Book Reviews -- By: Anonymous

Journal: Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society
Volume: JETS 37:1 (Mar 1994)
Article: Book Reviews
Author: Anonymous


Book Reviews

What Every Christian Should Know About the AIDS Epidemic: The Medical and Biblical Facts about AIDS. By Franklin E. Payne, Jr. Augusta: Covenant, 1991, 204 pp., $9.95 paper.

Payne is a Christian physician and Presbyterian elder who teaches family medicine at the Medical College of Georgia and is the founder of the Journal of Biblical Ethics in Medicine. His book on the AIDS epidemic addresses one of the critical moral and medical issues facing the Church in this decade. Various chapters give a history of the problem worldwide and in the United States, assess the extent of the problem, consider the impact on the family unit and ministry of the Church, discuss the moral issues in light of Biblical teachings, and give the necessary medical and epidemiological backgrounds to the problem. Related issues such as the economic and social impact of the disease, issues of quarantining and testing, safety of the blood supply, risks of casual infection, and a final chapter on Winning the War against AIDS” are also included. The book has a special appendix on “Risk in Health Care Workers” and also includes a glossary of terms and Scripture and subject indices.

The author’s book is a valuable contribution to the current debate on the AIDS epidemic and its implications for American society and the Church. It combines medical expertise and sound Biblical insight in a way that is frequently lacking in this controversial and politicized area of current public policy. It is to be recommended to pastors, teachers, seminary students, and for acquisition for church libraries.

John Jefferson Davis
Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, South Hamilton, MA

Ancient Israelite Literature in Its Cultural Context: A Survey of Parallels between Biblical and Ancient Near Eastern Texts. By John H. Walton. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1989, 249 pp., n.p.

Scholars have long recognized many parallels between the Bible and ancient Near Eastern cultures. Walton’s volume represents an attempt to “survey the parallels that exist within the various genres of literature between the Old Testament and the primary cultures of the ancient Near East” (p. 14).

The book’s title is somewhat misleading, for the book really focuses more on Near Eastern literature than on Israelite literature. Walton’s basic premise is that Ysrael, while being the recipient of divine revelation that gave her a unique theological distinctiveness, reflected in many ways the culture of the ancient Near East. Such a reflection implies that Israelite thinking cannot be understood in isolation from its ancient Near Eastern cultural context” (p. 13). In his introduction the author affirms his belief in Biblica...

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