CWoznicki Think Out Loud

Two Types of Preaching – Cognitive and Affective

I read and write a lot while on planes, so when I knew I would be spending 30 or so hours going to Liberia and back I knew I was supposed to take some books I had planned on taking time to read and think deeply about but hadn’t had the time to do so yet. One of those books was James K.A. Smith’s Desiring the Kingdom: Worship, Worldview, and Cultural Formation. This book (along with Imagining the Kingdom) has become a sort of modern day classic. In it he argues for a reappropriation of Augustinian theological anthropology where the ultimate thing about human beings and their actions lies in “love.” As Smith says,

Human persons are defined by love – as desiring agents and liturgical animals whose primary mode of intending the world is love which in turn shapes the imagination.

The things we grow to love and desire are shaped and directed by material embodied practices. These practices – or what he calls liturgies – are fundamentally religious, but not necessarily spiritual. For instance he explains the liturgical practices of shopping at a mall, going to a university, or singing the national anthem at a football game. He rightly points out that “Friday Night Lights” (especially in Texas) are a sort of quasi-religious liturgical event.

Reading Smith’s while on the plane I was finally able to put my finger on why I don’t like certain sorts of preaching. I am not necessarily talking about exegetical depth or even winsomeness of the preacher. There are many preachers who believe the same things I do – yet I can’t stand their preaching – sorry….

There are at least two sorts of preaching: Cognitive and Affective.

Cognitive Preaching
Those who lean towards cognitive preaching tend to believe that being a disciple of Jesus is a matter of getting the right ideas into your head in order to guarantee proper behavior.

Here is what Smith has to say about merely Cognitive Christianity

The result is a talking-head version of Christianity that is fixated on doctrine and ideas, even if its also paradoxically allied with a certain kind of anti-intellectualism. (DTK 42)

This is the sort of preaching that devolves into lists of “practical steps” or “how to’s” of living and behaving “rightly.”

Affective Preaching
This sort of preaching doesn’t aim at the cognitive faculties, it aims at what Smith (following Biblical language) calls “the heart” or what Jonathan Edwards calls “the affections.” It is based of the conviction that we as human beings are:

A creature whose orientations and form of life is primordially shaped by what one loves as ultimate, which constitutes an affective, gut-like orientation to the world that is prior to reflection and even escapes articulation. (DTK 51)

This sort of preaching recognizes that our vision for the good life (the eudaimonistic life) is shaped and directed by aesthetic principles found in stories, legends, myths, novels and films rather than principles. Yet most importantly – our notion ultimate ends is affected by the truth and beauty (both aesthetic principles) of the gospel. Thus this sort of preaching centers itself around the gospel.

All this to say that “cognitive” preaching while not necessarily intellectual, could be emotionalistic, believes that change happens through the intellect. But the affective model while not necessarily emotional as the name might imply, could be highly intellectual (see Piper or Tim Keller) or it might be simplistic, believes that change happens when the affections are stirred.

Back to Africa – I am Going to Liberia!

Mangrove trees, political refugees, diamonds, civil wars, American colonialization, and yes even surfers.

Those are just a few things that might come to mind when you think about the West African country of Liberia. But the fact that has drawn most attention is the violence experienced during the late 90’s and early 2000’s that led to the death of between 250,000 and 520,000 people. This is where I am going later on this week – but I am getting ahead of myself.

My last year has been packed with changes – I graduated from Fuller Seminary, began working at Eternity Bible College, I helped to start a parachurch organization called Training Leaders International (we provide theological and ministerial training for underresourced pastors in Latin America), I presented my first academic paper at a theology conference, and I began working as the College Ministry Director at The Church at Rocky Peak. And even more important than all of those things – I got married to my beautiful and godly wife, Amelia! So as you see most of my ministry efforts here have been focused on equipping the church – and now the Lord is giving me another opportunity to help equip the church but this time its on a completely different continent: I am going to Liberia!

Early Thursday morning I will be heading out to Liberia with a team from Rocky Peak – we will be doing two things while we are over there

We will be making prescription glasses for people suffering the effects of the past civil war. The last civil war completely wrecked the country – it wrecked the country economically and it destroyed its infrastructure, in fact 95% of all healthcare facilities were destroyed. Because people are poor and there are very few medical facilities there is a big need for medical attention – the provision of prescription eyeglasses helps that issue.
Global Ministries Pastor Brian Morehead and I will be training pastors and leaders who are part of a church planting network. Now I am not church planter, but I desperately care about leadership development, multiplication, theology, and missions. We will be leading some seminars covering those four areas. Also I will be bringing over theological resources for the pastors.

If you know me, you know that I see my call as the call to equip the church for the sake of mission. I am an equipper at heart – that is why I have gravitated towards so many teaching roles. The Lord has blessed me with many opportunities to do that.

To equip the church for the sake of mission.

As I go out to Liberia to share the gospel, provide for much needed physical needs, and equip pastors and leaders please be praying for me and the team. Please pray for these things:

That the Liberians would be receptive to the gospel.
That God’s Kingdom would come in power in Liberia.
That our team would follow the leading of the Holy Spirit
That Jesus’ name would be exalted because of what we are doing.
That the work we do would result in the multiplication of leaders and churches.
That the leaders and pastors would be receptive to what we have to say.
That the team would be culturally and contextually sensitive.
That the team would be safe as we travel.

Our team leaves 3/13 and we come back on 3/24 so please be praying for us! Also, please consider prayerfully how you can partner with me in the promoting the Gospel and bringing God’s kingdom to bear in a place that has been devastated by war and violence. That might be through prayer or it might be through financial partnership. If you would like to take part in what God is doing through this trip you can contribute by going to the Rocky Peak Global Ministries Website. (Just click the link.)

May God’s name be glorified, may his Kingdom be expanded.
-Chris Woznicki

For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea. – Habbakuk 2:14

Book Review – Visions of Vocation by Steven Garber

What the heck am I supposed to be doing with my life?

Working with college students I hear that question all the time. It seems like it is a perpetual mystery among college age/post-college age adults. To be honest it seems to be a perpetual mystery for myself as well.

In recent years we have seen a sort of resurgence among books, sermons, and blogs about Christian visions of vocations. What is a vocation? Is a career the same thing as a vocation? What does faith have to do with work? How do our vocations contribute to the missio dei? Tim Keller and the people over at The Center for Faith and Work have done a lot to help Christians answer those questions. Another person who has been contributing answers to these sorts of questions for many years now has been Steven Garber. He heads up the Washington Institute – an institute which exists to help people pursue “a vision of vocation that is fully engaged with the realities of life in the 21st century.” This book, Visions of Vocation: Common Grace for the Common God, is birthed out of Garber’s many years of reflection upon the topics of vocation and social engagement.

Summary

Vocation is an ethereal concept – invoking images of a divine calling or a sort of mystical experience where one is called into one’s destiny, a destiny that has been set out for you since before the foundations of the earth. But are we complicating the concept of vocation by making them, for lack of a better word, so epic? Garber seems to think so. According to Garber – our vocations boil down to the different ways “we are responsible, for love’s sake, for the way the world is and ought to be. We are called to be common grace for the common good.” (18) As Christians we are called to many levels of responsibility – we are responsible for our own relationships with God, we are responsible for other’s flourishing as human beings, and we are responsible for the flourishing of creation – these three things are part of the cultural mandate which God gave Adam and Eve in the Garden. All that we do, or don’t do, contributes or detracts from our ability to fulfill those responsibilities.

Sadly though the world is broken, and for most seeing brokenness leads to apathy or stoicism – yet the challenge, as Garber points out, is to live a life of engagement, choosing to step into the mess of the world, understanding it and choosing to serve it.

If we have eyes to see we are forced to make a decision. Will we serve the world or serve ourselves? This is the central theme of Garber’s book – it’s a sort of existential crisis, that shapes one’s entire life:

Knowing what I know what will I do?

Having read the things I have read, having seen the things I have seen, having heard the things I have heard, having met the people I have met, what will I do about those things? Will I choose to grow numb, as our westernized – hyper connected culture has chosen to do, or will we love this world and contribute to the common good? This does not necessarily mean we will be idealistic about the possibilities, this does not mean we should pretend that perfect justice is possible – yet we should aim for proximate justice. Given the fact that we live in a now/not yet reality of the Kingdom we cannot expect the world to be “fixed” by us, nevertheless we have a responsibility to contribute to the common good.

The choice is ours, will we chose to serve the world we live in – using our talents, passions, experiences, resources – or will we choose to settle for lives that revolve around ourselves? To do the first, to step into the frailty and brokenness of the world is what vocation is all about. Some people will choose to serve others through education or agriculture. Some will shoes to do the same through the world so business and law, or healthcare and the arts, or butchering, baking, and candlestick making. Some will even choose to serve the world by blogging about books. All these sorts of vocations are answers to the question, “knowing what I know, what will I do?”

Review

This book was timely for me; recently I have been asking a lot of questions about vocation and calling. I have read plenty of books about the integration of faith and work (both for the college students I work with and for myself). I have found myself in a position stuck between two seemingly opposing trajectories – academia and ministry. In fact I was reading this book while sitting on a plane to Fort Worth to deliver a paper at the Evangelical Theological Society regional conference. As I read the book, and thought about my own future – whether I would be spending the rest of my days sitting on planes going to deliver papers or whether I would spend the rest of my days equipping the church for the works of the missio dei – one question kept haunting me:

Knowing what you know, what will you do?

There are a few things I know, and I am responsible to my fellow man and more importantly to God to do something about those things. As Garber says “knowledge means responsibility and responsibility means care.” (221)

That question – Knowing what you know, what will you do? – Is an extremely powerful question. It’s a question that forces you to make a decision. Everybody knows certain things about the world, everybody has certain conceptions of what the world ought to be like – that question forces everybody who hears it into a point of decision – will I do something about it or will I withdraw? After hearing that question over and over how could I withdraw? How could I fail to step forward into answering the call?

Conclusion

At times the way Garber talks about vocation seems to privilege “world shaping” vocations – educators, teachers, politicians, artists – and seems to neglect more typical vocations – retail worker, mid-level management, service industry workers, homemakers – so I wonder what he thinks about those sorts of callings. Nevertheless, Garber sets out a clear vision of what vocation is – its your answer to the question “knowing what you know, what will you do?” Whatever answer you give to that question will contribute to the common good.

Weaving together personal stories, literature, film, music, and scripture to show us what vocations are all about, Garber has written a book that will certainly inspire you to see your place in the world a bit differently. He not only aims at our heads, he aims at our hearts, drawing us into the story of what God is doing in this world. He invites us into the critical task of coming alongside of God as God himself give grace to a world that is broken and falling apart. Answering that invitation is what vocations are all about.

As a side note – I know its early in the year, but this book is so well written, so theologically powerful, and packs such a powerful devotional punch that it is definitely a frontrunner for my book of the year award.

(Note: I recieved this book courtesy of IVP in exchange for an impartial review.)

The Very Worst Missionary

I recently came across this blog titled Jaime the Very Worst Missionary. The title was certainly intriguing – is she really the very worst missionary? I doubt that. Anyway she wrote something describing herself and I can completely resonate with her:

I’m always late because I’m a procrastinator and I procrastinate because I’m overwhelmed and I’m overwhelmed because I’m a perfectionist and I’m a perfectionist because I need affirmation and I need affirmation because I feel unworthy and I feel unworthy because somewhere, sometime, something in me cracked and the idea that I am lovable leaked out… I broke. And I’m still broken… And Jesus finds me like that, leaky and late, and He scoops up the pieces and makes me new. I’ll probably break again tomorrow, or in like five minutes, but He’ll keep scooping, again and again, until the day I finally get it, until the day I learn that I was created to be loved. And that day, that glorious day, the angels will sing in Heaven and, by God, I. will. be. on. time.

Apply Grace liberally to all areas of my life. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

I am not always late, and I am not really a procrastinator but I am overwhelmed – I am overwhelmed because I am a perfectionist – I am overwhelmed because I take too many responsibilities on – I take too many responsibilities and am a perfectionist because I need to find other people’s approval – I need to find other people’s approval because deep down inside I don’t feel worthy. I only wish I could remember the fact that because of Jesus I really am worthy – because of Jesus I don’t need other people’s approval – because I don’t need other people’s approval I don’t need to be a perfectionist and I don’t need to take on too many responsibilities – because I don’t need to take on too many responsibilities and be a perfectionist I don’t need to be overwhelmed.

This weekend I in ended up in Texas…

The Cowboy Palace and Borderline ain't got nothin on this place - Billy Bob's: The World's Largest Honkey Tonk. (Fort Worth, TX) — The Cowboy Palace and Borderline ain’t got nothin on this place – Billy Bob’s: The World’s Largest Honkey Tonk. (Fort Worth, TX)

Why did I end up in Texas? Maybe I took on too many responsibilities. Maybe – yeah. I can’t give each one of them the amount of attention they really deserve. I am starting to feel the weight of taking on too many responsibilities – or wearing too many hats: academic, shepherd, teacher, missionary – why can’t I take some of them off? Because I don’t trust that Jesus’ approval is enough; so I have to prove my worth to the whole world. I need to really believe in grace. Jaime the Very Worst Missionary had it right:

Apply Grace liberally to all areas of my life. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

Bathe yourself in grace. Its what you need to do. Its what I need to do.

Book Review – Primal Fire by Neil Cole

In the beginning there was “Missional,” then “Gospel-Centered,” and finally “APEST.” Don’t get me wrong I believe recovering the Ephesians 4 gifts (APEST) is super important, but at times it seems like it’s a niche that has been overpopulated, so when a new APEST book comes out you don’t need to take much notice – however that is certainly not the case with Neil Cole’s Primal Fire – you need to pay attention to this book.

Primal Fire is one of the clearest, most encouraging, and most biblically-theologically based APEST book out there right now. Not to mention, it will also ignite a fire up under you to discover how you can best serve the church to reach the maturity that God has intended for it.

Over the years I have come to appreciate any work done by Neil Cole – in fact his talk at Exponential 2013 was life changing for me. I am starting to feel as though this book is going to be life changing for me as well. It opened up a new paradigm of ministry for me and helped me clarify the call that God has placed upon my life. If you are trying to figure out your role in the Church this book will definitely help.

Overview

The book is broken up into three main sections: 1)Recovering the Lost Gifts of Jesus, 2)Reinterpreting the Roles in Ephesians 4:11, and 3) Reimagining the Gifts in Practice.

The first part makes a biblical/theological/practical case for why these four gifts, not just Pastor-Teachers, exist today. The second part takes each of these gifts and explains how they function and what their role is in the church today. The last part paints a picture of what it would look like if the church really recovered these gifts.

Pros

Neil Cole knows how to spur on the church for the sake of the mission God has called us to. He dives into exegesis and historical theology – thus he makes a solid case for the existence of these gifts. But he is not just a theoretician – he is a practitioner. He has actually done ministry using the Ephesians 4 gifts. He is somebody we can really trust when he speaks about these gifts and how they can be used.

Another thing I really enjoyed about this book was how Christological it was. It was always pointing us to the gospel and more importantly it was always pointing us to the life and ministry of Jesus. He points out that these specific gifts are the gifts of Jesus (not necessarily the Holy Spirit) and that Jesus embodies these gifts – so if we want to learn about these gifts we need to look to Jesus

Finally, I personally enjoyed this book because it spoke to me where I am at. I have always felt that I had certain passions and strengths, but I didn’t feel like those fit the traditional categories of Pastor-Teacher. I have always felt my call was to “equip the church for the sake of mission.” That is what I have been doing in my role and that is what I am most passionate about. Being able to expand my paradigm beyond Pastor-Teacher to Apostle-Prophet-Evangelist-Pastor-Teacher has really helped me understand and clarify my calling.

Cons

There weren’t many things that I didn’t like or necessarily disagreed with. For instance, I wouldn’t come down on hierarchical leadership as hard as he does (even though I personally hold to a more organic style of leadership) but that isn’t such a big deal to me that he is very opposed to hierarchical leadership. The only thing I had an issue with though was his discussion of deacons and APEST gifts. He equates deacons with the Ephesians 4 equipping gifts. I don’t think this interpretation holds exegetically.

Conclusion

The Church began with all five gifts. Eventually we lost all the gifts except for Pastor-Teachers. But we have seen a mainstream revival of Evangelists, especially during the great awakenings. Eventually with the acceptance of Charismatic giftings, the Prophet entered the mainstream. And now we are seeing the rise of the Apostle. We are living in an exciting time. I honestly believe that God is taking the church back to its roots in order to do something big in this world; that is why he has raised up these five gifts once again. Neil Cole’s Primal Fire helps us to better understand what God is doing by rising up these Ephesians 4 Gifts. I highly recommend you read it if you are looking for encouragement in your calling, if you want to learn what the APEST gifts are, or if you want to learn how to incorporate APEST into your ministry.

You can find out more about Neil Cole here:

Blog: http://cole-slaw.blogspot.com/

Twitter: @Neil_Cole

You can Download the 1^st Chapter of Primal Fire here.

(Note: Tyndale House Publishers has provided you with a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an impartial review.)

The Eclipse of the Old Testament

This week in my Hebrews class we were studying chapter 7, focusing on how the author of Hebrews uses the Old Testament (specifically the story of Melchizedek) to make Christological point. I asked the students the following question:

How do we understand the importance of the Old Testament even though in one sense it has been eclipsed by the full revelation of God found in Christ?

Let me share a quote with you from systematic theologian, T.F. Torrance, that I has shaped my own answer to that question.

There are structures of Biblical thought and speech found in the Old Testament which have permanent value both for the New Testament and the Christian Church…they provide the New Testament revelation with the basic structures which is used in the articulation of the Gospel, although the structures it derived from Israel were taken up and transformed by Christ.

Among these permanent structures let me refer to the Word and Name of God, to revelation, mercy, truth, holiness, to messiah, saviour, to prophet, priest and king, father, son , servant, to covenant, sacrifice, forgiveness, reconciliation, redemption, atonement, and those basic patterns of worship which we find set out in the ancient liturgy or in the Psalms. It was indeed in the course of the Old Testament revelation that nearly all the basic concepts we Christians use were hammered out by the Word of God on the anvil of Israel. They constitute the essential furniture of our knowledge of God even in and through Jesus.

All that to say that it is only through the Old Testament that we come to understand the full significance of who Jesus Christ is and what his life, death, and Resurrection mean for us. Without the Old Testament we would have to try to understand Christ through the patterns of our own cultures. The result would be a Jesus who who is not tied to any permanent and authoritative pattern of understanding. It would be a Jesus who isn’t grounded in history.

Book Review – How Do We Know? An Introduction to Epistemology by Dew and Foreman

A while ago I had the opportunity to write a review of Mark Foreman’s A Prelude to Philosophy. I absolutely loved the book – I recommended it to Christians who are becoming interested in philosophy, Christians who are taking philosophy as a college major, Christian philosophy professors, and college ministers who have students taking philosophy classes. Since I really enjoyed that book and found it useful, I was excited when I heard Foreman was coming out with another book this time on epistemology. And to be completely honest, I had high expectations for this book as well.

Overview
How Do We Know? An Introduction to Epistemology was written by Mark Foreman and James Dew. Much like A Prelude to Philosophy this book was written for people with little to no background in philosophy. It is written as a resource for those who desire a general introduction that is neither too technical nor too simplistic. As the authors say:

We attempt to survey the major issues in epistemology in a concise and accessible fashion, giving students the basics of what they need to know to go further in philosophy or for pursuing their own unique disciplines. (13)

Although it is a book written for Christians (many of the examples and illustrations are relevant to most Christian’s lives) I like the fact that it is clear about the notion that so many epistemological views aren’t necessarily Christian or Non-Christian. Very little in this book is strictly Christian- except for the chapter on revelation and the section on Reformed Epistemology. Nevertheless it is a broad introduction that is relevant to just about anybody, Christians and Non-Christians alike, who desire to know about epistemology.

This book includes chapters on:
1. The task of epistemology
2. The nature of knowledge
3. Sources of knowledge
4. Truth
5. Inferences and logic
6. Perception
7. Justification
8. Virtue epistemology
9. Revelation
10. Skepticism and certainty

Pros
1. The Chapter on Virtue Epistemology – Virtue epistemology is a relatively new field (unless on were to count Aristotle’s intellectual virtues) so it probably doesn’t get as much attention as it rightfully should in college philosophy classes. Topic deals with virtues like: Studiousness, Humility, Honesty, Courage, Generosity, Prudence. It would be nice to see this field incorporated into more general epistemology classes as well as general college course curriculum. I can imagine how much university life would change if intellectual virtue became a part of core college curriculum.
2. The Chapter on Revelation – Being something of a Barthian I appreciated the fact that they emphasize (and credit Barth) with the notion that Jesus is the clearest revelation of who God is. They quote him when he says that “Revelation in fact does not differ from the Person of Jesus Christ, and again does not differ from the reconciliation that took place in him.” This idea, that Jesus is God’s self-revelation of himself, plays a major role in their argument for divine revelation. Foreman and Dew argue that if Jesus Christ is in fact the son of God – and because of the resurrection we have good reason to believe he is – then we can believe that Jesus is the greatest revelation of God. If Jesus is the greatest revelation of God the we are within our epistemic rights to see the Bible as a source of divine revelation. Dew and Foreman’s argument (which is a lot tighter than I just presented it) is powerful in that it avoids the circularity of most arguments for biblical revelation. This non-circular argument for Scripture as divine revelation is a useful tool for anybody arguing for the authority of scripture.
3. Fair Presentations of Differing Viewpoints – Each chapter gives charitable presentations of opposing views. For instance the chapter on truth gives fair presentations of coherentism, pragmatism, and the correspondence theory. Each position is presented as having strengths and weakness. The authors end up arguing for a particular view, but always do so fairly always presenting the best cases for the opposing views.
4. Discussion Questions – At the end of each chapter the authors present the readers with several discussion questions based off the chapter. This will definitely help the reader internalize the information they just read. It might also be helpful for homework assignments if this book is being used as a textbook.

Cons
I was thoroughly pleased with this book. I thought the book presented the most important topics in epistemology, it didn’t get bogged down in overly technical discussions, it made good use of primary sources, it was clear, and it was very readable – all that to say it’s a great book. My only critique of the book comes in certain positions that Dew and Foreman land on. For instance I disagree with their conclusion on the issue of perception. They end up making a case for critical realism – the view that genuine knowledge of the world is possible yet there is potential for perceptual and cognitive error. I think this is a intellectually humble and intuitive position. Yet it seems to me that indirect realism or representationalism better accounts for how our physiology actually works. In critical realism, or better yet direct realism, perception is thought to give the perceiver direct access to the thing perceived, yet it seems to me that those things do not actually happen when I perceive something. For example, take my perception of my lap top as I am writing this review. As I am writing, light particles bounce off the object (my white laptop) and activate the rods and cones in my eyes. The rods and cones send an electrical signal through my optic nerve which eventually makes its way to my brain. My brain then converts this electrical image into something that looks something like a white laptop. If this overly simplistic story is somewhat accurate, representing how my physiology actually works, then it really seems as though I am not perceiving an actual white laptop. I am perceiving an idea, which my brain has formed, of a white laptop. If you wanted to, you could mess with the electrical signals in my nervous system and make me perceive a blue laptop, even though I am not sitting in front of a blue laptop. This example serves to show that I am actually perceiving is the idea formed in my mind from the senses, not the object itself. In other words I am perceiving a representation of the world – not the world itself. That is just one example of a position presented in this book that I disagree with.

Conclusion
Even though there certainly are some positions in this book that I hold different views on I thoroughly recommend this book. As far as introductions go, this book is top-notch.

How Do We Know makes good use of primary sources, it is clear, and it very readable, and it presents the most important views in an easy to understand manner.

Even though epistemology is topic basic to everyday life, it can be very intimidating without a good guide. Dew and Foreman are the guides you are looking for. They have written a clear book on one of the muddiest topics in philosophy.

(Note: I received this book courtesy of IVP Academic in exchange for an impartial review.)

Thinking about Becoming a Theologian? Resist the Temptation!

Fred Sanders, a theologian who has mastered the art of social media, offers some advice for people who want to become academic theologians. He encourages us to pick a major doctrine to specialize in and resist the temptation to specialize in some obscure doctrine…

Also – know your primary sources & learn some languages!

Thinking about Becoming a Theologian? Think Again…. maybe.

Oliver Crisp, the theologian who has been a sort of model for my own theology, offers some advice for those thinking about becoming academic theologians….

Book Review – Warfare in the Old Testament by Boyd Seevers

For most people reading history books is something you have to do, not something you want to do. I am not one of those people. I love history – I especially love historical theology; nevertheless I have always had a hard time with Ancient Near Eastern History. I love ANE literature, mythology, etc. but I have a lot of trouble with ANE history. If I am ever asked to speak about ANE backgrounds I always go straight to stories and myths. This book, Warfare in the Old Testament, contains no such thing. It is pure history yet its history presented in a unique way.

In this book Boyd Seevers, professor of Old Testament at University of Northwestern St. Paul, seeks to describe the military practices of “David, Joshua, other Israelites as well as those of the Egyptians, Philistines, Assyrians, and others known from the Old Testament.” He uses textual and physical evidence from ANE cultures to describe their military practices.

The book is broken up in a pretty straightforward manner – treating various cultures:

Chapters 1-2: Israel
Chapters 3-4: Egypt
Chapter 5: Philista
Chapter 6-7: Assyria
Chapter 8: Babylon
Chapter 9: Persia

The treatment of each of these nations begins with a piece of historical fiction describing what it might look like for a soldier to participate in a historical battle. These sections are probably the most memorable sections (if students read this book this will likely be their favorite parts). The fact that he tells history in narrative form isn’t necessarily unique (you can think of various other NT scholars who have tried to teach NT Backgrounds through historical fiction), but it sure is effective. Having a vivid picture of what each culture’s military practices looks like will help students learn more than if they were just told what their military practices were.

I was always told when it comes to writing – Show don’t tell! Seevers doesn’t simply tell us about ANE battle practices, he shows us their battle practices.

After the historical fiction, Seevers describes the historical background for the nation, then its military organization, weaponry, and tactics. The book is filled with illustrations (often taken from ancient documents, pottery, engravings, etc. ). Again this helps the reader to “see” what warfare was like in the ANE instead of simply hearing what its like.

So you might be wondering, do I recommend this book and to whom do I recommend it?

The answer to that first question is, absolutely yes! Interesting books on basic ANE backgrounds and culture are hard to find. Now if you look for books on ANE warfare you will be even more hardpressed to find interesting options. Most of those books will probably be academic monographs or published dissertations that focus on some obscure battle, nation, or period. Yet this book’s scope is wide – it provides basic information for many of the major players in the ANE during biblical times. But just because it is basic that doesn’t mean that its shallow. For instance, Seevers devotes an entire section to Israelite helmets and another section to battle tactics against cities and that is just his treatment of Israel. Assyria also receives a good amount of attention. His treatment of Assyrian short-range weapons is extensive and filled with plenty of diagrams showing what these weapons might have looked like. All this to say – as a history book I recommend it. So who is it for? It certainly is not for anybody well versed in Warfare in the Old Testament – there isn’t much original research in this book; but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I would recommend this book to two people: 1) Bible College or Undergraduate Bible teachers and 2) Bible College or Undergraduate Bible students. This would make a fantastic text book, it would also be great for students doing research on ANE culture. So if you are looking for a textbook for an Ancient Near Eastern Culture or Old Testament Backgrounds class this is the book for you!

(Note: I received this book courtesy of Kregel and was under no obligation to give it a positive review.)