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An Introduction to the New Testament Manuscripts and Their Texts: D. C. Parker: New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008. 368 pp. $99.00
Shane Berg Theology Today 2010 67: 224 DOI: 10.1177/004057361006700209 The online version of this article can be found at: http://ttj.sagepub.com/content/67/2/224.citation

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Book Reviews

Theology Today

in the opening to his book, it is not accidental that the commandments found a place at the beginning of the liturgy in The Book of Common Prayer. I can only hope that if this book is read as widely as it deserves, that practice might be recovered.
Stanley Hauerwas Duke Divinity School Durham, North Carolina

An Introduction to the New Testament Manuscripts and Their Texts

D. C. Parker
New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008. 368 pp. $99.00.

David Parkers introduction to New Testament textual criticism is an impressive and important work that no doubt will quickly ascend to a place of prominence in the eld. Not only is the book beautifully written and executed, but it also provides a helpful orientation to New Testament textual criticism while providing a wealth of innovative and creative new ways to conceive of the task of textual criticism. It is a rare book that can serve as both primer and manifesto. Parker has written just such a book. The book is divided into three sections, the rst of which deals with manuscripts. In addition to an excellent overview of important manuscripts and textual traditions, Parker provides practical guidance for the major tools and resources that one must employ in order to study ancient manuscripts. He even includes a section on visiting a manuscript library, which one is hard pressed to nd in any comparable work. Parkers conviction that New Testament textual criticism must begin with the study of the manuscripts themselves, not transcriptions of manuscripts, comes through very clearly. This emphatic assertion is a most needed and welcome corrective to scholars in the eld who have increasingly been working several steps removed from the actual textual artifacts. The second section of the book offers an overview of, and introduction to, the rise of textual criticism and its principle methods and goals. The treatment of the history of the discipline and its major reference tools and editions is clear, succinct, and helpful. Parkers discussion of the nature and purposes of textual criticism is tantalizingly brief (he has written about this topic more fully in some of his other works) but theologically quite provocative and inter-

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Book Reviews

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esting. Parker does not regard New Testament textual criticism as merely the process of determining the earliest possible text of the New Testament. Rather, he articulates a much more sophisticated position that entails rst and foremost thinking of the relationship between text and communitieswhether one is thinking of ancient texts and the communities who copied and preserved them or modern communities (both academic and ecclesial) who produce critical textual editions. The theological implications of Parkers way of conceiving of the task of textual criticism warrant careful consideration and reection. The third and nal section of the book covers the textual history of various parts of the New Testament: Revelation, Pauls epistles, Acts and the Catholic Epistles, and the Gospels. This way of organizing the nal section takes seriously the fact that each of these groups of New Testament texts requires its own independent treatment when considering questions of textual transmission. One cannot assume that what is true of the textual history and transmission of the Gospels, for example, is true for the Pauline letters. This section, like the previous two, is impressive in its breadth, brevity, and lucidity. Parkers introduction will serve well both students and scholars in the eld of New Testament textual criticism, and it should become a primary reference for students and scholars in studies of the New Testament and of ancient Christianity.
Shane Berg Princeton Theological Seminary Princeton, New Jersey

Incarnation: The Person and Life of Christ

Thomas F. Torrance, edited by Robert T. Walker
Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2008. 371 pp. $37.00.

This book is a veritable theological gold mine. It comprises T. F. Torrances lectures on christology and soteriology given at the University of Edinburgh from 1952 to 1978. Published posthumously and ably edited with a lengthy and very helpful introduction by Robert T. Walker, Torrances nephew, this work should be required reading for all who seriously would engage in the study of theology today. Instead of attempting a christology from above or from below, Torrance simply begins by asserting that we cannot compare the fact of Christ with other facts, nor can we deduce the fact of Christ from our

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