Between Two Worlds

Two excellent NT resources will be published by Zondervan this August:

(1) Frank Thielman's New Testament Theology: A Canonical and Synthetic Approach (800 pages; $35).

This major new text in the field of the New Testament theology will be a valuable guide to students, scholars, pastors, and other serious students of the Bible. And it combines both a canonical and a synthetic approach to the theology of the New Testament. The book looks at each New Testament text in light of its particular theological concerns within its own historical and cultural context.

In addition, introductory chapters to each of the three main sections of the New Testament—Gospels and Acts, Pauline Epistles, general Epistles and Revelation—set these sections within the context of contemporary scholarly debate. Concluding chapters to each section place those New Testament texts in conversation with each other. An introduction to the entire book locates its approach within the history of the discipline of New Testament theology. A concluding chapter pulls the threads of the various parts and chapters together with a description of the major theological emphases of the New Testament viewed as a whole.

This approach makes Theology of the New Testament an ideal text for teachers who want a survey of the entire New Testament that addresses both the particularity of each New Testament document and the theological coherence of the whole.

(2) D.A. Carson and Douglas J. Moo, An Introduction to the New Testament (640 pages; $35).

<>This highly acclaimed New Testament introduction has now been significantly revised and expanded by Drs. D. A. Carson and Douglas Moo, extending this text’s valuable insights to a new generation of students.

The primary focus of the book remains “special introduction,” dealing with questions of authorship, dates, sources, purpose, audience, and so forth. This focus allows the reader to see the New Testament books in their historical settings and to understand the important debates that affected the first centuries of the church.
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<>Significant changes in the second edition include:

• Each chapter on a particular book of the Bible contains a more substantial summary of the book’s content, as well as brief discussions of recent literary and social-science approaches to New Testament interpretation.

• A brand new chapter, “Thinking about the Study of the New Testament,” provides a historical survey examining Bible study method through the ages.

• The chapter on Paul has been expanded to include an analysis of current debates on the “new perspective” on the apostle.

• The section on “Pseudonymity” has been significantly expanded and moved to an expanded section on the Pauline letters.