Leitourgia

Now in its ninth edition, Kate Turabian's A Manual for Writers of Research Paper, Theses, and Dissertations  (University of Chicago Press, 2018) has been revised to match the seventeenth edition of The Chicago Manual of Style.  This celebrated reference work guides advanced writer through the process of research. It is divided into three main parts. (1) Resource and writing  addresses a framework for thinking about research, then guides writers through defining a project topic and hypothesis. It moves to finding and engaging sources along with drafting and revising the paper. (2) Source citation  provides a quick reference for students using Chicago style to produce citations in note-bibliography or author-date format. (3) Style  addresses common grammatical and spelling issues to align with the Manual. This book is a valuable all-in-one resource for research and writing. Part 1 is especially invaluable for learning how to select sources and interact with th...

Fewer contentious topics exist in present-day America than race. With a history of racial tension undergirding the national narrative, Americans in general—and Christians in particular—are forced to confront and make sense of these matters. Jemar Tisby, a Christian historian and sociologist, has presented his arresting new book, The Color of Compromise: The Truth about the American Church's Complicity in Racism  (Zondervan, 2019) to help demystify and un-romanticize America's racist past. Tisby contends that American church history is a history of racial complicity, one that has ignored the Bible's teaching on human dignity. He weds racism and religion tightly and locates Christians during key events in American racism, from slavery to the Civil War to Jim Crow to Black Lives Matter. Through it all, Tisby identifies the systems that must be changed in order to avoid a repetition of history. His careful, objective research is paired with a fiery—almost prophetic—call to ...

Following their updated editions of Basics of Biblical Hebrew  and Basics of Biblical Greek,  Zondervan Academic has updated their compact guides to the language: Biblical Hebrew: A Compact Guide  by Miles VanPelt and Biblical Greek: A Compact Guide  by Bill Mounce. These slim, small books (each 4x6" and about 0.75" thick) are designed to be handy references for those with working knowledge of the biblical languages. They stand between a beginning teaching grammar and an intermediate/advanced reference grammar. Organizing their contents roughly according to their respective grammars, these compact guides make excellent companions when doing translations and exegesis. Biblical Hebrew: A Compact Guide The second edition of Biblical Hebrew: A Compact Guide  is not much different from the first; it makes some minor spelling changes and adds a few sections. The most salient change is the expansion of the lexicon to include all words (excluding proper nouns) th...

The arts, as with other cultural issues, are often subject to scrutiny among Christians. From early iconoclastic debates to Zwingli’s artistic purge, Christians tend to be uncertain about the role of music and the arts in the church. Such debates are intensified by controversies over music and the so-called “worship wars.” Jeremy Begbie attempts to assuage these fears in his new book, A Peculiar Orthodoxy: Reflections on Theology and the Arts (Baker Academic, 2019). A celebrated artist and theologian, and perhaps the leading scholar in the intersection of theology and the arts, Begbie asserts that orthodox theology—particularly trinitarian theology—can be applied in peculiar ways in the arts, lending itself to a unique and beautiful expression of faith. Begbie’s book is a series of interrelated essays, some of which focus on theological foundations, and others which apply his thesis to music. As a pianist, Begbie draws on musical case studies as opposed to visual or theatrical art...

Among evangelical preachers, many views on the homiletical process exist. These issues surround the theological and biblical underpinnings of what a sermon is meant to do, which informs interpretation, application, and proclamation. In Homiletics and Hermeneutics: Four Views on Preaching Today (Baker Academic, 2018), Scott Gibson and Matthew Kim gather four respected preachers: Bryan Chapell, Abraham Kuruvilla, Kenneth Langley, and Paul Scott Wilson, each offering their take on how the function of a sermon informs its preparation. First up is Bryan Chapell, author of the celebrated preaching book Christ-Centered Preaching. In Chapell’s redemptive-historic view, he submits that all sermons are centered on Christ—not in that they mysteriously conjure Jesus out of each passage, but that each passage somehow points to God’s saving revelation in Christ. Next, Abraham Kuruvilla presents the christiconic view, maintaining that periscopes must be considered with respect to their original ...

Many Christians tend to be afraid of the Old Testament. Typical reasons include its confusing nature or irrelevance. These lead to a deeper issue: a distrust that the Old Testament is capable of addressing modern issues, especially when it seems to be rife with controversy. This is the problem that Tremper Longman III seeks to address in Confronting Old Testament Controversies: Pressing Questions about Evolution, Sexuality, History, and Violence (Baker Books, 2019). Longman, a respected Old Testament scholar, presents four of the most controversial subjects regarding the Old Testament and its relevance to life—evolution, homosexuality, historicity, and divine violence—and makes a biblical, theological, and historical case for each issue. Longman’s writing is not for the faint of heart. It is heavily academic in nature, requiring a basic knowledge of the literature and state of Old Testament scholarship. He drops large theological and biblical words and expects the reader to unders...

In this much-needed book, theologian Christian Hitchcock develops a vision for singleness and the church. Recent evangelical tendencies, argues Hitchcock, view singleness as a problem rather than an asset, a curse rather than a blessing. Drawing from her own experiences as a single Christian woman, Hitchcock skillfully combines personal reflection, historical evidence, and biblical-theological support to claim that single persons are themselves a theologically significant group. Hitchcock begins by tackling the problem of singleness head-on. She describes the perception of the “problem of singleness,” from pop culture to the Marriage Mandate Movement. In her view, American evangelicalism views marriage as the most desired social institution, under which nothing can compare. Most of her examples come from her experience as a student and professor at small Christian colleges, which have a notorious tendency to inflate issues of marriage. Hitchcock then turns to three figures from chu...