Just Ordered

It’s been quite some time since I’ve notified my readers of my book purchases. I’ve acquired quite a few volumes in the past few months but I thought it necessary to note the following four volumes I ordered yesterday (not because they’re any more important than others I’ve purchased, but because of the incredible deal I got on them).

The Church in Antioch in the First Century CE: Communion and Conflict (The Library of New Testament Studies) by Michelle Slee (Retail $89.95)

Breaking Monotheism: Yehud and the Material Formation of Monotheistic Identity (The Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies) by Jeremiah W. Cataldo (Retail $35.95)

Power and the Spirit of God: Toward an Experience-Based Pneumatology by Bernard Cooke (Retail $71.00)

Wise King, Royal Fool: Semiotics, Satire and Proverbs 1-9 (The Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies) by Johnny Miles (Retail $202.00)

If I paid the full retail price for these volumes then I would have spent $398.90. Now let’s say that on average Amazon discounts books 35%. It still would have cost me about $259.28. After taking advantage of a $5 promotional discount I got these for a whopping $21.00!  Friends, you can’t beat that! You just can’t!

Now I will say that none of these volumes were on my radar before I searched Amazon for such great deals. But I’m quite happy to give them a shot considering the price. The last volume interests me most as the author argues that Proverbs 1-9 is a critique of Solomon’s socio-political policies and sexual indiscretions. I can’t wait to see this argument developed!

Oh, and I’d also note that I was able to get Chen Xun’s Theological Exegesis in Canonical Context: Brevard Springs Childs’s Methodology of Biblical Theology (Studies in Biblical Literature) a few days earlier for a paltry $11.31. This volume was on my wish list for around 7 years. It was $102.95 when I first placed it on the list. I jumped at the chance to snatch it up at this price!

Search Amazon friends. Search Amazon.

B”H

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Just Ordered, In the Mail, and Other Miscellany

So first off, my big CBD order that I mentioned a couple of weeks ago is pretty much all here. I’m just waiting on Scott Hahn’s The Fourth Cup to arrive but that should be either today or tomorrow. I got 20 books and they were sent in various shipments. Hahn’s commentary on Romans in the CCSS series arrived damaged and the fine folks at CBD were good enough to replace it without requiring me to send them back the damaged copy.

In addition to those 20 books I also received the 4 used copies of various Hahn books that I ordered from different Amazon sellers. They’re all in good shape, thank God! And the free book that Hahn was giving away through the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology arrived as well.

My old friend Bryan L. made note of this year’s Fortress Press/Givingtons sale on Twitter and I took full advantage. Some might remember the trouble I went through last year with the sale when trying to acquire David Congdon’s big book on Bultmann. I went ahead and ordered a dozen books, namely:

The Gospel on the Margins: The Reception of Mark in the Second Century by Michael J. Kok

Deviant Calvinism: Broadening Reformed Theology by Oliver Crisp

Paul and the Stories of Israel: Grand Thematic Narratives in Galatians by A. Andrew Das

The Gospel of John and Christian Origins by John Ashton

Johannes Bugenhagen: Selected Writings, Volume I and Volume II

Irenaeus: Life, Scripture, Legacy edited by Paul Foster & Sarah Parvis

Persons in Relation: An Essay on the Trinity and Ontology by Najib George Awad

The Holy One in Our Midst: An Essay on the Flesh of Christ by James R. Gordon

Election of the Lesser Son: Paul’s Lament-Midrash in Romans 9-11 by David B. Wallace

The Holy Spirit and Ethics in Paul: Transformation and Empowering for Religious-Ethical Life, Second Revised Edition by Volker Rabens

What Is the Bible?: The Patristic Doctrine of Scripture edited by Matthew Baker & Mark Mourachian

The So-Called Jew in Paul’s Letter to the Romans edited by Rafael Rodríguez & and Matthew Thiessen

Chris Tilling raved about Rabens’ book so I’m sure it’s good since Chris would never lie. I’ve had my eye on Gordon’s book since it was published but it was always too pricey. I meant to get the 2 volume set by Bugenhagen last year after my brother from another mother Esteban Vázquez mentioned it but the whole fiasco caused me to be a bit gun-shy with ordering more than the two books I got. Hopefully I won’t have any issues with this order!

In other ordering news, I’ve had my eye on the ESV Scripture Journal New Testament set for a few weeks now. It was finally released yesterday and I proceeded to promptly order a copy from WTS Books. You can see a nice little promo video for the set on CBD’s website.

In addition to these items I got a copy of Gordon Fee’s Jesus the Lord According to Paul the Apostle: A Concise Introduction, which is a distillation of his larger Pauline Christology. Aside from my love for all things Fee, I ordered this volume in order to get free same day shipping on a book stand (pictured below) and some 005 Pigma Micron pens. I had originally gotten 01 Pigma Microns for marking up my Bible but I found them to be slightly thicker than I wanted. So I went a size down. I much prefer the 005.

And that just about does it.

B”H

Just Ordered (Yes, Again…)

So I had to add a few more Scott Hahn books to my library. I took advantage of some used copies with free shipping on Amazon. I got the following:

Understanding “Our Father”: Biblical Reflections on the Lord’s Prayer

A Father Who Keeps His Promises: God’s Covenant Love in Scripture

Rome Sweet Home: Our Journey to Catholicism

Reasons to Believe: How to Understand, Explain, and Defend the Catholic Faith

I was also able to take advantage of something that Hahn mentioned on Twitter, namely that Aleteia has partnered with the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology in offering Hahn’s latest book The First Society: The Sacrament of Matrimony and the Restoration of the Social Order for free (as a promotional paperback) to the first 20,000 people to take advantage. I jumped all over that! They just ask that you pay for shipping.

I also spent 45 minutes of my day going to 3 different stores in search of Pigma Micron pens to write in my new Bible. Michaels had some but not the ones I needed. Target and Walmart didn’t have any. So I ordered a 4 pack from Amazon containing black, red, blue, and green pens. These have archival ink that won’t smudge or bleed through and that’s extremely important to me since I plan to write quite a bit in my premium Bible, which arrived yesterday. I plan to post some photos soon and I might even write a review. We’ll see.

B”H

Just Ordered (and, Just Picked Up)

Indulge me a quick(ish) preface to this announcement of recent purchases. Today marks exactly one year since I stood before a room full of witnesses and made vows to my wife. I mention this firstly because it’s one of the more monumental moments in my life and secondly because it brings to mind something that we were told during out premarital counseling. The pastor who married us shared a story about how him and his wife have made it 40 years without impulse buying. They agreed that anything they wanted but hadn’t already planned for would be written down on a list in the kitchen and if they still wanted it after a day or two then they’d get it. He said that in all those years they never got anything off the list.

I’m not nearly as disciplined, but I have tried to implement that advice when and where possible. I share this anecdote because more than a week ago my buddy Michael Burgos started talking about getting a premium Bible. That sparked my interest and I began perusing evangelicalbible.com’s offerings. I found a couple that I liked but I determined that I wouldn’t get anything because I didn’t really need another Bible and I had no good reason to grab another at this moment in time. Well, after a week I still wanted one and I kept reading reviews, watching videos, and looking at pictures before finally deciding to pull the trigger.

I went with the Ocean Blue goatskin Crossway ESV Heirloom Legacy Bible. Now I’ve had an ESV Legacy before and I hated it. I ended up giving the thing away. It appears that this is an update and the major things that irked me are no more. I also went with this version because I had my heart set on blue (it really is quite striking!) and I’ve come to know and love single column texts over the years. As of late I read my Bible almost exclusively in my many Reader’s editions from Crossway. And though I haven’t handwritten anything in a Bible in quite a long time, this particular Bible has plenty of room in the margins and footer for note taking. I think I will pick the practice back up once I get it.

In addition to this premium Bible, my wife and I spent our first anniversary together out and about doing all manner of things. Our first stop was a Barnes & Noble for some Starbucks and book browsing. I ended up grabbing a copy of H. A. Guerber’s Classical Mythology for $7.98. I saw it the last time I was there and wanted to grab a copy but never did. I also opted to order a bunch of books from CBD’s Spring Sale before we went to see Death Wish, which was great, by the way! Here’s what I got from them:

The Structure of Sacred Doctrine in Calvin’s Theology

Translating the New Testament: Text, Translation, Theology

Rowan’s Rule: The Biography of the Archbishop of Canterbury

Evangelizing Catholics: A Mission Manual for the New Evangelization*

The Age of the Spirit: How the Ghost of an Ancient Controversy Is Shaping the Church

What Did the Ancient Israelites Eat? Diet in Biblical Times

ESV Gospel of John, Reader’s Edition

Friends of Calvin

The Fourth Cup: Unlocking the Secrets of the Last Supper and the Cross*

Abraham Kuyper: A Pictorial Biography

An Outline of New Testament Spirituality

Romans: Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scriptures*

Treasures Old and New: Essays in the Theology of the Pentateuch

The Lamb’s Supper: The Mass As Heaven On Earth*

At the Heart of the Gospel: Suffering in the Earliest Christian Message

Consuming the Word: The New Testament and the Eucharist in the Early Church*

Qumran and Jerusalem: Studies in the Dead Sea Scrolls and the History of Judaism

The Gospel and The Mind: Recovering and Shaping the Intellectual Life

The Challenges of Cultural Discipleship: Essays in the Line of Abraham Kuyper

God Speaks: What He Says, What He Means

I got too many to link them all. Most of them ranged in price from $0.99 to $2.99. The notable exceptions are the volumes by Scott Hahn*, but I’m trying to get my hands on everything he’s ever written so I’m willing to pay the price for those. I’d love to say that this should hold me over for a while, and while it probably should, it definitely won’t. Until next time…

B”H

Just Ordered

I took advantage of a couple of holiday sales and got a couple of volumes I’ve had my eye on for a while.

I picked up Larry Hurtado’s Ancient Jewish Monotheism and Early Christian Jesus-Devotion: The Context and Character of Christological Faith from Amazon with a coupon that gave me $5 off a book purchase and I applied some points I had accumulated on my Amazon Visa.

I also picked up a copy of A New English Translation of the Septuagint (finally!) and Aristotle in Aquinas’s Theology edited by Gilles Emery and Matthew Levering from Oxford University Press. They were running a 50% off site-wide sale with free shipping (up until 11:59PM last night).

I’m keeping my eye on a couple of other sales but I’m not quite ready to pull the trigger just yet.

B”H

Just Ordered

So I noted yesterday that Baylor University Press is rereleasing some important volumes on early Christology at affordable prices. I mentioned Charles A. Gieschen’s Angelomorphic Christology: Antecedents and Early Evidence (Library of Early Christianity), Carey Newman’s Paul’s Glory-Christology: Tradition and Rhetoric (Library of Early Christianity), as well as The Jewish Roots of Christological Monotheism: Papers from the St Andrews Conference on the Historical Origins of the Worship of Jesus (Library of Early Christianity), and a new volume of Larry Hurtado’s essays.

I had $200 in Amazon gift cards burning a hole in my pocket so I decided to purchase some of these books. My perusal of Amazon turned up even more results and I found that Baylor was also putting out Jarl Fossum’s The Name of God and the Angel of the Lord: Samaritan and Jewish Concepts of Intermediation and the Origin of Gnosticism (Library of Early Christianity) as well as Loren Stuckenbruck’s Angel Veneration and Christology: A Study in Early Judaism and in the Christology of the Apocalypse of John (Library of Early Christianity), and David Capes’ Old Testament Yahweh Texts in Paul’s Christology (Library of Early Christianity).

I proceeded to order all of the volumes mentioned above minus The Jewish Roots of Christological Monotheism because I already own it  and Hurtado’s volume because it’s release is slated for September and I’ll pick it up closer to then. But I’m very much looking forward to owning physical copies of books that I’ve wanted for years but have been unable to attain. Thank you Baylor!

B”H

Just Ordered

Took advantage of some deep discounts and got the following from Wipf & Stock:

Richard of Saint Victor, On the Trinity

The Glory of Kings: A Festschrift in Honor of James B. Jordan

Basil of Caesarea: A Guide to His Life and Doctrine

Between Babel and Beast

The Son of God: Three Views on the Identity of Jesus

Acts and the Isaianic New Exodus

And these from Oxford University Press:

The Trinitarian Theology of St. Thomas Aquinas

The Son of God in the Roman World

And this from Amazon:

The Trinitarian Theology of Basil of Caesarea

Christmas come early!

B”H

Just Ordered (I’m on a Bit of a Binge)

My dear friend Esteban Vázquez sent me an Amazon gift card for my birthday as is his custom. I won’t repeat the message but there was a hashtag that said #choosewisely. So I took that to heart and mulled over my decision for a couple of days. I decided to use it to purchase Thomas F. Torrance’s The Christian Doctrine of God: One Being Three Persons and The Trinitarian Faith: The Evangelical Theology of the Ancient Catholic Church.

These are both second editions reissued by Bloomsbury T&T Clark in their Cornerstones series and they contain new introductions by Paul Molnar and Myk Habets respectively. I have digital copies of both books in their first volume but I figured that it would be nice to have them adorning my Trinity shelves as well.

I’d also add that I opted to by new copies of each book from a third part seller because doing so saved me $12 per book off Amazon’s price. Sure, I’m paying for shipping but that’s only $4 per book. In the end saving that $16 made it possible for me to get both books with the one gift card. So thank you Esteban, I do believe that I’ve chosen wisely and that said wisdom has been applied to more than just the choice of books!

B”H

Just Ordered (It’s a Long Story)

So here’s the deal. The other day I got an email talking about same day shipping for Amazon Prime members on select items and orders over $35. I decided to put it to the test so I ordered God the Trinity: Biblical Portraits by Malcolm Yarnell and Ministry in the Image of God: The Trinitarian Shape of Christian Service by Stephen Seamands. I also ordered Metal Gear Solid V.

Now this was on a Sunday and I was skeptical that I’d get my stuff that same day. I was right to be skeptical. Nighttime rolled in and no delivery. I tracked the package and it said that the company LaserShip “attempted” delivery. The problem is that I was home and they did no such thing. I contacted Amazon customer service and the woman on the phone tried to contact the delivery company but they were closed. So I’d have to wait until today for my shipment.

Well today came and I didn’t find a package when I got home from work around 9pm. I tracked it again and LaserShip said they delivered it to the front door. Another lie. There was nothing at my front door or either of my next door neighbors’ front doors. LaserShip is awful! Completely dishonest and I’m disappointed in Amazon for using them. So I contacted customer support again and they told me to give it until tomorrow. If I don’t have my items by then they’ll either ship new ones or issue a refund. Whatever the outcome, this has been incredibly annoying.

I also ordered the following books from Wipf & Stock just a few moments ago:

How To Read T. F. Torrance by Elmer Colyer

Communion with the Triune God by Dick O. Eugenio

Colin Gunton and the Failure of Augustine by Bradley G. Green

Perichoresis and Personhood by Charles C. Twombly

The Trinity Hurdle by R. Sutcliffe

Novatian of Rome and the Culmination of Pre-Nicene Orthodox by James L. Papandrea

Just Ordered

I woke up around 6:30 AM today and grabbed my phone. I generally peek at my email but today I opened up the Amazon app. I wasn’t fully awake but I pulled the trigger on a couple of books that were in my shopping cart. They were The Holy Trinity Revisited: Essays in Response to Stephen Holmes and Your Will Be Done: Exploring Eternal Subordination, Divine Monarchy and Divine Humility.

The first volume is one I’ve had my eye on for a while. It’s a collection of essays that critically interact with Stephen Holmes’ recent The Quest for the Trinity: The Doctrine of God in Scripture, History and Modernity (US title). I was greatly appreciate of Holmes’ work but had a few complaints of my own. I’ll be interested to see what his interlocutors have to say and see if we share any of the same concerns.

The second volume is one I just recently learned of thanks to this whole blog conversation about eternal functional subordination within the Trinity. Michael J. Ovey is a new name to me but I hope that he’s contributed something meaningful to this debate with this book. Time will tell.

The funny thing is that I fell back asleep for a few minutes after ordering these and I forgot all about it until a little later in the morning after I was at work.

B”H