Promotions - Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles 2015 - Humanities — Philosophy — Asian and Asian American Studies

In tracing the history of Protestant Evangelicalism, Sutton (history, Washington State Univ.) builds on the scholarship of Ernest Sandeen, George Marsden, and Joel Carpenter.  For Sutton, Evangelicalism's distinguishing emphasis is the imminent Second Coming.  Modern premillennialism was developed before 1900 by Evangelicals from Reformed and Wesleyan traditions and radical Evangelicals from the Holiness and Higher Life movements.  Evangelicals became the fundamentalists of the 1910s, and they polished their image by reclaiming the Evangelical label in the 1940s.  Sutton argues that the significance of the 1925 Scopes trial was exaggerated by other historians.  He describes continuity more than change in the politics of fundamentalists and Evangelicals before and after WW II, with concerns over big government, the Middle East, and anticommunism.  The book is wonderfully well written, with engaging accounts of institutions and the (mainly) white male Evangelical leaders and their workamong them the Moody Bible Institute, Billy Sunday, Harold Ockenga, the Fuller Theological Seminary, the National Association of Evangelicals,Christianity Today, Billy Graham, Hal Lindsey, and the Moral Majority.  Tim LaHayesLeft Behind novels represent the extension of apocalyptic Evangelicalism into the 21st century, when Evangelicals have moved from cultural outsiders to insiders.Summing Up: Essential. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers.

Noting that contemporary scholars and culture blame corporate violence on religion, Armstrongthe author of numerous books on religionresponds by saying that faith has become the scapegoat.  In this monumental treatise, Armstrong locates the source of violence, empathy, and peacemaking in the human neurological system.  She then provides a historical study of the relationship of religion to violence and peacemaking, beginning with the origin stories of the major faith traditions and continuing with the relationship of religion to violence in both the Age of Empire and modernity.  The author notes that religion, as codified faith traditions separate from other aspects of culture, is a modern phenomenon.  In traditional societies, religion and politics are intertwined as part of the human drive to create meaning.  In the modern era, she notes, nationalism has been far more destructive and violent than religion.  Many of the modern movementswhich use religion as an ideology for violenceare responses to deeply felt injustices and indignities.  According to Armstrong, we are at a dangerous crossroads where the world could spiral down into endless destructive violence.  She concludes that drawing on the empathy and peacemaking resources of religion may be one of the few remaining hopes.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers.

As a follow-up to hisJob (2006), released in the "The Smyth & Helwys Bible Commentary" series, Balentine (Union Presbyterian Seminary) offers an overview and dialogue with writers about Job from intertestamental texts to the early church fathers, Jewish authors, medieval scholars, and modern interpreters, be they theologians or not.  Balentine organizes the book into two parts.  In the first, he studies readings of the didactic narrative that makes up Job 1 and 2first of Job himself, then of God and Satan, and third of Jobs wife (whom, the author notes, plays a minor role).  In the second part, "Center Stage," Balentine examines thinking on the wisdom dialogue that makes up Job 3:142:6.  He focuses on various aspects of Jobs character and literary attempts to explain them, on the books putting God on trial for letting evil fall on a good man, and finally on the friends who come to comfort but wind up arguing with Job.  In an epilogue, Balentine deals with Job's epilogue (Job 42:717).  However unsettling Jobs condition and his reaction to it, many have read the book seeking self-understanding.  Balentine guides his readers through the most poignant issues.  The book is an intellectual tour de force.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals; general readers.

In this detailed biography, Dawson (Reformation history, School of Divinity, Univ. of Edinburgh, Scotland), frequently quoting Knoxs own words, explains the reasons for Knoxs multiple experiences of exile and describes supportive relationships of friends, debates with foes, and his eventual religious triumph in Scotland.  She confirms Knoxs exceptional preaching gift, his invective and his intolerance for opposing positions, and his insistence on following the Bible alone in the quest for a true church.  Knox was the reformer of Scotland, but his significance reaches further.  By insisting thatThe Book of Common Prayer was a false form of worship, he had significant influence during the beginning stages of English Puritanism and the denominations derived from that tradition.  In examining Knoxs self-identity, Dawson points to the biblical image of the watchmans warning of judgment for failure to keep covenant with God.  She documents his struggle with depression and at the same time addresses the centrality of repentance in his life and the theme of comfort in his thought: the comfort of friends (especially several women correspondents), of God, and of security in times of spiritual crisis.  Dawson identifies newly discovered sourcese.g., the Christopher Goodman correspondenceand she identifies for readers which of her interpretations are new.  This is now the finest book available on Knox.Summing Up: Essential. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty; professionals; general readers.

In this exploration of Edwards's method of interpreting Scripture, Barshinger (independent scholar) provides an exhaustive examination of Edwards's homiletic use of the Psalms and of sources and entries in his blank Bible, notebooks, and published works.  This careful scholarship yields nuances, such as Edwardss shifting the text of Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God to Psalm 7 in his third preaching.  Edwards built his key doctrinal forms through the Psalms, which he considered most important for understanding the gospel.  Like Augustine, he saturated his thinking and writing with the language of the Psalms and used it for the regulation of affections in conformity with Gods order.  Edwardss creativity appears in his discovery of types of Christ beyond those of his sources and the ground for freeing conversion from the morphology of his forefathers.  Barshinger claims that Edwardss redemptive-historical reading of the Psalms closely reflects his Puritan and Reformed tradition but with differences: it shares characteristics with medieval and Catholicquadrigabut not synonymy, contra Michael McClymond and Gerald McDermott.  Edwards viewed Scripture from Gods perspective as intricately designed ... to reveal the great end of creation, Gods redemptive love.Summing Up: Essential. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals; general readers.

Westphal (emer., Fordham Univ.) is one of the best writers in continental philosophy.  His authorship is known for its philosophical sophistication and argumentative rigor as well as its clarity, humor, and accessibility.  His new book is no exception.  Indeed, it might be regarded as a maximal example of these admirable qualities.  This book is the most sophisticated consideration of Kierkegaards notion of faith in the existing literature, but it will also prove engaging for readers without a Kierkegaardian background.  The author focuses on three of Kierkegaards pseudonyms: Johannes de Silentio, Johannes Climacus, and Anti-Climacus.  Spending five chapters each on Silentio and Climacus and two chapters on Anti-Climacus, Westphal carefully analyzes the ways in which Kierkegaardian faith does not remain static but rather develops throughout his authorship.  Westphal presents faith in all its existential depth and theological determinacy while still allowing for serious objections.  Although primarily a contribution to the secondary literature on Kierkegaard, this book is also an original and important contribution to the broader contemporary debates in the philosophy of religion.  Westphal's text is a joy to read and worthy of serious philosophical consideration.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above.

As he writes in the introduction, Properzi (religion, Brigham Young Univ.) designed this book as an introductory Mormon theology of emotions" in which he engages in a theological dialogue between science and religion."  He positions factors and outcomes in the constructs of emotion within a particular faith culture, involving conflicting and complementary dualities within Mormon views of authority, cognition, and responsibility.  The book comprises two parts: the first lays out a rationale for emotion generally and in LDS context for scripture and modern revelation, especially between parallel churchly and secular authorities; the second examines three dualities (hope/fear, joy/sorrow, love/hate) in some detail, with an identical scaffold for each.  Properzi extends Terryl Givenss idea of Mormonism's constructive tensionsdiscussed inPeople of Paradox (CH, Jan'08, 45-2403)particularly searching versus certainty and authority versus freedom.  He also uses Matthew Elliott's Faithful Feelings: Emotion in the New Testament (2005) as a structural and interpretive model but differs from Elliot in emphasizing the influence of thought on emotions.  Though it will probably challenge less-experienced readers, Properzi's book is rich, sophisticated, and a pathbreaking studya valuable resource for those interested in psychology, Western sociology, and Christian theology.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals; general readers.

A priest and an accomplished ecclesiastical historian, Wolf (Univ. of Münster, Germany) had the appropriate credentials to gain access to records of the Holy Office (or Inquisition) in the Vatican Archives when they were opened for research in 1998.  Wolf located the extensive records of the case on which his book is based in a hallway, where they were unexpectedly shelved.  He carefully analyzed the records and then incorporated them in this insightful, remarkable cultural history of 19th-century Catholicism.  The convent scandal that serves as the pivot and point of departure for the book involved both heretical beliefs and immoral activities.  What makes the book significant and of lasting importance, however, is Wolf's contextualization of the scandal.  He carefully describes the lines of authority in the church hierarchy, the institutional structure and juridical practices of the Inquisition, popular Catholic beliefs that involved mysticism and the Virgin Mary, and the politics generated by competing individuals who were close to the pope and by various religious orderswith special attention to the Jesuits and Dominicansin the context of the Napoleonic wars and rise of modern European nation-states.  This is a brilliant piece of work!Summing Up: Essential. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals; general readers.

This reviewer has been waiting for this book for a long time.  Marenbon (Univ. of Cambridge, UK)whose previous work includes, among much else,Boethius (CH, Mar'04, 41-3981) and Abelard in Four Dimensions (CH, Jun'14, 51-5523)teased readers of his prior books with the promise of a forthcoming study of the problem of paganism in medieval thought.  For Christian philosophers, the problem of paganism is, roughly speaking, how to think about the life and work of pagansSocrates, Aristotle, et al.who seem to be both wise and virtuous as well as nonbelievers.  Can wisdom be found in the works of those who were ignorant of the true nature of God?  Could they really have been virtuous if they did not act from a love of God?  As the subtitle indicates, Marenbon traces how thinkers from Augustine of Hippo to Leibniz addressed these and similar questions.  The resulting book is fascinating, exciting, compelling, and well worth the wait.  This volume will interest students of medieval thought, intellectual history, theology, tolerance, and interreligious dialogue and anyone with a curious mind.Summing Up: Essential. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.

Ulrich (emer., Univ. of Notre Dame) has spent a lifetime studying the Dead Sea Scrolls, and here he synthesizes the best of modern scholarship on the text and canon of the Hebrew Bible through the first century CE.  Until recently, the Masoretic Text (MT) was judged uniquely authoritative from its inception.  Applying his unparalleled mastery of primary documents, the author convincingly demonstrates that the MT is an old and reliable witness, but so are the Septuagint, the Samaritan Pentateuch, and the biblical scrolls from Qumran.  Communities, including those headed by rabbis, used whatever text was available for a given book or collection of books; as a result, superior readings can be found in each tradition, as can passages marred by intentional and unintentional scribal intervention.  Those seeking a firm foundation for understanding the latest developments in textual and canonical studies need look no further.  Members of traditional religious communities are not likely to jettison long-revered Scripture, no matter what its origins or quality.  But they, along with everyone else for whom the Bible is important, should read this thoroughly accessible, clear-sighted volume.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals; general readers.

The late Freyne was a leading expert on Galilee during the time of Jesus.  This book is an outstanding, up-to-date account of background, contextual, and historical dimensions of Jesuss life and ministry and the Jesus movement that developed after his death and resurrection.  Freyne focuses on Galilee, the Roman presence, economic and social issues, and the emerging Jesus movement in Jerusalem, with its later broadening history in and beyond Galilee into the second century.  The author notes that "matrix, ministry, and mission" describe his account, and he covers this landscape competently.  Scholars will be grateful for this presentation of Freynes long scholarly labors, and students and interested general readers will find immense help in understanding Jesuss upbringing and the potential impacts of Greco-Roman values on his life and those of his followers.  Insights abound, and Freynes scholarly conclusions are judicious.  He indicates differing views but conveys his own with a simplicity and grace that drive readers to seek more information.  Numerous biblical citations.Summing Up: Essential. Lower-level undergraduates and above; general readers.

The line from religious intolerance to religious tolerance to pluralism was not straight and uncomplicated.  This outstanding anthology, born out of a conference celebrating the 350th anniversary of Rhode Islands 1663 charter, provides a plethora of case studies from the Colonial era (with especially good analyses of Roger Williams, William Penn, and the Methodist relationship to slavery in the Caribbean) and the 19th century.  Contributors also provide contemporary stories of Mormon moments, the movement against cults in the 1970s, and the liberal effort to push the religious right off the air using the Fairness Doctrine as a weapon.  What is clear throughout is how much toleration has been hard for people to tolerate.  What people do with their religious liberty can seem downright appalling to others, the editors note, and the essays are full of such examples.  The Rhode Island context results in multiple discussions of the complexities of Roger Williams, whose emphasis on both liberty and proselytization helps explain the American politys unique and somewhat paradoxical combination of religious disestablishment and a religiously charged public sphere."  Top-notch scholarship on a topic of great contemporary importance.Summing Up: Essential. All levels/libraries.

Brown (emer., Princeton Univ.), author ofThe Body and Society (CH, Jul'89, 26-6235), explores in his latest book Christian teachings about wealth, death, and the afterlife in both the early Church and the early Middle Ages.  He shows that Christian views on these concepts were fluid and shaped across several centuries by social, economic, and historical contexts.  Brown notes that in the early Church, the rich and poor were connected through prayer and almsgiving, and the living and dead were connected in a similar way.  He also delves into Augustine of Hippo's writings from before and after the Pelagian debates, detailing how Augustine believed that the Church was full of imperfect individuals who needed help repaying the "debt" of sin.  Brown then turns from North Africa to Gaul, where bishops encouraged wealthy Christians to donate to the Church to atone for sin.  He shows that by the sixth century, the Church in Gaul used its wealth to gain merit by serving the poor.  Finally, Brown traces how Christians transformed the classical view of the souls in the cosmos.  This book is essential reading for anyone with a serious interest in late antiquity and early medieval Christianity.Summing Up: Essential. Upper-division undergraduates and above.

Davies (Fordham Univ.) has in recent years produced some splendid studies on Thomas Aquinas:Aquinas (2003) andThomas Aquinas on God and Evil (CH, Jan'12, 49-2590).  This commentary on AquinassSumma Theologiae is another scholarly triumph.  The book begins with a short introduction, containing a biography of Aquinas followed by a brief, speculative account of Aquinass purpose in writing theSumma.  Davies then wastes no time in launching into his commentary propera systematic, article-by-article, question-by-question commentary on the entireSumma.  Other fine commentaries on theSumma are available, including F. C. Bauerschmidt'sHoly Teaching (2005) and P. J. Glenn'sA Tour of the Summa (1960).  All are excellent, and students of Aquinas will not want to be without any.  However, if one were to have only one such study, Daviess commentary would be a wise and excellent choice.  It is thorough, well organized, and supplemented with copious notes and pie charts that give a visual breakdown of the philosophical and theological subjects covered in theSumma.  It will not replace other commentaries that have a narrower, more detailed focus; however, those looking for a comprehensive and accessible companion to AquinassSumma could do no better.Summing Up: Essential. Lower-division undergraduates through researchers/faculty.