Q. If we are a product of our education, Karl Barth seems to have on the one hand been initially deeply influenced by his education in terms of ‘liberalism’ which is to say the reductio ad absurdum of religion to ‘a feeling of absolute dependence on God’ or a merely subjective inclination, or inner moral compass. In other words, an anthropocentric religion— which not incidentally was to be a hallmark at Marburg, right through the most famous Marburger—Bultmann, who even... Read more

Here’s a helpful recent post of Larry Hurtado about our friend and colleague Eldon Epp. As it turns out, there were indeed two textual traditions of the Acts of the Apostles in the second century A.D. as was previously thought by my old mentor Bruce Metzger (see his Textual Commentary on the Western Text of Acts). A “D-Cluster” in Acts? Epp’s Recent Article by larryhurtado Eldon Epp (my revered former teacher, and a senior figure in NT textual criticism) has... Read more

Q. In your first chapter, you deal with the issue of pietism, and why to some extent Barth had an allergic reaction to it. Since, as you rightly say, American evangelism (particularly of the Billy Graham ‘born again’ variety that I grew up with in Charlotte) has the pietistic tendency to emphasize spiritual experience, at the expense of theological understanding and substance, what is it about pietism that Barth didn’t like, and why, on the other hand have such different... Read more

Whether you love him or hate him, or are just frustrated by the girth of his work, Karl Barth, hands down, was the most influential theological of the twentieth century of any sort. Mark Galli, senior editor of Christianity Today has now produced a very readable, helpful and svelte biography (192 pages, Eerdmans Pub.) of Barth, which I am quite happy to commend. It is a good little introduction to Barth the man and his thought world. In this and... Read more

Here’s an excellent post by my friend and colleague Philip Jenkins. See what you think. BW3 I have been involved in a project on the early church, around the year 200 AD. My first basic question concerns the issue of numbers, and the results offer some surprises. Just how many Christians were there in 200? Around 197, Tertullian’s Apology made extravagant claims for the scale of Christian numbers. He spoke of “the immense number of Christians … almost all the... Read more

Some people may think that mere education will solve this problem. I am not among those, and I am an educator. The problem is not mere ignorance. The problem is sin. Read more

Dale Chihuly (born 1941) is what is called a glass sculptor. His life has been as colorful as his art, in various ways. Born and raised in the Pacific northwest (he now is based in Tacoma) he began pursuing a degree in interior design, but he dropped out and went to Florence to study art in 1962. He returned to school and finished an interior design degree at the U. of Washington in 1965. That same year he began experimenting... Read more

There has been much recent chatter among some scholars that various Synoptic Gospels might be from the second century A.D., even the late second century and even reflect a knowledge of Marcion, who, it will be remembered only favored Luke’s Gospel and some of Paul’s letters. Against such ideas is the evidence that Luke’s Gospel is well known in the churches Justin Martyr participated in. Here is a helpful recent post by my friend Larry Hurtado, dealing with the relevant... Read more

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqE3wdY2Tco I am on record as not being all that much of a Tom Cruise fan. As an actor in the past, he has been just fair, and as for his Scientology fetish, let’s not go there. But ‘American Made’ is different. First of all, unlike all the Missions’ Impossible, this is a story about events that actually happened, involving a former TWA pilot who was recruited to work for the CIA in the late 70s and early 80s, and... Read more

Sometimes coincidences are not just coincidences. So I’m busy reading the latest issue of BAR (Biblical Archaeology Review) a magazine I regularly write for. I’m reading the fascinating article about what happened to the menorah and other sacred articles taken by Titus out of the Temple in Jerusalem and carted off to Rome in A.D. 70. It is an amazing story, and not quite 500 years later, it seems to bring us back to Jerusalem. More on this in a... Read more