C. John Collins, drawing on his expertise in science, theology, and Old Testament studies, has produced an outstanding book for guiding ordinary Christians in their thinking about modern science. The last decades have produced any number of helpful books about various specialized topics: evolution, the age of earth, the interpretation of Genesis, and the philosophy of science. Collins addresses each of these specialized topics, but writes primarily for the person who wants instruction about an integrated Christian worldview, and how that worldview comes to bear on the individual topics.
. . . Because of its overall good judgment, and the combination of strengths in theology, exegesis, familiarity with science, and readability, I think this is the best book of its kind.
Poythress does go on to register some disagreements, but overall gives the book high praise.
This fall, P&R will publish a commentary on Genesis 1-4 by Collins, entitled Genesis 1-4: A Linguistic, Literary, and Theological Commentary. I tentatively hold to Collins's analogical days account of creation, so I look forward to getting this commentary. Collins writes of the commentary:
Collins, by the way, was the OT editor for the ESV translation of the Bible.
It follows a literary-theological method informed by contemporary discourse analysis, in order to arrive at an integrated reading of each segment. In order to explore the connections of the Bible's parts I look at how the passages from Genesis have shaped subsequent material--especially in the OT, Apocrypha, and NT.
