Vintage Jesus

This book is based off a sermon series that Driscoll gave in 2006 which I had heard before. The series was a good one, and if Driscoll didn't give the Christ on the Cross series a year earlier, I would have said Vintage Jesus was the best series on Jesus you should listen to. This book was less doctrinal than the Christ on the Cross sermon series and was more of a defence of Jesus. It looks at how Jesus fulfills the Old Testament, argues for the Virgin Birth and Jesus' bodily resurrection, looks at the impact Christianity has had in light of Jesus and deals with some other questions someone might ask.

Driscoll's writing style in this book would politely be described as been in the common parlance. He explains things in quite a down to earth, quite gritty style with lots of references to pop culture. Because of these immediate references to 2006 some of the chapter introductions felt already a little dated. To be fair the book did come out in 2008, but like most books I read, I never get round to them until they are a few years old. This site (about half way down) has an extended quote of Driscoll's summary of the Gospel of Mark, I think the author has posted it to paint Driscoll in a bad light, but I rather liked the way he summarises.

I would have liked one more chapter about Jesus' life on earth. There was one chapter about why Jesus came to earth, but then it skipped to the Cross. I would have liked a chapter focusing on Jesus' teaching and how Jesus is our example today.

I think if I lent this book out to anyone in my bible study, they wouldn't learn anything really new. That is not a bad thing, as I think Driscoll gives a very good solid grounding and introduction to what Christians believe about Jesus, and I think that is the whole purpose of the book. It was a good reminder for me about the basis of Christology presented in a very easy to read format. This would be a good book to hand to a new Christian dude.

You can watch/listen to the sermon series this book is based off for free, and check out the book's website for more information.


My other reviews of books by Driscoll:
Death by Love
A Book You'll Actually Read on the New Testament
A Book You'll Actually Read on the Old Testament
A Book You'll Actually Read on God
Confessions of a Reformission Rev