The Feb 2012 issue of Catalyst Online (38.2) has some really interesting articles. “Public Discipleship and Spiritual Formation” (Richard Mouw) “What is the Gospel” (Ken Schenck) “Helping the Church Be the Church: The Contribution of the New Monasticism”  (Bret Wells) See here. Read more

See here. Articles on Luke, Acts, and 2 Corinthians. Pete William has a piece on Mark 1:41, arguing against Ehrman. J.G. Cook has a very interesting article called “Crucifixion as Spectacle in Roman Campania,” where he brings to light some artifacts from ancient Campania. Read more

At SBL, I had the great privilege of responding to Dr. Luke Timothy Johnson in a panel discussion regarding his book Among the Gentiles. Johnson is a legend and I was quaking in my boots (sneakers really) just thinking about it, but it was a lot of fun and he is a lively speaker. I just finished reading LT Johnson’s outstanding Prophetic Jesus, Prophetic Church: The Challenge of Luke-Acts to Contemporary Christians (Eerdmans, 2011). Here is what we might call... Read more

At SBL, I had the great privilege of responding to Dr. Luke Timothy Johnson in a panel discussion regarding his book Among the Gentiles. Johnson is a legend and I was quaking in my boots (sneakers really) just thinking about it, but it was a lot of fun and he is a lively speaker. I just finished reading LT Johnson’s outstanding Prophetic Jesus, Prophetic Church: The Challenge of Luke-Acts to Contemporary Christians (Eerdmans, 2011). Here is what we might call... Read more

If you read my blog enough you will come to recognize that I absolutely love the work of Joel Green (Fuller Seminary). He is a very gifted researcher, a wonderful pastor and mentor, and a nice guy. So, I try to pick up anything he writes (but I can’t keep up!). I was so pleased that Baker offered IBR members, this year, a free copy of Green’s Practicing Theological Interpretation (2011), which carries the subtitle: “Engaging Biblical Texts for Faith and... Read more

A introduction to Colossians typically treats the question of provenance – where was Paul when he wrote Colossians? The short answer is (1) in prison, and (2) the city is unknown. Nowadays, scholars seem to care little whether Paul was writing from Rome, Ephesus, or somewhere else. There are some historical questions, like matters of the distance between Rome and Colossae and ease of travel for Onesimus, but it hardly makes a huge impact on the interpretation of the letter... Read more

I regularly make to my students this claim: according to the NT, “salvation” is not exclusively or even mainly about going to heaven when you die and avoiding hell. It is a holistic concept about redeeming all of life, all of the person, in the here and now as well as in the there and then. So, one might ask, why does the NT talk about heaven so much (and hell on some occasions)? I have spent some time lately... Read more

Any introduction to Colossians will have to reckon with the scholarly question over its authorship – I say “scholarly” because, prior to the 19th century, Colossians was just assumed to have been written by Paul. But scholars like F.C. Baur (and some before him) found reason to doubt the authorial attribution was accurate. For Baur, Colossians did not seem like it was dealing with problems from Paul’s time – the problematic heresy the author was addressing was trademark Gnosticism (so... Read more

You may have heard that Ken Bailey’s new Reading Paul through Mediterranean Eyes (IVP, 2011) won Christianity Today’s “best book” award in the category of “Biblical Studies” – huge praise indeed for someone who is not, first and foremost, a Bible scholar! I am reviewing this book for Interpretation and they have given me 1400 words to discuss this 550 page tome on 1 Corinthians! This has proven challenging! There is much to say! Without repeating all the comments in my... Read more

I recently received an inquiry about the expectations of book reviewers – are you meant to read the book under examination in full? Perhaps to some the answer is self-evident (“yes!”), and I follow this practice in general, but there are some exceptions. Here are some factors to consider. A. Is the book a reference work (like a dictionary)? If I were asked to review a new translation of the Babylonian Talmud, I don’t think I would be expected to... Read more