Books

Wycliffe Bible Translators is the largest and most influential evangelical mission of all time. Its ability to draw support from left-leaning evangelicals (and even some mainline churches) all the way down the spectrum to some fundamentalists is unique.

Because Wycliffe translates the Bible with a belief in its power to change lives, Bible-believing Christians of various stripes are enthusiastic about the end product: New Testaments (and sometimes entire Bibles) in the heart-languages of remote and not-so-remote people groups — be they large groups or small.

Wycliffe and its sister organization, Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL), have been part of a two-pronged approach with an unusually complicated relationship between them.
Like many monumental movements of the early and mid twentieth century, strong — sometimes overly strong — leaders can be found at the epicenter. Wycliffe/SIL ‘s epicenter was mission founder Cameron Townsend. Boone spends a lot of time discussing Townsend and his creative — albeit unorthodox — leadership.

Boone Aldridge, a true scholar in the realm of missions and himself part of Wycliffe, understands the organization like perhaps no one else on planet earth. He has immersed himself in the organization’s history — while also mastering the perspectives and movements within the evangelical world during Wycliffe’s history.

His extensive research might lead one to conclude that Aldridge traveled in time and actually witnessed all this history. 

David Beale, a longtime professor of historical theology at BJU Seminary, published his two-volume Historical Theology In-Depth in 2013. This is an outstanding work, and every pastor and interested Christian should use it as the “go to” text for a foundational explanation of key themes in historical theology.

It doesn’t cover everything, of course. Instead, it hits some high points of historical theology by way of 57 different essays and four detailed appendices over the course of its two volumes. The essays are roughly chronological, written at the introductory level and include helpful bibliographies and extensive citations throughout.

Volume One

The first volume begins with a summary introduction to the early church fathers (1), followed by extensive chapters on major patristic figures (2-8). Beale then moves to the Greek apologists with explanation of their worldview (9), then to a discussion of Christian apologists such as Justin, Irenaeus and others (10-13). He discusses Neo-Platonism (14), Origen and his hermeneutical school (15), Tertullian and Latin Christianity in general (16), then Cyprian and his incipient episcopal ecclesiology (17).

This book by series editor Andrea LePeau is the first in a set of volumes that will explore the influence of the Old Testament upon the writers of the New Testament books. This influence, it is believed, is not only in the way in which certain passages are quoted and used in the New Testament, but also how minds stocked with Old Testament stories, texts, and theology brought that multi-layered influence into their books through structure, allusion, typology and motif. Especially important to this point of view is the way the Hebrew Scriptures are employed to point to Jesus Christ as the fulfillment of Israel’s hopes.

LePeau can turn a phrase and his work is very readable and easy to follow. He is well read and he brings much to his task, though the book is not designed to be academic. The book includes a running commentary with notes on backgrounds and Old Testament motifs and allusions interspersed. Generally speaking he has done an excellent job with the commentary part of the book. This (major) portion alone ought to recommend the book to preachers and teachers.