I have an extra copy of James L. Papandrea, A Week in the Life of Rome (Downers Grove, Ill.: IVP Academic, 2019). This is the latest addition to IVP Academic’s “A Week in the Life of” series, which now includes Ben Witherington’s A Week in the Life of Corinth (2012) and Gary M. Burge, A Week in the Life of a Roman Centurion (2015). John Byron, A Week in the Life of a Slave is coming in July 2019.
Since the “week in the life of” series are novels by biblical scholars, about half the book is academic side-notes explaining the background details of the story. I have read all three of the currently available volumes and find them to be entertaining and easy reading. These are not academic books, but they do present the history and archaeology of the Roman world for a popular audience. I reviewed the book a few weeks ago, concluding “this book offers an entertaining insight into the relationship of Christianity and Rome in the mid-first century. Papandrea draws out the agonizing decisions a person living in the Roman world would have to make in order to be a Christian in an entirely pagan world. The book will be an easy introduction for readers interested in the background of the Roman world and early Christianity.”
To have a chance at winning this book, leave a comment with your name so I can contact you if you win. I will randomize the names from the comments and select one winner at random.
I will announce the winner picked at random on March 26, 2019 (one week from now). Good Luck!
Last week I celebrated the beginning of the new school year with a book giveaway: John E. Johnson, Under an Open Heaven: A New Way of Life Revealed in John’s Gospel (Kregel, 2017). This is a book which reflects good scholarship, but is written for a popular audience and would make a great addition to a pastor’s library. I reviewed this book when it was published, where I commented:
The thirteen chapters of the book read like sermons, with introductory illustrations drawn from pop culture or personal experience, and chapter sections with alliterative headings. He even cites Bob Dylan, which is always a plus. Since the book is written on a conversational level, it would work well in a small group environment or as personal devotional reading. Johnson has included a few questions at the end of each chapter to prompt discussion.
There were only twelve entries this time, so I sorted them at random and picked a number at random.org. The winner is:
Steve Williams
Steve’s “favourite pericope is John 9:23 to 9:38.” The spelling of “favorite” makes me think I will be shipping this book some distance, so get in touch with me soon at plong42@gmail.com and I will drop in the in the mail as soon as I can. Thanks to everyone for participating.
This is an exceptionally good semester for me, should I do one more giveaway?
Once again, to celebrate the end of the summer and beginning of the new academic year, I am giving away a few books. In this case, it is another book I purchase and then discovered I already had it on the shelf. This week I have an extra copy of John E. Johnson, Under an Open Heaven: A New Way of Life Revealed in John’s Gospel (Kregel, 2017). This is a book which reflects good scholarship, but is written for a popular audience and would make a great addition to a pastor’s library. I reviewed this book when it was published, where I commented:
The thirteen chapters of the book read like sermons, with introductory illustrations drawn from pop culture or personal experience, and chapter sections with alliterative headings. He even cites Bob Dylan, which is always a plus. Since the book is written on a conversational level, it would work well in a small group environment or as personal devotional reading. Johnson has included a few questions at the end of each chapter to prompt discussion.
To have a chance at winning these books, leave a comment with your name and favorite chapter / pericope in John’s Gospel so I can contact you if you win. I will randomize the names from the comments and select one winner at random.
I will announce the winner picked at random on September 7, 2018 (one week from now). Good Luck!
Today is the day I pick a winner for The Gospel of John and Christian Theology, edited by Richard Bauckham and Carl Mosser (Eerdmans, 2008). There were 51 comments (after I deleted my comments and some duplicates). This was one of the highest number of entries I have seen for a book giveaway, and several of the usual suspects did not enter.
I randomized the names then pasted them into a spreadsheet, generated a random number at random.org. And the winner is…..
Kevin Boyle
Congrats to Kevin! Please contact me via email (plong42 at gmail .com) with your mailing address and I will drop the book in the mail ASAP. Thanks to everyone who commented, look for the next “Back to School” book giveaway later this afternoon.
Summer is over and it is time to get back into the swing of a new semester.Actually, I just finished teaching an Early Fall OT Survey course for freshmen, so I have been swinging things for a while. But I still want to celebrate the beginning of a new school year with the traditional Reading Acts book giveaway. As regular readers know, I occasionally purchase a book and when I put it on the shelf I discover I already owned the book. Although this is embarrassing (and possibly a sign of old age), it is good news for readers of this blog since I usually set the book aside for a giveaway.
First up this year is a volume of essays on The Gospel of John and Christian Theology edited by Richard Bauckham and Carl Mosser (Eerdmans, 2008). According to the Eerdmans website, the book is now out of print, although print on demand copies are available. The essays in the collection were first presented at the first St. Andrews University Conference on Scripture and Theology in 2003. This explains the diversity of essays in the book from biblical studies to theology, including “big names” such as Rowan Williams, Miroslav Volf and Jürgen Moltmann.
Here is the table of contents:
Johannine Dualism and Contemporary Pluralism, Stephen C. Barton
Johannine Dualism and Contemporary Pluralism Miroslav Volf
Christianizing Divine Aseity: Irenaeus Reads John D. Jeffery Bingham
Anglican Approaches to St. John’s Gospel, Rowan Williams
Glory or Persecution: The God of the Gospel of John in the History of Interpretation, Tord Larsson
The Historical Reliability of John’s Gospel; From What Perspective Should It Be Assessed?, C. Stephen Evans
The Fourth Gospel as the Testimony of the Beloved Disciple, Richard Bauckham
Bridging the Gap: How Might the Fourth Gospel Help Us Cope with the Legacy of Christianity’s Exclusive Claim over Against Judaism?, Stephen Motyer
Anti—Judaism, the Jews, and the Worlds of the Fourth Gospel Judith Lieu
“The Jews Who Had Believed in Him” (John 8:31) and the Motif of Apostasy in the Gospel of John, Terry Griffith
“The Father of Lies,” “the Mother of Lies,” and the Death of Jesus (John, 12:20-33), Sigve K. Tonstad
The Lazarus Story: A Literary Perspective, Andrew T. Lincoln
The Raising of Lazarus in John 11: A Theological Reading, Marianne Meye Thompson
The Lazarus Narrative, Theological History, and Historical Probability, Alan J. Torrance
The Prologue of the Gospel of John as the Gateway to Christological Truth, Martin Hengel
The Testimony of Works in the Christology of John’s Gospel, Murray Rae
On Guessing Points and Naming Stars: Epistemological Origins of John’s Christological Tensions, Paul N. Anderson
Narrative Docetism: Christology and Storytelling in the Gospel of John, Kasper Bro Larsen
“The Truth Will Set You Free”: Salvation as Revelation, Anastasia Scrutton
God in the World—the World in God: Perichoresis in Trinity and Eschatology, Jürgen Moltmann
To have a chance at winning this book, leave a comment with your name so I can contact you if you win. I will randomize the names from the comments and select one winner at random. There are no geographical limits, I will ship this book to the winner where ever they live.
I will announce the winner (and the next giveaway) on Friday morning, August 31, 2018.
I have an extra copy of James L. Papandrea, A Week in the Life of Rome (Downers Grove, Ill.: IVP Academic, 2019). This is the latest addition to IVP Academic’s “A Week in the Life of” series, which now includes Ben Witherington’s A Week in the Life of Corinth (2012) and Gary M. Burge, A Week in the Life of a Roman Centurion (2015). John Byron, A Week in the Life of a Slave is coming in July 2019.
