(picture courtesy of Rolling Stone Magazine) Summer is concert time, especially outdoor concerts, and I’ve seen hundreds and hundreds of them, so it was hard to choose just twenty of my favorites during my adult life. There are various factors which make for good live concerts: 1) a good venue, and if indoors the acoustics need to be good. Many a good concert has been ruined by bad acoustics or worse bad managing of the sound. Some of the concerts... Read more
This 2nd edition of one my bestsellers has been completely updated, and has a new chapter on Complimentarianism and its problems, and also on Pentecostal theology as embodied in the work of Gordon Fee. It should be out in November. Stay Tuned. Read more
Rain on the brain, Leads, in the main, To plain thinking… And hydroencephaloid pain Thunder, on the other hand, As in thunderstruck Makes or breaks or wakes Your synapses from their lapses To new levels of insight or delight Then there’s the jolt of lightning Shock and awe at what you saw The spark of an idea A flash of brilliance Illuminating the mental landscape Alleviating the tedium Of a cerebral grey day You want to go away, But the... Read more
Mark Fairchild is a Professor of NT at Huntington University in Indiana. I have spent lots of time with him exploring all sorts of Biblical, Greco-Roman, early Christian, and ANE sites in Turkey. It is thus not unexpected that he would produce a first rate book on Christian Origins in Turkey, this one focusing on the Western end of Turkey, namely Ephesus and Asia Minor. The book is published by an Istanbul publishing house, Arkeo-ege, and is full of Mark’s... Read more
Let’s be honest, almost anything is possible in church in Kentucky– snakes, speaking in tongues, being slain in the Spirit…. or alternately, total boredom. I’ve passed the little church whose sign is shown above a million times. It’s on Highway 68 just outside of Wilmore Ky. But this time as a I passed, something was going on on the church lawn that was…. well, not exactly like the persona of this sleepy little country church. I saw the sign heading... Read more
True confession. I remember the TV show The Man from Uncle. Robert Vaughn (now only seen in Becker Law commercials) and David McCallum (now seen every week as Ducky on NCIS) played Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuriakin, an suave American and a clever Russian forced to work together during the Cold War to prevent disasters caused mainly by a sinister and clandestine outfit called Thrush. The original show was done in consultation with no less a person than Ian Fleming,... Read more
On first blush, one might expect The Paul Debate. Critical Questions for Understanding the Apostle (Baylor, 2015, 102 pages), to be rather like Tom Wright’s book on Justification—a straightforward rebuttal book, challenging and seeking to dismantle the arguments of his harshest critics. In fact, The Paul Debate is more of a re-statement book, than a rebuttal book, with Tom attempting to clarify in a succinct form his major arguments in his magnum opus, Paul and the Faithfulness of God. On... Read more
Memento Mori I have not forgotten you, Though you’ve been gone now more than three years. I visit your grave and see your purple flowers On the bushes and lilac that we planted, And remember how much you loved that color. I have not forgotten to go and talk with you at your spot, And say a prayer, longing to see you once more. Yes, I know it will happen some day, But in the meanwhile I miss your hugs... Read more
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