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Title: Commentary and Reference Survey: A Comprehensive Guide to Biblical and Theological Resources
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Manufacturer: Kregel Academic & Professional
List Price: $24.99
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| Customer Reviews: |
| Commentary and Reference Survey: A Comprehensive Guide to Biblical and Theological Resources by Kregel Academic & Professional A Worthy Project!!! | I have enjoyed Glynn's Survey for nearly 10 years. Now his Survey is in it's 10th edition. This is the second edition published by Kregel, the first having been published in 2003.
As I began collecting book recommendations from my pastor, friends, and teachers, I also began searching the internet for recommendation lists. One of the lists I found early on was John Glynn's Survey posted at bible.org (it has since been removed). Glynn's work offers a great format for categorizing and labeling books. He is interested in the level of difficulty as well as the theological viewpoint--two very important pieces of information when it comes to selecting books.
Glynn's method is to collect recommendations from reputable evangelical sources and to consolidate them into categorized lists. For each book of the Bible, Glynn distinguishes between technical, semi-technical and expositional commentaries. He usually adds a section for monographs dealing with special subjects on each Biblical book. He also has a system of noting the theological perspective of each author (such as evangelical, evangelical/critical, conservative/moderate, and liberal/critical). In the introductory sections to the book and each division Glynn spells out his method and criteria.
Along with listing commentaries, Glynn covers reference works, introductory works, theological works, church history works, language works and even Bible software (such as Logos, Accordance, and BibleWorks). Some of his previous reviewers have noted that the Survey bears the obvious marks of Glynn's strengths and weaknesses. This is partly the case because Glynn decided to highlight his own recommendations. While this is a nice feature it truly distracts from his intent to provide a list of books most recommended by scholars and professors. However, it does provide the reader with someone to associate with the recommendations offered which leads to my greatest criticism of this volume (to be dealt with below). In many places it is obvious where Glynn spent the greatest amount of time.
* In the commentary section the greatest concentration is on the Gospels, Jesus, Paul, and the Book or Revelation.
* In the Classic Theologies section he omits any reference to Calvin (other reviewers have noted the absence of Barth and Acquinas), and he highlights none of them.
* He is very heavy in pneumatology, especially Charismaticism; and in eschatology, especially Dispensationalism.
* The Church History section is a nice start, but leaves much to be desired. You can spot Glynn's predispositions best in this section.
Chapters 19 and 20 have a lot of helpful analysis of available computer resources.
Chapter 21 provides a selection of web sites which is greatly lacking, but a fair start for the person unfamiliar with the many online used book dealers, academic sites, and theological journals. Finally, a very helpful addition to this volume is "The Ultimate Commentary Collection" which is a quick listing of the top 2-4 commentaries for each book of the Bible.
Another feature of this volume worth mentioning is the footnotes regarding forthcoming volumes. Of course, these notes will quickly become obsolete, but it is a very helpful service that deserves being perpetuated.
Really, this entire project is worth being continued. The concept of cataloging the most recommended books is extremely helpful to students and teachers alike. I've read a handful of notes from professors who direct their students to this Survey when they are asked for book recommendations. However, there is room for improvement. Here are a few of my observations:
1. One of the greatest weaknesses of this volume is the fact that we are not told who has recommended each title. To that, we don't know which books are the most recommended except for the ones highlighted by Glynn himself.
2. There are very few annotations. I'm not a fan of lengthy annotations, but some basic information about the usefulness of each volume would be ideal.
3. Glynn only identifies the theological perspective of the authors in the commentary section. Granted this is an ambitious task to begin with. However, similar labeling would be of great benefit throughout the theology section.
4. This volume is great for listing the most recently published works and is spotty when it comes to classic works. A true "comprehensive guide" would include the best classic works, too (even puritan, neo-orthodox, and liberal works).
5. A work like this would be most beneficial if it were offered in a searchable, digital format. I would love to see this made available online and/or as an add-on to the popular Bible software packages. Making this Survey available in this way would allow for more room to add extra notations, labels, bibliographic information, author details, etc. Really the sky's the limit.
Of course, there are space constraints and noting all of these features would take up too much space to make this book manageable in print. However, a reasonable compromise could be agreed upon or the project could be printed in different volumes--one for commentaries, one for theological works, etc. The plan of this Survey is great and highly useful for a fairly broad range of students. It is a project that requires constant updating and expansion. I truly hope that Kregel will find someone (or a team) able to take up this project and carry it on through many more editions. | | Commentary and Reference Survey: A Comprehensive Guide to Biblical and Theological Resources by Kregel Academic & Professional A well-borrowed book | | As a faculty member of a Bible school, I use this book to recommend resources for consideration on various subjects. Although I have my own 'short list' this book becomes a convenient tool to broaden that list when appropriate. Were I to actually write something, and I've sketched out some writing plans, this book is first in assessing the basic resources of the ground already well-covered. | | Commentary and Reference Survey: A Comprehensive Guide to Biblical and Theological Resources by Kregel Academic & Professional Great reference Guide | So as not to be redundant I heartily agree with the reviews of Peter Richert and Danny Hays. I do not think putting prices in the book is very helpful since we can quickly find them on the internet.
There are two weaknesses in Glynn's book. (1) There is no author index. For this reason, I go to David Bauer's work first. (2) Also unlike Bauer, Glynn offers no annotations on his preferred selections. Bauer's are lengthy.
A necessary strength of Glynn's work over Bauer's is the categorizing of the commentaries by theological perspective and the focus of the commentary.
In the final analysis each person has his likes and dislikes and each guides's author has his own view. Total objctivity can not be achieved, even though their views are extremely informative. For this reason, I also have the works of Lynn Gardner, Carson and Longman. Five heads are better than one. | | Commentary and Reference Survey: A Comprehensive Guide to Biblical and Theological Resources by Kregel Academic & Professional 2007 Edition |
"A phenomenal work which I would have thought was impossible, if John Glynn hadn't done it."
Dr David Instone-Brewer
Senior Research Fellow in Rabbinics and the
New Testament, Tyndale House, Cambridge University (UK) | | Commentary and Reference Survey: A Comprehensive Guide to Biblical and Theological Resources by Kregel Academic & Professional A Very Reliable Guide to the best Christian Books | This is the best book of its kind. As a pastor, I am always on the lookout for the best Bible commentaries and the best resource books for studies that I lead. I've been burned many times before by spending lots of money on a book that turned out to be a dud.
John Glynn understands this, and so he has prepared a guide to the best stuff available for the Bible student. The opening chapter discusses how to begin building a personal reference library, and he starts out by recommending the first 10 books you should buy (if you don't have them already). He then gives a rough estimate of how much you can expect to shell out to build up your library. He even suggests getting as many of your resources on CD-ROM as you can to save money.
After he presents the bill, he makes an articulate defense for why it is worth your while as a Christian pastor/missionary to spend up to $5000 on a good library. He points out that this will cost roughly the same as a semester of education at a good Bible seminary, and that it will serve you well for all the days of your ministry.
He then suggests commentaries (both liberal and conservative, technical, semi-technical, and application oriented) on each book of the Bible that are worth getting. There are also short sections on good theology and history books.
I highly recommend this resource as a terrific guide to building your own library. | | Commentary and Reference Survey: A Comprehensive Guide to Biblical and Theological Resources by Kregel Academic & Professional Product Description | | Now in its tenth edition, this reliable, acclaimed guide lists and ranks approximately 900 commentaries and 1,600 other biblical resources for the benefit of professors, Bible students, and pastors. Two new chapters on exegetical software round out this comprehensive guide. |
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