John Stott is a preacher of great renown so it is both enlightening and encouraging to read about his struggles with preaching as well as the advice he gives after a lifetime in the pulpit. Throughout the book he inserted small parentheses which seem minuscule but are very helpful to the aspiring preacher. Another delight in reading Stott's book is his thorough scouring of many homiletical books of others. In reading this book, one gets the sense they are reading somewhere between 8-10 books since Stott is culling information from them. This book is a far cry from being a shot from the hip. Stott has researched his topic well. I found this book to be more than just an homiletics book but also a history book and a spiritual formation book. With the modern crisis in preaching of preachers who are ignorant of the history of preaching and more importantly impotent in their spirituality, I can hardly criticize Stott for giving more attention to these matters. Since I enjoy Church history a great deal, I was pleased to read the perspectives many of the great preachers had on the form, power and content of preaching. This bred a great deal of understanding in my own mind toward the task of preaching. I was also greatly encouraged to see the effects of God's Word as it has been preached from faithful vessels with God's glory in mind. If there is one thing I would want to communicate to others about this book it would be its emphasis on the mandatory spiritual life. From cover to cover Stott is emphatic in separating God's Word from man's word. Since the preacher is not preaching his own ideas but rather God's, it is imperative that the preacher not impede the power of the message with his own shoddy character. The preacher is first of all a man of God and secondly a receptacle and a distributor of God's Word.

I just finished this book (English edition "I Believe in Preaching") and, though I had a number of quibbles, I think this is one of Stott's most classic books. Churches throughout the world have systematically abandoned expository preaching and taken hold of secular business growth strategies. While growth in numbers may occur, the depth of faith is not there because the preaching is not from the Bible. Stott's book is a reminder that preachers should not preach what the audience wants to hear, but what they need to hear. What Stott really pushed for me was the notion that preachers should engage both the intellect and the emotion. Preaching which is merely intellectual is dry and uninteresting, no matter how true it is. Preaching which is merely emotional has little substance to it. True Expository preaching (the systematic preaching through books of the Bible, rather than topics or themes or hobbyhorses of the preacher) engages both the head and the heart, the intellect and the emotions, the ancient world (of the Bible) with the modern world of today.

Good theology, flawless logic and lots of practical "how to's". If you are now a proclaimer of Truth or are kicking the tires on it, so to speak, this book is essential.

Are you aware of the many textual changes, not due to translation, that have affected New Testament versions since the Reformation? Perhaps you have been puzzled at the addition, subtraction or differences between verses, even whole paragraphs, that exist among the translations from that time up until today. If you wonder why your Bible is changing, you need to read this book.

My first Bible was the King James (or Authorized) version. I read from it, studied it and cherished it as my most prized possession. Unfortunately, I also found much of it hard to understand. Naturally, as many Christians do, and have done, I started looking at more modern translations of that noble Book, and what I discovered was disturbing.

Though I found many of the newer translations to be much easier to read, I discovered that certain verses were missing. Not translated differently, but MISSING! I wondered what was going on. After reading further, I discovered that other verses were added, and, once in a while, entire historical accounts were either entirely missing, significantly changed or noted to be of doubtful originality. I had to get to the bottom of WHY these changes were made, and WHO made them-- so I began what to this day has proved one of the most rewarding studies of my life: the study of New Testament textual criticism.

Textual criticism is the science that attempts to reconstruct the purest, most original form of text from the many thousands of, at times, conflicting and divergent documents that span, in the case of the New Testament, many centuries. This volume, actually a compilation of seventeen studies, provides a fascinating, insightful look into the discoveries, and the theories that attempt to accommodate them, that have impacted the very form of today's New Testament.

Authored by two experts in the field, this volume will serve as an excellent introduction to the science of New Testament textual criticism. You will learn the basic terms and ideas endemic to this field of study, and survey the varying methods (and underlying theories) used to determine the most original form of the Christian New Testament. I highly recommend this valuable book-- with an important qualification.

The potential reader should be advised that this volume is written by two individuals who, though recognized authorities in the field, represent a particular theoretical approach, popularly known as reasoned eclecticism, that is only one among several currently taken. As with any historical science, differences of opinion exist among the experts, so proceed with an open mind, and enjoy!

For those who care, I am an evangelical pastor (and Ph.D. candidate) currently preaching through 1 Peter in the church I serve. I am using several commentaries, but this is the best overall. That should not be surprising since Acht. is able to build on many worthy predecessors, most notably Michaels (in the Word series), Goppelt and Kelly. Acht. is able to take full advantage of other works, and even many more recent studies in 1 Peter that have appeared since then. Being the latest work, by default, it is the most up to date and the most inclusive of previous works. Beyond its newness, why is the the best? 1) Acht. has very good exegetical and theological sensibilities. He does not get carried away with all the subtleties of the Greek (and Michaels is prone to do), and never loses sight of the overall picture (Evangelicals will disagree with some of his stances--notably his rigid egalitarianism), 2)As for usefulness, the format is a preacher's dream. All the scholarly information is placed in footnotes (don't forget to check these!), so the text reads clearly and quickly. I found this work much more useful in sermon preperation than Michaels work (in which all the references and scholarly notes are placed in the text!). My one complaint is the price of the Hermenia volumes. They are excellent hard cover books, but a tad more than most individuals (let alone pastors) want to pay for one commentary (considering there are 65 other books in the Bible). I would recommend that Hermenia put it out in a smaller, soft-cover edition and reduce the price to about 25$. This commentary deserves wide usage in our churches, and its current price probably causes many pastors to opt for the less expensive (and less good) works by Michaels or Davids. If they reduce the price, I would give it 5 instead of only 4 stars.