New Book: Engaging the New Testament (Miguel Echevarría)
A Short Introduction for Students and Ministers
Engaging the New Testament
My friend Dr. Miguel Echevarría has written an excellent New Testament introduction, published by Baker Academic. Echevarría packs an incredible amount of information into a ~200pp resource. Here are a few things that stood out to me as I took a careful look at it.
Concise: Echevarría covers a lot of ground (hermeneutics, canonical information, OT in the NT, background info and outlines/exposition for each book), but does so with the least number of words necessary—that’s refreshing for busy pastors and students.
Evangelical and Ecumenical: Echevarría is not shy about coming from a place of faith, but he doesn’t seem to have an axe to grind. He finds value in a variety of perspectives.
Academically Up-to-date: Echevarría explains some of the latest scholarship and debates. For example, he has a sidebar on John Barclay’s work on Paul and gift theory.
Suggested Reading: Each chapter ends with a short list of suggests for more advanced reading. Engaging the New Testament is very light on footnotes (for clear and sensible reasons), so it is nice to have Echevarría’s recommendations for going deeper.
This book would be a great option for an undergraduate course and I would be happy to recommend churches using this as a group study for Sunday School or something to take a group of elders through.
If I may be so bold, I would say Echevarría’s textbook would pair well with my Beginner’s Guide to New Testament Studies.
Thank you for these recommendations. I got a third of the way through seminary and had to drop out due to family responsibilities. While I hope to get back to my degree after the kids are older (and we actually have $$ for it again), I'm always on the lookout for short academic overviews and deep dives that keep my brain sharp and engaged. This looks perfect for me! :)