The Bible – especially the writings of Paul — is my spiritual life blood. It gives me life and hope, and helps me see the world with new eyes, as I think Jesus would see it. I love both teaching and writing because they allow me to show others what I see in the Bible, in the Church and in the World. In particular I love helping people to see why the best of biblical scholarship opens up the text in new and exciting ways. There is very little to beat the moment when the light bulb goes on for someone and they suddenly understand as they’ve never understood before.

My great love in my own research is 2 Corinthians and the Paul we see in that epistle, a Paul who has had to battle to come to terms with failure and disappointment in ministry. I have, however, much to my surprise discovered that my “big theme” is something else. It is finding ways to communicate good quality scholarship to an audience who otherwise would not read biblical scholarship. The majority of Christians would never pick up a serious book on Theology or the Bible and, as a result, miss out on the depth and breadth of perspective that these books bring. I have, therefore, over the years developed books using devotional explorations, light commentaries and even narrative in an attempt to demonstrate what can be gained by reading the Bible using a range of techniques developed within the academy. Although I did not intend this to become my “big theme” it has become so by accident.