James M. Hamilton's top ten favorite books in biblical studies
James M. Hamilton, author of God's Indwelling Presence: The Holy Spirit in the Old and New Testaments (in Logos) and associate professor of Biblical theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY, recently posted an interesting list. He was asked about his favorite books in biblical studies
Quoted from Hamilton's blog: For His Renown
"1. God’s Glory in Salvation through Judgment: A Biblical Theology – sorry if this seems like shameless self-promotion, but there’s no one I agree with more than myself. In this book I aimed to get at the heart of the theology of every book of the Bible. I didn’t say everything, no doubt more could be said and better, but I said what I thought needed to be said as well as I could say it.
2. Stephen Dempster, Dominion and Dynasty: A Theology of the Hebrew Bible – this book profoundly shaped my approach to OT Theology.
3. Paul House, Old Testament Theology – unlike Dempster, House goes book by book through the OT, which I allowed to serve as a guided tour of the OT reading through it one year. I learned a ton about every book of the Old Testament.
4. Oskar Skarsaune, In the Shadow of the Temple: Jewish Influences on Early Christianity – fascinating. Insightful. Explanatory. Fun to read.
5. N. T. Wright, The New Testament and the People of God – don’t agree with everything (especially the adoption of Sanders’ conclusions), but this may be the best book Wright has written, thoughResurrection may be better.
6. Thomas R. Schreiner, Paul, Apostle of God’s Glory in Christ – the best thematic study of Paul’s theology available, and it had a profound impact on me when I first started thinking about biblical theology.
7. G. E. Ladd, New Testament Theology – I read this book right after reading N. T. Wright’s Jesus and the Victory of God, and I remember feeling that at the points where Wright lost his footing on the beam, Ladd was right on balance.
8. G. K. Beale, The Temple and the Church’s Mission – a seminal, paradigm shifting book that reshaped the way I think about the world, the temple, the church, and what we’re here to do.
9. Richard Bauckham, The Theology of the Book of Revelation – this is a great book. Short, eye-opening, thorough, moving.
10. T. D. Alexander, From Eden to the New Jerusalem: An Introduction to Biblical Theology – it’s amazing what Alexander packs into this short book! I could just as well have listed his book From Paradise to the Promised Land, but this one covers the whole Bible (and I slipped the other in by mentioning it!)."
I always enjoy browsing through the recomendations of others; Recommendations three, four, five, seven and anything by NT Wright are currently available in Logos. I guess if you have them in Logos already they're worth a look.