The Story Behind My Books: A Beginner's Guide to NT Studies (Book #10)

Understanding Key Debates

A Beginner’s Guide to New Testament Studies: Understanding Key Debates

This is one of my favorite books in my personal collection, and it happens to be one of my top sellers, especially as it is used as a textbook year after year in several institutions. Also: I love the cover design, Baker did a great job!

Okay, so the inspiration for this book came from a theology textbook called Across the Spectrum: Understanding Issues in Evangelical Theology.

Boyd and Eddy survey several controversial issues in theology and help readers to grasp the contours of the academic conversation. I was teaching at Portland Seminary at the time, and I thought it was a no-brainer to have the same thing for New Testament studies, where students can read very short surveys of the most contested issues. Thankfully, my editor at Baker, Bryan Dyer, was a fan of this idea and gave me free rein to come up with something that would make for a useful supplemental textbook in introductory NT courses in seminaries and even for church groups.

I had proposed the title for my book, Across the Spectrum of New Testament Studies. Baker came back with the title as it is now (A Beginner’s Guide…). I actually like Baker’s title better! I think it explains better the orientation of the book and is probably better for SEO.

I imagine this book working well with a traditional textbook (like deSilva or Powell).

My Beginner’s Guide is not comprehensive. There are several books of the Bible that are not covered directly (like Hebrews), but I wanted the book to be concise and affordable. I have batted around the idea of a new, expanded edition, maybe someday I will do that. But probably not for 5-10 more years.

Have you read or assigned my book? What is your take? What other NT textbooks do you find the most helpful for students? Leave a comment or question.