The New Testament: A Student's Introduction

Rating:
Summary: Only an introduction
Review: As a college religion teacher, I recommend this book. Its scholarship is first rate. The author, whose religious affiliation is unknown to me, presents a forceful analysis of early Christianity. I rate it highly as an introduction.

Yet I feel thatI should point out that it may be destructive of a young person's Christian faith-- if that person did not understand the disclaimer that the book is written from a scholar's point of view. In practice, what this means is that a scholar who deals with empirically verifiable historical entities can never affirm that genuine miracles have occurred in history. The best a scholar can affirm is that some Biblical writer "thought" a miracle occurred. But Christianity has always affirmed that it is witness to God's real inbreaking into human history, not just a witness to someone's mental projections of a God's inbreaking. A scholar can only say that the apostles "were convinced" that Jesus had risen, not that He acually was risen.

Another consequence, in my view, is that the scholar's approach forces the author to affirm that Christians did not believe in the divinity of Jesus until after Paul. Paul's Jewish monotheistic upbringing could not find a workable terminology to fully express Jesus' divinity without compromising monotheism: but not being able to articulate some idea is not the same as not having that idea.

Excepting the above remarks, the book certainly gives Christians a well rounded view of how the Risen Jesus began to influence the formation of the New Testament.

Rating:
Summary: Clear, thorough, excellent introduction
Review: I have the 3rd edition. And, I found this book to be a godsend. It is clear and thorough, and relatively easy to read. It contains a lot of information, and generally conforms to mainstream points of view. There are a lot of books about the New Testament which are much more difficult to read. You can read this one straight-through, or just dip into particular chapters. Yes, it is not a book to reinforce faith; but, that's not its purpose. This is a book for the general reader or student. - WGL

Rating:
Summary: A College Religion Textbook -- Not for Believers
Review: This book is written for a college religion environment. It is patently secular and is unsatisfactory as a choice for a believing student.

Much of the book is wasted on Markan priority and source criticism which detracts from the flow and logic.

There are so many great NT introductions and surveys, that this book does not even fall into the category of "buy also."

Rating:
Summary: Finally, a book that is student friendly
Review: This is a great introductary book for those who have little or no background in the study of the New Testament. The book is easy to read and comprehend. Almost anything you want to know about the NT is in this book, even the historical background! I had the pleasure of having Dr. Harris as my professor for the NT class and believe me, it was the most interesting class I had all semester.