I was unable to do this dialogue which Justin Brierley asked me to do, as I am in the midst of an intensive doctoral seminar on Socio-Rhetorical analysis of the NT, so I am quite happy that Darrell Bock was willing to step in quickly from Germany to do this dialogue.  You will find this discussion interesting, if provocative.  BW3 http://media.premier.org.uk/unbelievable/6d0adcb0-35d3-4fbc-9263-47785c915d88.mp3 Read more

He was a remarkable athlete at Florida State, an even more remarkable athlete as a pro footballer who played for five different teams, helping most of them win championships, and this weekend he was inducted into the Hall of Fame.   What you may not know about ‘Prime Time’ is that he is and has been a devout Christian.   So it was no surprise when he was inducted into the Hall of Fame this week in Canton Ohio that… Read more

The following is Rob Gagnon’s CNN response to Jennifer Knust on what the Bible’s witness is about homosexuality and same sex relationships.  Reprinted here by kind permission of the author. —————– The Bible’s Surprisingly Consistent Message on a Male-Female Requirement for Marriage by Robert A. J. Gagnon, Ph.D. Associate Professor of New Testament, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, www.robgagnon.net July 27, 2011 This article is a merging of my op-ed piece for the CNN Belief Blog (“My Take: The Bible really does… Read more

Here is a second, and last, post from my student David Hull who has been in Kansas City this summer doing evangelism. ————– What a summer! God has stretched me in immeasurable ways through my time sharing the gospel on the streets, and I know that apart from your prayers and encouragement I might have turned back. I wanted to share with you today one final insight about sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ with people, and I hope it… Read more

Type: Watching a movie about the South that I grew up in (the movie is set in the period of the early sixties leading up to the Civil Rights movement and the deaths of JFK and Medger Evers)  was in various ways like nearly being hit by a car—- it was too close for comfort. Much too close to the bone.  And it was not just any sort of movie, it was a powerful movie—- to say the least.  It… Read more

If you haven’t read Blaise Pascal’s  famous Pensees,  you need to put it on your to do list.  It is essential reading for any thoughtful Christian who wants to reflect on the truth.  Larry Hurtado has recently been mulling over some of Pascal’s famous sayings,  and here is a little meditation on one of them, which still rings true today. ——— Hurtado says…. My posting on scholarship and personal stakes drew some attention, and so I dare to make another… Read more

Let me first say, I’ve done time in the Bod,  that is in the Bodleian Library in Oxford.   It is full of musty wonderful antiquarian books, which one is not allowed to check out.  Thank goodness.  Some are still chained to desks or reading tables or lecturns. The Bod is about the last place in the English speaking world one would think to look for anything modern or computerized when it comes to books.  Hence, my surprise that they… Read more

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/14/us/14immig.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha23 Read more

Here is another fine post by my friend Larry Hurtado. ——————– larryhurtado | August 5, 2011 at 11:43 am | Categories: Uncategorized | URL: http://wp.me/pYZXr-aH I’ve recently been alerted to software that produces a visual depiction of comparative word/phrase frequencies in texts, a “cloud” visual in which the comparative frequencies are represented by comparative sizes of the words/phrases (probably old news to dedicated bloggers).  Here’s the web site where you can make your own experiments: http://www.wordle.net/ There is a site… Read more

Sometimes serendipity just happens.  And it happens at unexpected times and in unexpected ways.   Well I guess that’s why they call it serendipity.   Tonight my wife was going to a dinner as part of a meeting about sustainable agriculture and community sponsored agriculture.   Asbury University is going to start a student farm,  to help students who are going to do overseas missions so they will be able to help the people they will serve with something as basic as subsistence… Read more