Preaching Give a copy to your pastor

Scott E. Hoezee, Proclaim the Wonder: Engaging Science on Sunday 238 pages, ISBN: 0801091640 Baker 2003 (List $16.99, CBD: $3.99)
"This is great for ministers as well as lay-people. The first half reads fairly quickly and provides interesting perspectives from both sides of the fence. It is apparent that the
author has both a theological and scientifically- aware background. At the end are some sample sermons which may be especially good for ministers."-- Randy Given

Rev. Scott E. Hoezee is currently Director, Calvin Seminary Center for
Excellence in Preaching (2005). An ordained pastor in the Christian Reformed Church in North America he served two congregations prior to his current appointment.

Technology

Jack Clayton Swearengen, Beyond Paradise: Technology and the Kingdom of God, 364 pp., ISBN: 1-59752-842-0, 2007, Wipf and Stock Publishers, Eugene OR 97401, (List $40.00, From author $28.00 postage paid: at jcswear@sbcglobal.net).

"Jack Swearengen provides us with a sacrifice of love and insight in this valuable work. It is a
labor of love in that he boldly ventures into areas to tell us that our best Biblical principles apply to
the evaluation of science and technology. A trained engineer boldly steps out of his comfort zone
into philosophy and cultural analysis to tell us our technological and scientific
idols are failing us. He does this with passion, insight, and depth, traits often
missing in today's get-it-down-now society. I highly recommend this
book." --Dr. Robert Wauzzinski, Professor of Philosophy and Religion, Ball
State University, President of Interfacing, and author of Discerning Prometheus.

"Jack Swearengen understands technology, and he cares about it passionately. A career in weapons technology and as a university professor of engineering gives him the background to discuss issues knowledgeably and skillfully. But it is his deeply Christian passion, together with his extensive thinking, dialoguing and reading, that make this a compelling challenge. Anyone concerned about the direction of our technological society will profit."-- Tim Stafford Senior Writer, Christianity Today, author of Surprised by Jesus

"Swearengen is a Jeremiah for our times, calling on Christians to stop the idolatrous worship of science and technology. Secular values are driving innovation, reshaping the world in ways neither
environmentally nor spiritually sustainable. To counteract this, he recognizes, Christians must limit and shape technology using Biblical guidelines. Church leaders and others concerned about global warming, exhaustion of fossil fuels, human cloning, surveillance, violence, and other technology-implicated problems will find this wise and learned book a tremendous resource."--Edward Woodhouse, Professor of Science and Technology Studies, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, author of Averting Catastrophe: Strategies for Regulating Risky Technologies.

Dr. Jack Swearengen's career has included equipment design, research in materials science, and the application of science and technology to arms control and weapons dismantlement. He served as staff member, supervisor, and manager at Sandia National Laboratories, Scientific Advisor for the Secretary of Defense, and Professor and Founding Director of Engineering Programs at Washington State University in Vancouver. He was science advisor for the US delegation at the Strategic Arms Reduction Talks in Geneva, Switzerland.

hermeneutics, commentaries

John H. Walton, The Lost World of Genesis One: Ancient Cosmology and the Origins Debate, 2009,192 pp. Paperback IVP Academic (List $16.00, CBD $11.99)

Wheaton College biblical scholar John Walton offers an interesting alternative to traditional evangelical views of ancient cosmology. Instead of insisting that God does not err or tell lies and thus allow bad ancient cosmology or twist the text to reflect current views, he asks us to consider the text as the ancient Israelites did. "It is not written to us (21)." Its message  transcends the culture in which it was written, but the form in which it was imbedded was fully permeated by the ancient culture...God has chosen the agenda of the text, and we must be content with the wisdom of those choices (21)." "In this book I propose that the people in the ancient world would believe that something existed not by  virtue of its material properties, but by virtue of its having a function in an ordered system (26)."  He works out this proposition along the lines of 18 propositions which include consideration of some issues that bedevil evangelicals today.

James McKeown, Genesis The Two Horizons Old Testament Commentary,398 pp., ISBN-10: 0802827055, 2008, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
Company, (List $25.00, CBD $17.99).

C. John Collins, Genesis 1-4: A Linguistic, Literary, And Theological Commentary 318 pp., ISBN: 0875526195, 2006, P & R Publishing, Paperback, (List $17.99, CBD $ 14.99).

"I was privileged to read this book in manuscript form. In this commentary, Collins follows up on
his intriguing insights developed briefly in his previous book, Science and Faith: Friends of Foes?
For anyone searching for a thoughtful, informed, orthodox, and persuasive explanation of the first
four chapters of the Bible, this book is simply the best there is." --Jay W. Richards

"Collins has produced a truly scholarly and masterful exegesis of the opening chapters of
Genesis. With careful attention to the language and conventions of the text, and with an
eye towards historic Reformed theology, he argues that the narrative is an "exalted prose
narrative" that is at once historically grounded in and analogical to the ordinary human
experiences of the text's original readers. This is a useful corrective to those who insist, for example,
that the "days" of creation are "ordinary" days, as well as to those who hold that the text is merely
mythopoetic. He does this while addressing other views critically but respectfully. Whatever
position you hold on the meaning of the Biblical creation narrative, you should admire Collins' work
for both its substance and spirit."--David W. Opderbeck.

"From every standpoint—methodological and theological, structural and syntactical, linguistic and
literary, apologetic and worldview—this expository survey is a model of ‘good reading’ of the text.
Here you have a landmark treatment of Genesis 1-4 as canonical communication from God, a work of
detailed scholarship that no serious student or honest teacher will henceforth be able to ignore.”--J. I. Packer

C. John Collins (Ph.D., University of Liverpool) is professor of Old Testament at Covenant Theological Seminary. He is the author of The God of Miracles and Science and Faith.

Temper Longman III, How to Read Genesis, 192 pages, paperback, ISBN-10: 0877849439, 2005, InterVarsity Press (List: $13.00, CBD $9.99)

"Longman identifies key factors in understanding how to read the first
book of the Bible. First, he identifies its Christological goal, that "in
Genesis . . . we get the first intimations of our Redeemer" (p. 9).
Second, he sees the importance of reading Genesis in terms of the
end, or eschatology: "It is of great significance that the last two
chapters of Revelation (Rev 21-22) use language reminiscent of the
Garden of Eden to describe the time of final reunion with God. The
end brings us back to the beginning" (p. 15). And, third, he recognizes
the importance of accounting for both the human and the divine
authorship of Genesis: "While we ground our interpretation in what
we propose is the meaning of the human author, we also believe that
the divine intention can transcend that of the human author"
(p. 18; cf. 1 Pet. 1:10-11). Longman uses these interpretive goals in his
efforts to teach the reader how to read Genesis."--Rev. John Fesco.

Tremper Longman III is Robert H. Gundry Professor of Biblical Studies at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California.

W. Robert Godfrey, God's Pattern for Creation: A Covenantal Reading of Genesis 1. 144 pages. ISBN: 087552799, 2003, P & R Publishing, Paperback. (List:$10.99, CBD: $8.99) PSCF Review

"Evangelicals often read the opening chapter of Genesis in a literal, chronological fashion
regardless of external scientific evidence which suggests otherwise. This has led to a variety
of concordistic models which satisfy only their author or a “Bible only” reading which ignores
revelation in nature. With God’s Pattern for Creation, ... offers “a fresh look at Genesis 1” based
on a covenantal approach and the literary form this covenant takes in Genesis 1.... readers
would benefit by working through his exegetical argument leading to the
conclusion that “the days of creation are figurative descriptions of the actions
of God” (p. 93). This pattern is followed in other historical sections of Scripture,
e.g., Exod. 12:42; Gen. 11:4,5; Ps. 113:5-6; Heb. 8:2, and so forth. "Godfrey views
Genesis 1 as foundational: “detailing the grand story of creation and the meaning
of creation before the entrance of sin into the world” (p. 20). He works, verse by
verse, through the text, drawing out the implications for a covenantal people—
then and now. Using internal biblical evidence alone, he brings the reader to see the value of a
topical arrangement of “days” instead of the traditional chronology. The meaning is seen in the
form as well as the scriptural text. In this the message is more fully portrayed. The freshness of
Godfrey’s writing is an antidote to the tired polemics abroad today. This well-honed work should
be read—and re-read."--PSCF

Dr. Godfrey is President of Westminster Theological Seminary California and a
church historian