Today’s book is from Kregel Ministry and is the first volume I have in the
Kerux Commentary series. The overall concept is that a pair of authors will work on each volume in partnership: one an exegetical author, one a homiletical author. In other words, one author to focus on the Biblical studies concepts and one to help guide the teaching and preaching concepts.
In that light, the Kerux series fits into the category of a homiletical commentary rather than a technical one, fixed on details, or a devotional one, fixed on application.
Now, I have the
Philippians volume, so I’ll take a look at the features through what this volume shows. It’s one of the first volumes released, so there may be some adjustments in format going forward, but this is where it starts.
First of all, the book is broken down into segments of text intended to be preaching units. Each of these units are then presented with an exegetical idea, a theological focus, and a preaching idea. The text then fills out details in support of the exegesis and preaching ideas, with pointers on how to illustrate or strengthen the preaching and teaching of the passage included.
The preaching passages are derived from the outline of Philippians given by the authors, which divides Philippians into 6 major sections. Each section has at least 2 sub-units, with the Kerux Commentary giving a total of 18 suggestions for sermons.
Generally, the viewpoint adopted by the
Philippians authors is the conservative, evangelical one: Paul as the author, Rome as the place of authorship, and so forth. The introductory materials deal with some of the arguments and discussions, but mostly in explaining why the authors see no good reason to jettison the tradition.
I like the structure and content. At various places, there are shaded boxes to highlight exegetical information. It’s not quite as awesome as full-color would have been, but printing costs what it costs and going color would likely push these out of the reasonable price point.
Overall, this looks like a good series coming. This volume,
Philippians, is definitely a useful one.
(I did receive a copy of this book from Kregel.)