Assignment: Complete a book review of The Lord Reigns: A Theological Handbook on the Psalms, by James L. Mays (1994).

Assignment: Complete a book review of The Lord Reigns: A Theological Handbook on the Psalms, by James L. Mays (1994).

Two-thirds of the paper should review the book chapter by chapter. Discuss each chapter’s main idea and how the author goes about arguing for it.

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The other one-third of your review should be critical reflection on the book’s contents, composed of the following points:

Positive reflections concerning the book. What was helpful and well-argued? What aspects did you find important? How do some ideas contained in the book help in understanding the Pentateuch’s story line? Does the book have implications to understand other parts of the Bible? (Give reasons for your answers to all of these questions.)
Negative reflections: What was not helpful, not well-argued or unclear? What points were weak? Interact with some of the book’s main ideas or some details that have a direct bearing on the book’s main points.
Take the ratio of dedicating at least 1/3 of your review to interaction, evaluation, and critical reflection seriously. Tagging on a paragraph or two of superficial “comments” at the end does not make for a book review. One-third of a 5-7 page assignment is roughly 1.5 to 2.5 pages. Neglecting this requirement and merely producing a book report summary does not satisfy the assignment and will likely not earn a passing grade on this assignment that is worth 30% of the total course grade.

Note: This is a book review, not a book report. You are expected to interact with the content. We are not interested in opinions on how the book is written or on what one “likes” or “doesn’t like” about it. This is not about whether or not you like the author’s style of writing, or your opinion about the author’s use of technical vocabulary. (The book is written for a college-level audience and up. It uses some technical vocabulary that might be new to you if you are new to academic biblical studies. But it is not written over the college student’s head, assuming that he or she has the ability and motivation to look up unfamiliar words—a basic skill that should already be mastered once one gets to an upper-level university course like this one. If you read below the college level, or you do not know how to look up the meanings of technical terms as you encounter then, do not blame the author or complain about the fact in your review.) To sum up: the review should focus on what the author has written and should engage the points and arguments therein.

Make sure your paper is well-written and free of grammatical errors. Include an introductory and concluding paragraph. In your introductory paragraph, tell the reader what you are going to do and highlight the main parts of your review. In the concluding paragraph, sum up for the reader what you have done.

Please do not consult other published reviews of this book. This is your review, not a research assignment on what other reviewers have said about the book.

The review should be 5 to 7 pages and must conform to APA format. This includes Times New Roman 12 pt font, 1-inch margins, double spaced, with page numbers, a cover page, and a references page if you cite any other source besides the book you are reviewing. An abstract is not necessary. You can use the course Paper TemplatePreview the documentView in a new window (APA) if you like, as it is already formatted this way.

If you have questions, be sure and ask. Also, look around for helps on doing this kind of assignment, like college and university writing centers, for example, here (Links to an external site.), here (Links to an external site.), and here (Links to an external site.). (Note that not everything you find in these sources is consistent with the details of this assignment, but they can be helpful in acquainting you with what a book review is about, how it works, and how it is typically structured if you are not familiar with this kind of writing.)