BEN: p. 110 makes the important distinction between election for historical purposes and redemption, which involves moral and theological transformation. In regard to redemption and the judgment of human conduct, God is impartially judging everyone’s behavior on the same basis. “Jew or Greek, what matters is not election or non-election what matters is good and evil… what matters is deeds.” (p. 111). Amen to that. Grace does not annul the need for good behavior, indeed it enables it. SCOT: Perhaps... Read more

BEN: ON pp. 95-96 there is a discussion of the much-debated phrase ‘the obedience of faith’ and I think you are right that this does not mean faith as a form of obedience but the obedience that flows from faith. There is an interesting dissertation done by one of my former doctoral students Dr. Jason Myers, where he shows that the language of ‘the obedience of faith’ is in fact part of Imperial propaganda, the propaganda about peace=pacification, and obedience... Read more

https://www.publicchristianity.org/the-book-of-the-people-part-i/ Read more

Reading Scripture: Skepticism, Suspicion, and Trust By David F. Watson Here is a helpful summary of Wesley’s approach to Scripture, first put online by Good News Magazine. BW3 Dr. David F. Watson Last semester I taught a class called Wesleyan Biblical Interpretation. We read a considerable number of Wesley’s writings along with a couple of secondary texts. Rereading these primary and secondary sources led me to ponder anew the vast differences between the way in which Wesley read the Bible... Read more

One of the first impressions one gets from the background chapter is just how highly poetry was prized in antiquity, and how often it was the first thing that the young learned some of as part of their education, well before they read history, and long long before they read philosophy. This of course differs dramatically from most modern Western education, all too concerned with left brained studies and functions. For example, just for fun I recently took a much... Read more

One of the most helpful classics studies that I have read recently is Tessa Morgan’s erudite study of ancient education (384 pages, paperback reprint in 2007). I’ve seldom read a doctoral thesis this learned and skilled in its execution. It comes out of her doctoral work at Cambridge, which has one of the finest classics departments in the whole world, and it is simply loaded with useful primary source material and analysis of various sorts, particularly of the educational papyri... Read more

Without question, Ian McKellen and Helen Mirren are superb actors and its nice to see them together for the first time in this film. If you want to see what good acting looks like— here’s an example. But the odd thing about this film is that it is good actors who are pretending to be good pretenders— whereas, nothing is as it seems, and the film proves to be a tissue of lies and deceptions…. and revenge in the bargain.... Read more

BEN: Rightly you stress that the resurrection of Jesus involves a real embodied existence, only one that is apparently immune to disease, decay, and death now. And correctly you stress that ‘dying and going to heaven’ as a form of afterlife is barely mentioned in the NT compared to the stress on new creation, new creatures raised from the dead. After 2,000 years of waiting for the return of Christ, it is perhaps no surprise that the emphasis shifted from... Read more

BEN: In the later part of the book you suggest that not merely Jesus’ words, but perhaps especially his crucifixion has something to contribute to the discussion of natural theology, perhaps not least because it reveals most clearly how God is involved in human history. Unpack this for our readers. Perhaps say something as well about how the resurrection of Jesus contributes to the discussion of natural theology. TOM: The argument of chapter 7 is that there are many ‘signposts’... Read more

BEN: Missing from your good discussion is much interaction with one of the pet texts used to talk about natural theology, namely Rom. 1.18-32. It appears to tell us that the reality of the real Biblical God and his power is evident in all of creation, and so there is no one who has no knowledge of the real God. Rather what has happened is ‘they have exchanged the truth of God for a lie’. Now one cannot exchange something... Read more