the whole “let’s just accept them and move on” attitude can be problematic at certain junctures, but it does have its strong points. Exegetically, I must say that I was unconvinced by Achtemeier’s conclusion regarding the “Son of David” passages in Mark’s Gospel. I have answered some of his critiques and offered my own response to that, which you can read by clicking the following link: Was Jesus Both Lord and Son of David?

I did find the discussion on the “Son of Man” passages valuable as well as the probing of the relationship between miracles and discipleship in Mark. Again, I was less impressed or convinced with the sort of redactional, source-critical approach but then again, I’ve never really been big on those methods anyway. At the end of the day, I would recommend this book to new and seasoned readers alike. Achetemeir, as usual, does great research, impressive exegesis, raises many questions and paves new avenues for research with this timely work. Thanks for the review copy Cascade!

Performing & Proclaiming the Gospel (by: R. Horsley; W. Shiner)

Horsley, Richard A. Performing the Gospel: Orality, Memory, and Mark. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2006. Pp. 239, and Shiner, Whitney. Proclaiming the Gospel: First-Century Performance of Mark. New York, NY: TPI/Continuum, 2003. Pp. 214.

In this post, I am going to offer a brief review of two books that shared similar foci: Whitney Shiner’s Proclaiming the Gospel and Richard Horsely’s Performing the Gospel.

Probably, of the two, Shiner’s title is the most accurate. In his work, he deals with performance in the ancient world and its myriad elements. However, in each chapter, he ties that in with Mark’s Gospel. For example, in the 9 main chapters, he deals with: Oral Performance, Types of Performances, Emotion, Delivery, Memorization, Gesture/Movement, The Audience, Applause Lines and Including the Audience. Shiner applies each of these to Mark’s work in a creative and detailed manner. That makes this book not only a good resource for Markan studies but also research in ancient theater (e.g. drama, tragedy, public speech, etc.).

As for Horsely’s work, while the title isn’t terribly off, this is another book where the subtitle is more accurate: Orality, Memory and Mark. Composed as a tome of essays, this book is divided into three sections. The first section deals with literacy and orality in the ancient world. The second part, building on the first, deals with literacy, orality and memory in antiquity. The third part, rooted in the previous chapters’ research zeroes in on orality, literacy and memory as they apply to Mark. In all thruthfulness, not much is said concerning Mark’s Gospel in the first two sections. These partitions are very scholarly and attempt to construct an erudite framework for Mark’s Gospel.

One of the great things about Horsley’s work is that it is learned, articulate and trend-setting. Another plus is the attempt to engage portions of the Hebrew Scriptures to illuminate Mk. Just as well, the close attention paid to the culture of the first century Mediterranean is impressive. One of the downfall’s of this book is that for those interested primarily in Mk., it seems like it takes a while to even get to Mk. Perhaps a title change would work in this tome’s favor.

In regards to Shiner’s book, there are many wonderful things I could say. His interaction with primary sources, his clear style of writing, his creative approaches, his detailed analyses, his in-depth look at ancient performance and his constant appeal to Mk. is nothing short of top-notch. Actually, my favorite chapter out of the work edited by Horsley is actually written by Shiner (chapter 9: Memory Technology and the Composition of Mark) which is a “must read” essay. While I do not subscribe to everything Shiner says (e.g. his view concerning the date/setting of Mark’s Gospel), I find a great deal of what he has to say quite appealing.

In the end, both of these are great works. The Horsley text is more technical and may not be for the common reader. Still, it is a great contribution to the field. The Shiner book is an excellent addition to my personal library and I am thankful to Continuum for sending it.

Mark and Method (ed. by: J. Capel Anderson, et. al.)

Anderson, Janice Capel. Mark & Method: New Approaches in Biblical Studies, 2nd ed. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2008. Pp. 288.

Honestly, I cannot sing enough praises for the second edition of Mark & Method. Edited by Janice Capel Anderson and Stephen D. Moore, this work is first rate. A compilation of scholarly essays, this tome makes an excellent textbook for students of Mark’s Gospel. In fact, I would recommend this book before any others when it comes to getting a firm, introductory grasp on Mark.

Imbued with a lengthy list of impressive contributors, this work contains 8 chapters that plummet the depths of hermeneutical issues, perspectives and approaches to the Gospel According to Mark. After a nice, concise history of the interpretation of Mk. in the first chapter, the next seven chapters illustrate the ways in which various hermeneutical methods illumine the text in various ways. The chapters’ titles are: Narrative Criticism, Reader-Response Criticism, Deconstructive Criticism, Feminist Criticism, Social Criticism, Cultural Studies and Postcolonial Criticism.

I found chapters 2 (Elizabeth Struthers Malbon), 5 (Janice Capel Anderson), 6 (David Rhoads) and 7 (Abraham Smith) most illuminating. Then again, I am biased as my interests reside in socio-literary approaches towards the Scriptures. Given the way the book is structured—an individual, unthematic, essay format—it is difficult to, in a short amount of space, to offer any detailed analysis. That said, if anyone has questions about this book or any of its chapters, I’d be more than willing to discuss them.

This work makes not only a good introduction to Mk. but also a fine introduction to hermeneutical issues and methods. If you are a professor, I highly recommend using this book. If you are a student, especially in Markan studies, you must own this. And if you are an avid read or someone with an affinity for Mark’s Gospel, it would be a travesty not to have this book on your shelf. Thanks to Fortress Press for sending me this outstanding work on the Gospel According to Mark!

Mark's Story (by: LaHaye & Jenkins)

LaHaye, Tim and Jenkins, Jerry B. The Jesus Chronicles: Mark’s Story. New York, NY: G. P. Putnam’s & Sons, 2008. Pp. 308.

As one whose scholarly interests are assuredly Markan, I must admit, the new novel by LaHaye and Jenkins, Mark’s Story, is neither incredibly scholarly or novel. In fact, the Left Behind Guys, in this new addition to “The Jesus Chronicles” series, left me very unimpressed. For starters, one-third of the book is, word-for-word, the Gospel According to Mark plus 1 and 2 Peter, all of which they suggest Mark wrote. Reproducing these sections of Scripture in the book was just unnecessary. Secondly, the story takes a fundamentalistic, narrow approach to reconstructing the man Mark’s life (e.g. maximalism to the max). Now, I realize this is a novel and that as with all novels, some liberties must be taken. However, these two seem to push full steam ahead on every maximalist coal they can find; nothing is ever critically questioned (for a good critique of this view, see the first few pages of Clifton Black’s, Mark as Apostolic Interpreter). Thirdly, they never ever cite any other scholars even though their work is based on maximalist scholarship. Fourthly, the multitude of midrash is almost too much to handle.

Okay, so, maybe I’m a little biased. I’m a critical scholar reading this “novel” with a critical eye. But I guess what frustrates me the most is that millions of people will read un-critical works like this and never those that do an awesome job at explaining and bringing Mark to life. Of course, I’m anti Left Behind, so, I was hoping this book would provide a little redemption for the dispensationalist duo. I must say, that did not happen. Honestly, if you “surface read” the Gospel of John and Acts (that is, without any critical or questioning exegetical eye at all) you can get the gist of this book. The only thing I can promote this book for is that it is a stellar example of an uncritical, maximalist historian’s approach to the Gospels. Now, I’m not a minimalist and I’m not against maximalism that is well researched and sturdy. But that is not what we get here. I’m thankful for the review copy but I am sorry that in this review, very little in the way of “positives” can be said.

The Life of a Galilean Shaman (by: Pieter Craffert)

Craffert, Pieter. The Life of a Galilean Shaman: Jesus of Nazareth in Anthropological-Historical Perspective. Minneapolis, MN: Cascade, 2007. Pp. 451.

A recent addition to the "Matrix: The Bible in Mediterranean Context series", Pieter Craffert’s The Life of a Galilean Shaman, is quite a thought provoking read. While the main title is indicative of the work’s content, it may well be the case that the subtitle is even more explanatory: Jesus of Nazareth in Anthropological-Historical Perspective. Craffert uses the label “Anthropological-Historical” in contrast to the typical historical positivism that undergirds most commentaries and biblical studies. Craffert sums up his approach: “Against the notion that historians can recreate the past, anthropological historiography admits against a naïve realism that there is no one-to-one referentiality (or representation of reality)” (14). To put it more bluntly, Craffert believes that re-creating the past is never objective (e.g. the “history of ideas” approach). For him, then, when it comes to Jesus, one must consider the social and cultural processes that shaped Him. Certainly, there is merit to his claim; this is one of the strengths of His book.

Another item that readers will find valuable is his discussion of “Historical Jesus” research; it is succinct and well researched. Just as well, Craffert’s explanations of how different societies think about, preserve and pass on cultural elements, practices and views of the world and reality is profound. After reading this work, one cannot walk away without recognizing the need for being more aware of our own cultural biases when reading the Scriptures. By the same token, readers must also be more aware of the cultural biases of inhabitants of the first century Mediterranean world.

An invaluable section of The Life of a Galilean Shaman is when Craffert argues (in a nutshell) that too much time has been wasted on attempting to get back to the original texts of the New Testament. For Craffert—and for the most part, I find myself in agreement with his conjectures—it doesn’t matter what the original text was. Interpretation was fluid—constantly being developed and shared. I cannot reconstruct his whole argument here but I do offer one quote that gives you a glimpse into his approach: “…the canonical Gospels no longer consist of an authentic kernel covered with traditional or church overlay but are seen as different configurations of the above cultural processes about the same historical figure. They are four versions of specific cultural processes about a specific social personage that already started during Jesus’ lifetime. They are, so to speak, the literary residues of a Galilean shaman’s life” (124). In my opinion, this chapter by itself, makes the book worth owning.

While there are a lot of excellent things that can be said of Craffert’s work, I have a number of critiques as well. First of all, there are a great number of typos. I was surprised to find one on the very first page with content (ix; a word is missing). Also, I felt at times as though Craffert went overboard with charts that added more confusion to what was said than anything. Another thing that I found bothersome was that all throughout the first couple of chapters Craffert uses the self-coined phrase “cultural bundubashing” without ever defining it. Finally, in the third chapter he gets around to a definition.

I heard Craffert deliver a lecture last year that stuck closely to one of the chapters in the book; I was not impressed with the lecture or the chapter. Craffert seems to dig up the old “group think” argument concerning the resurrection, baptize it with new terminology and dress it in a social-science garb. He suggests that Jesus’ followers did not really believe Jesus was raised from the dead but that in a moment of ecstasy—which was common in that culture he says and not necessarily ours—everyone shared a vision of Jesus. I think Craffert has gone too far here, not just because the content is the resurrection of Jesus but because the contention is greatly flawed. Craffert’s theological reticence towards miracles leads him astray, or so it seems. I would argue that if as many people as Craffert claims all had the same exact vision, that might be a greater miracle than the resurrection itself.

And this leads me to my last point about Craffert’s biopsychosocial approach. While it is a great social-science model in many respects, it seems to have some rather large loopholes. By “biopsychosocial” Craffert basically means that how a person defines sickness and healing, is culturally conditioned. So, a first century person would define an illness common to them entirely differently than someone would in the West today. In the same way, then, both parties will define the healing process and total healing differently as well. Craffert’s intent is to focus more on socio-cultural aspects of Jesus’ life than factual-historical ones. The problem is, in the end, he totally dispenses with (f)actual history and therefore, he gets to define Jesus, Jesus’ society and Jesus’ reality. While those in the West today definitely need to strive to understand the ways in which Jesus’ culture was/is different from theirs, in many respects, Craffert makes it seem as though to engage Jesus, one must engage an ancient Galilean legend or dream, or better yet, that Galilean’s (social) reality and not the Galilean Himself. Contrary to certain claims, Christianity is not just about engaging Jesus’ teachings; the Gospel is about meeting God in Christ!

Pisteuomen "Book Review Week"

Thanks to Blogger’s new “set and publish” tool (you can set a post to publish, just like an alarm clock and it does), I’ll be able to post while I take a week away from the computer. So, starting tomorrow, I will begin “Pisteuomen Book Review Week”. Each day, Monday through Friday, Pisteuomen will contain a book review. Here are the books to be reviewed and the days on which the reviews will be posted:

Monday: Craffert, Pieter. The Life of a Galilean Shaman: Jesus of Nazareth in Anthropological-Historical Perspective. Minneapolis, MN: Cascade, 2007. Pp. 451.

Tuesday: LaHaye, Tim and Jenkins, Jerry B. The Jesus Chronicles: Mark’s Story. New York, NY: G. P. Putnam’s & Sons, 2008. Pp. 308.

Wednesday: Anderson, Janice Capel. Mark & Method: New Approaches in Biblical Studies, 2nd ed. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2008. Pp. 288.

Thursday: Horsley, Richard A. Performing the Gospel: Orality, Memory, and Mark. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2006. Pp. 239, and Shiner, Whitney. Proclaiming the Gospel: First-Century Performance of Mark. New York, NY: TPI/Continuum, 2003. Pp. 214.

Friday: Achtemeir, Paul J. Jesus and the Miracle Tradition. Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2008. Pp. 255.

Free Books For Bloggers

Anyone who explores theo and biblio blogs will quickly notice that there is a growing trend among bloggers: the recieving and reviewing of free books. In my opinion, this is a great thing! Publishing companies have taken note of the usefulness and popularity of blogs and have become quite open to sending out complimentary copies for review. It's a two-way street: The company gets advertising and the blogger gets free literature. But there is more to it than meets they eye. So, if you are a blogger who wants to get some free books (actually, they're not exactly "free" because you do have to review them, but they do arrive cost free), here are some thoughts:

1. You should be keeping stats on your blog. What I mean is that you need to know how many readers per day, week, month and year you're getting. Providing this statistic to the publisher is, in my opinion, critical. Until you get a decent readership (I personally would consider 50 readers per day, decent), you might want to abstain from asking for free books. That said, it might be worth taking the risk and asking even if you're readership is less than this.

2. You should also inform the publishers of how long your blog has been active and how often you udpate your site. You can also mention, at this point, the purpose of your site and why you are choosing this publisher to ask for a review copy. (E.g. If the publisher is primarily affiliated with theology or NT studies and that is where your interests lie, you might share this with them).

3. Another stat you should provide when contacting the publishing companies is details about who your readers are. Is your blog geared towards Bible scholars, students, lay persons, theologians, philosohpers, archeologists, etc. You need to share who your audience is.

4. Another thing that will help you acquire a book is to have book reviews you've already done, posted as examples. This gives the publishing company the opportunity to see what kind of work you can do; this could be an important factor.

5. When asking for a book, you need to contact the marketing director/coordinator of the publishing company (or the equivalent) via email. You can usually find this at the publishing company's site on the contact page. Many publishing companies also have a portion of their site where you can "request a copy for review". If you can find this part of the site then use it, if not, revert to the email tactic I mentioned above.

6. Tell the publishers a little bit about yourself. Share your educational and ministerial background with them. This could help definitely help your chances of getting a book (or books).

7. If you do recieve a book from the company, make sure you thank them and give them some air time on your blog.

8. There are a number of ways to write the review itself. Some do a chapter-by-chapter analysis in each post. Others do rolling blog reviews. Personally, for shorter books I like to do a 750-800 word succinct review. For longer, more scholarly books, I find 1500 words suitable.

So, there is more to getting review copies than just being a blogger or blogging more often. Though the first is a "must" and the second definitely helps, as I've tried to show, there are a few other, very important factors and elements. Even so, I've found that most publishing companies are quite generous. Thanks again to those who have been so kind to me: Wipf & Stock, Fortress Press and WJK!