The notion, as Tom says, of a God who periodically intervenes and interrupts the natural processes, that it is supposed he set up in the first place, is problematic. Intervention implies regular absence, but the God of the Bible is said to be, among other things omnipresent and as Jesus was to say ‘he is always working’. So the modern notion of God as an absentee landlord, simply isn’t a picture of God the Bible agrees with. There is something... Read more

The arguments of this book are frankly too dense and too detailed to simply summarize chapter by chapter (though I tried in the previous post), so instead I’m going to focus on some of the main leitmotifs that are the driving forces of all the arguments of the book, one of which is that ancient Epicureanism is the grandfather of modern dualistic thinking about God and the world. On p. 12, Tom says the following: “Deists and Epicureans share the... Read more

(Available on Amazon for $31). There are many good Tom Wright books, and amongst them there are a few great ones, even landmark studies. History and Eschatology. Jesus and the promise of natural theology falls into the latter category. It is 365 pages of sustained argument, carefully footnoted at length making Tom’s case to broaden the category of natural theology to include human history, and in particular Jesus and perhaps especially his death. The book is readily available now on... Read more

Can you identify which person in this picture is my sister Laura???? Read more

It is indeed hard to believe, but it’s been 50 years since ‘And Now for Something Completely Different’ came out with John Cleese, Eric Idle and the Python gang. I first saw this hilarious movie my freshman year at Carolina in the Student Union as one of their free flicks for freshmen. I could hardly stop laughing. Here below is the dead parrot sketch, which riffs off of the denial of death theme floating around in the culture then— (see... Read more

There are several villas in Herculaneum where the remains of scrolls have been found, including one said to belong to the family of Julius Caesar. Two scrolls in particular have been in the possession of the French who did the original excavation of that villa in the 19th century. Today however, the scrolls are in England, and a team of experts from the University of Kentucky made the pilgrimage to England to use a diamond light source to read the... Read more

BEN: It seems clear that Michael Gorman’s work has had a big impact on the way you read Romans. For example you say “Christoformity comes to fruition in an embodied God orientation, in a Body-of-Christ orientation, and in public orientation. The fundamental core of Christoformity is ‘because you are in Christ, you are not to act according to Privilege and Power, to elective status and history, but instead you are to love your neighbor by offering your entire body daily... Read more

READING ROMANS BACKWARDS: A GOSPEL OF PEACE IN THE MIDST OF EMPIRE, Baylor U. Press, 2019. Scot McKnight, 236 pages, $17.65 paperback. It is the measure of a good book that it manages to stir up serious discussion and rethinking on a subject that is an already very heavily trod path by scholars. If the book can also manage to shoo away a few sacred cows which should have been put out to pasture long ago, so much the better... Read more

BEN: I am wondering whether you think Paul’s collection for the saints in Jerusalem successfully achieved Paul’s goals for it, as listed in Rom. 15 and elsewhere, or whether it was not well received, or at least received without the outcomes Paul hoped for. What do we make of Paul’s post-Romans correspondence where he is totally silent about the outcome, nor does Luke give any positive hints in Acts, really. SCOT: Brother, I wish I knew. I read Acts and... Read more

BEN: In Chapter 8 you suggest that Rom. 13.1ff. be read in the light of what precedes it and what follows, and I agree. But there is no hint that all of this is not a general exhortation to all Christians being addressed, and not in particular the returning Jewish Christians. After all, everyone then as now doesn’t enjoy being taxed, and there were plenty of tax dodgers amongst the Gentiles in Rome, especially dodging the indirect taxes. But I... Read more