In the past several years, there has been marked criticism of the Academy that oversees Motion Pictures for a lack of diversity or inclusion on a whole variety of fronts. Probably partially in over-reaction to that criticism, the Korean film Parasite (in Korean with subtitles) not only received the Oscar this month for best international film, it also won the Best Picture Award, an unprecedented double prize. Previously at Cannes it had also won the Golden Palm award. In my... Read more

At first I thought the owner was a nature lover. I was out jogging and all I could see from a distances was images of frogs…. but then, on closer inspection, this ancient Lincoln had this license plate….. This is BW3, and I approve this message!!! Read more

“Before telling Moses his Name, God prepares for doing so by saying, ‘I will be who I will be’ (Exod. 3.14). God is the one who freely determines who he will be. He is not the God of Israel because he, as it were, finds himself that. Rather he freely chooses to be Israel’s God and commits himself to Israel. That was then [at the burning bush]. Now God says ‘I will be gracious to whom I am gracious and... Read more

ASH WEDNESDAY OFFERING The painter said, ‘these are my prayers,’ And he wept at his unfinished paintings. Conceived with inspiration, Unfinished in frustration, A source of agitation, But still, offered up…. Still, not cast out. Somewhere between vision and verisimilitude Between conception and execution Lies a chasm, That may or may not be bridged. If you falter, have you failed? If unfinished, of no avail? Or is it like Schubert’s ‘Unfinished’ Symphony? Ironically, yet truly Full of revelation The best... Read more

The following is Neibuhr’s accurate summary of the ‘Gospel’ of ‘progressive’ Christianity, which frankly is no Gospel all, because at the heart of the Gospel is repentance, the atoning death of Christ, and fundamental change to human lives. In other words, while God begins with us as we are, he never ever wants to leave us there in our narcissistic, fallen condition. Here is how Neibuhr (who I was blessed to sit under at Harvard), sums things up. “A God... Read more

“I used to think that wrath was unworthy of God. Isn’t God love? Shouldn’t divine love be beyond wrath? God is love, and God loves every person and every creature. That is exactly why God is wrathful and against some of them. My last resistance to the idea of God’s wrath was a casualty of the war in former Yugoslavia, the region from which I come. According to some estimates, 200,000 people were killed and over 3 million displaced. My... Read more

Kregel has done us all a good service in publishing, in two volumes, the earliest manuscripts and pieces of manuscripts we have of the Greek NT. The editors of the volume are Philip Wesley Comfort and David Barrett. The two volume set, hardback, is available for $66.00 from Amazon, and is well worth the investment. My one complaint is that the black and white representations of what these manuscripts look like are not all they could or should be. Nevertheless,... Read more

Can you decline the decline And still keep learning? Is aging ‘maturing’ Or just fantasy’s yearning? Do you mind when your mind Keeps on wandering? Or is that exploring, Not really time squandering? What about senior moments When you know that you know it, But the recall is stalled And the lapse will show it? Or you recognize a face But you can’t place the name You stall and stutter And you blush from the shame? Or your running has... Read more

The New Introduction by Wright and Bird comes with a Workbook. This particular one involves straightforward questions, to test how well the reader has taken in the material in a given chapter. But there are also Multiple choice items included, matching, and opportunities to agree or disagree, and say why, about some of the fundamental issues raised in a chapter. The Workbook is set up to correspond to both the order of chapters in the book and the order of... Read more

The following letter just arrived from my Cambridge editor—– Hello Ben I am delighted to report that your book Biblical Theology is the co-winner of the PROSE Award in the field of religious studies.  Congratulations! (Your book tied for the prize with N.T. Wright’s History and Eschatology.)  The PROSE awards, administered by the American Association of Publishers, are considered the non-fiction equivalent of the Booker Prize, or the publishing industry’s equivalent to the Academy Awards. Winning a PROSE award is, therefore, a significant achievement. Let... Read more