I’ve been watching all of the favorite books of 2011 posts popping up throughout the blogosphere, so I figured I should make my contribution.  I’m going to be a bit of a rebel and buck the system by listing 5 books rather than 10.  Drumroll please…..

Shaun’s Favorite Books of 2011

1. The Constantine Codex
	Paul L. Maier is one of my favorite authors of all time.  My first introduction to Dr. Maier’s writing was A Skeleton in God’s Closeton my way back from visiting Concordia Seminary in Fort Wayne, IN back in 1997.  Since then I’ve acquired and read pretty much anything he has put his hand to.The Constantine Codex is the third book in the skeleton series beginning with A Skeleton in God’s Closet in the early nineties, followed by More than a Skeleton in 2003.  All three of these wonderful novels tell the story of Harvard Professor and unwitting adventurer Jonathan Weber. If you’re a fan of biblical archaeology, these books will not disappoint!
2. Deadly Disclosures (Dinah Harris Mystery Series – Book 1)
	It is only recently that I became acquainted with the writing of Julie Cave.  Julie is author of the Dinah Harris mystery series published by Master Books.  Deadly Disclosuresis book one of the series and deals with some pretty heavy issues, including the case for creation / intelligent design over evolution and other raw life issues including tragic loss, depression and alcoholism.  There are several clear articulations of the gospel in the book and overall it shows that Jesus Christ is sufficient, able to heal the deepest of wounds and deliver from even the deepest of hurts. Julie winds a masterful tale is one of the best new authors I’ve encountered during 2011!On a related note, I recently finished The Shadowed Mind (Book 2), which I will be reviewing soon and can’t wait to get started with Pieces of Light (Book 3), which is all cued up and waiting on my kindle.
3. Learning to Jump Again
	Learning to Jump Again is one of those books I never intended to read this past year, but it sort of came across my path at just the right time.  Anthony’s book is a very honest telling of the forceful emotions and spiritual turmoil one experiences leading up to and during the years that follow the loss of a parent.  I saw my own story in so much of what Anthony shared.  For me, reading this book was a cathartic experience. I would recommend this book to anyone who is working through the loss of a parent or other loved one, but my only caution is that this book may be too much for you right after the funeral. I would suggest picking up Learning to Jump Again at least three to six months afterwards.
4. Keep Your Greek: Strategies for Busy People
	After spending all of that time acquiring Greek skills during our college and seminary days, it seems we just can’t find the time to keep up with it as our list of responsibilities always seems to keep going up, while our available time for study and personal development goes in the opposite direction.  Even if your Greek skills have atrophied a bit, don’t despair.  Keep Your Greek has some great ideas to help you get your Greek on and bring out the inner Bible Geek that’s inside of us all.  I would highly recommend this book for any Bible college / seminary student, pastor, or layperson who is interested in or who has ever studied Greek. Even if your interest in keeping up with your Greek studies is limited, you will find something of use here.
5. Luther: Echoes of the Hammer
	As a 33 year old man who reads an awful lot of non-fiction, I honestly don’t tend to read a lot of graphic novels.  As a father of some soon to be teens, who love graphic novels, I’m starting to get into them a bit more.  I’m always on the lookout for good resources to teach them about church history, especially the reformation.  With all of that in mind, I highly recommend Luther:  Echoes of the Hammer.  This book will help readers understand why Martin Luther is considered an important reformer and hero of the church. Excellent writing and beautiful illustrations make this book a joy to read and keep it moving along at a good pace. With the many informational helps included in the book, even readers who are unfamiliar with the terms or people of the reformation period will be able to follow the story with ease.

Welcome to day 4 of the 4th Annual 12 Days Before Christmas Book Giveaway! Today’s giveaway is sponsored by Accordance Bible Software, InterVarsity Press and Zondervan. We have three prize packs up for grabs, which will be explained below. The resources featured in today’s giveaway are:

	The Scholar’s 9 Introductory Level offers a basic Greek and Hebrew study package at an affordable price. Perfect for the seminary student on a limited budget, the Scholar’s Intro includes the Greek New Testament (NA27) and Hebrew Bible (BHS) with full grammatical tagging, Thayer’s Greek Lexicon and Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew Lexicon, the King James with Strong’s numbers, your choice of an additional modern English Bible, and a basic package of study aids. That’s the equivalent of $585 worth of print resources for a retail price of just $149***Click here to find the answer to question 4.
	This volume focuses on five views of justification and calls on representative proponents to set forth their case and then respond to each other. The five views are:Traditional Reformed (Michael S. Horton) Progressive Reformed (Michael F. Bird) New Perspective (James D. G. Dunn) Deification, or Theosis (Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen) Roman Catholic (Gerald O’Collins and Oliver Rafferty)
	For over twenty years, Craig Blomberg’s The Historical Reliability of the Gospels has provided a useful antidote to many of the toxic effects of skeptical criticism of the Gospels. Offering a calm, balanced overview of the history of Gospel criticism, especially that of the late twentieth century, Blomberg introduces readers to the methods employed by New Testament scholars and shows both the values and limits of those methods. He then delves more deeply into the question of miracles, Synoptic discrepancies and the differences between the Synoptics and John. After an assessment of noncanonical Jesus tradition, he addresses issues of historical method directly.
	Uncovering this North African tradition and offering it to a wide reading audience is the task that Tom Oden sets for himself in this fascinating tour de force. The book, originating as lectures delivered at the Islamic Da’wa University in Tripoli in 2008 and later expanded as the W. H. Griffith Thomas Lectures in 2009 at Dallas Theological Seminary, has been expanded and refined to provide additional insights and references, surveying the texts, architecture and landmarks of this important period of Christian history. It also serves as a valuable companion to Oden’s earlier offerings in How Africa Shaped the Christian Mind and The African Memory of Mark.***Click here to find the answer to question 3.
	Spirituality often evokes images of quiet centeredness, meditative serenity and freedom from life’s pressures. It’s become a chic commodity, with its benefits evoked by images of sunrises and secluded retreats. Contrast the apostle Paul, who promotes a cross-shaped spirituality for fools making their way though life’s trials.As he explores this ancient spiritual path, Rodney Reeves probes our understanding of what Christian spirituality should be. And to illuminate its transformative power, he gives us living illustrations of what it means to follow Paul as he followed Christ. Here is a book that joins a deep understanding of Paul with a pastoral and spiritual wisdom born of experience. ***Click here to find the answer to question 2.
	According to author Con Campbell, making a small, regular time commitment and utilizing the right tools can make all the difference in preserving and improving the abilities Greek students work so hard to obtain. This primer sets out the basic practices pastors and former language students can follow to retain their Greek language skills.***Click here to find the answer to question 1.

Today’s Prizes

This contest is now closed. Winners will be announced soon.

On the most recent episode of the Connected Kingdom Podcast, David Murray speaks with Latayne C. Scott about her book The Mormon Mirage: A Former Member Looks at the Mormon Church Today (Zondervan, 2009).  You can listen to this episode of Connected Kingdom here:  LINK. I had the privilege of writing a review for The Mormon Mirage back in 2009.  You can read my review here:  LINK.

Book Details:
General Editor: Glen G. Scorgie
Publisher: Zondervan (2011)
Binding: Hardcover
Page count: 864
ISBN: 9780310290667

Recommendation:
Review Date: 10/24/2011 by Shaun Tabatt
Rating: Recommended

Review:

In my humble opinion, Bible geeks such as myself can never have too many reference works at their disposal and I am always an easy sell (AKA sucker) for a good dictionary. Now when I think about biblical and theological dictionaries that would enhance the list of reference works available in my personal library, the first publisher that comes to mind in this category is generally IVP (InterVarsity Press). As much as they might try, IVP cannot keep this space all to themselves, so I was excited to have a chance to peruse a reference work from Zondervan, whose academic titles I have come to respect over the past decade, especially when it comes to basic and intermediate texts for the study of biblical languages (Greek, Hebrew, and more recently Aramaic).

The Dictionary of Christian Spirituality seeks to raise the bar when compared with the broad spectrum of “Christian” literature that is being produced today. This volume strives “to help Christians reunite their heads with their hearts (and also with their hands…)” (p. 7). Acknowledging the many authors and reference works on whose shoulders they stand, the contributors have attempted to provide readers with “an accessible and reliable academic resource…one that will offer a discerning orientation to the wealth of ecumenical resources available while still highlighting the distinct heritage and affirming the core grace-centered values of classic evangelical spirituality” (p. 8). The distinctive features that readers can expect in this volume are:

1. Biblically engaged
2. Accessible and relevant to contemporary Christian practitioners
3. Generous in its regard for the full range of Christian traditions of spirituality
4. Attentive to otherwise neglected topics, concerns, and formative figures in the evangelical tradition of spirituality
5. Global and international in both topical scope and contributors
6. Reflective of interdisciplinary engagement with related fields of inquiry

The Dictionary of Christian Spirituality is divided into two main parts. Part one (Integrative Perspectives) is made up of thirty four essays from a wide range of scholars on topics including:

• Overview of Christian Spirituality – Glen G. Scorgie
• Jesus – Dallas Willard
• The Holy Spirit – Clark H. Pinnock and Glen G. Scorgie
• Ancient Christian Spirituality (AD 100-600) – Christopher A. Hall
• Music and the Arts – Stephen R. Guthrie

Part two (Dictionary Entries) has nearly seven hundred shorter length articles on historical Christian movements, biographical profiles, and many other concepts and topics important to the study of Christian spirituality. One especially important feature of the entries and articles found in both parts one and two of the book is that each of them closes with a list of resources for further reading, which is always helpful for those topics you intend to explore further.

I would heartily recommend this volume for pastors, ministry leaders, and academics as well as the non-specialist who will benefit from this sort of resource in their home. For instance, I shared this volume with my wife and she is excited about the potential use of the Dictionary of Christian Spirituality in her preparation for homeschooling lessons. She was particularly pleased with the biographical profiles found in part two. All things considered, the Dictionary of Christian Spirituality is a great resource to add to your collection of reference works and with a list price of $39.99 (currently selling for $25.99 on Amazon), it is an extremely good value when compared to the cost of reference works of similar size.

General Editor Information:
Glen G. Scorgie (Ph.D., St. Andrews) is professor of theology at Bethel Seminary San Diego since 1996. Previously he was academic vice-president of North American Baptist College in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, and is a past president of the Canadian Evangelical Theological Association. For the past decade he has also been involved in the ministries of Chinese Bible Church of San Diego, and lectures regularly in Asia. His writings include A Little Guide to Christian Spirituality (Zondervan, 2007). For more information, visit his website at www.glenscorgie.com.

Where to Buy:

• Amazon
• CBD

Disclaimer:
This book was provided by Zondervan for review. The reviewer was under no obligation to offer a favorable review.

The Zondervan Academic 2011-2012 Christmas Resource Catalog is now available.  You can view it online here:  LINK.  Here are a few of the new titles that are of interest to me:

I’m very curious to see how Scott unpacks the problem of young adults leaving the church and it would make for an interesting review to contrast his reasoning for this problem against other recent books such as Scott Brown’s A Weed in the Church and Ken Ham’s Already Compromised. Maybe that’s the angle I should take. We’ll see…

Rachel Held Evans featured a post today on her blog, where Jana Riess answers questions about her conversation to Mormonism and other questions related to Mormonism that I believe were asked by some of Rachel’s regular blog readers.  The post is available here:  LINK.  It was interesting to get an insider’s perspective to some common questions asked by those outside of the LDS church.  While I personally don’t condone abandoning the Christian faith to join the LDS church, I was fascinated to see how Jana ended up where she is today.  One book that I’ve found particularly insightful about Mormonism is The Mormon Mirage: A Former Member Looks at the Mormon Church Today by Latayne C. Scott (Zondervan, 2009).

This past winter Bible Geek Gone Wild seemed to be in sort of a blogging coma.  It seems I’ve finally emerged from my “slumber” and am catching up on the many books and publisher’s catalogs that adorn my desk.  When I was at TGC last month in Chicago, I picked up a copy of the 2010 – 2011 Zondervan Academic Resources Catalog.  While in some sense you could say I’d like nearly one of everything, one particular new book in the Greek resources section that stood out was Biblical Greek: A Compact Guide by Williams D. Mounce. This book follows the format and organization many of us are familiar with from Mounce’s Basics of Biblical Greek Grammar. This book differentiates itself from the grammar by limiting its scope to the “nuts and bolts” of the Greek language, making it useful as a desk reference.  I could see this being a big help for translation and exegesis work, especially when I need to refresh my memory on things like how to handle liquid indicatives, attributive genitives and the like. You can learn more about Biblical Greek: A Compact Guide and preview a sample of the book at Zondervan.com:  LINK.

Book Details:
Author: Zondervan
Category: Bible, NIV
Publisher: Zondervan (March 2011)
Binding: Bonded Leather
Page Count: 1152
ISBN: 0310435080

Recommendation:
Review Date: 5/15/2011 by Shaun Tabatt
Rating: Recommended

Review:
While I love my many study Bibles, they can be rather cumbersome to carry along to church, Bible study, etc. And although I wasn’t particularly on the lookout for another Bible, this new NIV Trimline Bible seems to have found me. Many thanks to Zondervan and the organizers of The Gospel Coalition 2011 conference for providing this Bible as one of the complimentary books at this years conference.

The NIV Trimline Bible is compact, measuring 4″ wide x 7.3″ high x 1.4″ deep and light, weighing 0.82 pounds.  The particular edition that I received is bound with navy bonded leather. One particular feature I really like about this Bible is that it has a snap cover.  This is especially important if you’re going to put this Bible in a purse or a bag as it will protect the pages.  There is nothing more horrifying to me than pulling a book out of my backpack and seeing that the pages are bent and wrinkled, but that won’t be a concern with this Bible.  To compliment the navy binding, the page edges in this Bible are gilded silver.  There is also a solitary navy ribbon marker inside the Bible. The biblical text inside this Bible is based on the NIV translation updated in 2010. There is a three page preface explaining the history of the NIV Bible and notes some of the specific changes made in the 2010 edition. The NIV Trimline Bible is a pretty standard, no frills Bible.  Other than the NIV text, the only other feature of note is a table of weights and measures found on the last page.

The NIV Trimline Bible will definitely become a mainstay in my backpack and will be coming with me when I travel.  What appeals to me most is its compact size and the snap cover, which I feel makes the binding extra sturdy. And while my young eyes have no problem with the 6.3 point font, this may be a show stopper for those requiring or preferring a larger font size. All things considered, this is a very well bound compact Bible.  It is a very good value for the list price of $34.99 and can be often found for less than $30 on Amazon and elsewhere.

Disclaimer:
This book was provided by Zondervan at The Gospel Coalition 2011 conference. The reviewer was under no obligation to offer a favorable review.

I first caught wind of Basics of Biblical Aramaic in a promotional video for Zondervan language resources sometime last year.  To be honest, I was rather surprised that they had decided to put time and effort into publishing an Aramaic grammar as most of the publishers seem to play it safe by publishing only Hebrew and Greek resources that will appeal to the widest possible audience.  Hats off to Zondervan for taking a chance that all of us Bible language buffs will want to expand our repertoires to include Aramaic in addition to the Hebrew and Greek many of us have picked up along the way.

Basics of Biblical Aramaic is rather short, coming in at only 256 pages.  The book progresses as one might expect in this type of grammar and is divided into the following sections:

• Aramaic Phonological System
• Aramaic Nominal System
• Aramaic Verbal System:  Peal
• Aramaic Verbal System:  Derived Stems
• Charts and Paradigms
• Annotated Biblical Aramaic Text
• Aramaic-English Lexicon

Key features to note are:

• Complete lexicon of Biblical Aramaic
• Complete annotated text of all 269 Bible verses written in Aramaic
• Downloadable grammar workbook
• Chapter exercises
• Answer key
• Colorful charts

Assuming Basics of Biblical Aramaic does well, I anticipate that we will eventually see Aramaic flashcards and other audio resources similar to those already aligned with Zondervan’s Greek and Hebrew offerings.  I’d especially be impressed if they released Sing and Learn Biblical Aramaic, but I won’t hold my breath.    Keep in mind that this new book is designed for those who already possess a working knowledge of Biblical Hebrew, so if you’re a first or second year Hebrew student looking to impress your professors, this book is just what you’ve been looking for.  Imagine the surprised look on their faces when you tell them how you slaved away the entire summer teaching yourself Biblical Aramaic.  All things considered, Basics of Biblical Aramaic looks like a great resource and I’m sincerely looking forward to digging into it.  Sample content and ordering information can be found at Zondervan.com:  LINK.