Summer 2008

• Will the Real Paul Please Stand Up?

  A review essay by pastor, scholar Tony Richie about the new perspective on Paul. Simon Gathercole, “What Did Paul Really Mean?: ‘New perspective’ scholars argue that we need, well, a new perspective on justification by faith” Christianity Today (August 2007), pages 22-28. Simon Gathercole is ... Read More

• Shifting Shadows of Supernatural Experiences: A Manual for Experiencing God

  James W. Goll and Julia Loren, Shifting Shadows of Supernatural Experiences: A Manual for Experiencing God (Shippensburg: Destiny Image, 2007), 244 pages, ISBN 9780768424973. James W. Goll and Julia Loren did not simply write another book on supernatural experiences. Emerging out of their own lives and ... Read More

• Rob Bell: Velvet Elvis

    Rob Bell, Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005), 194 pages, ISBN 9780310263456. Rob Bell’s book welcomes us to listen in to a dialogue describing what Christianity should look like in a postmodern context. Before addressing Rob Bell’s book specifically, it will be ... Read More

• Summer 2008: Suggested Reading

      Suggestions for Further Reading   Tim Keel, “An Efficient Gospel?: The modern world was inclined toward reduction, efficiency, and things you can count” Leadership Journal (Winter 2008). http://www.christianitytoday.com/le/2008/001/3.19.html   Earl G. Creps, “Moving Target: Reframing Discipleship for Postmoderns” Enrichment (Winter 2008), pages 68-73.    http://enrichmentjournal.ag.org/200801/200801_068_MovTarget.cfm   TS says, “Christianity Today has a ... Read More

• A New Kind of Church for a New Kind of World, by Frank Viola

      The modern era has past us by. Modernism stood in stark contradiction to the Christian faith. It asserted that man’s scientific and objective knowledge could save the problems of the world. God wasn’t necessary. In fact, according to the tenants of modernism, God didn’t even exist. ... Read More

• John Feinberg: No One Like Him

    John S. Feinberg, No One Like Him: The Doctrine of God (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2001), 879 pages, ISBN 9781581348118. In the 1970s, Paul E. Little wrote an excellent book entitled, Know What and Why You Believe. In clear simple language, he presented various doctrines of ... Read More

• Keith Burton: The Blessing of Africa

    Keith Augustus Burton, The Blessing of Africa: The Bible and African Christianity (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2007), 294 pages, ISBN 9780830827626. The recent increase of books about the African continent might seem almost mind boggling for readers interested in learning about Africa and its relevance to ... Read More

• Roger Olson: Pocket History of Evangelical Theology

    Roger E. Olson, Pocket History of Evangelical Theology (Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 2007), 152 pages, ISBN 9780830827060. In sixteen short chapters, Olson (Ph.D., Rice University) provides us with historical essays that cover the origination, development, and maturation of Evangelical theology within North America. The introductory chapter, composed ... Read More

• Called to Suffering, Partakers of Joy: An Interview with Ajith Fernando

  Does the church need a doctrine of suffering?   The Pneuma Review had an opportunity to speak with Ajith Fernando, the national director of Youth For Christ in Sri Lanka, about his recent book The Call to Joy and Pain. This book has received the 2008 ... Read More

• Response from Winfield Bevins

      I do have a few things to say about the postmodern discussion in The Pneuma Review. In my opinion, there has not been given any practical or relevant answers for how the church should engage our postmodern world. Many of the panelists have dealt with ... Read More

• What Meaneth This? A Question for 21st Century Pentecostalism

  Doug Beacham, General Superintendent of the International Pentecostal Holiness Church, shares a timely challenge about giving an answer for the hope within us.   The year 2008 is shaping up as an unusually violent period of natural disasters around the world. In the United States tornados are ... Read More

• Proclaiming the Gospel with Miraculous Gifts in the Postbiblical Early Church

    Many stories in Christian history are filled with accounts of charismatic gifts, miracles, signs and wonders.   The emergence of the Pentecostal, the neoPentecostal or charismatic, and third wave movements in our century has raised a variety of vital questions that demand answers. Among these is the ... Read More

• Gordon Fee and Mark Strauss: How To Choose a Translation for All Its Worth

    Gordon D. Fee and Mark L. Strauss, How To Choose a Translation for All Its Worth: A Guide to Understanding and Using Bible Versions (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2007), 170 pages, ISBN 0310278767. This is the third “how to” book that Gordon Fee has written. The first ... Read More

• Gary Burge: Whose Land? Whose Promise?

  Gary M. Burge, Whose Land? Whose Promise? What Christians Are Not Being Told About Israel and the Palestinians (Cleveland: Pilgrim Press, 2003), xviii+286 pages, ISBN 0829816607. As the title indicates, this book is concerned with who owns the Holy Land. At the outset, Gary Burge explains ... Read More

• John Collins: Encounters With Biblical Theology

    John J. Collins, Encounters With Biblical Theology (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2005), 243 pages, ISBN 0800637690. In the book Encounters with Biblical Theology,1 author John Collins offers a collection of essays on different aspects of the Biblical Theology movement. Collins is the Holmes Professor of Old Testament ... Read More

• Stephen Nichols: For Us and for Our Salvation

    Stephen J. Nichols, For Us and for Our Salvation: The Doctrine of Christ in the Early Church (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway Books, 2007), 172 pages, ISBN 1581348673. Stephen Nichols has prepared an excellent primer for the study of the history of the early Christian Church. This book ... Read More