Five-star for “Gospel for the Outsider” in Preach magazine
Added about 9 years ago by Sacristy Press
The next edition of Preach magazine (Autumn 2015) gives Patrick Whitworth’s Gospel for the Outsider a top mark of five stars, calling it “an asset to any Bible student or preacher”.
Here is the review in full:
This was an enjoyable and useful read. The writer suggests that much of the teaching of Jesus and those who follow him is aimed at those ‘outside’ the conventions of normal society and so presents an interesting slant on Luke’s writings. This book enabled me to be more aware of the many characters we come across in the pages of the Bible and in our daily lives.
There are chapters examining Jesus’ attitude to women, the disabled, those who are too poor (and surprisingly, too rich) and also how these are dealt with by his followers. Although this presented a good exegetical examination of all the passages considered, these were all applied to the real world – no mean feat when one small book attempts to look at the gospel of Jesus presented in two books of the Bible. When I first read the title and was contemplating the enormity of the challenge the writer had given himself, I wondered whether the topic would be spread too thinly and not in sufficient depth to make it useful, but I had to admit I was proved wrong as this succeeds in covering a lot of ground while remaining small enough to be easily readable. There is very little material that is original in this book, as many details are also in other commentaries, but here the specific emphasis is on those on the margins of society.
There are challenging Bible studies at the end, one for each chapter, which help to ensure that this subject is at the forefront of our thinking.
This book is scholarly enough to be an asset to any Bible student or preacher, and will ensure that their sermons are grounded in the real world.
Kathrine Davey
Preach magazine
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