Five Books That Have Most Influenced Me

Well having been tagged by John [EDIT: and Adam] I felt I had better post something! Below are five of those books that have helped me get to where I am today.

Mowinckel, S. (2004) The Psalms in Israel’s Worship. Eerdmans.
I recall reading Kidner’s commentary on the psalms and in his introduction he provides an overview of psalm scholarship. I was immediately taken with the goal of the form critical method and I picked up a copy of Mowinckel’s work as soon as I could. Needless to say I was not disappointed and I find myself returning to it often. Perhaps it’s the historian in me but the goal of reconstructing the worship of Israel from the psalms remains a passion of mine and Mowinckel’s book really set that passion alight.

Futato, M. (2007) Interpreting the Psalms: An Exegetical Handbook. Handbook for Old Testament Exegesis. Kregel Academic & Professional.
Futato’s book helped me see the importance of approaching the Psalter canonically.

I was tempted to include Mitchell’s The Message of the Psalter: An Eschatological Programme in the Book of Psalms but didn’t as Futato’s advice on preaching the psalms is excellent.

Wright, N. T. (1996) Jesus and the Victory of God. SPCK.
What can I say? He’s a fellow Anglican! I was immediately taken by Wright’s placing Jesus in his context within second Temple Judaism and noting the importance of Deutero-Isaiah to how the NT records the programme of Jesus.

Shortly after reading this I wrote to N. T. Wright (roughly containing this) and received a polite letter back.

Cross, F. M. (1997) Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic: Essays in the History of the Religion of Israel. Harvard University Press.

His chapters on the Song of the Sea and the Divine Warrior are superb. Cross is a brilliant scholar and his work on Hebraic poetry second to none. His re-dating the song of the sea to a very early period and demonstrating its links with Canaanite mythology was mind blowing. I also found his technical notes on the tense of the final verses in the song to be interesting.

Calvin, J. (2007) Institutes of the Christian Religion. Hendrickson

Ever since my conversion the works of Calvin have been very influential over me. I love the clarity with which he speaks and his commentaries are excellent as well. He was not afraid to reject traditional interpretations when he saw that the text could not support it, for example his rejection of a Christological interpretation of Gen. 3. I first read Calvin’s Institutes only months after I converted and return to them time and time again. I can’t believe he wrote them at such a young age!

I shall now tag Phil Sumpter, Brian, TC, Andrew Compton and Josh Lim.