Rook, a slightly different question for you...
Posted on: January 8, 2008 - 8:27pm
Offline
Rook, a slightly different question for you...
While I was in college, I took Old Testament Literature and New Testament Literature courses. The textbooks used were "Reading the Old Testament" by Laurence Boadt, and "Reading the New Testament" by Pheme Perkins. Do you know anything about these texts? And can you suggest possibly more up-to-date reading material for bible study/biblical criticism issues?
Thanks in advance,
Conor
_______________________________________________________________
"Faith does not fear reason."--Pope Pius XII
"But it should!"--Me
- Login to post comments
There are several great books on the Old and New Testaments. I would start by recommending three books on the Old Testament to start with:
These are all great books with a lot of great information. For the New Testament, I would recommend:
There are loads more books to recommend concerning different books of the New Testament, but a good start would be to pick up the Harper Collins Study Bible Student Edition, which is put out by the SBL (Society of Biblical Literature). My book dealing with genre and literary mimesis will cover both old and new testaments, but will only be a focus on genre and early christian thought. You may also want to consider my book when it comes out. =)
Hope this helps. There are a lot more I could recommend, but then again, my book will have a full bibliography.
Atheist Books, purchases on Amazon support the Rational Response Squad server, which houses Celebrity Atheists. Books by Rook Hawkins (Thomas Verenna)
hey rook, do you keep your wishlist updated? And if not have you received any of them yet. I went through the whole list and it seems no one has given you anything. If I get any extra money soon I would like to help you out if I can. That being said, which book is the most important to get?
Thats cute.
I do keep my wishlist updated. It is prioritized (highest - lowest), so any book on highest priority is something I am in immediate need of. Used books are okay as long as they are recent editions, preferably no markings because I mark up my books a lot. =)
Atheist Books, purchases on Amazon support the Rational Response Squad server, which houses Celebrity Atheists. Books by Rook Hawkins (Thomas Verenna)
Rook, thanks for the reply!
Conor
______________________________
"Faith does not fear reason."--Pope Pius XII
"But it should!"--Me
I believe it only shows you 'how many' someone has received if, say, they want 5 of a particular item and 2 have been bought. Otherwise, it drops off.
I might chime in if thats ok.
For the Old Testament, I'd recommend:
Israelite Religions by Rick Hess
Ancient Near Eastern Thought and the Old Testament by John H. Walton
The Face of the Old Testament Studies by David W. Baker, Bill T. Arnold
For the New Testament,
Jesus and the Gospels by Craig Blomberg
A Marginal Jew (3 volumes) by John P. Meier
Interpreting the New Testament by David Alan Black, David S. Dockery
These cut through the crap scholarship and are among the best available.
Amazing how none of them deal with the point of the thread. Your New Testament books are all on Jesus exacept for the last. If I were going on a book concerning Jesus, I would recommend Crossan over Meier. I wouldn't call Meier among the best - his translation of the TF is horrible and his books on the historical Jesus are nowhere near the sort of historical critical work that Crossan wrote. Or even Paula Fredrickson's.
Atheist Books, purchases on Amazon support the Rational Response Squad server, which houses Celebrity Atheists. Books by Rook Hawkins (Thomas Verenna)
Wow...I'm glad to see that this is already more of a discussion than I thought it would be.
Spumoni...Rook's right...right now, anyway, I'm more interested in getting a general "lay of the land" on biblical criticism than in the question of the historicity of Jesus. I *do* know that the books I mentioned at the top of the page are several years old. What I do *not* know is how, in a general way, biblical criticism has progressed since then. I am attempting to learn and/or relearn material that I should have gotten years ago, and would have, if I wasn't so damned busy trying to filter it through my ideology of the time. Ah well...live and learn. At least my love of reading and learning seems to have returned...I haven't read this much material, or this much *serious* material, this willingly since I was a kid. Who knew that deconverting could be so inspiring? (Not me, that's for sure!)
Anyway...I'm fortunate enough to own a couple of Ehrman's works; I'll start with those. As for the others...well...I'll have to check the library for now. Cash is kind of short, although I hope to change that.
Thanks to everyone--especially you, Rook, for getting involved in this thread.
Conor
___________________________________
"Faith does not fear reason."--Pope Pius XII
"But it should!"--Me
Sorry I cant add much to the actual topic of the thread, but the subject is of interest. My priority at the moment is more leaning to the science end of things. I am for sure going to read Rook's book though. Who knows, maybe his book will spark an interest in furthering my historical knowledge.
Thats cute.