Though I provide expected release dates below, these are tentative and depend on many factors. So, as God wills it, I will finish the following projects in the near future.
Series – The God’s Gifts for the Christian Life
By J. Alexander Rutherford
God has not left His people without help in the day of trouble—or in the day of prosperity for that matter. The Bible is God’s gift to His people, revealing to them Jesus Christ and the salvation He has accomplished. But the gift of Scripture does not end in revealing our need for salvation and God’s provision for it; Scripture is sufficient for the entire Christian life (2 Tim. 3:16-17). In this series, J. Alexander Rutherford unpacks how God through the Bible has given what we need to live faithfully in this World. Each volume unpacks the Scriptural teaching against the background of contemporary culture and shows how the Bible provides a firm foundation for our lives. Each volume is intended to be short, 110-150 pages, and accessible to the interested reader. The primary audience is theologically interested lay-Christians (Christians who are not in paid ministry and have no formal theological training), students, and pastors.
This series is intended to fill the spot of prolegomena in a systematic or dogmatic theological work. However, the vision of theology laid out in these volumes is not that of a traditional systematic theology. Instead of laying forth the presuppositions and methods for constructing a system of doctrine from the Biblical data in conversation with tradition, God’s Gifts for the Christian Life is meant to lay a foundation for the theological life. It is prolegomena in the sense that it is meant to lay forth a framework for faithful, thoughtful Christian life in the West and beyond. Theology, as laid out in this series, is the application of the Word of God by God’s people to every area of life (following John Frame in The Doctrine of the Knowledge of God). This series is meant to show how God has made it possible to live a truly Christian life and how the Christian life can and should involve thoughtful, intellectual engagement with culture in order that we might save those who are now perishing. All life is a gift and the Bible, accompanied by the Spirit in the lives of God’s redeemed people, is a gift preeminent, sufficient and clear so that we might have the confidence to live boldly and faithfully for God in this world.
Part 1: The Gift of Knowledge: A Biblical Perspective on Knowledge
Part 1, the Gift of Knowledge, addresses the questions raised by philosophy and culture concerning the nature and possibility of knowledge and truth. In this first part, a biblically grounded theology of the Christian mind is presented, encompassing epistemology (the structure and nature of knowledge), metaphysics (the relationship between the human mind and the objects of thought), and Biblical hermeneutics (the way we interpret the Bible, our ultimate authority) will be presented. Read more here.
Volume 1 — The Gift of Knowing: A Biblical Perspective on Knowing and Truth
The Gift of knowing is now available, as of February 2019. See here.
Volume 2.1 — The Gift of Reading — Part 1: Reading the Bible in Submission to God
The Gift of Reading – Part 1 is now available, as of September 2019. See here.
Volume 2.2 — The Gift of Reading — Part 2: A Biblical Perspective on Hermeneutics
The Gift of Reading – Part 2 is now available, as of September 2019. See here.
Volume 3 — The Gift of Seeing: A Biblical Perspective on Ontology
The Gift of Seeing is now available, see here.
Part 2 – The Gift of Truth: A Biblical Perspective on Scripture
Volume 1 — The Gift of Revelation: A Doctrine of Scripture
The Gift of Revelation is now available, see here.
Volume 2 — The Gift of the Old Testament: Promises Given
I intend to publish The Gift of the Old Testament in 2023-2024.
Volume 3 — The Gift of the New Testament: Promises Fulfilled
I intend to publish The Gift of the New Testament in 2023-2024.
Part 3 – The Gift of Wisdom: A Biblical Perspective on the Christian Life
In the third part of “God’s Gifts for the Christian Life,” I intend to present several different perspectives on the way God calls us as Christians to live. I am still working on the concepts for the 2nd and 3rd volume, but I suspect they will address in different fashions ecclesiology, or the doctrine of the Church, and the task of theology.
Volume 1 – The Gift of Purpose: Orienting the Christian Life in the Western World
I have now finished the first several drafts of this work, so I am confident (God willing) it will be prepared for publishing by early 2021. In this book, I consider how God would have us as Christians engage with our cultures, especially Western culture. I am writing against a trend I have witnessed among Evangelicals to make saving Western culture a priority, to varying extents of course. After sketching the way the Gospel has shaped what is best in Western culture, I then evaluate several positions on Christian cultural engagement that have a high view of Western culture. This includes Transformationalism or Neo-Calvinism, Reformed 2 Kingdoms teaching, and various approaches of ressourcement, or looking to the past for answers to present cultural issues. In the final part of the book, I use the themes of ecclesiology, soteriology, and eschatology to present several principles for Christian cultural engagement.
The Gift of Purpose was published on December 18, 2020. See here.
Volume 2 — The Gift of Theology: A Biblical Perspective on Theology
I intend to publish The Gift of Theology in 2023-2024.
Volume 3 — The Gift of Family: A Biblical Perspective on Ecclesiology
I intend to publish The Gift of Family in 2023.
Expected 2022
A Journal for the Hebrew Scriptures
From 2020-2022, we have laboured to make the entire Hebrew Bible according to the Masoretic text with an attractive layout, no verse and chapter markings, and extensive room for note taking. As of December 2022, A Journal for the Hebrew Scriptures is now complete. Read more about this project here.
Expected 2023
The Being of the Church: A Neo-Congregational Polity
I have thought extensively about the nature of the church over many years now; this book is the culmination of that prayerful investigation into the nature and structure of Christ’s Church. In this book, I have loosely followed the 17th-century Cambridge Platform of Discipline to offer a vision of polity I am calling neo-congregational. I have learned much from the Cambridge Platform but here have adapted it in light of the following centuries of engagements with these issues. In particular, I have taken the cue of some chapters in the document where ecclesial authority is invested in the entire congregation, laity and clergy together, so that no ecclesial act can be performed by the clergy alone or the laity alone. Instead it is the act of the eldership and the rest of the congregation together. This is not the dominate perspective in the Cambridge Platform, but it is there; I believe this is the biblical pattern of ecclesial authority. In this volume, I have re-printed the Cambridge Platform and the Burial Hill Declaration in modernised forms as appendices.
Teleioteti – Part 1: A Critique of Contemporary Christian Education
I intend to publish Teleioteti – Part 1 on December 16, 2023.
Expected 2024
Teleioteti – Part 2: A Biblical Perspective on Training Ministers
I intend to publish Teleioteti – Part 2 on March 21, 2024.
Teleioteti – Part 3: A Biblical Perspective on Theological Research
I intend to publish Teleioteti – Part 3 on June 16, 2024.
Unknown
Habakkuk: A Pastoral Commentary
I intended to publish this volume shortly after finishing my Habakkuk commentary, but other projects have taken my attention. I am unsure at this time when I will return to this project.
The Revelation of Jesus Christ: An Exegetical-Theological Commentary on Revelation
I have a preliminary, annotated translation prepared and am in the process of producing a study guide, which will then be the basis of a fuller commentary.
The Fulness of Christ: An Exegetical-Theological Commentary on Ephesians
Metaphysics and Christian Doctrine
A book length treatment of the missteps in Christian engagement with metaphysics and a programme for constructive, theological engagement with metaphysics.
Other Projects
I have also been working on several Biblical Hebrew and Greek resources that would employ the insights from my epistemological and hermeneutical work in “God’s Gifts.” My hope is to make learning to read these languages quicker and more natural for the beginning student.
In addition to these, I have been writing a project with the working title, Portraits of a Great God. This book presents 20 pictures of God throughout Scripture through accesible exegesis and illustration. It will be followed by a similar work concerning Jesus.