I like testimony books, and having written something of that sort for Zondervan some time ago chronicling my journey of faith into being a Biblical scholar (entitled Is There a Doctor in the House?) I am especially pleased to commend to one and all a book that has Christian testimonies of a brace of my kinsmen and kinswomen in the scholarly guild– both Evangelical and otherwise, both male and female, both OT and NT scholars, both foreign and domestic. The... Read more

We here at Apocalyptic Vacations like to think that Christians, like everyone else, like options, even when it comes to the afterlife. We have noticed that quite a goodly number of you Evangelical Christians have become tired of the regular drumbeat about the coming rapture, and don’t really think a temporary stay in heaven, complete with angel food cake and lots of harp music, will really be all that appealing. We agree! So, we are happy to tell you that... Read more

A man goes to see the Rabbi. “Rabbi, something terrible is happening and I have to talk to you about it.” The Rabbi asked, “What’s wrong?” The man replied, “My wife is going to poison me.” The Rabbi, very surprised by this, asks, “How can that be?” The man then pleads, “I’m telling you, I’m certain she’s going to poison me. What should I do?” The Rabbi then offers, “Tell you what. Let me talk to her, I’ll see what... Read more

Chapter Five, which is entitled ‘The Old is Better?’ which runs from about p. 113 to p. 130 is a chapter responding to critiques of the New Perspective, and in particular to his own take on the New Perspective. This brings the first major section of this book to a close. Tom has written a whole book about his response to uber-Reformed critiques of his view of justification, and here he will renew that response briefly. For example he says….... Read more

Chapter Four is entitled Life after Sanders, and here we begin to see the more radical side of the New Perspective on Paul, and why some traditional Reformed scholars have gotten their knickers all in a knot about it. Tom playfully sums up the situation as follows on p. 88: “Nothing will ever be the same again. The new perspective on Paul – not that there is any single thing which can now be called by that name, despite the... Read more

Where exactly did the phrase and notion of ‘the new perspective on Paul’ come into play? The answer is, after Sander’s landmark work, and it seems to have been first mentioned by Tom Wright himself. Interestingly, Dunn credits Tom Wright for coining the phrase ‘the new perspective on Paul’ in a lecture given at Tyndale House in July 1978 [at which I was present, I believe, and first met Tom]. But the ‘movement’ itself really began with Sander’s Paul and... Read more

In the 2nd chapter Tom Wright rehearses the in some ways unfortunate of the Reformation forcing all our reading of Paul into a discussion about justification and salvation. He then critiques even further reductionism like that of Bultmann who reduces theology to anthropology, and Christology to soteriology, so the whole Pauline discussion is about humankind and its salvation. What he is complaining about is not only reductionism but forcing Paul into modern molds in which he does not fit, for... Read more

Some time ago, a very fine NT scholar named Earle Ellis wrote a book entitled Paul and his Recent Interpreters. Now we have another one from the ever-flowing pen of Tom Wright (due out in America in Oct. 2015, already out in the U.K. and comprising some 384 pages). Of course the thing about a title like that is it’s always appropriate, because there is a never ending stream of Pauline interlocutors. In some years, Paul is more of a... Read more

I remember him differently than some might. He seemed at once formidable and yet gentle. A towering intellect, and yet a sweet spirit, with a good sense of humor as well. In some ways outgoing, but in some ways shy, especially on the telephone or in casual conversation. Had you only seen Charles Kingsley Barrett behind the pulpit or the lectern you would only have known one side of the man, the public face as it were. You would not... Read more

Edith Mary Pargeter (1913-95) was a Shropshire lass born and bred, and she lived there until the close of her life. She became famous under her nom de plume, Ellis Peters, and in particular for her Brother Cadfael mysteries set large in Shrewsbury. She knew that English region bordering on Wales very well indeed, and her vivid descriptions of the region are found again and again both in her medieval mysteries, and the ones set in post WWII in the... Read more