IVP - Addenda & Errata - December 2007 Archives

The Wisdom & Poetry of DOTWPW

In May 2008 we will be publishing the Dictionary of the Old Testament: Wisdom, Poetry & Writings (DOTWPW), edited by Tremper Longman III and Peter Enns. This is the third OT volume, and seventh overall, in our “Black Dictionary” series on Scripture. (Incidentally, the “Black Dictionary” rubric originated in the bookselling trade, based on the black dust jackets of the series.) The focus of this volume is Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Job, Song of Songs, Lamentations, Ruth and Esther. (Yes, we’ve defined our own category of “Writings,” different from the Ketuvim of the Hebrew Bible divisions. We did this based on the what seemed to work best for the series and our perception of what most of our audience wants in each volume.) Right now I calculate this volume will weigh in at around 960 pages. Currently I’m spending a lot of time on this project, putting articles through copyediting, moving them on to typesetting and then proofreading. For the next few months I hope to comment occasionally on aspects of this project as it comes together.

Who or What Is Godself?

I’d been intending to blog on this topic soon, pointing out Gerald McDermott’s excellent appendix on “God and the Masculine Pronoun,” appearing most recently in God’s Rivals: Why Has God Allowed Different Religions? (IVP Academic, 2007; as well in his Can Evangelicals Learn from World Religions? [IVP Academic, 2000]). Yesterday I received the January 2008 edition of First Things, and browsing the “While We’re At It” section, I noticed that Richard John Neuhaus has given two paragraphs to McDermott’s essay. So this blog now points you to McDermott and Neuhaus on McDermott.

Weigel on Perry

George Weigel is, among other things, the author of a major biography of John Paul II. In his current column in the Denver Catholic Register he is recommending "Books for Christmas," and among them is Tim Perry's (ed.) The Legacy of John Paul II:

One of the major surprises of the pontificate of John Paul II was its enthusiastic reception by evangelical Protestants, especially in North America. The Legacy of John Paul II: An Evangelical Assessment, edited by Tim Perry and published by InterVarsity Press, sheds the light of evangelical theological scholarship on John Paul’s efforts to remind the world that human beings can indeed grasp the truth of things, including the moral truths of things. Put aside your dubieties about the John Paul II book industry and get a taste of the ecumenism of the future, made possible by the man Baptist theologian Timothy George calls “our common teacher.”

Back to the Book

Did I mention that I'm a believer in books? I mean real, ink-on-paper books as opposed to electronic facsimiles. Over the years I have enjoyed putting forth the argument that people like the tactile, three-dimensional, artifactual nature of books--and thus the book has a future.

The New York Times has an article today on how some web "books" are becoming print books. I enjoyed the comments from one person, who said he "wanted something I could put on my shelf.” And added, “There’s nothing like holding the weight and smelling the paper.”

Is this a generational thing? I think not (read the article). After all, what generation came up with the term "cool stuff"?

Is Justification a "Legal Fiction"?

The current evangelical debate over justification has been on my mind lately. This morning I was prompted (by someone's comment yesterday) to revisit Bruce McCormack's essay, "What's at Stake in Current Debates over Justification? The Crisis of Protestantism in the West," which we published in Justification: What's at Stake in the Current Debates (IVP, 2004). This is the volume derived from the 2003 Wheaton Theology Conference and edited by Mark Husbands and Daniel J. Treier. It's a conference I regrettably missed!

The Historical Thickness of Books

Thinking about booky houses on the one hand and Amazon's Kindle on the other prompted me to dust off my copy of Sven Birkert's The Gutenberg Elegies: The Fate of Reading in an Electronic Age (1994). Here is a thought for the day from Birkert, where he is considering the "flattening of historical perspective" that might result from the electronic book:

Blackwell's Booky House

Last week I hymned the glories of Powell's of Portland. But I was later reminded of another grand bookstore, Blackwell's of Oxford. I've made at least a couple visits there, and I have an old Blackwell's bookmark that I found thirty years ago (now perched above my desk). On one side is a print of Blackwell's on Broad Street. On the other side is this poem by John Masefield:

There, in the Broad, within whose booky house Half England's scholars nibble books and browse. Where'er they wander blessed fortune theirs: Books to the ceiling, other books upstairs; Books, doubtless, in the cellar, and behind Romantic bays, where iron ladders wind.

If that doesn't arouse a longing to spend a couple hours nibbling and browsing in Blackwell's booky house, well . . . I think you're reading the wrong blog!