This post was originally written and published on 28 April 2021.
William B. Eerdmans Publishing, a respected Christian publisher, recently released their Spring/Summer 2021 academic catalogue. The highlight is probably the launch of a new commentary Commentaries for Christian Formation (CCF) series, with N. T. Wright’s Galatians being the inaugural volume. Apparently, this is the first major biblical commentary that Wright has written, and on Galatians too! We shouldn’t be surprised if there are swift responses (detractors?) from certain evangelical circles.
I couldn’t figure out how to embed the full catalogue here. Click this link to check it out. My personal highlights are below.
Other notable titles include the second(?) volume in the Illuminations Commentary Series, Jonah by Amy Erickson. It appears that the publishers are injecting some life into the series after nothing followed Seow’s first volume, Job 1-21, which was published way back in 2013. This series focuses on a biblical book’s “reception history,” which is extremely challenging because the commentator must be a linguist, an exegete, an art/music/literature critic, as well as historian of the ancient biblical times through to the modern age.
John Goldingay also has an upcoming Jeremiah commentary in the New International Commentary of the Old Testament (NICOT) series and the second edition of Douglas J. Moo’s James in the Pillar New Testament Commentary (PNTC) series. There are also a few “introductory studies of biblical books” titles under the Discovering Biblical Texts series. Eerdmans will also publish the second volume of Roman Catholic scholar, Luke Timothy Johnson’s The Canonical Paul, Interpreting Paul. The introductory blurb writes that the book “balances respect for historical integrity with attention to present-day realities.” Luke Johnson has been a big proponent for academics to write for the church. It’ll be interesting to see how he walks the talk.
The catalogue features a few works on trinitarian theology and Sidney Greidanus' Preaching Christ from Leviticus. The second half has quite a number of “timely” works related to politics and current social issues.
I don’t own a lot of Eerdmans' books because the authors I usually read are published by Baker, but I hope to get my hands on a few of these books, especially N. T. Wright’s Galatians, Goldingay’s Jeremiah and Luke Johnson’s Interpreting Paul.
Update (29 Aug 2021): Baker Academic’s Fall 2021 catalogue.