“To be shown love is to feel ourselves the object of concern. Our presence is noted, our name is registered, our views are listened to, our feelings are treated with indulgence and our needs are ministered to. And under such care, we flourish.” – p.11

“Every adult life could be said to be defined by two great love stories. The first – the story of our quest for sexual love – is well known and well charted, its vagaries form the staple of music and literature, it is socially accepted and celebrated. The second – the story of our quest for love from the world – is a more secret and shameful tale. If mentioned, it tends to be in caustic, mocking terms, as something of interest chiefly to envious or deficient souls, or else the drive for status is interpreted in an economic sense alone. And yet this second love story is no less intense than the first, it is no less complicated, important or universal, and its setbacks are no less painful. There is heartbreak here too.” – p.13

Barry Webb – Five Festal Garments

It’s a real shame Webb’s book is relatively short, only 20 pages on the Song. It’s especially helpful for seeing how the Song fits together and what it’s purpose is. He really focuses on the structural and thematic issues drawn out in the Song, but really it’s too short to be persuaded by his arguments alone, but I guess it points to further reading.

Tom Gledhill – The Message of the SofS (BST)

Gledhill is fairly thorough with the text, drawing out most of the details and discussing the issues. He takes a naturalistic approach and focuses on the human details, but I don’t think really helps to point us to Christ, or really to be that relevant in pointing us to application.

Tremper Longman III – SofS (NICOT)

Longman is technical, but concise, he doesn’t faff around. He opts for a dual approach, but doesn’t really focus any time to showing us Christ. I think his interpretations are a little off in places. But it’s strength is making the technical accessible.

G. Lloyd Carr – The SofS (Tyndale)

Carr gives good discussion to interpretation and opts for the natural/literal approach. I like Carr’s simple word by word approach, which breaks the text down, making it easy to deal with. I found he sets things out plainly without being too dogmatic on issues. Again, fails really to point us to Christ.

C.H. Spurgeon – The Most Holy Place

Not a commentary, rather a collection of sermons. Spurgeon goes heavily on the Typological approach, seeing Christ in everything. But he doesn’t crowbar it, he takes us from Human love to Christ’s love and there is his focus. It’s wordy and poetic, and perhaps doesn’t really engage the text thoroughly, but certainly draws loads out to feed the soul!

Gary Brady – Heavenly Love

Simple, non-technical. Goes for a dual approach of human love pointing to heavenly love. Doesn’t really help to solve textual questions, but goes with a clear meaning and is packed with loads of good illustrations. Helpful at a devotional level to any reader and gives great ideas to the preacher to illustrate and apply.

I guess my big frustration in reading on the Song of Solomon is that nobody seems to interpret it in the way I think it should be! Most commentators seem to opt for a naturalistic approach, which has recently been popularised by Mark Driscoll. While a lot of the old greats like Spurgeon, and folk like Daniel Newman and Mike Reeves seem to opt for a Typological / Allegorical approach.

Personally, the best stuff I’ve found on the Song, wasn’t Driscoll’s series (as he claims!), but Pete Woodcock’s series from Cornerstone Kingston, which genuinely takes a dual approach. I think the way it’s supposed to be taught…

Anyway… thinking about Creation led me to this… it’s amazing!

So it seems things kicked off on 26th February… when Justin Taylor blogged on the forthcoming book release. He was speculating that Rob Bell was teaching universalism based on his promo video and pre-publication review chapters. Rob Bell – Universalist?

As you might have expected this caused a bit of a storm on the blogs/Twitter. It’s proved a catalyst for lots of discussion about Hell which is probably a good thing. An interesting aside is that @robbell who lots of people have obviously berated on Twitter is actually a Yorkshireman!

“I am not a heretic, I am not teaching false doctrine. I design websites and live in the UK. Please look b4 you denounce!”

Since then the book has now been released and there have been some fuller, helpful reviews on the book:

Kevin De Young – Tim Challies – Al Mohler – Ed Stetzer – Dave Bish

With the release of the book, Bell has been doing the promos… unfortunately for him, Martin Bashir has done a bit more research than he has…

Martin Bashir interviews Rob Bell (Youtube)

Paul Edwards interviews Martin Bashir (an interview about the interview)

Lots of chatter has continued on the blogs, Facebook, Twitter etc. I particular enjoy a bit of tongue in cheek humour from Peter Ould, with his own promo video proposal.

By way of my own thoughts, well, I can’t really comment. I haven’t read the book. I’ve read Velvet Elvis (his first book) and the same style of questioning without answers and casting doubt upon the Bible and historic Christian beliefs is evident there. If Rob Bell is indeed teaching a form of Universalism, which is what the evidence thus far is pointing too then this is dangerous. He is gaining an increasing following in the UK and this looks set to increase as he promotes his new book (and new theology?) at Greenbelt this summer alongside tour dates in London, Cambridge and Liverpool.

I’ve just read through two of these ‘Little Black Books‘, one on the Bible and one on Suffering and Evil. They’re written by Scott Petty (from Oz), there’s currently others on Sex and on Predestination. They’re published by Mathias Media, sold by Good Book Company, and cost just £3 each – bargain!

I like these, they’re short enough to read quickly, but cover big topics well. They’re aimed at 14-20+ years… personally I think 11+ could handle these and they could rightly be used by adults as well (although some may find a bit patronising). Arguments are backed up from the Bible, with texts printed, and big words and big concepts are explained simply and clearly.

There are times when you think it’s been a bit over simplified (it’s only 50 pages) but further reading can be found in the endnotes with specific recommendations. These books fill a gap in resources for youth workers and families.

Worth getting… you can get the set of 4 for £10.

The basic premise comes from the illustration of an arrow and preaching is like firing one… first the shaft of the arrow is the exegesis (or the explanation / interpretation of the text), second the feathers which help the arrow to fly, these are things like historical context and theological framework, and thirdly the arrow head, the words which penetrate the hearts and minds of our hearers which is essentially the application of the gospel, through apologetics, ethics, pastoral application, and lots of other methods. It’s a very simple model, but has scope for lots of discussion and what our ‘arrows look like’.

This book would be a helpful reminder to a Pastor / Minister / Theological Student… but doesn’t really say anything you wouldn’t expect it to. But I think it could be a great resource for the occasional preacher, trainee, home group leader etc. There’s enough here to teach and train, and also be a bit of a rebuke for the regular preacher.

There were a couple of unhelpful asides concerning the role of women in ministry and Arminianism, with little explanation – not that I necessarily disagreed with what was said, but it just seemed inappropriate given the scope and audience of the book.

Definitely worth getting hold of a copy of this, I reckon it could be a very valuable resource for preaching / group leaders training in churches… see what you think…

So I started off with John Piper’s ‘A Sweet and Bitter Providence‘… “sex, race and the sovereignty of God in the book of Ruth”… If you’ve listened to Piper’s sermons on the book of Ruth it’s basically those in book form, but it’s a wonderful resource to have it as a book!

Piper’s main theme running through the book is how God is sovereign and while his providential plans are always for our good, sometimes they seem bitter and sometimes sweet, as Naomi knew too well. As he takes us through the story he picks out the themes of race, sex, interracial marriage, what it means to belong to God’s people, and His Sovereignty.

This book is great because it works on two levels and everywhere in between… it serves as a great devotional book, applying the story and truths from the story of Ruth to our own lives and experience… at the same time it also serves as a basic commentary on the book, while devotional in feel, Piper is still rigorous with the text, digging up hidden gems and showing the depth of the story. Well worth having a read.

The next book is slightly different. ‘The Breeze of the Centuries‘ is the second offering from UCCF theology guru Mike Reeves. I don’t usually bother with introductions, but it was interesting to read and find out the reason for the title… a quote from CS. Lewis, which translated basically says “we need to listen to and learn from people in the past, the breeze of the centuries…”

Reeves takes us through a short biography and the background to the works of some early Christian theologians, people like Polycarp, Irenaeus, Justin Martyr, Athanasius, Augustine and more…

You get a real feel for the people and their situations, and it’s great to be introduced to authors writing so soon after Jesus. It’s really interesting to see how the early church fought against heresies and how actually there’s nothing new under the soon. Many of the controversies of the early church have seemingly been re-repeated under a different guise throughout church history. A great introduction to some giants of the early church… get it and read it!

Gordon looks unfavourably on the general state of preaching in American churches, I agree with his summary and am sure it is equally applied (as a generalisation) to many churches in the UK also.

He sights two main reasons why Johnny can’t preach. Firstly because Johnny can’t read (texts). Gordon suggests that our culture no longer values literature, to the point where we don’t really know how to read properly. Gordon argues that we should get back to reading classical literature to hone our textual skills, or at the very least put a lot more work into scriptural studies including Greek and Hebrew.

Secondly, Johnny can’t write! Gordon says with the invention of the telephone and the Internet that we’ve lost the art of letter writing, of properly constructing well organised text. He says that this means we preach in a poorly organised way too.

On the whole I agree with Gordon’s assessments. We do live in a culture where reading and writing in the traditional sense are devalued, and this does have a negative impact on the way we read the Bible and come to structure and deliver a sermon.

However, Gordon misses one key step. How then do we preach, into a culture where these things are true. It’s all very well to properly read and understand a Bible passage. It’s all very well to compose a well structured sermon, BUT… this is not what our culture is used to or values… I would say it’s the job of the preacher, as well as to understand the passage, and to construct a sermon well, to also communicate with the audience in a culturally ‘normal’ way. Good book, and good insights, but I think misses a logical conclusion to his argument.

1. 4 Weeks seems like a good length for a short course… some people might be put off by a 10 week course
2. You don’t need a really good speaker… they’re there on the DVD
3. You can choose to have a bloke or a lady speaking, depending on your context
4. It’s really simple, short and down to earth
5. Each episode finishes with a helpful testimony

Here’s what a lady involved in a Mums and Toddlers group at my church thought:

I thought it was really good for anybody that it would be totally new to the idea of reading or doing a study/course. Very accessible and the testimonies were brilliant. The stories were well chosen to build up the picture of Jesus. I think it would provide an excellent step on from ‘Tiddlywinks’ and youth groups for people who are interested in finding out more about Jesus but Christianity Explained may bo too soon/too much. The people doing were generally very good, but sometimes a little cheesy! But certainly better than many I have seen on DVD format. Still think first hand person is probably best way to hear things, but think its generally a good resource.

You can buy the starter pack for just £16 – including DVD and 3 study guides

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and consequently recommended it to be our Easter Focus book on our church bookstall this Easter.

Allberry brings a simple, informal style to help make weighty subjects accessible, with helpful illustrations and witty comments to keep the reader engaged! I thoroughly enjoyed reading it… often I find books hard work, when the author just talks… but in Lifted you’re gently taken through the implications of the Resurrection – and you’ll want to keep reading.

My fiancée demolished the book in one sitting as she prepared to give a youth talk on the Resurrection… her assessment was… Great book, especially chapter 3 on Christian Hope… great to be reminded, refreshed and encouraged by the hope of resurrection life to come.

It’s well worth a read - Buy it now – just �6.29!