Book Hunt at SBL 2015 (part 2)

Photo Credit by the
Library of Congress

Continuing from my previous post on must-buy's at the book exhibit, I am writing here about books that have been advertised by publishers for debut at SBL-AAR 2015. These I'm not sure if I'm going to get or not, but I hope to browse through them before I decide to make a purchase. So the standing-on-the-fence book buy's include Michael Wolter's Paul: An Outline of His Theology, which was translated by Robert Brawley from Wolter's original 2011 Paulus. So thankful to Bob for making this work available in English.

Published by Baylor University Press

Next up are two books being published by Baker Academic which I don't know much about but the titles, nevertheless, have caught my attention. I'm always interested in work where historiography and the life of Apostle Paul juxtapose, but Patrick Gray's book Paul as a Problem in History and Culture looks more like one that focuses on reception history and why, historically and culturally, Paul has received his fair share of critics and fans.

Published by Baker Academic

Then there is the collection of essays edited by Scot McKnight and Joseph B. Modica, Apostle Paul and the Christian Life, where the authors explore the ethical and missional implications of the New Perspective. I take it that if the NP movement is correct, how does their rereading of Paul affect the way the church ministers to its congregations and shares the gospel? Great question to explore! I'm not a NP scholar but an Old Perspective Redux kind-of-guy; in other words, I appreciate the challenges of a NP reading of Paul, whose work forces me, in the good way, to reread Paul's letters and understand the apostle in his Jewish context. So this book helps in showing positively to students why a 1990's debate on the Judaism(s) of Paul makes a difference in appropriating his theology today.

Published by Baker Academic

A former fellow Intertextuality and New Testament Interpretation steering committee member, Roy Jeal, just published his commentary on Philemon as part of SBL Press' new Rhetoric of Religious Antiquity series. Roy might have even referenced a post I did on Philemon here at Paul Redux, so I'm curious to see if a HT my way made it in the final published draft of his work. But really, kudos to Roy on his work and I'm keen to hear what he has to say about slavery and freedom in the gospel. Given the horrible history of misreadings of Philemon, I think a commentary committed to how Paul's rhetoric, in subtle and explicit ways, redefines slave relations in the Greco-Roman world is a needed and a welcome addition to the many commentaries out there on Philemon.

Published by SBL Press

Without knowing much about the book other than its title, I'm also curious to browse through Jane Lancaster Patterson's monograph on the metaphorical uses of sacrifice in the Philippian and Corinthian letter correspondences, entitled: Keeping the Feast.

Published by SBL Press

I almost missed this, and the advertisements on Festschriften usually get drowned out by other upcoming releases, but Wipf & Stock is publishing a collection of essays honoring well-known New Testament scholar Andrew Lincoln, edited by J. Gordon McConville and Lloyd Pietersen. Among the contributors are: N.T. Wright, Sylvia Keesmat, James Dunn, L. Ann Jervis, Philip Esler, Michael Gorman, Stephen Barton, Stephen Fowl, John Webster, Loveday Alexander... wait a minute! May be I should move this Festschrift to the "Shut-up-and-take-my-money" list:

Published by Wipf & Stock

Out in February (but will they have a display copy?) is Michael Bird's upcoming illustrated-by-Tomie-DePoala boyhood biography for children... whoops! I mean his commentary on Romans in Zondervan's The Story of God Bible commentary series (click the link above if you missed the joke post by Mike... have to admit, he had me going for a while).

Published by Zondervan Academic

Zondervan also has the co-authored book by Verlyn Verbrugge and Keith Kroll on Paul and Money that has my attention: 

Published by Zondervan Academic

Last but not least, whenever I go to the book exhibits, I walked through the well-established (and new!) monograph series to see what technical studies on the cutting-edge of Pauline and New Testament studies have emerged. I won't know really what I'll find until I browse through the exhibit, and many of these monographs, sadly, are priced beyond my budget range (except for a sneaky purchase here or there).
   But I try to look through: Mohr-Siebeck's WUNT series, Brill's  Supplements to Novum Testamentum (+click the titles tab), Fortress Press' Emerging Scholars, Cambridge University's SNTS monographs, T&T Clark/Bloomsbury's Library of New Testament Studies, SBL's Writings in the Greco-Roman World, and sometimes Peeters Publishers has some surprise monographs in its Contribution to Biblical Exegesis and Theology series. 
   That's it! Two more days and I'm off to Atlanta. See you all there!