Summer Reading List

“Where was this book when I was a seminary student?” | Ken Keathley’s Summer Reading Recommendations

Ken Keathley | May 27, 2020
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As summer begins, we want to help you craft the perfect Summer Reading List. We asked Southeastern Seminary professors what books they would recommend, and we’ll share their recommendations in coming weeks.

Today, Center for Faith and Culture Director Ken Keathley recommends two books for your summer reading list.

The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible
By Michael S. Heiser (Lexham Press, 2015)

Keathley: Heiser argues that Evangelicals are more influenced by the Enlightenment that we want to admit. Thus we tend to tone down and to flatten out the biblical passages that we find difficult to reconcile with a modern worldview (and perhaps we might even find a little embarrassing). A classic example of this, contends Heiser, is how Evangelicals typically interpret “the sons of God” in Genesis 6. Most Evangelical scholars see them as the descendants of Seth. Heiser argues, compellingly in my opinion, that “the sons of God” are rebellious members of the divine council. This is a fascinating biblical theology of “the elohim,” the spiritual entities at war with YHWH, God of the Bible.

The New Testament in its World: An Introduction to the History, Literature, and Theology of the First Christian
By N. T. Wright and Michael S. Bird (Zondervan Academic, 2019)

Keathley: Where was this book when I was a seminary student taking New Testament Survey? The book’s heftiness can be off-putting. It’s shaped like a masonry block and just as heavy. But don’t let that intimidate you. Rarely is a textbook so much fun to read. Bird has distilled Wright’s voluminous writings into one volume and then added his own wry twist. The result is one of the most readable and informative introductions to the New Testament ever written. Sheltering at home gave me the opportunity to read all 900 pages. However, this text works as a reference book that can be started and stopped anywhere.    

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  • Summer Reading List
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Ken Keathley

Director of the L. Russ Bush Center for Faith and Culture

Ken Keathley is Senior Professor of Theology, occupying the Jesse Hendley Chair of Theology at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, North Carolina where he has been teaching since 2006. He also directs the L. Russ Bush Center for Faith and Culture, a center that seeks to engage culture, defend the Christian faith, and explore its implications for all areas of life. Of his writing projects most notably he is the author of Salvation and Sovereignty: A Molinist Approach (2010), co-author of 40 Questions About Creation and Evolution (2014), co-editor of Old Earth or Evolutionary Creation? Discussing Origins with Reasons to Believe and BioLogos (2017), and editor of The Historical Adam and Eve: An Evangelical Conversation (forthcoming). Ken and his wife Penny have been married since 1980, live in Wake Forest, NC and are members of North Wake Church in Wake Forest, North Carolina. They have a son and daughter, both married, and four grandchildren.

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