Layer by Layer is a helpful and engaging primer on the intersection of archaeology and biblical studies. Pictures, charts, and pop culture references will engage students while providing professors plenty of resources for the classroom. Ellen White makes a convincing case that the disciplines of archaeology and biblical studies are stronger when in dialogue. Layer by Layer not only introduces the methods of archaeology, but also explores the basics of biblical exegesis. Respect for both disciplines is evident throughout the book and the final chapter ably demonstrates the advantages biblical archaeology provides by considering the origins of Israel.

Romantic, controversial, myth-making, myth-breaking. Ellen White’s introduction opens a window onto the fascinating world of biblical archaeology and some of its most famous proponents. Every reader will have their appetite whetted for more.

Ellen White’s Layer by Layer is lively, informative, and accessible. Reading it is like sitting in on a lecture with your favorite professor, who keeps the class engaged with well-chosen examples, anecdotes, and slides.  These features keep the book grounded in the concrete realities of archaeology and biblical studies, and they also help build the case White is making for a partnership between the two disciplines. As she demonstrates in her final chapter, both are foundational for interpreting biblical texts.  White’s experience in both disciplines makes her an ideal guide and a model of the scholarly approach she advocates.

Islam A Living Faith is the first textbook that I have seen that provides the lay reader and seasoned scholars alike with an accessible overview of Islam and its history, the key issues facing the faith today, and how Muslims around the world live in the twenty-first century. It is not only very well written but it also uses a unique global framework to discuss Islam that draws on the experiences of Muslim men and women from the Muslim World and the West. The book’s nuanced arguments are also well supported by solid scholarship.

This refreshing and highly accessible work purports to offer a logical and creative analysis of the testimony of the Christian Scriptures as well as two millennia of Christian thinking about Jesus Christ, the visible image of the invisible God and the Spirit who reveals him.

Because of its faithfulness to the sources of Christianity as well as a creative use of familiar images from contemporary literature and film, Christ and the Spirit invites its readers to think more clearly about their experience and interpretation of God’s presence in their lives and history, and how that experience might (or might not) connect with the Christian experience of God acting in Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. After presenting the saving mystery, the book has the courage to ask “so what?”—hoping to help the reader come to know something new and significant about the Christian understanding of God’s love made present to human beings through Jesus Christ and the Spirit.

This book has valuable insights for college students and participants in programs of adult faith formation. I highly recommend it.