Shelf Life

Curtis W. Freeman. Contesting Catholicity: Theology for Other Baptists . Waco: Baylor University Press, 2014, 466 pp. $49.95. Curtis Freeman claims to be an "Other Baptist." In his new book, Contesting Catholicity , Freeman seeks to fill out the theological content of this identity marker (which he...

Synopsis Purioris Theologiae , Latin Text and English Translation, Volume 1/Disputations 1-23 edited by Dolf te Velde, et al. Leiden: Brill, 2014. Pp. xv + 659. $154.00/£95.00 The Synopsis Purioris Theologicae , popularly called the Leiden Synopsis, was originally published in 1625 not long after...

David L. Chappell. A Stone of Hope: Prophetic Religion and the Death of Jim Crow . Chapel Hill: University of Chapel Hill Press, 2004. 344 pages. $27.95. David L. Chappell's A Stone of Hope: Prophetic Religion and the Death of Jim Crow challenges standard accounts of the civil rights movement and...

Os Guinness, Renaissance: The Power Of The Gospel However Dark The Times . Downers Grove, Illinois: IVP, 2014. 187pp. $16-00. What has Reformation (21) to do with Renaissance? It is the wrong question, at least if Os Guinness' latest book is in mind, because he tells us that 'renewal', 'reformation...

Marc Baer, Mere Believers: How Eight Faithful Lives Changed the Course of History . Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2013. 190 pages. $22.00 Although I double-majored in English and history as an undergraduate, when I moved on to graduate school, I narrowed my focus to English. I did so, not because I...

J. Todd Billings, Rejoicing in Lament: Wrestling with Incurable Cancer and Life in Christ . Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2015. $14.99/£11.99 Much of life in a fallen world consists of navigating through the fog of tragedy and suffering. Any pastor who has spent more than a month or two in any given...

Adonis Vidu, Atonement, Law and Justice: The Cross in Historical and Cultural Contexts. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Academic, 2014. $24.99/£15.99 Theology does not occur in a vacuum, we are constantly reminded. The Church's doctrines do not develop in isolation from the contingencies of the...

It is rarely possible to predict with any certainty which of today's crowd-pleasers or critic-pleasers will secure for themselves a place as classics in the annals of film history--which will be taken as the defining films of their era, not merely for their cinematic qualities but for the aptness...

Michael Allen and Scott R. Swain, Reformed Catholicity: The Promise of Retrieval for Theology and Biblical Interpretation . Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2015 A few words of introduction and clarification are requisite on the front end of this review. First, given the medium of its distribution, I'...

James W. Skillen, The Good of Politics: A Biblical, Historical, and Contemporary Introduction . Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2014. $22.99/£16.99 A welcome addition to Baker Academic's "Engaging Culture" series, James Skillen's The Good of Politics offers an accessible, probing introduction to the...