Tag: Biblical Studies

REVIEW: The Mary We Forgot by Jennifer Powell McNutt

REVIEW: The Mary We Forgot by Jennifer Powell McNutt

Posted on by Jaymie

[I received a free electronic review copy of this book from Netgalley and Brazos Press in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.]

Summary and Review

Mary Magdalene is known in scripture for being healed from multiple demons by Jesus and also for being one of the first witnesses of the risen Christ. But there are misunderstandings of her as well. Dr. Powell McNutt is determined to clear up these misunderstandings and present a compelling portrait of this disciple of Jesus and apostle of the early Church.

This book:

  • Addresses the “surprises” of the Bible – Peter and John being called in front of the High Priest in Acts, Jesus as a surprise out of Nazareth, Mary Magdalene – or any woman – mentioned in Scripture.
  • Extensively covers the conflation of Marys (Mary of Bethany, Mary Magdalene) with the woman in Luke 7 which is challenged with multiple sources and logical rationales. And where the Luke 7 woman is distinguished from Mary Magdalene, the woman is honored by the author (as she is by Jesus in the text). I liked that this honored many of the women of the New Testament, not just Mary although she was the focus.
  • Refers to the Gospel of Mary Magdalene as a commentary on the time of its writing.
  • Addresses Mary’s demon possession as well as her inclusion with Jesus’s ministry and followers along with other women healed by Jesus and named by Luke – patronesses of Jesus’s ministry.

Overall I liked this – the writing is conversational and easy to follow. The author sprinkles in some personal stories to tie some of her exploration areas together. And I found the conflation section fascinating, although it seemed to go on for a long time. I think researchers, historians, and students will love the deep dive, but for a newbie like me, it felt like selling past the close. Super detailed proof and examples of how past scholars and historians have blotted out Mary’s role, identity, and place in the followers of Jesus will be fantastic for other scholars, but the point was made sufficiently for me pretty quickly.

The book is also written with the full view of history interjected regularly which may be a distraction for less-informed readers. The book doesn’t necessarily move in a straightforward way from from left to right so to speak. It felt at times like re-reading a favorite series where you read book 3 in light of what you know is coming in book 6. But for those exposed to this material for the first time – like me – those interjections of what is to come may be jarring. This is one of the ways I felt like I am  not the intended audience for this book. My PhD-level colleagues at a seminary would have a lot more context for the material in this book. If this is used in an academic setting, students may need more historical context as well for the Church’s response to Mary.

My only real complaint would be that in my review copy, the endnotes aren’t linked which is frustrating for the reader. Hopefully this will be fixed in the official e-book.

I can recommend this to scholars, researchers, and seminarians. I think it would be a supremely readable textbook for students. More casual readers like me can get a lot out of this, too. This will forever impact my understanding of Mary and her presence in the gospels!

Rating: ♥♥♥♥*

*♥♥♥♥ – Great! Might re-read.

REVIEW: The State of Pauline Studies edited by Nijay Gupta, et al

REVIEW: The State of Pauline Studies edited by Nijay Gupta, et al

Posted on by Jaymie

[I received a free electronic review copy of this book from Netgalley and Baker Academic in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.]

Summary and Review

A few years ago, Baker Academic released The State of New Testament Studies, and the contributors felt like they couldn’t devote as much space to Paul as they needed. So this book was developed. It includes chapters on Paul and specific areas of focus – gender, Judaism, the Spirit, etc. – as well as chapters on each of Paul’s letters. The book exists to highlight recent research, study, theories, and debates. Each chapter is essentially a literature review of recent research – and it’s brilliant! This is a deep, heavily researched exploration.

Professors, researchers, students, and practitioners could use this as a one-stop starting place to dig into the contemporary world of Biblical scholarship, specifically around Paul. The content can spin readers off to numerous resources to dig deeper. Each article/essay is heavily end-noted.

As an example, the chapter on Romans is written by Dr. Jennifer Strawbridge, Associate Professor of New Testament Studies at the University of Oxford. The chapter covers topics like justification, Junia and Phoebe, post-colonial readings of Romans, ecological interpretation, queer approaches to Romans, and disability studies.

This could be a fascinating textbook for New Testament courses as well as a stellar resource for students and researchers. I would highly recommend the addition of this to university libraries. And practitioners/pastors could get a lot out of having this in their libraries. Again – this is a STARTING place – far more reading and follow up work would come after reading this. I don’t know that someone preaching on a passage in Romans, for example, would use Strawbridge’s chapter alone and feel they did their due diligence in examining current thinking on Romans. Professors, especially those developing or updating a course on Paul’s work, would be well-served by this resource, again as a starting point to include contemporary research.

Also available from Baker is The State of New Testament Studies (already available) and The State of Old Testament Studies (releasing in November).

As a non-academic reader, I felt clearly that I was not the intended audience for this book. But I was captivated by it anyway. I wanted to follow every end-noted rabbit trail to further reading on a variety of topics. The voice of the introduction is great! As a non-seminarian, I had to look up three words/concepts in the intro alone. Have your phone handy to look up terms you might not know. But anyone who is fascinated by Biblical study will find something to dig into here. My only “complaint” is that the end notes (at least in my review copy) weren’t separated by chapter/article which would have made using them a lot easier.

Rating: ♥♥♥♥½*

♥♥♥♥½ = I loved it! Would re-read.

REVIEW: Wisdom for Faithful Reading by John Walton

REVIEW: Wisdom for Faithful Reading by John Walton

Posted on by Jaymie

Summary and Review

Walton, Old Testament professor at Wheaton College, presents his overall approach to Old Testament (and in some ways Biblical) interpretation here. Readers of his Lost World books like The Lost Word of the Prophets, will be familiar with the general concepts. While the Lost World books apply these principles in a deep dive with a specific section of scripture, this book presents the overall approach. Many examples are given from Walton and other scholars.

I set an intention for 2024 to read one nonfiction book per month, and this was my January book. And then it became my February book as well. While I was tempted to blitz through to the end in order to check it off the list as “done” and meet that goal, I LOVED digging into this content, and I didn’t want to fly through it just to say I finished. I wanted to read and consider each section. I often read a few “chapters” at a time – or just one longer one – and made notes and dog-earred pages and then set it down for awhile so I could absorb it in polite-sized bits.

This rocked my world. It went into excellent, readable details of things I have encountered in other places about the care necessary when approaching Biblical texts with a 21st century mindset. The writing is conversational and easy to understand. I was challenged by what I read and saw familiar passages in new ways. While I could see using this with Biblical scholars, it doesn’t feel “academic.” (Although if your general approach to scripture is a verse or two at a time through a devotional, this will feel academic.) I think readers will need to approach this like any other scholarly work. Take your time with it; read carefully and closely. It may completely change your approach to reading and studying – and understanding – the Bible. I highly recommend it!

Rating: ♥♥♥♥♥*

*♥♥♥♥♥ = Outstanding!

REVIEW: The Lost World of the Prophets by John H. Walton

REVIEW: The Lost World of the Prophets by John H. Walton

Posted on by Jaymie

[I received a free electronic review copy of this book from Netgalley and IVP Academic in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.]

Summary and Review

Dr. John H. Walton is a professor of Old Testament at Wheaton College and author of the Lost World series among other books. I discovered this series while reading another book by Walton this year, and I was intrigued enough to request a review copy. I was not disappointed. This book digs into the prophetic literature of the Bible, and Walton applies his philosophy and approach for Biblical interpretation to this portion of the Old Testament.

Walton’s basic premise is that scripture should be viewed through the lens of its original context. Who wrote it? Who was the original audience? What was the author’s intension for writing? (“Writing” being used loosely here as the written Bible we have today was compiled over time from what was originally an oral tradition, etc., etc..) Walton uses a metaphor of a “cultural river” that I found particularly helpful. Our 2024 cultural river of social media and technology, for example, is very different from the cultural river of 1924. That’s easy enough to conceptualize. But it’s even easier to see how the cultural river of Biblical times is different from our own.

The writing in this book is conversational and easy to follow. While I initially read this as an electronic ARC, I definitely would prefer this in print (which is why I pre-ordered a copy a month ago). I am not sure how different the ARC formatting and final e-book formatting might be, but the footnotes alone would push me to a print version, much less my own tactile preferences for writing in and underlining nonfiction. That said, readers of either version will not need a special university or seminary education to follow this material, although I could also see this book working in a classroom setting.

The content includes things like:

  • discussion of how the Covenant between God and Israel makes Old Testament prophecy distinct from prophecy of other people groups of the same time
  • discussion of the role of prophet as God’s spokesperson and not as a predictor of the future
  • differentiation of the oracles initially delivered by the prophet, usually verbally, and the compiled, written scripture we read today

One struggle I personally have with nonfiction in general is perseverance. Without a story to pull me from page to page, I often will set down a nonfiction book part way through and never pick it up again. I can so easily get distracted by other things and lose momentum. Not so here. The writing is engaging and the content is fascinating. I can’t wait to get my print copy in my hands so I can start working through it again, marking up the pages and digging into the rich content. I have been a Walton fan since I watched several of his teaching videos on Zondervan Academic during the pandemic. But haven’t read much of his work until now. I read this while I was also working through his 2023 book,  Wisdom for Faithful Reading (review coming soon). The two together were a perfect pairing.

Walton’s Lost Worlds series is now 7 books long, but this is my first exposure to it. And I loved it! The content made me think in all the best ways, wrestling with new ways of looking at familiar passages and new ways of approaching the Bible in general. I can absolutely see using this in a classroom setting, but I think it could also be interesting as a resource for a small group or Sunday school class. I never felt like I needed to have read the previous Lost World books to understand this one, although I will say Wisdom for Faithful Reading would be an excellent precursor as it lays out Walton’s approach in a more general way. I absolutely think readers will get the most out of this if they have at least an “intermediate” level of scripture knowledge and exposure – I would *not* hand this to a new Christian or someone new to studying the Bible. I think this works best with folks who are familiar with the full arc of the Biblical story. I will definitely be checking out the other Lost World books now!

Rating: ♥♥♥♥½*

*♥♥♥♥½ = I loved it! Would re-read!