Customer Reviews

Encountering the New Testament: A Historical and Theological Survey with CDROM (Encountering Biblical Studies)

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This is a very friendly Introduction to the New Testament for the person who would like to start digging deeper into their Biblical studies. It covers the bases of what an Introduction is expected to do. The authorship, historical context/date, content outline, main theological features and other interesting background are given for each book of the New Testament. This is similar to the background information found in good study Bibles, but an Introduction goes much further.

The preface states the book is suitable for freshman college classes in the New Testament and I think it fills that bill very well. Encountering the New Testament is unapologetically evangelical and is constructed around three theological themes: God, people, and the gospel as it relates to individuals.

The content is extremely well organized and features color inserts and photographs on almost every page to keep the feel upbeat and lively. The typeset is big and clear. There are numerous archaeological and cultural inserts to add contemporary relevance to whatever topic is in view. Each chapter has good Review Questions, Deeper Study Questions and a Further Reading guide to many excellent resources - these are all very useful. There is also a pretty good glossary, very good subject index and thorough Scripture index, as you'd expect of a theological work.

The book comes with a companion CD that covers the topics of the book in very limited depth. Even though it has cool menus, neat graphics and some multimedia clips, I did not find the companion CD content useful (but I rarely do with any book). The CD chapter Review questions are the same ones in the book - disappointing. Maybe I ought to knock a point off the rating since the price is probably higher due to the CD. Since I didn't get the book for the CD at all, I'm not holding this against what is otherwise a good book. If you want a deep companion CD, buy something else (I'm not sure what).

With good beginning level content, excellent organization, color pictures, relevant sidebars and a not too useful CD, this might seem to be the NT Introduction for everyone; it is not. If you need a top notch scholarly NT Introduction, get Donald Guthrie's "New Testament Introduction". It is much bigger, has practically no pictures, is not easy for people who haven't gone to seminary, has no CD and is one of the best quality, well researched, well written NT Introductions ever. To contrast, Encountering the New Testament is a classroom textbook that covers similar ground in less depth but a more accessible style.

After having read Encountering the New Testament for two NT survey classes, I now use it frequently as a reference and always enjoy its friendly presentation of useful content.

The content of this book is really pretty good stuff. Moreover, it is written so that people who are not "Bible scholars" can read and glean some good information. For example, my dad--not a bible scholar, but very active at teaching in his local church--picked it up off my shelf while visiting my house. He said, "Wow. This is nice, and I would like to have one to refer to when I am teaching." Trust me, that says a lot about this book.

Now for the downside: the CD Rom is really pretty stinky. The content is ok, but its delivery is not thought out too well. Take it from a guy who works all day every day in educational technology: this CD was apparently put together as a "good idea" but not well thought out in terms of what content was put on the CD or how that content was delivered.

Overall, however, the book is worth the buy. Just don't buy it for the CD Rom! Buy it for its good, easy to read, content.

As a teacher of New Testament in the UK, I am very impressed with this volume as a resource for students. It will be particularly valuable for students who study on their own rather than as part of a class. It is not set at an advanced level, and that is a good thing for undergraduate students, yet it is thorough, helpful, and the suggestions for further reading point the reader to the best in modern New Testament scholarship. The illustrations are excellent and attractive, often highlighting important archaeological evidence relating to the New Testament. One particularly attractive feature of this text is the frequent quotation of ancient sources such as Josephus and the early church fathers. The companion reader will provide additional opportunities for the reader to steep himself or herself in the world of the New Testament. Teachers will appreciate the overheads and other resources which are available from the publisher to accompany the textbook.

This textbook, or historical and theological survey of the New Testament, is an excellent introductory source for college freshmen and new graduate students. It is also an outstanding source for those interested in beginning their personal study of the New Testament. It is well written and easily understood. This book is not a commentary, but rather a straightforward textbook designed to introduce, in the clearest terms, the New Testament. At each chapter's end, the authors provide a summary, review and study questions, and a section of suggested further readings. These are very helpful elements. I have only two very minor criticisms. One, a more extensive glossary would have been helpful. Two, the minor hyperbole about Paul's Acts epistle (page 274, first sentence in third paragraph) was a bit over the top. The authors, in all other instances, managed to avoid such puffery. This is an excellent book and it is highly recommended. I did not use the CD, which came with my version; therefore, I cannot comment on its efficacy.

If you're a pastor, seminary student, or a layperson who needs a good, informative, and easy to read introduction to the New Testament then this book will be perfect for you. Many NT introductions/surveys that are out there are either 1) too technical and academic, or 2) liberal/modernist. This introduction is solidly evangelical, easy to understand, and academic enough for even the novice biblical scholar.

The strength of the book is that it does not survey each of the books in the New Testament chapter by chapter but by topics of significance in each book. For instance, when the authors talk about the message of Galatians they do not discuss what each of the 6 chapters discusses but about what Paul says about the nature of the gospel, law and grace, etc. (though Acts is an exception). Pretty much everything is covered regarding each book (authorship, date, place of writing, etc.).

Another feature of the book that will attract more novice pastors and students of the Bible is the colourful pictures that are abundantly printed in the book. Though some may find this comical, I think it added to the charm of this book. Pictures, graphs, maps, etc. help readers understand the background of each of the NT books better.

Finally, one other thing I really liked about this book is that the authors discuss side-issues related to the NT. The chapters on NT criticism (chap. 10), the historical Jesus Christ controversies (chaps. 8 and 12), and the teachings of Paul the Apostle (chap. 17) are well written, informative, and orthodox. I would say that these chapters alone are worth about half of the price of the book alone. Sure, the authors could have written more deeply on these chapters but the intended audience demanded that they do not go too deeply in these matters.

Overall, I would highly recommend this book for those who want a better understanding of the NT books. Though it is not that scholarly and deep, it is still good enough for what it intends and many students of the Bible will find rich information that will greatly help in their personal spiritual growth and ministry.

At the collegiate level, the colorful book combined with the enhanced cd-rom and study questions for each chapter will significantly assist the student in learning basic New Testament content and doctrinal truth. The authors are clearly qualified and experienced in New Testament studies and this experience shows.

I bought this book at the recommendation of a friend and certainly not disappointed. It contains beautiful charts, photos and good summaries for review. The free interactive CD that comes with it is even better.

Certainly 5 star quality book and CD.

From the book:
This book is designed to be an introductory text for students coming to the study of the New Testament for the first time. It is an excellent resource for this purpose, and will likely find a wide acceptance on both sides of the Atlantic not only for its clear, concise summaries of the state-of-the-art in contemporary scholarship, but also for the attractive way in which it is presented, and its clearly articulated educational orientation. --John Drane, Scottish Journal of Religious Studies

I found this to be a very nice overview of the New Testament. It contains many photographs, maps, and other visuals that break up the text. This was the required textbook for my graduate NT Survey class, but I would consider it more appropriate for undergrad or even high school. If you are looking for something meaty, I would say this is not the book for you. If you are looking for a pleasant, sweeping survey of the NT, then you will likely enjoy this book.

The actual content of this book isn't bad--I learned a good deal from it. My problem lies with its "modern" layout. I certainly have no qualms with modernity, but many parts of this book detract from the overall quality, in my humble opinion. It has little colorful boxes at the ends of the sections containing such things as "Summary", "Key Terms", "Review Questions", "Study Questions", and their ilk. There is no inherent problem with such devices except that in this case they are not necessary. The material is very straightforward and not complicated and the Review Questions often ask things that even somebody who has never picked up the book can answer, such as "The heart of the gospel is that ____ died and rose again for our salvation." After the first couple of chapters I would just skip anything in a colored box. And the CD-Rom...better than some I have seen in textbooks, but overall useless, its just one of those things that new textbooks are supposed to have, so they throw it in, completely failing to take advantage of the medium. They should just excise many of these "Student-friendly" features and be left with a better, probably much cheaper book.