Nerd Stuff: The Book Order Has Arrived

One of the best parts of my job is that, from time to time, I get to buy some new books. Last Thursday I order eight books from amazon.com and they arrived today. I'm a little excited. Okay, I'm a lot excited! I know, I know. I'm a total nerd. But, because the odds are good that you are also a nerd, here are the books that arrived today.

The Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament by John Walton, et. al. 

The Bible Background Commentary: New Testament by Craig Keener. I really wanted to get the Zondervan Illustrated Bible Background Commentaries for both the Old & New Testaments, but I settled on these instead. These should be excellent resources, particularly as I prepare for the text track of e4 this fall.

Warranted Christian Belief by Alvin Plantinga. I'll consider myself brilliant if I a) finish this book and b) understand ten percent of it. Woohoo!

Christians Are Hate-Filled Hypocrites...and Other Lies You've Been Told by Bradley Wright. I saw this over at Scot McKnight's blog, the Jesus Creed, and I'm very much looking forward to reading it. What a provocative title!

Ancient Near Eastern Thought and the Old Testament by John Walton. Yep, I'm a nerd.

God is Great, God is Good by William Lane Craig, et. al. I've never read anything by Craig, who does a lot of apologetics, but this caught my eye. I'm looking forward to hearing from the various authors, most of whom I've not read anything else.

The Bible Among the Myths by John Oswalt. Yep! I'm still a nerd!

The Lost World of Genesis One by John Walton. This is the one I'm most looking forward to. I saw it reviewed by James-Michael Smith at the Discipleship Dojo and immediately wanted to read it, but haven't had the opportunity to get it until now. I think if there's one chapter in the Bible we've gotten wrong it's Genesis 1. (Actually, you could probably say Genesis 1 and 2 and Revelation 21 and 22 are the most misunderstood chapters in the Bible. Funny how we've gotten a lot of the stuff in the middle but missed the stuff at the beginning and the end.) This will be my next book review, but don't expect it this Friday. My schedule has picked up a bit so I don't have as much time to read, more's the pity.