The Worldview Study Bible (CSB) — B&H Publishing
Wonderful essays highlight a minimalist and beautiful design in this new study Bible
Growing up in a Christian family (and attending Christian elementary and secondary schools), I heard a lot about a Christian worldview. As the first essay in The Worldview Study Bible adequately explains, a worldview is like a lens through which you see the world. Everyone has a worldview: the question is only what forms yours. I have to say, my understanding of the Biblical worldview was greatly enhanced by The Worldview Study Bible. For all the talk of a Christian worldview (I prefer the descriptor “Biblical” because it is more clear about the source as the Bible and not other Christians), I found that there was little exploration of what exactly that worldview consists of and how that can be contrasted to the world. Simply perusing the list of essays in The Worldview Study Bible gives a picture of the scope of the Biblical worldview, and the features presented within this work are immensely valuable as supplements to the biblical text.
As an overview of the study Bible, I will give a brief exploration of the major features by which it distinguishes itself from other study Bibles.
Cover: I usually receive hardcover editions of study Bibles when I review them, but this time I received a Bible with a LeatherTouch Navy cover. The navy color is beautiful, the silver lettering adds significantly to the aesthetic, and the minimalist design is a perfect fit. The LeatherTouch exterior makes it surprisingly easy and comfortable to carry, which is important to me.
Book Introductions: these are standard for study Bibles, and all CSB study Bibles have common elements explored such as “Author”, “Background”, “Contribution to the Bible”, and “Structure”. The Worldview Study Bible adds a section to the introduction of each book of the Bible called “Christian Worldview Elements”. Each has three headings: 1) Teachings About God, 2) Teachings About Humanity, and 3) Teachings About Salvation. These introductions clarify what readers can expect to see in a book of the Bible when it comes to the biblical view of these fundamental aspects of our faith. These are helpful, but not a major reason to consider switching Bibles. At least without the next feature.
Worldview-themed essays: These essays are the core of the supplementary content in this study Bible. Strategically inserted throughout the biblical text, 132 essays provide a biblical worldview of an impressive breadth of topics. A large number of these are titled “A Biblical View of…” or “The Bible and…”, making clear the biblical worldview that is the point of the larger work. While these are individuals with personal opinions, I found nothing that ventured out of orthodoxy in the many essays I fully read. Also: the list of authors for these essays would impress anyone who runs in Southern Baptist circles. Here are just the names of the authors I have previously been familiar with:
Trevin Wax; Gregory Thornbury; Mary Jo Sharp; Daniel Darling; Thomas Kidd; Bruce Ashford; Albert Mohler; Jason Duesing; Frank Page; David Dockery; Thom Rainer; Daniel Akin; Russell Moore; Mark Noll; Chuck Lawless; Kevin Smith; Andrew Walker; Jason Allen; Bruce Ware
There are many more, and some that I didn’t include will doubtlessly be recognized by others. It is an impressive list. And if that’s not enough, the essays themselves are thoughtful, challenging, enlightening, and unlike anything you will see in another study Bible. They are experts in the fields they are writing about. Russell Moore, author of Adopted for Life, writes “A Biblical View of Adoption”. Respected historian Thomas Kidd writes “A Biblical View of History”, which is terrific. Mark Noll, also a historian and author of many great works including A History of Christianity in the United States and Canada and From Every Tribe and Nation: A Historian’s Discovery of the Global Christian Story, writes an essay for The Worldview Study Bible titled “North American Evangelicals and the Global South” (one of my favorites). Other essays that I found particularly outstanding were Kevin Smith’s “The Bible and Civil Rights” and Theodore Cabal’s “Creation: Why an Old Earth View is Defensible”. Many other essays could equal or even surpass these in quality and I would believe it. I was not able to read all of them because, well, there are 132. These essays are the major reason to consider this study Bible, and that is more than enough. I have always given away a study Bible after reviewing it, but I am keeping this one because of the worldview-themed essays. There is so much more I want to explore.
Study notes: the study notes are usually the most important part of a study Bible to me because as I am reading I always want to see what a commentator has to say about a word or phrase or even a whole passage. In general, the more the better. That is why I bought the original CSB Study Bible. However, The Worldview Study Bible has significantly less study notes, and I consider that a positive feature. Why?
First, there are still quite a few, if not several, notes on each page of the biblical text. However, I noticed that the commentary is more geared toward passages than specific verses. Maybe 20–30% of the notes explain one verse in more detail, and the rest delve into a passage to comment on its meaning or importance.
Second, if there were more study notes, the New Testament especially would swerve into more commentary than actual biblical text. The essays are less spaced out in the New Testament, so the relative paucity of study notes becomes a feature, not a bug. And, like I said, the essays are terrific. In addition, many notes are simply references to essays elsewhere in the study Bible when a biblical passage deals with an issue but the relevant essay is situated in another place.
Finally, even with 132 essays, The Worldview Study Bible is significantly thinner and easier to carry than my CSB Study Bible. For that reason, I am going to switch to The Worldview Study Bible as my carry-to-church Bible (when I am not teaching). Sometimes less is truly more.
Conclusion: If you are interested in expert perspectives on what the Bible says on many modern cultural and spiritual issues and you don’t know where to start in reading the Bible to find those answers, I highly recommend The Worldview Study Bible. The essays are the primary reason to make such a decision, but the notes are helpful and the minimalist design is fantastic. It will enrich your personal studies and help you shape your worldview to be more like God’s. That is one of our chief aims in the Christian life, because from that flows our standards, our motivations, and our love for the world itself.
I received a review copy of this book courtesy of B&H Books and Lifeway, but my opinions are my own.
