Michael F. Bird
How (Not) to Read the Bible Study Guide plus Streaming Video
Bible Studies & Devotionals
“Dan Kimball takes us through the weird, the bad, and the ugly of the Bible with penetrating insight. Whether its misogyny, slavery, or violence, Kimball takes an honest approach and shows us how (not) to read the Bible and why we can still believe in a God who loves all people. A valuable resource for doubters, seekers, and anyone confused about whether the Bible is true and good for people.”
Rev.
“Human beings are creatures of habit, in particular, creatures of repetition and ritual. In this book, Dru Johnson shows us the importance of rituals, not just for life, but for the Christian life. Rituals give us scripts to follow to help us order our lives and to find meaning in a world that often appears mundane or overwhelming. Whether it is baptism or barbecue, Jewish Passover or a church potluck, Johnson shows you how extraordinary our ordinary feats of repetition turn out to be.”
Biblical Studies & Commentaries
“Rodriguez presents a fresh challenge to many stale assumptions about reading Romans. He provides a cogent case that Paul is writing to Gentile Christians, and what is more, that Paul's imaginary opponent who appears throughout the letter is not a Jew but is in fact a Gentile convert to Judaism. . . . It makes for a stimulating volume on Paul's most famous letter.”
Biblical Studies & Commentaries
“N. T. Wright's collection of essays on Jesus, Paul, and Scripture are a brilliant trilogy of Wright's miscellaneous works. It is not only convenient to have them all together in one literary deposit, but they deserve reading as Wright waxes eloquently and with wisdom about who is Jesus, why is Paul so controversial, the atonement, the church, and how the Bible is authoritative today. An important part of the Wrightonian corpus for present and future generations or for anyone who wrestles with Jesus, Paul, God, and Scripture.”
Interpreting the Pauline Epistles
Biblical Studies & Commentaries
“In a welcome update to a tried and trusted textbook, Tom Schreiner shows us how to find our way around Paul’s world, letters, language, culture, and theology. Whether one is deciphering Paul’s Greek grammar, learning how to follow his arguments, or studying Paul’s unique vocabulary, Schreiner is a reliable guide to the novice and veteran alike. Seminary students will be forever grateful to Schreiner for giving them this book!”
Christian Living
“Scot McKnight provides a controversial though ultimately compelling case for infant baptism. He narrates his own journey from previously holding to believer’s baptism as an Anabaptist to now settling on infant baptism as an Anglican. McKnight offers here a robust biblical defense of infant baptism. But it is not just the who and how of baptism that he tackles; the genius of this book is that McKnight elegantly explains what baptism is even about, what it means, what it does for the recipient, and why it really does take a church to baptize a child. Read it with caution: this book could change your whole view of conversion, faith, family, children’s ministry, and the church!”
Biblical Studies & Commentaries
“This long-awaited book is a brilliant study about the sacred meal that Jesus instituted for his followers, including its background, its origins, and its meaning for us. Pitre artfully shows that the bread and wine of the meal commemorate and embody the hopes of Israel's restoration as achieved through their messianic deliverer. You'll never look at the Lord's Supper, Eucharist, or Mass the same way after reading this book. A sumptuous feast of exegesis and theology!”
Biblical Studies & Commentaries
“Mark Strauss provides a wonderful account of Jesus full of wit and wisdom that shows that the meek and mild Jesus is Sunday school fiction. The Jesus of the Gospels is a much more complicated character who felt compassion and anger, who preached peace and kicked over tables, who made friends with prostitutes and offended the religious establishment, who resisted family values of the day and even started a revolution in Judaism. Reading this book could be like meeting Jesus for the first time.”
Jesus in a World of Colliding Empires, Volume One: Introduction and Mark 1:1—8:29
Biblical Studies & Commentaries
“Mark Keown has provided one of the most thorough and tantalizing explorations of the theme of ‘empire’ in relation to the Gospel of Mark. Keown provides a massive survey of empires and uses them as the backdrop for the counter-empire message of Jesus who ushers in the reign of God. A significant volume for anyone interested in Jesus’s kingship and the reign of God according to Mark.”
Jesus in a World of Colliding Empires, Volume Two: Mark 8:30–16:8 and Implications
Biblical Studies & Commentaries
“Mark Keown continues his penetrating and powerful exegesis of the Gospel of Mark, locating the story within the implied conflict between Rome’s son of Caesar and Israel’s son of David, as to who is the true ‘Lord’ of the world. It is superb on background, sound in its exegetical judgments, and easy to read. An excellent commentary for all students of the gospels.”
Ethics, Culture & Social Issues
“Con Campbell knows the American evangelical scene from the inside, yet he offers an outsider’s perspective of a movement that he believes has gone astray. Using a mixture of cultural commentary commentary and biblical insights, Campbell puts his finger on the lies and lunacies that get trotted out in the name of Christ in American circles. This is not an elitist critique of popular American religion, it is calling America back to the religion of Jesus and the apostles.”
Dr.
Apologetics
“a great deal of room for narrative variability and literary vision. This book will help readers make sense of how the Gospels combine fact and faith, history and hermeneutics, authenticity and artistry.”
Biblical Studies & Commentaries
“Scot McKnight returns to historical-Jesus studies with a tour de force on Jesus, the Pharisees, and the world of first-century Galilee and Judea. McKnight takes us beyond the stereotypes of the Pharisees as the epitome of religious hypocrites and instead shows us a group of devout Jews committed to God, God’s Torah, and the future of Israel. McKnight’s study is learned and judicious and gives us a close-up shot of Jesus among his contemporaries, followers, supporters, and antagonists.”
Biblical Studies & Commentaries
“Dorothy Lee has provided an accessible and enjoyable explanation of the key themes in the Gospel of John. Attentive to both detail and the big picture, she takes readers on a tour of the spiritual depths and glorious heights of John’s witness to Jesus as the Word made flesh. An indispensable resource for anyone wishing to learn about the Gospel according to St. John.”
Rev.
Preaching & Worship
“Winfield Bevins shows that it is possible to worship God without tech, apps, rock concerts, and worship leaders dressed like lumberjacks. Instead of shallow consumerist worship, he offers ancient and missional liturgy, not rooted in gimmicks or fads but part of the unbroken chain of two thousand years of Christian tradition. Bevins draws on ancient and global liturgical traditions to draw us into a deep and mysterious worship of the triune God.”
Theology
“Robert Plummer offers an accessible analysis of the epistle of James. He shows that it is not an epistle of straw but an epistle for those who need to do more in their faith to follow in the way of Jesus’s teachings. He explains how James provides instruction on a living faith that seeks wisdom from above, endures trials, spurns the trappings of wealth, speaks without anger, perseveres in prayer, and keeps Jesus’s command to love one another.”
Biblical Studies & Commentaries
“D—as his friends call him—has provided a terrific exposition of a much-neglected book of the New Testament. This is an informative, readable, and practical exposition of 2 Peter that is ideal for pastors, preachers, and study groups.”
Theology
“It's long been repeated that Christians live in the 'now' and the 'not yet.' We stand in the middle of an old world dying and a new creation already born in our midst through Jesus Christ. How does this sense of living between the ages shape our conception of the church, pastoring, and ministry? In this book two younger scholars, with the assistance of Greg Beale, show what it means to be end-time people. They offer some great theological reflections and practical advice on how to lead people who are waiting with patience and purpose for the day when God is all in all.”
History & Biography
“Mark Lindsay has finally given us his much-awaited biography of Markus Barth. Markus Barth—though often overshadowed by his father, the great theologian Karl Barth—was an amazing theologian in his own right. Barth the younger was way ahead of the curve on so many topics of New Testament scholarship that are only now becoming mainstream. Lindsay's biography of Markus Barth shows the life, story, and scholarship of a truly amazing figure in Christian scholarship of the twentieth century. A must-read book!”
Men
“Zachary Wagner has written a book with perceptive insights about pop-evangelical cultures of sex and sexuality. Wagner writes from the cauldron of experience—his own and his wife's—to tackle topics of church abuse, ideologies of purity, and unwholesome habits of porn and promiscuity. Wagner gets to the heart of the evangelical 'sex problem' and offers an alternative vision of masculinity rooted in love rather than lust management. This is truly a Christian vision of masculinity that is desperately needed in a #MeToo and #ChurchToo era.”
NOTE: Only includes books currently in our catalog; not necessarily a complete list.
Seven Things I Wish Christians Knew about the Bible
Biblical Studies & Commentaries
Biblical Studies & Commentaries
The New Testament You Never Knew Bible Study Guide plus Streaming Video, Updated Edition
Co-author
Bible Studies & Devotionals
The Saving Righteousness of God
Theology
Theology
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