Had a strange experience tonight. I am currently involved in a writing and editing project for Veritas Press — the Omnibus materials. The first text for seventh graders has been published and can be found off to right on the bookrack. The second text for eighth graders is just about ready to go off to the printers. And we are now doing the writing for the ninth grade text. The purpose of each text is to provide an introductory worldview essay and a set of class exercises in an integrated program of the study of great books in history, literature, and theology. Anyhow, the whole thing is kind of ambitious, and thus far the returns are good. But this is just the set up for my strange experience.
I am writing the essay on the book of Philemon, so I have been reading up on it. Today I grabbed one of those Tyndale workhorse commentaries put out by InterVarsity Press, and brought it home to read. Now this is nothing against the Tyndale commentaries; they are good, sturdy, reliable, basic. That’s why I grabbed one. But as I was reading, I began wondering about the odd feeling I had. This one was really, really good. Then the phone rang, or something happened, and I put the book down. As a result I glanced at the cover and saw who wrote it — N.T. Wright. Whatever credit I got with John Robbins for calling Jesus a proposition the other day I have now lost. I can’t win for losing.