Thanks so much for ordering Scripture First: Biblical Interpretation That Fosters Christian Unity!
Daniel, I, and all of the contributors hope you’ll find the book to be a helpful and thought-provoking resource.
The volume is now available. So, depending on when you ordered and from whom, you should expect to see your copy in the mail around that time.
Meanwhile, you can find all of your order bonuses below, including:
- A conversation with Daniel and me about the process of producing this edited volume,
- Keith Stanglin’s journal article that provided the initial inspiration for the conference sessions that ended up producing Scripture First,
- A video walkthrough of the hand exercise that Scott Adair proposes in his essay, and
- A copy of the spreadsheet I used to create the modern author index.
1. A Conversation with the Editors
To give you a look behind the scenes of what went into producing Scripture First, Daniel and I recorded a conversation for you where we talk through that process.
We also reflect on some things that we thought went particularly well along the way, in addition to some of what we gleaned about the bumps in the road.
2. Keith Stanglin’s Journal Article
In 2016, Keith Stanglin published “The Restoration Movement, the Habit of Schism, and a Proposal for Unity” in Christian Studies.
Keith’s chapter in Scripture First condenses some of this earlier argument but also adds a good amount of further reflection to suggest ways of moving past some potential challenges to his earlier proposal.
For Keith’s fuller treatment particularly of Thomas Campbell and his context, Keith’s earlier Christian Studies article may be a helpful companion to Scripture First.
3. Scott Adair’s Hand Exercise
In his essay, Scott Adair discusses some of the main the doctrinal and ethical content encapsulated within Christian baptism. After unpacking this content, Scott also proposes a hand exercise for teaching and recalling this content.
You can easily follow along with Scott’s description of this exercise in his essay. But since “a picture is worth a thousand words,” this video walks you through the exercise visually as well.
4. My Spreadsheet for Creating the Modern Author Index
As Daniel and I talk about in our discussion above, we split the indexing work for Scripture First between the two of us. Daniel took “ancient works,” and I took “modern authors.”
After trying a few different methods for producing the modern authors index on a few pages at the beginning of Scripture First, I decided the simplest would be to use a spreadsheet.
Admittedly, I’m much more of a “spreadsheet nerd” than many. But the process had some advantages. In particular, it allowed for easier manipulation of the index data at the different stages of it’s production.
So, if you find yourself needing to produce an index like this at some point, I’m hopeful that having a copy of the spreadsheet I produced might make that process easier for you by giving you a helpful template to begin with.