I would like to bring to your attention an international Ecclesia (Church) and Ethics Conference/Webinar with NT Wright, Stanley Hauerwas, Shane Claiborne, Michael Gorman, Brian Rosner and several others: May 18 and 25. Get more info here! This unique conference costs only $10 and the proceeds go directly to charity. I am honored to be one of the “main speakers.” My topic will be provisionally entitled: “Did Saint Paul Take Up the Great Commission? Discipleship Transposed into a Pauline Key.”... Read more

At SBL 2012, I had the chance to meet and chat with Constantine Campbell at a group dinner. Con shared with us a little about his new book Paul and Union with Christ: An Exegetical and Theological Study (Zondervan, 2012). I was eager, after that, to get my hands on it and give it a read. The theological subject “union with Christ” is not a neglected topic in Pauline scholarship – far from it! It has been examined by a number... Read more

The recent release by Tom Wright called How God Became King is a semi-popular work that is meant to shed light on the real message of the four Gospels. Wright’s thesis is: we have all forgotten what the four gospels are about. His major research questions are: “what exactly are they saying about Jesus?…What precisely are they saying about God?…what are they saying about this strange new movement [Christianity], and how do they resource it for its life and work?”... Read more

I was very excited to receive this book in the post yesterday: Raised from the Dead According to Scripture: The Role of Israel’s Scripture in the Early Christian Interpretations of Jesus’ Resurrection (T & T Clark, JCTS 12; 2012), by Lidija Novakovic (Baylor University). This monograph includes a foreward by James Charlesworth. Given the intensifying interest in the resurrection language and theology in the New Testament in recent years, I am curious to see what Novakovic adds to the discussion, especially from... Read more

Over the Christmas break, I had a chance to read several books I have eagerly been waiting to dive into. One on the top of my list was Helen Bond’s The Historical Jesus: A Guide for the Perplexed (T & T Clark, 2012). This “Guide” series is aimed at introducing a certain topic to a wider audience unfamiliar with the history of study and the jargon that normally is understood in in-group scholarly conversation. Bond does an absolutely fantastic job discussing... Read more

While I take some responsibility (as co-editor) for the late appearance of the fall issue (2.2) of the Journal for the Study of Paul and His Letters (Eisenbrauns), might I dare to suggest – IT WAS WORTH THE WAIT! This issue is unintentionally thematic – all of the articles and essays are focused on Galatians. Well, it started out as happen-stance and we sort of thematized it as we arranged articles. Mike Bird called this a Galaterfest and I think this is... Read more

In the first installment, we reviewed the first four chapters of Jonathan Pennington’s book, Reading the Gospels Wisely (Baker, 2012). Now we are on to chapters 5-8. Chapter 5: Texts and History: The Testimony of the Fourfold Witness In this interesting chapter, Pennington (hereafter “P”) engages in the current debate over Scripture’s relationship to history and theology. P. sets his discussion up by referring to the debate between Tom Wright and Richard Hays over how to study Jesus in the Gospels.In... Read more

The latest issue of Interpretation features the theme “body” with a nice theological article by Nancey Murphy arguing in favor of “nonreductive physicalism” (the idea that the “soul” and “body” are not separable entities). I think that what Murphy (and also Joel Green) argue is sensible theologically, but I have yet to figure out what to do with all the “soul” language in Scripture. I suggest you read Murphy’s article and pay attention to what she says about the aspective use of soul and... Read more

The latest issue of Interpretation features the theme “body” with a nice theological article by Nancey Murphy arguing in favor of “nonreductive physicalism” (the idea that the “soul” and “body” are not separable entities). I think that what Murphy (and also Joel Green) argue is sensible theologically, but I have yet to figure out what to do with all the “soul” language in Scripture. I suggest you read Murphy’s article and pay attention to what she says about the aspective use of soul and... Read more

For the first day of class in my John course, I will be doing a short devotional on John17:3 where the Johannine Jesus explains “eternal life” as knowledge of “the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (NRSV). I have always wondered how to understand the affirmation of “one true God” and the addition of “Jesus Christ.” Which one is it, John? Make up your mind! One might get the impression that there is some confusion on... Read more