A useful and user-friendly text for undergraduate study of the New Testament. While clearly based on the most up-to-date scholarship, the presentation will be especially helpful for students approaching the Bible critically for the first time. The text never falls into excessive jargon; the style is clear, with complex issues neatly developed.

Landry’s first few chapters on the background to the New Testament texts are comprehensive yet compact. Discussions of such issues as document dating, canonical development, comparison of canonical and noncanonical gospels, and the task of critical inquiry are all helpful.

Time and again, I found this text fit well with my own presentation of the material and the range of students I encounter in my classroom. It has the real feel of classroom experience. I can see myself using this textbook very successfully, and I think other teachers of the Bible would find it similarly useful.