Michael Rydelnik. The Messianic Hope: Is the Hebrew Bible Really Messianic? Nashville: B&H Publishing Group, 2010. Review by Fred Zaspel– I’m fairly certain that if the average evangelical Christian layman were to hear a respected teacher say that Genesis 3:15 (the promised defeat of the Serpent) is not a messianic prophecy, the response would be [...]

  Walter C. Kaiser Jr.The Messiah in the Old Testament. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1995.  Review by Timothy Raymond – I have a tendency to overstate my case.  I can get excited about this or that idea and too quickly claim it’s the best in its category.  I know I shouldn’t, but it’s easy to do.  [...]

Andrew Cameron, and Brian Rosner, eds. The Trials of Theology: Becoming a ‘Proven Worker’ in a Dangerous Business. Christian Focus, 2009.  Review by Fred Zaspel– This is an unusual book. First, its authors come from both the past and the present. Second, in under 200 pages it addresses a wide range of pastoral, biblical, theological, [...]

Brannon Ellis. Calvin, Classical Trinitarianism, and the Aseity of the Son. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012. Review by Tyler R. Wittman– In the church’s early fight against “Arianism” and Sabellianism, the faith’s defenders in the pro-Nicene tradition shared a strategy of distinguishing between essence-appropriate and relation-appropriate language in Trinitarian theology – two ways of speaking [...]

By Fred Zaspel– John Piper. Spectacular Sins: And Their Global Purpose in the Glory of Christ. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2008. Most Christians have wondered at some time or another about the problem of evil. The question why God allows “spectacular” sins and disasters can be a puzzling one. And of course many books have been written [...]

Isaiah by the Day: A New Devotional Translation. By Alec Motyer. Scotland: Christian Focus, 2011. Reviewed by Matthew Claridge– No book review can ever be fully objective, but I should warn readers this review particularly falls short of that goal. Alec Motyer holds a special place in my own spiritual and theological development. While serving [...]

Leithart, Peter J. Between Babel and Beast: America and Empires in Biblical Perspective (Theopolitical Visions). Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2012. Reviewed by Matthew Claridge The term “political theology” may come across as puzzling if not heretical to some evangelicals. We’ve been trained (formally, though not often in practice) to separate the two for some time; its [...]

By Fred Zaspel– Bruce A. Ware. Big Truths for Young Hearts: Teaching and Learning the Greatness of God. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2009. Reviewed by Fred Zaspel Professional theologians often get a bad wrap. Many think the entire “theological enterprise” is irrelevant. Among those a bit more Christian in their thinking, many still consider it boring [...]

Carl Trueman. The Real Scandal of the Evangelical Mind. Chicago, IL: Moody, 2012. Reviewed by Fred Zaspel It’s been more than fifteen years now since Mark Noll published his successful The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind in which the (then) Wheaton professor criticized evangelicalism for its intellectual obscurantism. Evangelicalism’s preoccupation with dispensationalism and six-day creationism, [...]

Thabiti M. Anyabwile. Finding Faithful Elders and Deacons. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012. Reviewed by Michael Nelson– Usually when the average church is looking for an elder or deacon, the most common qualifications sought after include whether they are well liked in the church and perhaps respected in the business world.  Now of course most church [...]

[Editor’s note: Yesterday, Fred Zaspel wrote a review of Stephen Wellum and Peter Gentry’s new book, Kingdom through Covenant: A Biblical-Theological Understanding of the Covenants. Today Wellum and Gentry are responding and answering the questions Zaspel raised in his review.] We are grateful to Fred Zaspel for a careful and thorough reading of our work. [...]

Wellum, Stephen, and Peter Gentry. Kingdom through Covenant: A Biblical-Theological Understanding of the Covenants. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012. Review by Fred G. Zaspel– Hurricane Sandy was for our family not the disaster it was for so many, but it was a major inconvenience. One happy spot in it all, however, was that the several days’ [...]

  [Editor's note: This review of the 2nd edition of The Roots of the Reformation is from the recent issue of Credo Magazine, "Francis Schaeffer at 100."] Evans, Gillian R. The Roots of the Reformation: Tradition, Emergence and Rupture. 2nd Edition. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2012. Review by Kenneth J. Stewart– In 1971, Harvard [...]

  Bolt, Peter. Living with the Underworld. Kingsford, NSW [Australia]: Matthias Media, 2007. Review by Timothy R. Raymond – Living with the Underworld is by far the best book I have come across on the “darker” topics of Scripture, namely death, Satan, demons, and spiritual warfare.  And perhaps the reason the book is so good [...]

Kruger, Michael J.  Canon Revisited: Establishing the Origins and Authority of the New Testament Canon.  Wheaton: Crossway, 2012. Reviewed by Nate Wood. In my first systematic theology class at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, I was immediately confronted with the challenges to the doctrine of Scripture. I realized the centrality of the doctrine for the [...]

Evans, Tony. Kingdom Man: Every Man’s Destiny, Every Woman’s Dream. Focus on the Family, 2012. Reviewed by Micah McCormick– Tony Evans, influential and long-time pastor of the 8,000 member Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship Church in Dallas, TX, writes Kingdom Man in order to raise the standard of manhood and define manhood as God intended it to [...]

Wilson, Douglas. Wordsmithy: Hot Tips for the Writing Life. Moscow, Idaho: Canon Press, 2011. Reviewed by Ian Clary. “Read boring books on writing mechanics” is one of the many pieces of good advice that Douglas Wilson prescribes in his anything but boring book on how to write. Wilson follows a noble line of writers-on-writing—like William Zinsser, [...]

In the most recent issue of Themelios, credo blogger and executive editor, Matthew Barrett, has written a review of Arminius, Arminianism, and Europe: Jacobus Arminius (1559/60-1609) (Brill’s Series in Church History), edited by Th. Marius van Leeuwen, Keith D. Stanglin, and Marijke Tolsma. Here is what he had to say:  Th. Marius van Leeuwen, professor [...]

In the Christianity and Literature Journal (vol. 6, no. 4), Credo blogger and executive editor, Matthew Barrett, has written a book review of Marilynne Robinson’s Absence of Mind: The Dispelling of Inwardness from the Modern Myth of the Self (The Terry Lectures Series). Here is just a taste: Most know Marilynne Robinson from her novels [...]

By Michael A.G. Haykin– Books are so much a part of my life—and summer is great when I can read some books that I would normally not have time to read. Here is a small list of some I have already read this summer and a few that I hope to read in July and [...]