Yesterday marked the official US publication of Into the World of the New Testament by Daniel L. Smith (St. Louis University).
This is a book that I'm very excited about. It is a book that actually encourages students to read the New Testament and other keys texts, and which introduces them to key issues and themes in a manageable way, whilst at the same time prompting them to think.
Daniel's style is easily intelligible, and he has a great turn of phrase. When we first discussed the proposal I knew I wanted the book. Then upon receiving and discussing the proposal, and sending it out for review, I knew we were on to a winner.
Marketing a brand new textbook is not the easiest thing to do. It takes time for scholars to change the books on their reading lists, and from which they teach. This is entirely understandable. That said, I really do believe that this particular book is special and that it deserves a place as one of the most used textbooks in the field.
And you don't have to take my word for it... look at these nice reviews from Nijay Gupta and Jim West. And the book has been 'heartily recommended' by John T. Carroll, whereas Craig S. Keener says it's an 'excellent work... easy to read, sensitive to the historically uninformed, yet highly informative'.
You can also read Daniel's own thoughts on his book in his guest blog post here.
To make life easier for lecturers wishing to adopt the book Daniel has put together a sample syllabus, available on the book's webpage for free, here.
I expect you can tell by now that I really want this book to be the success it deserves to be. Do check it out!
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