Christopher R. Seitz

A canonical approach to Paul's letter to the Colossians.

The author does well at remaining within the confines of the Brazos Theological Commentary paradigm and does not seem to mind them at all. He begins with a defense for a canonical reading of Colossians and makes much of its canonical placement. He defends Pauline authorship of the letter well, pointing out the specificity of the people mentioned towards the end of the letter and frames it as the mature reflections of Paul to a congregation who has never met him and never will.

Most of the commentary maintains the continuity of how the text has been understood generally. He believes that what we deem as Ephesians is also the substance of the letter to the Laodiceans; he suggests that the "opponents" of Colossians 2 are not necessarily immediately persons within or influencing the congregation there but are representative of the types of dangers around which might influence the Colossian Christians at any time.

A solid commentary, although the author seems to see DNA everywhere. Worth consideration.

**--galley received as part of early review program… (més)

This is a book about typology and providence, but not only about those things. It is about how typology and providence in the Scriptures unite the Two Testaments of the Bible and still have relevance for the Church today.

The book is a collection of essays that Christopher Seitz had written, with essays arranged into two major sections. The first section is titled "Christian Scripture, Figured Out," and contains two essays dealing with how to navigate the theological crisis a two-testament Bible has had in the 19th and 20th centuries. This is followed by three essays dealing with how Anglicanism has handled these topics in recent publications. Seitz is an active theologian in the Anglican church, and I am not an Anglican myself, and really did not gain too much from these three essays, but I can at least appreciate the fact that Seitz is concerned about the theological direction his denomination is taking.

The second section is titled, "Two Testaments, One Scripture, One God," and deals far more with biblical material (six essays) than Anglicanism (one essay). Essays focus on the book of John and the picture of Jesus in the Gospels; Jesus and the book of Isaiah; the Rule of Faith and interpretation of the Old Testament; the name of YHWH in the Old and New Testaments; Christian Scripture and Mission; and Prayer in the Old Testament.

This book certainly isn't your go-to book on the basic definitions of "typology," or "figuration," or "providence," but it is a book that makes you think about some of the more difficult areas of biblical interpretation once you have read something about those basic concepts. Seitz' style of writing is fairly dense, but packed with important insights. It is probably not the book for the beginner, but if you want a book that isn't afraid to think critically about trouble spots in Christian interpretation, then this is your book.

Most of this review has to be credited to "Andy" from "Toronto" and was found at Christianbook.com… (més)