Kregel Academic - Charts on the Life, Letters, and Theology of Paul

Dr. Bob Headrick teaches Biblical studies at Ecclesia College.
He is also a classical guitarist.

I review books for Kregel Academic books, so I receive free copies of their newest publications to review on my blogs.

Dr. Bob Headrick and I were quite impressed with the Kregel charts book on Hebrews. The concept works well with the Pauline epistles as well.

Poiema pointed out her name in the Greek New Testament.

Two students liked the idea of singing NT Greek grammar, so I ordered extra copies for them. Poiema appreciated the pocket NT grammar book. These are all from Kregel as well.

Price: $26.99
ISBN:  978-0-8254-2936-1 

Charts on the Life, Letters, and Theology of Paul (Kregel Charts of the Bible)

By author: Lars Kierspel Pages: 288  Size: 8.5 x 11 inches  Published: 2012  Rights: WW  Imprint: Kregel Academic

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One of the best ways to study a New Testament book is to prepare charts or lists of important words and topics. There is no substitute for studying the text itself without any intervening commentaries.

However, as the topic grows in complexity, it is a godsend to find that someone has done a lot of the difficult work already and produced more than anyone could imagine. This is another good example of that approach.

The first section includes charts on the Roman emperors of the time, political and social order. Additional cultural factors are also listed.

The second section of the book alone is worth the price of the book, because the author deals with more than the Pauline letters. Anything about Paul is worth charting, and so it is done. Here are some examples:
1. Speeches of Paul in Acts.
2. Paul's Miracles.
3. Paul's prayers.
4. Paul's opponents.
5. Paul's suffering.
6. Traditions of Paul's martyrdom.

Third Section
Citations are not easily gathered and sorted. There are many lists of Old Testament quotations and allusions, not to mention intertestmental literature.

Each Pauline letter has a snapshot chart.

Key words for each letter are useful for new and advanced students.

A hapax is a one-time use of a term. One chart lists the hapax legomena in Paul's letters.

The fourth section, on Paul's theology, is just as rich in detailed charts, which organize Chrstological concepts, soteriology, and many more topics. One phrase is often overlooked, the "faith of Jesus," and that has its own chart.

Audience
Students, pastors, professors, and laity will appreciate this volume and use it as a reference and study book. So much is included that individuals will select what is useful for them.

I would not hinder the newest or the most advanced Pauline student from buying this book. It will renew our interest in discovering what the Holy Spirit reveals to us in the text itself.

Kregel Academic - Contextualization in World Missions by A. Scott Moreau

Contextualization in World Missions Mapping and Assessing Evangelical Models
By author: A. Scott Moreau Pages: 432  Size: 6 x 9 inches  Published: 2012  Rights: WW  Imprint: Kregel Academic	Price: $28.99 ISBN:  978-0-8254-3389-4 Format: Paperback

Contextualization in World Missions

Mapping and Assessing Evangelical Models

By author: A. Scott Moreau

Pages: 432 
Size: 6 x 9 inches 
Published: 2012 
Rights: WW 
Imprint: Kregel Academic

Price: $28.99
ISBN:  978-0-8254-3389-4
Format: Paperback

Contextualization is the kind of book I loathe, and the style makes it even more difficult to bear. However, if someone wants to have an outline of everything going on in this area, Moreau's book is the place to start.

I found it ironic to be reading the book while teaching a graduate course in urban ministry. My students shared the same emphasis upon the efficacy of the Word, good works flowing from the central message of the church in the city - the Gospel of Christ.

Moreau's work is the ultimate example of the rationalistic, philosophical, statistical efforts started by Donald McGavran, whose non-theological graduate work made him reliant on numbers and the study of mass movements.

McGavran earned a degree at Yale Divinity, a school often denounced by Tim the Plagiarist for being liberal.   Yale Divinity had no Lutherans on the faculty at that time - just like Mequon today.

McGavran's doctorate came Columbia University, in education:

Gary McIntosh:
Later, he studied for his Ph.D. degree at Columbia University’s Teacher’s College.  Training in educational theory at Columbia was greatly influenced by John Dewey. “Dewey spent slightly over a quarter of a century on the regular faculty of Columbia University.  He was appointed in 1904 and retired in 1930; the next decade he spent as an emeritus but active professor, drawing a full salary and continuing to teach graduate students” (Ryan 1995:156).  While McGavran must have encountered Dewey’s educational pragmatism during his studies at Columbia, McGavran never mentions or credits Dewey for any of his evangelistic insights.

McGavran lived and worked in the liberal, ecumenical Disciples of Christ, so he also participated in the World Council of Churches (boo hiss).

Where are the Disciples today? They work jointly with the United Church of Christ, whose ministers register for conferences as male, female, and transgender. The Disciples were too timid to allow homosexual ministers in their own sect, so their lavender group transferred to the UCC, where such things are embraced, loud and proud. 

That gives the context for Contextualization.

The author earned his MDiv at Trinity in Deerfield, one of the favorite training schools for WELS and the LCMS (along with Fuller Seminary and Willow Creek Community Church). Moreau also earned a D.Miss. at Trinity, three years later. A D.Miss. may be tougher than the laughable D.Min., but it is not a PhD. Seminaries are not noted for having difficult doctorates, but ministers love to be called "Dr." Clever marketing has extracted the maximum amount of money for minimal efforts. I may print up some D.Min. diplomas and sell them on the Net.

But I am not knocking the labor involved in this work. Believe me, no one will ever try this again. Moreau has categorized every possible contextualization scheme on this planet. Not surprisingly, he teaches intercultural studies at Wheaton College. 

The table of contents for the book indicates its content.

Table of Contents

Section 1
Foundations for Evangelical
Contextualization
1: Models and Maps of Contextualization....................................... 27
2: Presuppositional Concerns in Contextualization 1:
Revelation .................................................................................... 49
3: Presuppositional Concerns in Contextualization 2:
Interpretation .............................................................................. 73
4: Discerning the Good from the Bad in Contextualization ........ 103
5: Concepts That Shape and Constrain Contextualization........... 119
6: Tools for Analysis and Application in Contextualization ......... 141
Section 2
Mapping Evangelical Models of
Contextualization
Introduction............................................................................... 174
7: Mapping Examples of Evangelical Contextualization............... 177
8: Initiator as Facilitator................................................................. 203
9: Initiator as Guide........................................................................ 221
10: Initiator as Herald....................................................................... 239
11: Initiator as Pathfinder................................................................. 259
12: Initiator as Prophet..................................................................... 277
13: Initiator as Restorer..................................................................... 295
14: Future Trajectories...................................................................... 311
Appendix A: Dean Gilliland’s Map............................................. 325
Appendix B: Marc Cortez’s Map................................................. 335
Appendix C: Charles Van Engen’s Map...................................... 343
Appendix D: A Composite Map of Gilliland, Cortez, and Van
Engen  353
Appendix E: A Visual Evangelical Semantic Domain of
Contextualization 361
Appendix F: List of Initiator Examples....................................... 369
References................................................................................... 381

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McGavran and his friend C. Peter Wagner set the stage for the enormous growth of Fuller Seminary and its alliances in all denominations (ELCA, LCMS, WELS, ELS, CLC sic) - including Roman Catholics. As a mass movement, Church Growth has emptied the Christian Church of content and replaced it with entertainment, coaching, and statistics. Ministers are clowns, and clowns are liturgists.

Where is the growth from the Church Growth Movement? The latest eructation--Emergent Church--is simply more ashamed of the Gospel, the name "church," and any confession whatsoever. The group that refuses to have a confession of faith will not stop there but keep going until the Scriptures are also removed.

Craig Groeschel has all denominations giving his sermons. I see the same series being offered on the Net (as if they are original in that parish) in ten congregations at a time, many sects at a time. They all have the same copied message, the same Scripture, the same title, and even the same Groeschel graphics. But that is fine for Lutherans, because DP Engelbrecht says, "Everyone plagiarizes."

Since McGavran started with two questions - Does it work? and What are the numbers? - We have to ask the same questions today, the questions they do not want to address, because their only concerns for these disciples are - Does it make money for me? Does it give me an easy life?

If you want to see why most Evangelicals are running full-speed into apostasy, buy this book and share with your cell group.

Kregel Academic - Charts on the Book of Hebrews - Herbert W. Bateman IV

Herbert W. Bateman, IV. Charts on the Book of Hebrews. 266 pages. Kregel Academic.
ISBN #780825424663. $26.99.

This is one of many books of charts published b Kregel.

Kregel Academic has asked bloggers to review their books, and I have been happy to receive them. Normally I prefer the works of long-dead theologians, but I also like to see what is being published today.

Kregel is my source for Luther's commentaries on Galatians and Romans. I get them "used" but new on the secondary market, often for $1 plus shipping.

Bateman is a prolific author. He teaches at Southwest Baptist Theological Seminary. Here are some of his books.

This style of reference work was new to me. I can see how useful it would be for anyone undertaking a serious study of Hebrews. Kregel has many more books like it, using a matrix to condense a lot of factual material for easy comparisons. I would rather scan a chart than read a 100 page article on a topic.

In Biblical studies, there are so many learned papers and books on any topic that one German journal was established simply to publish overviews of topics. Its English name is Theological Round-Look, literally: Cliff Notes for scholars.

The first challenge of writing is to gather all the well known research on a topic, whether it is good, bad, or zany. Many do not make the attempt. They go to their school notes and reproduce what they were told in seminary, because their professors had the last word on any given topic.

The authorship of Hebrews is an interesting topic. This book has about 15 pages listing all the possible authors and who nominated the putative author. Moreover, these authorship debates are arranged in various ways. That alone would save students of the Bible many hours of searching and note-taking.

Paul signed his letters and Hebrews has a different style than Paul's, so it is natural to think of another author. In one place Luther argued for Apollos but went on to say "Paul..." In other words, the issue was not a major one for him.

The date of Hebrews is an issue parallel with the authorship. Having these charts is like finding the note cards of an obsessive compulsive scholar, all neatly arranged. But there is much more than the standard introductory questions for any book of the Bible.

There are so many charts that I can only list a few of them here:

1. Genre and structure
2. Old Testament quotations
3. Second Temple
4. Godhead
5. Interpretive Issues
6. Figures of Speech

Each topic listed above has sub-categories.

The Book of Hebrews should be studied more in congregations, colleges, and seminaries. The work contains some of the most eloquent expressions in the Scriptures. The argumentation is also worth exploring and appreciating - Jesus as the High Priest, Melchizedek. That leads us into a greater appreciation of the Bible as one, unified truth - the Book of the Holy Spirit.

Who would be interested in this book? Every Biblical professor will profit from this concise treasury of research. Biblical students will have their eyes opened about this often-overlooked letter and its meaning.

If a pastor wants to teach a course on Hebrews, this is a reference work to use, for organizing the presentation and the topics to be addressed.

Free Books for Bloggers - For Reviewing Them. From Kregel

LI - We are a bookish family.

Offer to bloggers from Kregel, who published several of my favorite Luther books - Romans and 1 Peter commentaries.

I will be sending out our first review copy offer tomorrow. (It will be The Gospel According to Isaiah 53.) Until then, I wanted to make sure that you have a few pieces of information about the program so that we're all ready to start reviewing soon.

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