The Excitement of Textbooks
I’ve finally received a complete list of my textbooks for all of my classes. I’m really excited to be starting at GCTS this fall. For those of you who wanted a complete list, see below. For those who could care less what books I’m taking, and in what classes, I have only this to say: I’m extremely excited about getting back into education. Obviously I’m more excited about some classes as opposed to others, but mostly I’m just jealous that Mandy gets to take History and Archaeology of the Near East. Alas! At least I’m taking History of Liturgy.
Booklist:
Intermediate Hebrew Grammar:
Williams Hebrew Syntax
Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia
Exegesis in 1 and 2 Samuel:
The David Story
Old Testament Textual Criticism
Pocket Dictionary for the Study of Biblical Hebrew
Dictionary of the Old Testament: Historical Books (recommended)
Dictionary of the Old Testament: Pentateuch (recommended)
Style and Structure in Biblical Hebrew Narrative (recommended)
Anthropology:
Power Failure
Unfettered Hope
Created in God’s Image
Personal Identity in Theological Perspective
Exclusion and Embrace
Basic Greek I:
Basics of Biblical Greek Grammar
Basics of Biblical Greek Workbook
English Grammar for Language Students (recommended)
History of Liturgy:
Sacramental Theology: A General Introduction
Commentary on the Divine Liturgy
Lectures on the Christian Sacraments
Prayers of the Eucharist
Doors to the Sacred
Christ the Sacrament of the Encounter with God
For the Life of the World
—
Of those books I’m most looking forward to Williams’ Hebrew Syntax, because I’m weird; The David Story because Alter wrote The Art of Biblical Narrative which I had heard is good, it’s also on my wishlist; Doors to the Sacred because I’m hoping it’ll be a good historical treatment of the sacraments, and For the Life of the World because it outlines the Orthodox view of the sacraments, a view of which I am woefully ignorant. I have already finished three of the books above: Power Failure, Sacramental Theology: A General Introduction and Christ the Sacrament of the Encounter with God. I will probably do a Random Readings post sometime next week talking about those three books in more depth.
My advice would be to avoid the two recommended IVP Dictionaries. I’ve found there to be a lot of dreck in those volumes and that they aren’t worth the money.
For a second I thought your last name read, “West.”
I actually already own the IVP Dictionaries, so nothing of any note there. Perhaps I should remember never to cite them. On the other hand, I suppose it depends on who wrote the particular article.
Williams Hebrew Syntax has the oddest Hebrew font I’ve ever seen, he also starts sentences on the line below where the Hebrew phrase starts if wrapping needed to be done. It’s a helpful book – but strange.
Then, I’m actually shocked that GCTS is offering a history of liturgy course! Wow! Who’s teaching it, and why in heaven’s name isn’t Pelikan on the reading list?
I don’t know, the font looks like standard Hebraica II to me. Of course, this is the Third Edition revised by Beckman – just this year. So it may have corrected some of the oddities (or not!).
The Professor for History of Liturgy is H. Coolman. I’ve no idea who this is since he or she isn’t listed on the GCTS faculty page. This leads me to conclude that it is an adjunct or visiting faculty member. In my brief research it looks like there is a B. Coolman at Boston College, and also an Holly Coolman part-time at Boston College (Ph.D., Duke University). So, I’m going to guess that it is her, but I don’t know for sure. As for Pelikan – you aren’t allowed to recommend any books until December.
[...] in Education, Books at 2:54 pm by eliana Well, Calvin posted his book list yesterday, so I shall follow suit. I’m taking Exegesis in I & II Samuel and Intermediate [...]
The Books are Here! « אליענה said this on August 27, 2007 at 1:54 pm |
Oh, comparing me with the ineffable Jim West! I’m not worthy!
I’m not saying that everything in the IVP dictionaries is dreck, only that I’ve found that the OT ones are a bit… uneven. There are some stellar articles, and some that should not have been allowed in an “academic” series (e.g. repeated citation of Gordon Wenham’s oft refuted claim of a “chiastic unity” in the the J&P/H flood stories).
However, I have found that the most profitable aspect of most of these kinds of dictionaries are the starter bibliography that they give.
[...] Random Readings 30-08-2007 August 30, 2007 Posted by Calvin in Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, Personal Space, Books!. trackback So, I’ve completely abandoned my summer reading list at present. Instead I’ve switched over to reading my textbooks for this coming semester. I’ve read five in the past week, so I won’t discuss each at any length. But I will give a few words on the general topic and feel of the book. You can find the Amazon links for all of these at this post. [...]
Random Readings 30-08-2007 « Random Bloggings said this on August 30, 2007 at 8:10 am |