New books
Reclaiming Genesis
Melvin Tinker
ISBN 978-1-85424-997-5
Genesis challenges the nations surrounding Israel to a different view of God and the world. It debunks "myths" ancient and modern and provides the basis for a robust Christian world view through the prism of its specific literary and cultural context.
Genesis is pregnant with challenges to both the ancient and the contemporary world. Here are the foundational themes of the Christian faith: God's mercy; human dignity and purpose; God's mission to heal the nations. Reclaiming Genesis will prove particularly useful to ministers, Bible students and those confronted with "what about Genesis" arguments.
Combines close attention to the text, the insights of Biblical theology, clarity of presentation, interaction with current ideas, and helpful insights from the past. I praise God for this book.
Dr Peter Adam
Principal, Ridley College Melbourne.
A winsome, warm, thoughtful, and pastoral treatment.
Carl R Trueman
Academic Dean and Vice-President for Academic Affairs, Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia.
Offers a theological commentary of the sort familiar to readers of early generations of Christian commentators such as Augustine and Calvin, written in a non-technical and easily accessible way for modern readers. Most welcome.
Paul Helm
Teaching Fellow, Regent College, Vancouver.
Manages to combine a convincing apologetic - that engages with current objections and obstacles to Genesis - with a faithful and coherent Biblical theology. This is a refreshing and much needed book.
Richard M Cunningham
Director of UCCF :The Christian Unions
Tales of the Unexpected
By Melvin Tinker and Nathan Buttery
ISBN 1845501160
At Christmas time whilst singing carols about 'gentle Jesus, meek and mild' we can miss that this time-dividing man had an edge about what he had to say. His parables are sometimes not 'nice spiritual stories'.
They capture the imagination, they paint timeless pictures, but they are also more than that. When you read, you get the unnerving sense that through them Jesus can see right through you. They can be unsettling, challenging, able to change you - that the sense of shame and lost-ness that we often feel may be provided with answers in what he has to say.
The Parable was an unusual form of teaching to Jesus' hearers, the Old Testament has only one main example, yet one third of Jesus' recorded words in the New Testament are parables. If these stories were so important to him, they should also be important to us.
Jesus was a communications genius, his parables convey important spiritual truths - appealing to young and old, rich and poor, educated and non-educated - because they are not just a story to be understood, they are a spiritual temperature gauge.
Deceptively simple, often taken from everyday Palestinian life; the parables are not just aimed to inform, don't even stop at transforming peoples' lives, but go further; to become part of the means Jesus uses to secure faith in men and women's hearts - they put us in touch with his mind.
Published by Christian Focus, available from Christian bookshops.
Click here for a full list of Melvin's publications.