Saturday, August 21, 2004

Review of Ruth Edwards, Discovering John

Discovering John This week's Church Times carries an enthusiastic review of Ruth Edwards's book on the Fourth Gospel:

DISCOVERING JOHN
By Ruth Edwards

SPCK £14.99 (0-281-05403-7)

The review is by Richard Burridge and he likes the book:
This sensible yet sensitively written, thoroughly well-read study provides a cautious assessment of the state of play of Johannine scholarship, in a way that is helpful for all who teach and study John today. It is the fruit of a lifetime’s study from Ruth Edwards, a Scottish Episcopalian priest who has taught at Aberdeen and Oxford.

It is comprehensive in scope, including both historical and literary approaches; it digs around behind the text, but also faces the way in which it is applied to today . . . .

. . . . More than a decade ago, I was a member of the John Seminar at the British New Testament Conference, with Dr Edwards, during the years in which I taught an undergraduate course on John. I wish this text had been available then. It will be of great benefit, not just to students, but also to churches and individual Christians, for which we owe her thanks.
The book cover picture above is from Amazon.co.uk, who have it for £10.49 (on a £14.95 cover price). I can't find the book on Amazon.com. This may well be because it does not yet have an American distributor -- SPCK do these on a case-by-case basis, e.g. a forthcoming collection of essays on Q is to be released in North America by IVP. If that is the case, and the book is as good as Burridge says it is, it is a shame.

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