|
| Christian news worldwide |
 Home |
 Archives |
 Subscriptions |
 Adverts |
 Find a church |
 About us |
 Contact us |
 Site Map |
 PrintableVersion Let's Study 2 CorinthiansPrime doesn't payLet's Study 2 Corinthians This commentary is full of good stuff, but ultimately disappoints. It belongs to a series aimed at 'ordinary Christians' and its style is accessible and its price commendably low. It includes 13 outlines for using the book with a Bible study group together with some helpful comments on leading discussion-based Bible studies. Derek Prime was minister at Charlotte Chapel, Edinburgh, before giving his time to writing and itinerant ministry. The commentary contains a lot of helpful comment and sensible application. Everyone will find spiritual benefit in reading it and preachers will find it a help. And yet it leaves you frustrated. Verses spark snippets of systematic theology and pastoral advice. And it is good theology and wise advice, but you long for more thorough and creative engagement with the text. I hear good reformed theology emerging from the pages (no bad thing), but I am not sure I hear the voice of Paul speaking with fresh relevance for us today -and that's what I want from a commentary. The commentary sometimes asks why Paul says what he says - sometimes. But it does not ask why he says what he says when he says it and in the way he says it. No overall sense of the message of 2 Corinthians emerges. Dealing with chapter 4, for example, Prime give seven reasons why we might be discouraged and seven reasons to take heart. They are all good reasons and all consistent with the text. But in the process the flow of the chapter's argument is lost. Prime traces Paul's line of thought better when he deals with chapters 10-13. But it was disappointing not to get a greater sense of the radical implications of what Paul says about power and weakness. The result is a commentary that is solid and reliable with plenty of practical application, but it does not set the heart racing. Dr. Tim Chester,
|
|
