Koinonia

"Your Church is Too Small" - Join the blog tour!

"That all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you." - John 17:21

In Your Church Is Too Small, John Armstrong presents a vision of the unity possible for Christians across social, cultural, racial, and denominational lines. When Jesus’ followers seek unity through participation in the kingdom of God and the mission of Christ, they demonstrate God’s character to a watching world.

Join the Your Church is Too Small Blog Tour! - March 14-20, 2010

100 bloggers will be posting their thoughts and reviews of Your Church is Too Small. Join the conversation by filling in the form below and an advanced copy of the book will be sent to you. Supplies are limited, so join today! (Continental US and Canada only.) 

After the tour receive a free, final copy of Your Church is Too Small and Ethnic Blends by Mark DeYmaz and Harri Li

Book Review Roundup

There have been a number of book reviews of Zondervan Academic titles posted lately. Here's the roundup so far. If I missed any please include them in the comments section. Happy reading this Thanksgiving!

--Andrew

Four Views on Moving Beyond the Bible to Theology was reviewed on the Reflaction: Life in Fife blog.

Scot McKnight is also discussing this same book in a series called: "Going Beyond the Bible Biblically." See the first post in the series here.

Nick over on the "Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth" blog has reviewed the newly revised Zondervan Encyclopedia of the Bible. It's also been featured on "In thy Light," and on Andy Naselli's blog.

Fred von Kamecke's Busted: Exposing Popular Myths about Christianity was reviewed on the Pastoral Musings blog.

The new ZIBBCOT (Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary: Old Testament - as if you didn't know already! ;-) is getting quite a bit of attention thanks largely to Koinonia readers. (WOOHOO!) They'll be a more extensive list than this in the future, but here's the buzz so far:

• Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth
• Jesus Creed
• Old in the New
• A Time to Tear Down, A Time to Build Up
• DashHouse
• Biblicalia

(This not a review, but) You can listen to Latayne C. Scott, via a podcast on the Chris Fabry show, discuss Mormonism and The Mormon Mirage, 3rd ed.: A Former Member Looks at the Mormon Church Today.  

That's it for now. Have a happy Thanksgiving filled with reading!

-Andrew

Get ZIBBCOT (and Other Titles) at 60% Off at ETS, IBR, SBL

This is as good as it gets.

At the ETS, IBR, SBL annual meetings next week, we're offering a generous 60% discount on several new resources! (Note: you can see all events and specials here.)

Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary: Old Testament

Only $99.99 (Wednesday and Saturday only)

 

 

 

Zondervan Encyclopedia of the Bible

Only $120.00 (Thursday and Sunday only)

 

A Theology of John's Gospel and Letters

Only $16.00 (Wednesday only)

 

 

Four Views on Moving Beyond the Bible to Theology

Only $8.00 (Thursday only)

Help Con Campbell write his next book...and win a free a copy!

In January Con Campbell posted a blog series called "Keep Your Greek" on www.ReadBetterPreachBetter.com. (Here's a link to post #1) This was his intro to the series:

Students, and more often pastors, occasionally ask me for advice about how to keep their Greek (and Hebrew) at a good level, while in the midst of demanding ministry work. They’ve spent hundreds of hours at college or seminary getting the biblical languages under their belt, so it’s a crying shame to then lose that hard-earned ability and knowledge through lack of use. This problem also applies to academics who may have a couple of other languages, such as French and German, that they want to remain proficient in. So, I thought I’d offer a few thoughts in this new little series...

Last month Con announced on his blog that the "Keep Your Greek" series will be the basis of a new book from Z, and is asking for your input on the text of the book in posts titled:

Keep Your Greek: Testing Some Lines

Keep Your Greek: Testing Some Lines (2)

We've asked Con to keep track of any lines he uses in the new book that someone suggests to him on his blog. Each person that supplies Con with a usuable line will be sent a free copy of Basics of Verbal Aspect in Biblical Greek and eventually, a free copy of the new book!

So, watch www.readbetterpreachbetter.com and help Con pen the pages for Keep Your Greek!

Latayne C. Scott: The Lost and Found of Masonry and Mormonism

I imagine that many Christians have wriggled uncomfortably as they read Dan Brown’s new book, The Lost Symbol. Scattered through the book are disparaging references to Christianity (and not a few barefaced prostitutions of Bible verses taken out of context).

But imagine the reaction of some Mormons who have been through the secret LDS temple ceremonies when they read, in the first pages of the book, of Masonic oaths whose penalties are "Throat cut from ear to ear. . .tongue torn out by its roots. . .bowels taken out and burned . . .scattered to the four winds of heaven.."

"Pastoral Musings" reviews "The Inklings of Oxford"

Thanks to Jason S for this review of The Inklings of Oxford.

Inklings of Oxford: Photography Blog 3 by Jim Veneman

The Photography

As photography goes, I’ve always had a tendency to operate on the side of simplicity. Some of my finest feel-good moments have come when reading quotes from well known photographers who said that all they really need is one body and a couple of lenses. Now that’s my kind of photography.

The Inklings of Oxford: Photography Blog 2 by Jim Veneman

The Plan

Ten days. That’s all the time we had to photograph our way through Hal Poe’s list of essential people and places. But with a book deadline heading our way even quicker than the autumn leaves, we needed to accomplish more on this trip than the photography.

Before leaving England, we needed to have made image selections for specific passages of text. This meant that when the shooting day came to a close, we were not quite finished. Evenings were reserved for editing.

What to Include, What to Leave Out? by Harry Lee Poe

When Jim Veneman agreed to work with me on The Inklings of Oxford, he said I would have to give him a list of every photograph I needed for the book. Not only that, he wanted to know which photographs were interior shots and which were exterior shots. Not only that, he wanted to know which shots would be taken from the east, the west, the north, and the south. He asked several other things, but by then my eyes had glazed over. This fellow had obviously never heard of the Kodak instamatic camera: point and shoot! Didn’t he own a flash? Finally, he wanted the completed text of the book before we went on our photo shoot to Oxford.

Another book about the Inklings? by Harry Lee Poe

Welcome to Inklings Week on Koinonia! All this week Hal Poe and Jim Veneman will be blogging about their trip to Oxford and about The Inklings of Oxford. We hope you'll enjoy the last week of summer before the "long winter" of another rigorous academic year with these unique posts. - Andrew

Do we really need another book about the Inklings? We have Humphrey Carpenter’s fine book published in 1978. Since then Colin Duriez and Diana Glyer have written two fine books. I suppose I wanted to do this book for the same reason that Lewis wrote children’s stories. He wanted the kind of stories he wanted to read, and I wanted a book that evoked the town where the Inklings lived. I wanted a book that I could flip through on a cold winter’s night and travel again to a place I had known and loved.