Q. Let’s talk about Paul and the Law for a bit. I am not buying the argument that Paul was simply Torah true, and bless his heart he has been misread. I find Fredricksen’s argument (and others) quite unconvincing on this point, especially in light of what Paul says in Galatians 4 about the Mosaic covenant being pro tempore until God sent forth his Son. To which Paul adds that it is the Abrahamic covenant he is prepared to link... Read more

Q. A long time ago, in the 70s I took Romans at Harvard Div School with Krister Stendahl. It was really fascinating, and I agreed with a good deal of what he was teaching about Luther getting some important things wrong, and unfortunately encouraging anti-Judaism and even anti-Semitism to some extent. And I agreed that retrospective Western and Lutheran readings of Paul often projected into Paul something that was not there. But I did not agree at all with the... Read more

Q. A long time ago, in the 70s I took Romans at Harvard Div School with Krister Stendahl. It was really fascinating, and I agreed with a good deal of what he was teaching about Luther getting some important things wrong, and unfortunately encouraging anti-Judaism and even anti-Semitism to some extent. And I agreed that retrospective Western and Lutheran readings of Paul often projected into Paul something that was not there. But I did not agree at all with the... Read more

Q. Early on in the Introduction you state as your purpose to do historical critical readings of Paul to try and understand him within his original context. Kudos for that.  But at the same time you seem to be very attracted to some aspects of the Paul within Judaism perspective that has numerous problems and often comes off as an apologetic reading of Paul from an all too modern perspective (e.g. Paul’s converts met with and in the synagogue and... Read more

Q.  It’s clear you’ve read a lot of the recent Pauline scholarly work in the 21rst century, particularly that of the last 10-15 years. What strikes me about what’ve you read is the diversity of the material, and generally speaking not a lot of interaction with the scholars Jason Myers and I reviewed in Voices and Views on Paul.  I am wondering about why you chose to interact with the volumes that you did choose to dialogue with?   A.... Read more

Preliminary Questions   Q.  This book is largely a collection of your previously published essays, plus a couple of additions. What prompted you to produce this book in this way, and why are the essays arranged as they are?   A.  This book came about because, over the course of a decade or so, I had written quite a number of one-off essays on Paul which, taken together, more or less amounted to a book, but were not part of... Read more

There are not many movies these days that have the pathos and power that this film does. Tom Hanks is his usual excellent acting self, this time as a grumpy or cranky old man, who as it turns out, has a large heart in more than one sense of the phrase.   This frankly is a movie that most of us who are over 50 need to see.  The movie is PG-13 and just over two hours long. It is a... Read more

(Eerdmans,  2022, 264 pages, $30.00 hardcover) The cover photo is a Rembrandt, depicting himself as, or as like St. Paul.  Doubtless since the Protestant Reformation many persons have seen themself in light of St. Paul, and conversely seen St. Paul through the lens of themselves— looking down the well of history and seeing their own reflection.  Protestants love to see themselves as on the same side and wavelength as St. Paul and vice versa.  And this includes not only Luther,... Read more

Lindsey Davis is one of the best British novelists, indeed one of the best novelists anywhere.  And if we narrow it down to novelists who write about ancient Rome, and in particular the first century A.D. she has few peers.  And none of those peers has her gift of both comedy and tragedy, of both humor and pathos.   The series started almost a decade ago, and has now grown to ten volumes with an eleventh one promised. Like John Grisham,... Read more