It’s Not a J. K. Rowling Novel

The title of this post says what you need to know about this play, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, bearing the ascription, “based on an original new story by J. K. Rowling, John Tiffany, and Jack Thorne; a new play by Jack Thorne.” Here are my complaints, as they come to me: The characters are …

Great Books Selections for Fall 2015 and Spring 2016

When I was choosing which books to assign for Great Books at Boyce College this year, I googled the topic and surveyed the choices others had made. Teaching Great Books has been a joy to my heart. I was an English major, and I wish I could talk about these books like my teacher, the eloquent Skip …

Book Excerpt: The Final Page of With the Clouds of Heaven

What a book the Bible is! There is nothing else like it. And to think that this unified book from the hands of so many individual literary geniuses transcends itself by imparting the knowledge of the living and true God. What a privilege to have such easy access to the text of Scripture in the …

The Song of Songs: A Biblical-Theological, Allegorical, Christological Interpretation

Christians have long read the Song of Songs as music that sings of the one who so loved his bride that not even death could keep him from her. If Hosea could present his relationship with Gomer as a kind of allegory of the covenant between Yahweh and Israel, why couldn’t Solomon have done the …

Chesterton on the Convincing Accumulation of Evidence

From Orthodoxy: If I am asked, as a purely intellectual question why I believe in Christianity, I can only answer, “For the same reason that an intelligent agnostic disbelieves in Christianity.” I believe in it quite rationally upon the evidence. But the evidence in my case, as in that of the intelligent agnostic, is not really …

My Favorite Books of 2014

Surveying the list of books I read this year, these jumped out at me as the most significant. These are books I intend to revisit, the kind of books that need to be known not merely read. In no particular order: D’Aulaire’s Book of Greek Myths The best one stop resource for everything you want …

Review of Timothy Stone’s Book on the Five Small Scrolls

A version of this review was published in the most recent issue of Themelios. — Timothy J. Stone, The Compilational History of the Megilloth. Forschungen zum Alten Testament 2. Reihe 59. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2013. 258pp. Paper. $94. What is the Megilloth and what difference does the history of its compilation make? The Megilloth are the “five …

SBTS Publications in 2014

Here are some ideas for Christmas and/or birthday gifts for the pastor, theologian, missionary, evangelist, seminarian, or teacher/student of the Bible in your life. Last year I posted a list of books from the SBTS Faculty in 2013, and I’m following it up with this list of books from the SBTS Faculty in 2014. I …

Andrew Peterson: My Love Has Gone Across the Sea

Andrew Peterson’s The Monster in the Hollows has this lovely lyric embedded within the wider story: My love has gone across the sea To find a country far and fair He sailed into the gilded west And lo, my heart will never rest Until my love returns to me Or I set out to find him there. …

Idiot’s Guides: The Bible

Before we had kids, my sweet wife and I got a dog. I knew I didn’t know anything about how to train a dog, so I bought Dogs for Dummies, and set to work. The book was entertaining, brief, and insightful. It advocated concentrated, reinforced, rewarding (as in, give the dog treats when he does what …

Unsung Heroes: People Who Made the Response Possible

I think the best people in the world are probably the ones whose names you never hear. These are the people who live and serve like Jesus did. He wasn’t in big cities all the time, didn’t write any books, made no headlines, networked with no one important. He was with fishermen and no-counts, prostitutes …

Check Out Books at a Glance

Jim Zaspel writes: Why didn’t someone think of this sooner? If you love books, your greatest frustration is keeping up – “So many books; So little time!” we say. Books At a Glance is a new online service designed to relieve this frustration, and in doing so it provides a much-needed service. “Executive summaries” is a familiar …

Marriage Redefined Step-by-Step

Dr. Mohler has an important analysis of the Utah court ruling on polygamy, in which he traces the “progress” toward the redefinition of marriage: Of course, the moral revolution that has transformed marriage in our times did not start with the demand for legal same-sex marriage. It did not begin with homosexuality at all, but …

Books from SBTS Faculty in 2013

This year (2013) the SBTS faculty published the following books (alphabetical by author’s last name): Chad Brand, Flourishing Faith: A Baptist Primer on Work, Economics, and Civic Stewardship Chad Brand and Tom Pratt, Seeking the City: Wealth, Poverty, and Political Economy in Christian Perspective Denny Burk, What Is the Meaning of Sex? Dan Dewitt, A Guide to Evangelism James …

The Thrilling Adventure of Bible Reading

I’m honored to commend the new book by R. Reed Lessing and Andrew E. Steinmann, Prepare the Way of the Lord: An Introduction to the Old Testament, Concordia, 2014. Here’s my endorsement: To read the Bible is to risk a thrilling adventure through wild jungles with thunderous cataracts and soaring timbers teeming with life. Some …

For Our Good Always

Congratulations to Daniel I. Block on a festschrift (celebration-writ) presented to him by his students, edited by Jason DeRouchie, Jason Gile, and Kenneth Turner, For Our Good Always: Studies on the Message and Influence of Deuteronomy in Honor of Daniel I. Block. Here’s a personal testimony to the generosity and magnanimity of Dr. Block: I was …

Two Interviews

Shawn Tabatt welcomed me onto his Author Talks program to talk about The Bible’s Big Story. Have a listen. And yesterday at SBTS Chapel Dr. Mohler hosted an Author Interviews Panel with Tom Nettles, Tom Schreiner, Denny Burk, Heath Lambert, and me. You can watch below or grab the audio. Here are the books discussed: Nettles, Living …

What Rowling Said about Dumbledore

I’m sure you’ve heard what J. K. Rowling said about Albus Dumbledore: “I always thought of Dumbledore as gay.” Dumbledore is a hero, one of the good guys through all seven novels. Unlike the way he is portrayed in the movies, Dumbledore is neither bumbling nor weak. He is commanding, authoritative, strong, sure, and only …

Warden and the Wolf King Kickstarter

We’re big fans of Andrew Peterson‘s work in word and song here at the Hamilton house, and we’re excited about the fourth book of the Wingfeather Saga, The Warden and the Wolf King. My oldest son drew this picture of Janner after we watched the kickstarter video on the new book. This kickstarter is the most …