We here at Hearts & Minds send Pennsylvania holiday greetings to our subscribers and other on-line friends and customers. With great gratefulness we wish you a merry Christmastime and an upcoming happy New Year.

f you need something to listen to, don’t forget our “Three Books from Hearts & Minds” podcast — in the most recent I describe with enthusiasm an adult book on Epiphany (by Fleming Rutledge) and two beautiful children’s books. Enjoy that by either watching on YouTube or listening at Spotify or Apple Podcasts. The one before that was sort of about the holiday season — a book on hospitality, one on wine, and one on a Kingdom vision for family called Households of Faith. Both of those pods are timely, so check ‘em out.

• YouTube: https://youtu.be/A-6oCpJMTIY?si=3keizbAo_6fT0sDK
• Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/three-books-on-epiphany/id1718813591?i=1000681412026
• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2Vkig1OukDcJYaFl248AuM?si=f6ee20461cca4122

After that creative review of a bunch of contemporary novels in the last BookNotes, today I wanted to highlight for you a couple of books about the incarnation — God with Us, Emmanuel. We all know the lingo but, frankly, I am afraid some of us haven’t plumbed too deeply into that Earth-shaking mystery. Jesus said the faith of a child is enough, granted, but we know that God has given us resources with which to enlarge our hearts and stretch our minds. Here are a couple that might help do just that.

Christmas: The Season of Life and Light Emily Hunter McGowin (IVP) $21.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $17.59

Let’s start with this utterly lovely, truly fascinating, must-read, small book in the terrific “Fullness of Time” series. We’ve highlighted the Advent one (by Tish Harrison Warren) and the Epiphany one (by Fleming Rutledge) but sandwiched between the is the marvelous study of Christmastide. It’s not to late to read this and to learn more about this beloved holiday. Highly recommended.

And, of course, she necessarily studies the incarnation. It is astute, if brief, lovely and inspiring, as she explores the great O Antiphon that calls this mystery “the wondrous exchange.”

The Christmas liturgy of the Catholic Church, she shares, puts it like this:

For through Christ the holy exchange that restores our life has shone forth today in splendor: when our frailty is assumed by your Word not only does human mortality receive unending honor but by this wondrous union we, too, are made eternal.

The early church fathers, she tells us, compared this to the burning bush in Exodus 3 or the behavior of iron placed into fire. Its a good section in a lovely little boo and it is a marvelous place to start thinking a bit more deeply about the meaning of the incarnation.

Later in the book she draws forth the implication that God took on flesh in a chapter called “The God of Creation and Recreation.” Later she has a chapter called “The God of the Creche and the Cross.”  It’s so good — don’t miss it.

On the Incarnation Saint Athanasius of Alexandria (Whitaker House) $9.99  // OUR SALE PRICE = $7.99

The small and very handsome paperback published by St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press in their handsome Popular Patristics series is out of stock here, right now, (and they have been closed between Christmas and New Years so we haven’t replenished our stock, yet but will have more of that edition in a week or so. It goes for $20.00.)

For now, I’ll suggest this edition, which is, frankly, several dollars cheaper and has somewhat larger print. Whitaker House is a conservative (and at time Pentecostal) Protestant publisher who realized the importance of this classic from the 4th century. Kudos to them for doing this affordable edition of what is surely one of the most important books in church history.

C.S. Lewis says:

“Only a master mind could, in the fourth century, have written so deeply on such a subject with such classic simplicity.” – C. S. Lewis

One of Us: Reflections on the Radical Mystery of the Incarnation A.D. Bauer (Square Halo Books) $16.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $13.59

I have done two different reviews of this new little gem and have each time celebrated it for being accessible, pastoral, practical. A.D. is a Reformed minister and thinker and it’s as if he is chatting with you over coffee or tea.  While it isn’t exactly breezy or hilariously chatty like some edgy/cool books these days, it is substantive, solid, truly interesting, and immensely important.

Does Jesus taking on human flesh really matter? Is he really “fully human” as the Bible says and as the ancient creeds declare? And if so, how does that assist us in our life journey of hardship and sin? So much of the church’s current woes are (in my view) linked to a failure to be formed into the ways of Jesus, and knowing who Jesus is as “one of us” is a really good start.  Short and solid.

The Incarnation in the Gospels Daniel Doriani, Philip Graham Ryken & Richard Phillips (P&R) $14.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $11.99

Again, this is a wonderful read, both deeply theological and immensely inspiring, exploring a spectacular insight — fundamental to our faith, they properly insist — that has deep implications. This is a thoughtful, devotional work, with three authors each presenting twelve readings from Matthew, Luke, and John.

Doriani, whose work I have always liked, explores Matthew under the rubric of “The Hope of Israel” while Ryken explores Luke under the title “Songs for the Savior.” Richard Phillips invites us to consider “The Coming of the Light” with four great chapters on John 1. I suppose this is read by some as an Advent devotional, but I commend it here as it really does exegete and teach directly from Scripture about how the incarnation is taught.

Incarnation: The Surprising Overlap of Heaven and Earth William Willimon (Abingdon) $15.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $12.79

We really, really like these several “Belief Matters” volumes, short and really reader-friendly. (Our neighbor and good friend Ken Loyer did the one on communion, why the way, and we really like the one on creation. Each shows how these core doctrines have huge implications for the formation of our life together as God’s people.)

This is certainly an urgent one, perhaps the most famous since it is by Will Willimon, after all. They did not pitch this as a Christmas book but as a standard topic about which we must all have some familiarity. Jesus — fully human, fully divine — is “God’s Word of promise to be with us.”

From the introduction, Willimon provokes us just a bit, writing:

Jesus defines simplistic, effortless, undemanding explications. To be sure, Jesus often communicated his truth in simple, homely, direct ways, but his truth was anything but apparent and undemanding in the living. The gospels are full of folk who confidently knew what was what — until they met Jesus. Jesus provoked an intellectual crisis in just about everybody. Their response was not, “Wow I’ve just seen the Son of God,” but rather, “Who is this?”

There is a fabulous blurb on the back from classy Presbyterian Bible scholar and preacher, Thomas Long, as well as one by the emergent thinker and hip justice activist Doug Pagitt. This book is fine for anyone, in any stage or style of faith, believer or seeker. Hooray.

Veiled in Flesh: The Incarnation – What It Means and Why It Matters Melvin Tinker (IVP-UK) $17.00 // OUR SALE PRICE = $13.60

This is a truly solid study, a good and reliable exposition of the first two chapter of Hebrews to get at the question of who Christ is as the incarnate One and then, in a bunch of lively chapters, going deeper, “drawing on systematic and historical theology to tease out what the doctrine means and why it is vital to the life and health of the church and for Christian devotion.” It even shows how the doctrine of incarnation is related to two other key Christian beliefs, the Trinity and the atonement.

Tinker is a minister in the UK and a well known author and international speaker. This is not quite academic but does delve a bit deeper than some titles…

The Word Became Flesh: Evangelicals and the Incarnation edited by David Peterson (Paternoster Press) $24.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $19.99

I think we only have one of these left, again, important from the UK. (Ahhh, those British evangelicals are often ahead of US evangelicals on questions of lively theology and justice-seeking social ethics.) Anyway, this brings together a number of scholars to provide a Biblical and theological reflection on the thee. I think these were once lectures given at a conference (at Oak Hill, a prominent gathering at their School of Theology.”

Here you have Michael Ovey on Christ’s Consummator and Lex Mundi theology;  another chapter by Ovey on the Son Incarnate as co-sufferer (and the hostility of a rebellious world); David Peterson writes about how Christ shares our humanity and is “the pioneer and perfecter of our faith” (from Hebrews.)  Chris Green’s chapters are worth the price of the book as he explores “The Incarnation and Mission” (a meaty exploration, by the way.) Timothy War has a good chapter on “The Word and Words” exploring Scripture and then Carl Trueman (more famous now than he was in more than a decade ago when this came out) writes on the Incarnation and the Lord’s Supper, realizing that it was an “incarnational problem” in the debate between Luther and Zwingli. He shows how the Lord’s Supper can have a positive, formative function and is necessary for us all. I know somebody is going to love this.

Jesus Human: Primer for a Common Humanity Leonard Sweet (The Salish Sea Press) $27.95 // OUR SALE PRICE = $22.36

From out at Orcas Island in Washington state, Len Sweet has been busy mentoring DMin candidates, teaching and preaching semiotics, helping young theologians be bright and culturally savvy, reading the signs of the times. He is a witty wordsmith, a Kingdom renaissance man who cites more interesting books in any of his titles than a half a dozen other theological scholars combined. He’s a blast to read, challenging, delightful, if occasionally amusingly eccentric. He’s beyond postmodern, he’s got a holy imagination on fire with the gospel.

This may be, he says, one of his most important books ever. It is on the humanity of Jesus. I mentioned before it’s creative structure: the first two units are about our identity, and become a Jesus-infused “divine” human. Part Three looks in nine chapters at nice “inhumane” dreams, and this is itself potent. Part Four (which is itself nearly 350 pages) is an ABC arrangement of statements about Jesus, holding up a global Jesusy humanity. Yep, it is a playful and often fascinating abecedarian.

From Maximus the Confessor to Randy Scruggs, from Abraham Heschel to Iain McGilchrist, from Jacques Maritan to Hildegard of Bingen, he draws on Scripture, literary critics, philosophers and pop culture icons.  Sweet is fascinating, invigorating, and important. See the companion / sequel, by the way, Designer Jesus, which deserves its own review, another time…

Divinity and Humanity: The Incarnation Reconsidered Oliver Crisp (Cambridge University Press) $42.99  // OUR SALE PRICE = $34.39

Here is how Cambridge describes this heavy, scholarly study:

The doctrine of the Incarnation lies at the heart of Christianity. But the idea that ‘God was in Christ’ has become a much-debated topic in modern theology. Oliver Crisp addresses six key issues in the Incarnation defending a robust version of the doctrine, in keeping with classical Christology. He explores perichoresis, or interpenetration, with reference to both the Incarnation and Trinity. Over two chapters Crisp deals with the human nature of Christ and then provides an argument against the view, common amongst some contemporary theologians, that Christ had a fallen human nature. He considers the notion of divine kenosis or self-emptying, and discusses non-Incarnational Christology, focusing on the work of John Hick. This view denies Christ is God Incarnate, regarding him as primarily a moral exemplar to be imitated. Crisp rejects this alternative account of the nature of Christology.

The prolific Professor Crisp has degrees in Systematic Theology and Church History, an MTh from Aberdeen, and a PhD from King’s College, University of London. He has taught theology at the University of St. Andrews, at Notre Dame, and at Regent College in British Columbia.

Jesus Through Medieval Eyes: Beholding Christ with the Artists, My stick, and Theologians of the Middle Ages Grace Harman (Zondervan Reflective) $24.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $19.99

When I wrote about this before I raved, inviting you to come to know Christ in fresh ways by learning how those in another era saw him. Even those not fully fascinated with the Middle Ages will appreciate so much about this creative book. It has theological information, historical stuff, art pieces, and some fascinating insights from that era — Jesus slaying dragons, Jesus gestating children in his wounds, yes, Jesus, the lover of your soul.

I have been trained to be mistrustful of pre-Reformation era theology and popular expressions of faith in part because (and this is doubtlessly true, if only part of the story) of the ways Neo-Platonism infused it’s sacred vs secular dualism into the imaginations and worldviews of nearly everyone in the medieval world. The church running society as it sort of did (think of the Divine Right of Kings, and the worst of Constantine’s Christendom) was only one bad example. Think of the “higher” and “lower” callings and the way notions of vocation and calling were used only for the priests and the monks or nuns. In any case, that truncated vision of things rooted in a Greek (page) dualism is only part of the story; actually, there were brilliant thinkers and of course great (religious, at least) art and poetry and more. This feast of a book offers easy-to-appreciate insights about how Jesus — lifted up as King — was sometimes seen as fully human, sometimes seen as incarnate, sometimes understood in ways that can help us now with all of this.

Jesus Through Medieval Eyes is a great read and I wanted to list it here, now, at least for the portions dealing with the Nativity. Hooray — what a book!

Finding Messiah: A Journey into the Jewishness of Jesus Jennifer M. Rosner (IVP) $17.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $14.39

If we are going to make a case that Jesus was fully human, that the incarnation really did happen as the early church creeds explain, then, well, we must ask: what was his religion? The Jewishness of Jesus has always been known (how could it not) but both an ethereal piety and some blatant anti-semitism has worked against a full-throated affirmation of His first century Judaism.

So many scholars have unpacked that for us these days, from N.T Wright to Amy-Jill Levine to Brant Pitre to Gaza Vermes and popular writers have helped immensely (think of Lois Tverberg or Ann Spangler, recently.) An enjoyable and inspirational book that pops to the top of such a list is one I’ve mentioned before; I was first drawn (I’ll admit) to it by the enthusiasm of Richard Mouw who wrote a fabulous foreword.

Partially a conversion story, part a study of Older Testament prophecies pointing the way to Christ the Messiah, this roots the coming of Christ in Biblical context, showing how incarnation is, in a way, both expected and yet surprising. What a story.

Marty Solomon and Brian Zahnd and Gerald McDermott are all authors I respect and they rave about this study of how Jesus’s Jewish identity informed his work, words, and witness.

Jen Rosner interweaves her fascinating journey as a Messianic Jew navigating the tensions between Judaism and Christianity with a informative discussion of the Judaism of the earlier believers in Jesus.” — Lois Everberg, Reading the Bible with Rabbi Jesus

The Emotional Life of our Lord B. B. Warfield (Crossway) $8.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $7.19

Last year maybe at Easter-time I highlighted this great pocket-sized book by the famous Preofessor Warfield, published as a “Crossway Short Classic.” It is a singular essay which, oddly, was omitted from his “complete works” of the legendary late 19th century and early 20th century Princeton prof and not widely known. I think it was my friend Steve Garber who I first heard mention it years ago…

Certainly if we are pondering the incarnation we are asserting that Jesus was fully human. It is interesting how little systematic attention has been given to his emotional life. In recent years a number of pop titles have come out (Angry Like Jesus comes to mind) but this careful, short, study, is foundational. What a great little book, written in that older style.

Passions of the Christ: The Emotional Life of Jesus in the Gospels F. Scott Spencer (Baker Academic) $32.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $26.39

In the B. B. Warfield text isn’t enough, let us celebrate this remarkable scholar who, more than a decade ago, founded a working group and track within the Society of Biblical Literature on emotions in the Bible. Other work may have come out of their years of exploration but at least we now have this welcome addition to the study of emotions in the Bible. This hefty volume explores Jesus’s very real anger, grief, disgust, surprise, compassion, and joy.

Blurbs on this 300 page scholarly treatise are significant, from Te-Li Las of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School to Brittany E. Wilson from Duke. Matthew Skinner of Luther Seminary says it “made me realize my own misguided tendency to pass quickly over places where the Gospels highlight Jesus’s emotions” He says it is both wise and approachable.

PRE-ORDER The Affections of Christ Jesus: Love at the Heart of Paul’s Theology Nijay K. Gupta (Eerdmans) $34.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $27.99  NOT YET PUBLISHED / to be released mid-February 2025

If some of the above titles explore the human Jesus, the incarnate One, the Word made flesh, even by exploring his emotional life found in the gospels, this forthcoming volume (by one of our generation’s sharpest stars of Biblical study, Nijay Gupta, a beloved New Testament prof at Northern Seminary) unpacks the love of Jesus as written about by Paul. It is, the publisher assures us, “a new perspective on an often overlooked aspect of Paul’s theology — love.” It is, as many colleagues attest, absolutely excellent. Amy Peeler says it is “”revitalizing.”

I’ve got an advanced manuscript of this and I assure you it is well worth reading. It is very much a study of Pauline theology — the great Paul scholar Michael Gorman has a great forward. But yet, the love that Gupta helps us see at the heart and core of Paul’s teaching about the gospel emanates from Jesus Himself. There is a reason that speaking about love is the “love language” of the great Apostle to the Gentiles.

Do a careful, even provocative, study of Paul’s preaching of the gospel, linking it to the centrality of love, proof to us that Jesus was the Second Person of the Trinity come to Earth. Does it unpack “Veiled in Flesh the Godhead See”? Perhaps not exactly. But, man, it comes close. If the love of Jesus is unique and vital for Paul, and if that is core to the gospel, it surely will help us understand the incarnation. Yes, I’m glad to list this here, now, not only as a stand-alone good contribution to Pauline theology, but to help us piece together the puzzle of Christmas. It will call us, too, to love our neighbors, and, well, when gospel-centered theology takes root, it surely sends us into all corners of culture and society, embodying His love, as it were. I’m convinced a study of love will necessarily lead us to deepen the incarnational nature of our discipleship.

“The Affections of Christ Jesus manages to both brim with information and be an enjoyable read. I will be recommending this to students and parishioners for years to come.” — Amy Peeler, author Hebrews: Commentaries for Christian Formation

Christ Unabridged: Knowing and Loving the Son of Man edited by George Westhaver & Rebekah Vince (SCM) $48.00 // OUR SALE PRICE = $38.40

We imported this from the UK because it just seemed so very rich, so thoughtful, so needed. The title “Son of Man” has evoked a number of different takes in theological studies, but it certainly gets at the whole Christ — that is, both His humanity and divinity. Loving Jesus calls us to commune with the Triune God. (And, as this volume reminds us, not just into Oneness with God but with each other within the Body of Christ, and for the life of the world.)

This edited volume includes hefty pieces by N.T. Wright, Rowen Williams, Lydia Schumacher, Kalistos Ware, Malcolm Guite, and Oliver O’Donovan. Wow. This “explores some of the many registers of the story of Christ.” Wow.

Seeing as Jesus Sees: How a New Perspective Can Defeat the Darkness and Awaken Joy Alan Wright (Baker) $24.99  // OUR SALE PRICE = $19.99

This upbeat and lovely book invites us to lie our lies as followers of Jesus by, literally, nurturing a practice of seeing as He would see. To do that we have to not only immerse ourselves in His teachings but we must understand His heart. How do we see the world knowing John 3:16 — that it is fully beloved by God or entered it? This offers a clear spiritual vision, yes, and is not an argument for the incarnation. But I think if we want to be incarnational we need this nearly sacramental vision of life “for the life of the world.”

Jack Deere (Surprised by the Power of the Spirit) says that Alan Wright “is a superb teacher and a great lover of Jesus.” This nice read will help us see His beauty and thereby see as He sees. This could change a lot, and if the incarnation is not key to our imagination, I suspect we will not fully glean all that this vivid book has to offer. How does Jesus see this? Hmmm.

His Face Like Mine: Finding God’s Love in Our Wounds Russell W. Joyce (IVP) $18.00 // OUR SALE PRICE = $14.40

I highlighted this moving book previously and it is so, so good I have to mention it here, now. The author had a rare, cranial-facial disorder which took several serious surgeries to create a face that was somewhat more presentable, but it created huge undercurrents of emotional pain and insecurities. In a season of planting a new church, Joyce came to cope with these serious wounds and came to realize the depth of the love of Jesus who understood his pain.

Talk about Christ’s own appreciation of, solidarity with, our very human, material, embodied selves. This invites us into the open arms of a good God who, because of the incarnation, heals us in ways that allow us to be more human, not less so.

An excellent author we respect, A.J. Swoboda, says, rightly:

Joyce’s brilliant, vulnerable, and fierce exploration of the power of wounds and scars will leave you breathless.

Engaging Jesus with Our Senses: An Embodied Approach to the Gospels Jeannine Marie Hanger (Baker Academic) $24.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $19.99

Hanger has a PhD from the University of Aberdeen and is an Associate professor of New Testament at Talbot. She’s a stunning, ecumenical thinker and has written a heavy, expensive book (on Brill) called Sensing Salvation in the Gospel of John; this, it seems, while not at all simplistic, is inspired by that heftier work and is considerably more accessible. We adore this in so many ways, for so many reasons…

John Barclay (a very innovative Paul scholar) says it is ideal for “encountering the Word made flesh.” Yup. He insists it is “an excellent resource for a fully embodied life of faith.”

That seems to be a developing theme here in this BookNotes, that a full, orthodox view of Christ as the incarnate One, fully human and fully Divine, can help us embrace our oneness with God but — and this is vital — become more fully human in the process.  As Barclay put it, “a fully embodied life of faith.” Because Jesus was embodied, we realize that the Hebrew worldview is fully right: we are creatures in a wondrous world that (broken as it may be) still praises Him. In this book we use our senses to understand the God of the Bible, made human in the gospels.

Insightful. Intriguing. Invitational. Engaging Jesus with Our Senses is all this and more. Hanger explores the intersection of the Gospels and sensory experience, building on scholarship from both arenas. The results are both thought-provoking and experientially rich.  — Jeannine K. Brown, Bethel Seminary, The Gospels as Stories and Scripture as Communication: Introducing Biblical Hermeneutics

Echoing Hope: How the Humanity of Jesus Redeems Our Pain Kurt Willems (Waterbrook) $16.00 // OUR SALE PRICE = $12.80

Okay, this strikes me nearly as a Lenten book, a book pointing to the echoing hope of the resurrection experience in time of pain. Our brokenness does not get the final word and we get to bring a little of “that future thing” — the eschaton fully realized — into the here and now. We can live with real hope, with hope of human-scale transformation, being more fully alive, even in time of hardship.

Willems is a very thoughtful pastor and an eloquent writer. This book is honest and raw, yet glorious somehow. I felt like I should mention it now as it really is a very solid, contemporary study of the full human-ness of Jesus and how we, too, no matter who we are or what condition we are in, can embrace our own humanity, our foibles and limits, as we walk with Him.

None of this would be true without the incarnation; at least we would not know that Christ is redeeming this very planet, the stuff of life, our bodies, even, if he did not so fully embrace the world He made by entering it. This mysterious relationship between creation and new creation is both a Christmas story and a Easter story, and I wanted to commend it to you now as we ponder the human-ness of Christ, seen most clearly in his vulnerability as a baby born at Christmas. Yes, yes, indeed.

Every page of this book asks us to ponder, What if Jesus actually gets it? What if Jesus really empathizes with us because he experienced life just like us? You can see Kurt’s pastoral heart as he invites us into the humanity of Jesus to learn from him and love him anew. — Osheta Moore, pastor and author of Dear White Peacemakers and Shalom Sistas

Shockingly few books truly illuminate the humanity of Jesus. But Kurt Willems has given us a rare gift–a beautifully written account of Christ’s humanity and also a tender, vulnerable account of Kurt’s own. To read Echoing Hope is not only to go deeper into Christ’s story but also to go deeper into yours. — Jonathan Martin, author of How to Survive a Shipwreck and Prototype

Jesus and the Pleasures J. Christian Wilson (Augsburg-Fortress) $14.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $11.99

We’ve had a handful of these for a long time and while I seem to think it is out of print, it’s a fascinating little study by a scholar of first century languages. With a PhD from Duke (and ordained in the United Methodist Church) he has been a professor of religion at Elon University in SC.

Here he invites us to consider how Jesus related to life’s ordinariness, its pleasures. From work to wine, from feasting to song, Wilson explore’s Jesus’s very human side, his Jewishness appreciating the goodness of creation, and the implicit call that Jesus, who would have valued the simple joys of a life well lived, expects us, too, in a distinctively Christian way, to also appreciate the goodness of daily pleasures.

These days there are still those around who do not fully believe Jesus was human and they still do not believe that devout and pious people of faith can be fully alive and fun-loving. If they don’t quite get 1 Timothy 4: 1-5, maybe this book will shake them up a bit. In any case, it, too, is a pleasure, reading a lovely, thoughtful, provocative book about the human life of Jesus. Cheers!

Flesh-and-Blood Jesus: Learning to be Fully Human from the Son of Man Dan Russ (Baker) $14.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $11.99

Speaking of somewhat older books that we have a small stack of (despite having gone out-of-print) this is a gem of a great read, a very fine book that carefully explores the humanity of Jesus. It studies themes such as fragility, the need for companionship, feasting, dying, living with wounds, and responding to authority — human stuff, indeed. Os Guiness has called this “a little gem — rich with quiet wisdom and deep insights, and beautifully written.”

I think you can enjoy, indeed savor, this book which has uncommon power and is what one leader called “stunningly helpful examination of the humanity of Christ, with rich implications for your life.”

At the time of writing this (2008) Russ was the head of the Christian Study Center near Gordon College in New England. The first chapter (“Manger Wetter”) is about the little Lord Jesus, the one who did indeed cry on that first Middle Eastern Christmas. Hooray!

A God Named Josh: Uncovering the Human Life of Jesus Christ Jared Brock (Bethany House) $19.00 // OUR SALE PRICE = $15.20

Here is another great read which we’ve highlighted before and what a fun book it is. It asserts that the question Jesus asked — “Who do you say that I am” looms large and is ever-vital. Yep, we need a good and deft biographer, one who can weave archeology, philosophy, history, apologetics and theology to “create a portrait of Jesus we’ve never seen before.” That Brock is this writer is fabulous because, frankly, he’s a lot more lively than many other such volumes. This really is a solid book, but clever and captivating.

Aussie Mark Sayers says it is good for those who are unfamiliar or overfamiliar with the story of Jesus.

The same wonderful story, the same incredible Savior, the same good news… but written with such clarity that everything you thought you knew about Jesus will seem new and exciting. — Steve Brown, author of Laughter and Lament: The Radical Freedom of Joy and Sorrow

 

The Word Fulfilled: Reading the Bible with Jesus Michael Pahl (Herald Press) $19.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $15.99

Oh, my, my, I just started this and am thoroughly enjoying it. It’s a great read, a fun book, and challenging to me (even though I am on board fully with the thesis, which, oddly, may be controversial to some.) The author is an Anabaptist (that is, a Mennonites so a Christ-centered hermeneutic of the Bible is sensible, perhaps nearly revolutionary. It makes it very clear that we are to follow Jesus, even in the way we read Scripture. How challenging and how liberating. It is an art and a science, it seems, and these days folks from various theological traditions — the more sacramentally inclined liturgical folks, the Reformed Bible teachers calling us to a historical redemptive approach, those contemplatives invoking the lectio divina tools — are all noting that Christ’s incarnation is the very heart of the story, that “every chapter whispers His name” and Christ’s coming is the centerpiece of the whole unfolding drama of redemption. Yes, yes, yes.

But this books gets clear and honest about all that, not only arguing for a Christ-centered vision of the larger Bible narrative, from creation to new creation, but actually for Christ-like practices of reading well. If we hold to the doctrine of the incarnation, and Jesus is who who says he is, then this sort of style of reading is essential to learn. What an important book!

In this fine study of crucial scriptures at work in Jesus’ heart, mind, and mission, Michael W. Pahl not only provides a sketch of how Jesus read the Bible — thereby helping followers of Jesus read the Bible — but also provides a template of the formative teachings of Jesus. A splendid book in many ways. — Scot McKnight, The King Jesus Gospel

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