Rating: 
Summary: Attractive and accurate introduction to the New Testament
Review: As a teacher of New Testament in the UK, I am very impressed with this volume as a resource for students. It will be particularly valuable for students who study on their own rather than as part of a class. It is not set at an advanced level, and that is a good thing for undergraduate students, yet it is thorough, helpful, and the suggestions for further reading point the reader to the best in modern New Testament scholarship. The illustrations are excellent and attractive, often highlighting important archaeological evidence relating to the New Testament. One particularly attractive feature of this text is the frequent quotation of ancient sources such as Josephus and the early church fathers. The companion reader will provide additional opportunities for the reader to steep himself or herself in the world of the New Testament. Teachers will appreciate the overheads and other resources which are available from the publisher to accompany the textbook.
Rating: 
Summary: The book w/cd-rom will help students learn the New Testament
Review: At the collegiate level, the colorful book combined with the enhanced cd-rom and study questions for each chapter will significantly assist the student in learning basic New Testament content and doctrinal truth. The authors are clearly qualified and experienced in New Testament studies and this experience shows.
Rating:
Summary: This book provides an excellent survey of the New Testament.
Review: Encountering the New Testament was well-written, easy to understand, and accurate. The CD-rom supplement was also excellent.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome Text
Review: Five stars ++++. This is an EXCELLENT text. I used it for a college course but it would be a perfect choice for anyone desiring to learn more about the New Testament. It is an easy read loaded with visuals.
Rating: 
Summary: Too pointlessly flashy.
Review: The actual content of this book isn't bad--I learned a good deal from it. My problem lies with its "modern" layout. I certainly have no qualms with modernity, but many parts of this book detract from the overall quality, in my humble opinion. It has little colorful boxes at the ends of the sections containing such things as "Summary", "Key Terms", "Review Questions", "Study Questions", and their ilk. There is no inherent problem with such devices except that in this case they are not necessary. The material is very straightforward and not complicated and the Review Questions often ask things that even somebody who has never picked up the book can answer, such as "The heart of the gospel is that ____ died and rose again for our salvation." After the first couple of chapters I would just skip anything in a colored box. And the CD-Rom...better than some I have seen in textbooks, but overall useless, its just one of those things that new textbooks are supposed to have, so they throw it in, completely failing to take advantage of the medium. They should just excise many of these "Student-friendly" features and be left with a better, probably much cheaper book.
Rating:
Summary: Book Good--CD Bad
Review: The content of this book is really pretty good stuff. Moreover, it is written so that people who are not "Bible scholars" can read and glean some good information. For example, my dad--not a bible scholar, but very active at teaching in his local church--picked it up off my shelf while visiting my house. He said, "Wow. This is nice, and I would like to have one to refer to when I am teaching." Trust me, that says a lot about this book.Now for the downside: the CD Rom is really pretty stinky. The content is ok, but its delivery is not thought out too well. Take it from a guy who works all day every day in educational technology: this CD was apparently put together as a "good idea" but not well thought out in terms of what content was put on the CD or how that content was delivered. Overall, however, the book is worth the buy. Just don't buy it for the CD Rom! Buy it for its good, easy to read, content.
Rating:
Summary: Book Good--CD Bad
Review: The content of this book is really pretty good stuff. Moreover, it is written so that people who are not "Bible scholars" can read and glean some good information. For example, my dad--not a bible scholar, but very active at teaching in his local church--picked it up off my shelf while visiting my house. He said, "Wow. This is nice, and I would like to have one to refer to when I am teaching." Trust me, that says a lot about this book. Now for the downside: the CD Rom is really pretty stinky. The content is ok, but its delivery is not thought out too well. Take it from a guy who works all day every day in educational technology: this CD was apparently put together as a "good idea" but not well thought out in terms of what content was put on the CD or how that content was delivered. Overall, however, the book is worth the buy. Just don't buy it for the CD Rom! Buy it for its good, easy to read, content.
Rating:
Summary: Book Good--CD Bad
Review: The content of this book is really pretty good stuff. Moreover, it is written so that people who are not "Bible scholars" can read and glean some good information. For example, my dad--not a bible scholar, but very active at teaching in his local church--picked it up off my shelf while visiting my house. He said, "Wow. This is nice, and I would like to have one to refer to when I am teaching." Trust me, that says a lot about this book. Now for the downside: the CD Rom is really pretty stinky. The content is ok, but its delivery is not thought out too well. Take it from a guy who works all day every day in educational technology: this CD was apparently put together as a "good idea" but not well thought out in terms of what content was put on the CD or how that content was delivered. Overall, however, the book is worth the buy. Just don't buy it for the CD Rom! Buy it for its good, easy to read, content.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent intro for beginning NT students
Review: This is a very friendly Introduction to the New Testament for the person who would like to start digging deeper into their Biblical studies. It covers the bases of what an Introduction is expected to do. The authorship, historical context/date, content outline, main theological features and other interesting background are given for each book of the New Testament. This is similar to the background information found in good study Bibles, but an Introduction goes much further.
The preface states the book is suitable for freshman college classes in the New Testament and I think it fills that bill very well. Encountering the New Testament is unapologetically evangelical and is constructed around three theological themes: God, people, and the gospel as it relates to individuals.
The content is extremely well organized and features color inserts and photographs on almost every page to keep the feel upbeat and lively. The typeset is big and clear. There are numerous archaeological and cultural inserts to add contemporary relevance to whatever topic is in view. Each chapter has good Review Questions, Deeper Study Questions and a Further Reading guide to many excellent resources - these are all very useful. There is also a pretty good glossary, very good subject index and thorough Scripture index, as you'd expect of a theological work.
The book comes with a companion CD that covers the topics of the book in very limited depth. Even though it has cool menus, neat graphics and some multimedia clips, I did not find the companion CD content useful (but I rarely do with any book). The CD chapter Review questions are the same ones in the book - disappointing. Maybe I ought to knock a point off the rating since the price is probably higher due to the CD. Since I didn't get the book for the CD at all, I'm not holding this against what is otherwise a good book. If you want a deep companion CD, buy something else (I'm not sure what).
With good beginning level content, excellent organization, color pictures, relevant sidebars and a not too useful CD, this might seem to be the NT Introduction for everyone; it is not. If you need a top notch scholarly NT Introduction, get Donald Guthrie's "New Testament Introduction". It is much bigger, has practically no pictures, is not easy for people who haven't gone to seminary, has no CD and is one of the best quality, well researched, well written NT Introductions ever. To contrast, Encountering the New Testament is a classroom textbook that covers similar ground in less depth but a more accessible style.
After having read Encountering the New Testament for two NT survey classes, I now use it frequently as a reference and always enjoy its friendly presentation of useful content.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome Text
Review: This textbook, or historical and theological survey of the New Testament, is an excellent introductory source for college freshmen and new graduate students. It is also an outstanding source for those interested in beginning their personal study of the New Testament. It is well written and easily understood. This book is not a commentary, but rather a straightforward textbook designed to introduce, in the clearest terms, the New Testament. At each chapter's end, the authors provide a summary, review and study questions, and a section of suggested further readings. These are very helpful elements. I have only two very minor criticisms. One, a more extensive glossary would have been helpful. Two, the minor hyperbole about Paul's Acts epistle (page 274, first sentence in third paragraph) was a bit over the top. The authors, in all other instances, managed to avoid such puffery. This is an excellent book and it is highly recommended. I did not use the CD, which came with my version; therefore, I cannot comment on its efficacy.
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