As the tagline says … this is a “short” Introduction to the New Testament … although if there is anything new here for ministers, that would be a surprise. The first three (3) chapters provide some groundwork to how the books of the New Testament were selected (very briefly) and how the order of the books work in relation to each other to provide a better understanding of the whole … with the introduction focused on how this is a different type of commentary (it is not really much of a commentary at all in my mind) to chapter 2 (after the lengthy intro) providing the canonical context and connection to “essential elements from the Old Testament until chapter 3 opens a brief discussion on the interpretive approach that highlights the concept of the New Testament being the Old Testament fulled. It is a completely orthodox approach that even champions a very early Gospel date based strictly on the “prediction” of the temple destruction (despite the consensus being more weighted toward after). Regardless, it is still a pretty solid approach to the New Testament that few christians would oppose as not legitimate.

The bulk of the work begins in Chapter 4 with a look at the Gospels themselves … after a brief summary of the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles, it dives into each with a section of its own. Each section is organized into a quick analysis of the style and purported intent of the book, followed by a brief outline and overview (with commentary that is focused on the thematic cohorts found there in … making this the largest part of the section for a given book), canonical function (how it fits and the reason for the order within the canon), then authorship, dating and audience (very rudimentary treatment here) before closing out the chapter with suggested resources. All in all, it is well organized and good, if very basic information on the New Testament; although I am incline to disagree with some of the provided exegesis/commentary (my objection is not really that material to the over all message). So … Not only do you get a solid overview of the Gospels, but you also get a pretty good summary of the what and why of Paul’s letters and the rest of the New Testament (including the catholic/universal and John tradition letters) that is largely responsible for how christians actually live their faith … so in that regard, it is actually a good resource to non-christians as well if they are even remotely interest in understanding the scared text of that religion.