Book Notices: Two Jesus and the Gospels Volumes from Eerdmans Publishing

Recently, Eerdmans publishing was kind enough to send me two volumes, one by James D.G. Dunn, The Oral Gospel Tradition, a collection of Dunn's essays on this topic that have spanned the last 35 years. I am looking forward to carving out some time and diving in. Dunn is one of the top NT scholars alive, and this collection of fifteen of his essays will surely prove to be thought-provoking, not to mention, good reading, since Dunn is an excellent writer and scholar.

The other volume, authored by Vernon K. Robbins, Who Do People Say I Am? : Rewriting Gospel in Emerging Christianity, arose out of a class Robins taught nearly thirty years ago at Emory University, entitled "Jesus and the Gospels." This book looks to be a sure guide as Robbins analyzes both canonical and non-canonical gospels and their portraits of Jesus. I look forward to dipping into this volume a bit in the near future. My feeling is after a cursory glance, that this book might provide a valuable introduction to the topic for undergraduate/graduate students.

Thanks again to the kind folks at Eerdmans for sending these along.