
When I was a boy, there was a family tradition in our house. Every year, my sister and I would club together to buy the latest John Ritchie commentary for my dad. In the 1980s and 90s, we worked our way through the New Testament ‘What the Bible Teaches’ series, and then moved onto the Old Testament set. We felt at such a loose end once this monumental series was completed.
The latest multi-decade publishing project at Ritchie’s is the Character Study Series. Again, I am wrapping up these books annually for my dad’s Christmas presents. Now I get two copies of each book - one for him and the other for myself. This year, I have particularly enjoyed the two parts of the ‘Cameos that Counted’ study by A.J. Higgins, packed full of short meditations on some of the less well-known individuals of scripture. For instance, last week I was reading about ‘Elisabeth’, whose life and times are judiciously covered in volume 1 of ‘Cameos that Counted’.
Now I am waiting for the ‘Paul’ Character Study volume, which is currently on the printing presses at Bell and Bain in Glasgow. I must confess I have a special interest in ‘Paul’, since I authored this book! I originally volunteered to write a commentary on Paul in 2019, so it has been a slow paced project. But here we are … and Brian from Ritchie Christian Media assures me that the book will be back from the printers ‘just in time’ for Christmas mail order. Hopefully this will be a helpful (if not punctual) addition to the Character Study series.