The Return

Review: The Farewell Discourse and Final Prayer of Jesus; An Evangelical Exposition of John 14-17 D. A. Carson Baker Books 1980 What am I doing reviewing a nearly 40-year-old book from DA Carson?   Baker has repackaged it and now it’s back on the shelf.   There’s no new forward or other additions to the front matter, so I assume this is the 1980 version which according to the preface was intended for the “church at large” (9).   I took that to mean persons other than the academic or the serious student.   I have to say things have changed greatly if this is an example of the reading the laity undertook all those years ago.   This book in my opinion is still for the serious student of Scripture.   It is not the strictly academic material that Carson produced though, so for those of you who want to work a bit at reading this I think you will be rewarded for your efforts.   Carson’s reputation and other work vouch for his abi...

Review: Visual Theology: Seeing and Understanding the Truth about God Tim Challies and Josh Byers Zondervan 2016 Interesting concept book.   I’ve not seen anything quite like it elsewhere and suspect that for some this one would be quite helpful.   And that is why I find myself in a love/hate quandary over this one.   Challies narratives present the 101 theology basics to the reader.   The last section Live for Christ being the best of the lot as far as readability goes.   The others are the reason theology has such an uphill climb with most people.   Accurate, factual, categorized.   Dry as the bones Elijah saw in the desert.   The same ones that as they acquired meat and sinew and skin came to life.   Theology is just one of those areas that need more than skeletons to make it palatable.      Challies, to his credit, says as much in his introduction.   It takes more than looking at the equipment in th...