Fifth Sunday of Lent (Cycle A)

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The Raising of Lazarus Lectionary:  34 Reading 1 -  Ezekiel 37:12-14 Responsorial Psalm -  Psalm 130:1-8 Reading 2 -  Romans 8:8-11 Verse - John 11:25a, 26 Gospel -  John 11:1-45 Lazarus, come out! LESSON: The Power of God Through Those Who Believe We’re a week away from the start of Holy Week. Our Lord now has his sights set on Jerusalem, and the pace is quickening. In these next two weeks, we’re living just one part of the Gospel passage from today: an encounter with the reality of suffering and death. Jesus is asking us to have faith in him. In today’s First Reading the prophet Ezekiel reminds us of the Lord’s promise to not only to bring us back to life but to bring us home. The background of this passage is the famous "Valley of Dry Bones." The people of Israel were in exile in Babylon. They weren't just sad; they were spiritually and nationally "dead." Their common saying was: "Our bones are dried up, our hope is lost, and we are cut off." They d...
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Review: The Transforming Word Series, Volume 5: Letters to Early Churches: From Romans to Revelation

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The Transforming Word Series, Volume 5: Letters to Early Churches: From Romans to Revelation The Transforming Word Series, Volume 5: Letters to Early Churches: From Romans to Revelation by Mark W. Hamilton

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the last book of a five (5) volume set with a basic commentary on the Books of the Holy Bible. Organized the same way as the previous four (4) books, this volume introduces the Letters of the New Testament following the Gospels and Acts. The first three (3) chapters give an overview, with chapter three (3) being the odd man out covering the intersection of Religion and Science in a rather confusing mashup (this is the weakest chapter of the book). After then, the work dives into each of the individual letters, starting with Romans. Much like the third volume covering the Prophets were the biblical books are also fairly short, each chapter is also very short with only a general overview of the context and theology of the book examined. 

As with the entire set, these are all from the specific point of view represented by the Stone/Campbell Restorationist tradition with little treatment of any opposing views. It is in short a good place to start, but I continue to recommend using a more detailed commentary with (or after) this work. Some of the individual chapters are a tad repetitive, which was not too surprising given that some of the contributors write about multiple letters. The standard chapter organization of Context, Commentary/Exegesis, Theological Reflections, For Further Study ad Works Cited was not as effective because of how small some of the letters were. As something of a completionist I was very happy with the series as a whole and while not the strongest in the series, this was still very satisfactory.

~ Letters to Early Churches
~ Greco-Roman New Testament Backgrounds
~ Religion & Science
~ Romans
~ 1 Corinthians
~ 2 Corinthians
~ Galatians
~ Ephesians
~ Philippians
~ Colossians
~ 1 Thessalonians
~ 2 Thessalonians
~ 1 Timothy
~ 2 Timothy
~ Titus
~ Philemon
~ Hebrews
~ James
~ 1 Peter
~ 2 Peter
~ 1 John
~ 2 John
~ 3 John
~ Jude
~ Revelation

I was given this free advance reader copy (ARC) ebook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

#LettersToEarlyChurches #TheTransformingWordSeries #NetGalley.

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