By R. Albert Mohler Jr. | President of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky
Preachers are communicators of ideas and, as much as we are devoted to the biblical text and are thus first and foremost students of the Scriptures, preachers are also avid readers of other material that will help us to be better thinkers, more knowledgeable teachers and more perceptive leaders. To that end, preachers are among the most ravenous readers of books and printed material.
Each year, publishers release thousands of individual volumes directed toward preachers and others who share the responsibility of teaching and leading the people of God. Even as the current economic crisis finds print media in a state of distress, preachers are not likely to surrender their attachment and dependence on the printed word. In the end, as in the beginning, preachers are, like Paul, those who again and again request "the books and the parchments."
Biblical Studies
As would be expected, worthy books in the field of biblical studies take highest rank in terms of the preacher's bookshelf. The past year has seen the release of a very significant number of excellent commentaries and works in biblical studies. Many of these are the fruit of accumulated decades of scholarship and work. In one sense, this generation receives the harvest of the previous generation's toil in exegesis and exposition.
In terms of commentaries, the past year saw the release of three volumes in the Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture. The volume title
Ezekiel, Daniel (InterVarsity Press), edited by Kenneth Stevenson and Michael Glerup, brings together the fruit of patristic scholarship and commentary on these two important books of biblical prophecy. Readers will be fascinated to see how the earliest preachers in the Christian tradition struggled to understand the contemporary application of these two books of the Bible. In particular, the patristic interpretation of Daniel, often undertaken in the midst of events such as the collapse of the Roman empire, provides amazing insights.
Other volumes in the series recently released include a volume edited by Marco Conti,
1-2 Kings, 1-2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther (InterVarsity Press). As with the previous volume, this rather massive tome brings together a wealth of historical and theological material that
will be very helpful for the preacher seeking to understand these important Old Testament books and their place in the history of interpretation.
Finally, Quentin F. Wesselschmidt edited the Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture volume on
Psalms 51-150 (InterVarsity Press). Wesselschmidt, who teaches historical theology at Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, has provided an incredible wealth of material from the Christian preachers of the church's first century. Then, as now, the psalms are a primary focus of Christian worship and are, in essence, the first worship book of the church. Preachers will find this volume to be of tremendous value in terms of devotional, as well as theological and exegetical materials.
