Sparks, Kenton L. God’s Word in Human Words: An Evangelical Appropriation of Critical Biblical Scholarship. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2008.
Setting the stage for his own stance toward Scripture, Kenton Sparks begins by noting three approaches to navigating faith and Bible: secular, traditionalist, and constructive. Secular approaches do not regard the text as Divine at all. Traditionalist approaches de-emphasize the human element and tend toward harmonization and acceptance of early authorship. Constructive approaches integrate critical…
Read MoreYet I Loved Jacob: Reclaiming the Biblical Concept of Election
Kaminsky, Joel S. Yet I Loved Jacob: Reclaiming the Biblical Concept of Election Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2007. Joel Kaminsky is Director of the Program in Jewish Studies at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. He teaches courses on the Hebrew Bible and on ancient Jewish Religion and Literature. Kaminsky believes that the Christian and Jewish communities…
Read MoreThe Promise Lustiger, Jean-Marie Cardinal.
Lustiger, Jean-Marie Cardinal. The Promise Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2007. Jean-Marie Cardinal Lustiger (1926-2007), a child of Polish-born secularized Jewish parents, was raised in Paris, and, with his family, fled to the south of France (Orléans) during WW II. Tragically, his mother returned to Paris to take care of business affairs, was betrayed by her maid…
Read MoreSholem Asch, One Destiny: an Epistle to the Christians
(trans. by Milton Hindus; New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1945, 88 pp.) Sholem Asch was among the most beloved writers in Yiddish literature for the thirty or more years leading up to the Second World War. Encouraged by the great Yiddish writer I.L. Peretz and vigorously promoted by Abraham Cahan in the Forverts, Asch gained…
Read MorePeterson, Eugene H, The Jesus Way: A Conversation on the Ways that Jesus is the Way
(Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2007.) I will start with a disclaimer – I’m biased toward Eugene Peterson. The first article I read by him was “The Unbusy Pastor,” back in 1981,[1] and it remains a favorite, even if I am still not as unbusy as Peterson would recommend. The article opens with a classic Peterson…
Read MoreDavid Berger, The Rebbe, the Messiah, and the Scandal of Orthodox Indifference
(Portland, Oregon: The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 2001.) Without a doubt, the central argument of David Berger’s The Rebbe, the Messiah, and the Scandal of Orthodox Indifference will strike a Messianic Jew differently than your average Orthodox rabbi or layperson, who are presumably Berger’s intended audience. For many of us, a particular line of…
Read MoreDavid Brondos, Fortress Introduction to Salvation and the Cross
(Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2007.) In Fortress Introduction to Salvation and the Cross, David Brondos, Professor of Theology at the Theological Community of Mexico, surveys soteriological constructs ranging from the book of Isaiah to 21st century theologian Rosemary Radford Reuther. Brondos’ writing style is clear and readable, and while his treatment of biblical voices at times…
Read MoreDaniel Gruber, The Separation Of Church & Faith, Volume 1:Copernicus And The Jews
(Hanover, Nh: Elijah, 2005. 332 PP.) Reviewed by Jonathan Kaplan, M.Div., M.A., A.M. and Noel Rabinowitz, Ph.D. Daniel Gruber’s recent work, The Separation of Church & Faith, Volume 1: Copernicus and the Jews, provides us with a fascinating and controversial discussion of a subject that the vast majority of Christians take for granted as an…
Read MoreJohn W. Miller, How The Bible Came To Be: Exploring The Narrative And Message
(Mahwah, N.J.: Paulist Press, 2004. 188 PP.) John W. Miller, professor emeritus at Conrad Grebel University College/ University of Waterloo in Ontario and author of The Origins of the Bible: Rethinking Canon History, 1 has produced a simple proposal with broad implications in How the Bible Came to Be . The latter book was drafted…
Read MoreBook Review: Border Lines: The Partition of Judaeo Christianity By Daniel Boyarin
By Daniel Boyarin, UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA PRESS ©2004 • PHILADELPHIA , PA Reviewed by Paul L. Saal In recent years many books have been written which bolster the Messianic Jewish claim that Yeshua and his earliest talmidim would have been at home within the normative Jewish culture and practices of their day. Both post-critical studies…
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