Books...and More Books

The special Eerdmans order through the seminary book services has finally arrived a couple of weeks ago. My Amazon order has also arrived about the same time. In addition, Evangel Book Centre had its annual sale recently. So there is now some new collection in my library - sadly, I won't be able to enjoy these books - at least for the time being - as I will be away for a month at Tyndale House, Cambridge. These books will have to wait till next month! Can't wait to interact with Peter Oakes' Reading Romans in Pompeii and John Stott's latest and final book on The Radical Disciple.

More Books for the New Year...

Order from Dovebooks

Order from CBD

For the past few weeks, I have been picking up some great bargains from Dovebook and CBD. To my delight, all my orders have arrived. The order from CBD is a real steal as the total purchase price for the 7 books, inclusive of shipping, comes up to be about RM150 only while Dovebook offers 50% discount for shipping and another 10% off as promotional offer for the new year. So the above books would ensure that I have some good company over my coffee breaks for the next few weeks.

Together with my earlier purchase, I have exhausted my book allowance for the year. Sometimes I wish books could be made cheaper by publishers for bona fide scholars from the Two-Thirds World. If not, how else could we ever keep up with scholarship in our teaching and research?

Books for the New Year

The belated expensive Christmas gift I bought for myself through Amazon has finally arrived. What a way to begin the new academic year at the seminary where I can be assured of some healthy diet and indulgence for the next few days. In fact, I have already begun to devour Philip Harland's recently published Dynamics of Identity in the World of the Early Christians. I must say it is a very highly engaging and thought provoking piece of work. I might do a review later on.

Hint hint to my dear colleague who happens to be the Business Manager of the seminary - I need more shelf space!

All Set to start Work at Tyndale House

Bright and sunny morning - the library of Tyndale House

I was greeted with a very bright and sunny morning, a very rare sight in chilly November in Britain! With the jet leg behind me, and after having settled in at my accommodation, I came into Tyndale House this morning to continue locating the books that I might need for my research.

By now, I've got most of the books in place, and this means that I am all set to begin work by next week Monday!

Some of the books needed are now on my desk. How do I devour all of them in 5 weeks, not to mention there will be more to come along the way?

The rest of the quiet Saturday will be spent in trying to catch up with where I left off last year while doing my research at Trinity theological College, Singapore. So it's back to work now!

Off to Tyndale House, Cambridge

In a matter of few hours, I will be flying off to London and thereafter making my way to Tyndale House, Cambridge for a 5-week research and writing on my second book on Paul's Use of Images in the Corinthian Correspondence.

This project has been brewing for a couple of years already. Since I am the most junior faculty member, the dream of having a sabbatical is non-existence for me, at least for many more years to come. As such, I can only squeeze in a period of 5 weeks during the end of the academic year and hope to spend some productive time at Tyndale House, so that I could get as much work done as possible. Like last year, I spent a month at Trinity Theological College working on the framework of the book, and this time, I hope to get some solid background materials done.

I will be blogging from Tyndale House next week and I will be sharing more on my book project.

Free Book from Emerging Scholars Network

Some time ago, I registered myself for the Emerging Scholars Network, a ministry of InterVarsity, and filled up an online survey form. And behold, I received the book by Marva Dawn, Keeping the Sabbath Wholly: Ceasing, Resting, Embracing, Feasting (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1989), as a token in the mail some days ago. Perhaps it is a good time for me to digest something on Sabbath as I my life has been on the fast lane this year.

Book, Coffee, and Airport

One of the things I like about travelling is this: there is always a fair bit of waiting time - waiting time in the queue for check in, waiting time for boarding, and the flying time itself. And it is during these moments that I have some time to do some reading.

So, as my usual practice, I brought along a book for my recent trip to Singapore where I attended the Intentional Disciple Making Conference at Covenant Evangelical Free Church, Woodlands. During the waiting time at both Subang and Changi airports, and during the flights themselves, I managed to finish reading the book edited by Richard Horsley, In the Shadow of Empire: Reclaiming the Bible as a History of Faithful Resistance (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008).

The main argument of this compendium of 9 essays is that both the Old and New Testaments develop against the context of the empires - be it the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks, and finally the Romans. Each of these chapters describes how the biblical authors provide concrete meaning to the countercultural claims of both the Jews and the Christ believers that their God was the true King, the real Emperor.

Contributors include Norman Gottwald, Walter Brueggemann, Jon Berquist, John Dominic Crossan, Richard Horsley, Warren Carter, Brigitte Kahl, Neil Elliot, and Grey Carey.

Perhaps I should be making more trips - then I can do more reading!

Free Book by John Piper for Download

Logos announces the release of Finally Alive, John Piper's latest book, for Logos Bible Software. For a period of one month only (August 14-September 14), this book is available for free.

For full full details on how to get this free copy, please click here and follow the steps listed there.

My Book Finally Arrived!

My book that has been recently released by T&T Clark, "The Sufferings of Christ Are Abundant in Us: A Narrative Dynamics Investigation of Paul's Sufferings in 2 Corinthians", finally arrives in the mail today!

UPDATE:
1. Click here for the news update at my seminary's website
2. See also the announcement of my book at the University of Wales Lampeter's website and the Department of Theology and Religious Studies' blog.

"The Sufferings of Christ Are Abundant in Us" is Released

I am pleased to announce that my book, "The Sufferings of Christ Are Abundant in Us: A Narrative Dynamics Investigation of Paul's Sufferings in 2 Corinthians" has been released by T and T Clark for the UK market.

For the US market, the scheduled date for release is July 2009. Pre-order through Amazon.com is available at a price of US$92.51 (retail price is US$130.00), even after a rather attractive discount of 29%!

Even More Books...

Further to my earlier post about the latest additions to my library, here are the rest of my book shopping spree that exhausted my book allowance for 2009! I am a happy man for the next few weeks.

I have thoroughly enjoyed J. R. Daniel Kirk's Unlocking Romans. I might write a review later on, if time permits.

Next on my immediate reading list is Seyoon Kim's Christ and Caesar: The Gospel and Roman Empire in the Writings of Paul and Luke. It would be interesting to see how Kim goes against the tide in arguing that the dominant anti-imperial interpretation is, in reality, difficult to sustain. If Kim's thesis can be sustained (and that will have to wait until I finish interacting with Kim and whether I am persuaded by his argument), then the prevailing scholarship on Paul and the Empire will have much to reconsider.

It is Finished.....

I am really glad when I finally completed going through the proofs of my upcoming book to be published by T&T Clark. With the assistance of some friends who helped me check the references and compiled the indexes, I can now look forward to seeing the "real thing" in May 2009!

Books again....

I know. It's only mid-April and I have already exhausted more than 2/3 of my book allowance for the year. And by the end of next month, the entire year's allowance will be GONE!

Anywhere, here's my latest collection.

Books...books...books...

I have recently just renewed my car's road tax, and received the tax rebate of RM625. So I decided to put the money into good use by getting myself a belated brithday gift. No price for guessing that I bought some books from my wishlist at Amazon.

So this is what I got for myself. I wonder whether my student, Perng Shyang, would be envious of this.

Library of New Testament Studies, Volume 399

I have just received the proofs for my upcoming book that will be published by T&T Clark in May 2009. So it is official now - my work on Paul's sufferings in 2 Corinthians will be part of the Library of New Testament Studies monograph series(formerly known as the Journal for the Study of New Testament Supplement Series), Volume 399. The book is also featured in the 2008-09 T&T Clark biblical studies catalogue, which can be downloaded here.

With the help of some friends, (Vic Cern, who will be compiling the indexes of Authors and Scripture References; and Sarah and Ruth, who will be checking the accuracy of references), I will be working hard to read the proofs carefully for the final time before it finally goes to the printer. This would keep me very busy for the next few weeks.

Eerdmans Sale is On

The seminary BookServices is now taking orders for books published by Eerdmans at a special discounted price for STM students only. This is an excellent once-a-year opportunity to build up one's library at affordable prices. There are some pretty good books that have just been released or due to be released soon. Don't miss it!

Cover of My Book - "The Sufferings of Christ are Abundant In Us"

I have just seen the cover of my book, 'The Sufferings of Christ are Abundant in Us (2 Cor 1:5): A Narrative Dynamics Investigation of Paul's Sufferings in 2 Corinthians," which will be published in May by T&T Clark.

The book is now available for pre-order. Amazon is retailing the book at US$81.80, after a 37% discount; while Dovebook is pricing it at US$95.99.

How Does A Biblical Scholar Spend His Long Vacation? Book Writing in TTC Singapore - Part 9

It has been almost a week already since I am back in my seminary office after returning from my 4-week research and writing break at Trinity Theological College, Singapore. While in Singapore, I was working on my second book in which I explored Paul's use of images in the Corinthian correspondence. The major thesis of this book is that Paul carefully and deliberately selects familiar images such as temple, building, athlete, body, etc, in his epistles to build up this community that he calls the ekklesia that is transformed by the power of the gospel, and how the same could also be said for the ekklesia in the 21st century, that we too could be the alternative assembly (to borrow the language of Horsley) for our community.

While working on this book, I was reminded that this was never intended to be a lonely journey. Neither was my attempt to look at how Paul hopes to build up the community in Corinth to be carried out by locking myself in the library all the time. I was very glad that I had the opportunity to do research and reflection within the context of community in Singapore.

I am very thankful to have met so many people in Singapore - both old friends and newly made friends. Tony Siew welcome me to Singapore by taking me out for dinner on my first day of arrival, and we had opportunity to catch up over several meals throughout the period I was in Singapore. Joshua took me out for meals, coffee and also book shopping. Soo Inn invited me, together with Vinoth Ramachandra and his lovely wife Karin, to his home for a very delicious home-cooked dinner. I also had the opportunity to have coffee with Kenny and two other friends. King, my contemporary from my undergraduate days who is now an Anglican priest at Marine Parade Christian Centre, and I had several meals together. Vincent, a new friend also made me felt at home in Singapore. It was also great meeting Alex and his family for dinner (and I am reminded that Agnes, Alex's lovely wife, is still having some problems in balancing the bill for treating my injured ankle sustained during our Greece trip in May this year). Of course, it was great meeting up with Cher and Chee Ying, Susan, Ong and Jessie, and Wang Yen.

Thank you, all of you, for being the Christ-community for me and for making my writing and reflection a deeply meaningful and unforgettable experience. All of you have made my 4-week stay at TTC a very memorable one indeed.

How Does A Biblical Scholar Spend His Long Vacation? Book Writing in TTC Singapore - Part 8

Time really flies. Today is my last day at Trinity Theological College, Singapore, working on my second book project. This evening, I will be making my way home.

It has been a very fruitful 4-week stay at Trinity, literally locking myself in the conducive library from 9-5 every weekday, trying to work on my book on Paul's Use of Images in the Corinthian Correspondence.

The reading room - where I have been hiding myself for the past 4 weeks

Over the last couple of days, I have been thinking about the flow of the book, and decided to add another chapter, bringing it to a total of 11 chapters. In my attempt to consider the images used in 1 & 2 Corinthians, I am further convinced that Paul does not simple pluck these images from the vacuum, neither does he use them merely for the sake of rhetoric in order to enhance the force of his argument. Rather, Paul's choice of images is deliberate and calculated. These images are carefully selected not just simply to persuade, correct, or instruct the Corinthians, they are employed for a wider specific purpose: to build up the community and to create a Christian identity among the predominant Gentile community in Corinth.

In this book, I will be examining a series of images used by Paul as reflected in the Corinthian correspondence, ranging from temples, body, commercial transactions, to images borrowed from the building and construction industry. These images, drawn from the Greco-Roman milieu, are very familiar to Paul's audience, but their impact to the original audience is unfortunately lost or reduced to a 21st century reader who may not have a full understanding of the 1st century world.

It is my purpose to explore these images and examine how they would have impacted the Corinthians as Paul strives to build up this community he calls the ekklesia - an alternative assembly (to borrow the language of Richard Horsley) in Corinth that is transformed by the power of the gospel, and how the same could also be said for the ekklesia in the 21st century, that we too could be that alternative assembly for our community.

Over the next few months, I will continue to reflect, write, rewrite and rewrite the materials. I target to complete the manuscript by the middle of 2009. By then it is time to work on my 3rd book, where I will be co-authoring with two others, on Jesus: His Life and Message, to be published by SPCK. More about the 3rd book later. Right now, it is time to finish browsing through a few more books, and to pack up!

NT Use of the OT by Zondervan

In my recent book shopping quest, I managed to get hold of the recently released book by Zondervan, Three Views on the NT use of the OT, by Walter Kaiser, Darrell Bock and Peter Enns. I have already introduced this book in an earlier post where a fun quiz to test one's position is also highlighted.

Over the next few days, this book shall be my bed-time reading. I would be doing reviews as I go along. At the same time, it would also be a good to assess whether this book could profitably be used as one of the primary texts on a course that both my colleague, the Rabbi, and I would be thinking of offering sometime in 2010, The Use of OT in the NT.