Bible Interpreters of the Twentieth Century: A Selection of Evangelical Voices

Rating:
Summary: The Lives of Great Men Revealed.
Review: I love biographies, so this book was a no brainer for me. What I didn't realize when I purchased it was just how many great men have their stories told in this book. J.C. Ryles, John A. Broadus, A.T. Robertson, Arthur W. Pink, Ned Bernard Stonehouse, Merrill C. Tenney, Merrill F. Unger, F.F. Bruce, Leon Morris, D.A. Carson, Gordon Fee, and my personal favorite, William Hendriksen. But there's more, thirty-five biographies in all, told in 446 pages.These men all have wonderful, glorious stories. You can see how God has used their lives in wonderful ways.

If you love great biographies, then this book is for you.

Rating:
Summary: Great Reference
Review: I love the set of reference works that Elwell has edited and this one doesn't break the streak. For anyone interested in 20th century evangelical theology, this is a must.

It covers T. Zahn, A. Schlatter, G. Vos, A. T. Robertson, A. W. Pink, O. T. Allis, N. Stonehouse, E. J. Young, F. F. Bruce, G. E. Ladd, Leon Morris, John Wenham, Donald Guthrie, Walter Kaiser, Gordon Fee, Edwin Yamauchi, D. A. Carson, and N. T. Wright.

All the chapters are well written, include a bio and a helpful summary of each scholar's theology.

Rating:
Summary: An Excellent Survey Of Evangelical Voices
Review: Walter Elwell has made quite a wave in the world of biblical and theological studies by his editorial work for a number of excellent reference works. This volume, a survey of the most important Evangelical biblical scholars is a contender for equal excellence.

I recommend the book for the following reasons. First, it does include enough of the most important scholars to make the volume worth purchasing. George Eldon Ladd, Joyce Baldwin, N.T. Wright, J.C. Ryle, Ralph P. Martin, D.A. Carson and many others are covered herein. Second, the chapters on each figure give biographical info and a survey of their scholarly work. This allows us to get behind the authors of some of the most influential evangelical works and see where they came from and what made them. Third, it gives a good picture of the joys and pains involved in the life of the conservative, biblical scholar of the 2oth century. Many of these scholars, though truly excellent, walked a line which drew fire from groups to their right and their left.

I'm only saddened that every worthy scholar cannot be included. There a number of other contempories with D.A. Carson and N.T. Wright that deserve recognition and notice. Figures such as I. Howard Marshall, Ben Witherington III, and Peter O'Brien come to mind. Such a work would grow to inestimable size and be overwhelming to the reader! I hope that a revision will take place including more scholars and published in hardback for durability. I also hope that a companion volume detailing theologians will be published. Come on Elwell do it again!