Who said this? Cast your vote! (Answer revealed in a couple of days) “[According to the Bible and] in keeping with ancient Near Eastern conceptualizations, the cosmos is seen as Yahweh’s temple-palace, and the climax of creation is the installation of humanity as his ‘cult-idol’ or image-bearer within it.” NB: while this argument (that humanity as “image” should be viewed along the lines of a cult-idol) is both provocative and highly controversial, I think essentially it is correct [polldaddy poll=5490467] Read more

I a handful of weeks, I will be giving a special lecture on “New Creation, Resurrection, and the Mission of God” at a church. I found this quote from Greg Beale right on the money: …the apostles understood eschatology not merely as futurology but as a redemptive-historical psychology of the present. They understood that they were already living in the end times and that they were to understand their present salvation in Christ to be already an end-time reality. Hence... Read more

…the purpose of theology is mission. Theology that is faithful to its subject engages in the life and the work of the church by articulating, assisting, promoting, and participating in the missional vocation of the church. Hence, theology that is properly attuned to its subject (God) and its focal point (the church) will be missional theology. The critical and constructive task of theology is pursued not simply to secure right belief or to correct false teaching but to assist in... Read more

I just finished reading Bruce Fisk’s highly acclaimed A Hitchhiker’s Guide to Jesus (Baker) and I will be participating in the blog tour (Oct 3-7). Let me say, I almost turned this down (when Baker asked me to join in), because I initially thought the idea of the book sounded too corny. When I read the endorsements (Hays, Powell, Wagner, MM Thompson), I was intrigued (yes, I am a sucker for endorsements). Having read the book, I see what the fuss was... Read more

I just got caught up on a hot topic of discussion in the blogosphere: language standards for PhD study in New Testament. I have written about this in my book Prepare, Succeed, Advance, but I wanted to say a bit more on this topic. I think that knowing Greek is a given, but it really must be extensive knowledge of grammar and vocabulary. Hurtado is right that one must also be able to read the critical apparatus. Listen, people, it... Read more

Another new issue from NTS Some very impressive names in this one: John Ashton, L.L. Welborn, John Moles… And a Durham alum, my buddy John K. Goodrich on Rom 16:23 – nice work John! Keep ’em coming’! Read more

An interesting little piece on the Holy Spirit… HERE   Read more

Discipleship, ch 3: “Single-Minded Obedience” It is no surprise, when you think of Bonhoeffer’s own life-context and the torpor within the church in his time when it came to real action in the name of Christ, that he attacks “inward piety.” Bonhoeffer imagines the pseudo-pious self-dialogue, after a so-called Christian reads stories of disciples leaving their belongings and following (physically) after Christ: “…I must cultivate a spirit of inward detachment, so that my heart is not in my possessions” (p0.... Read more

Today, I got the 1st two 2011 issues of Bulletin for BIblical Research in the  mail (21.1, 21.2). There is a review of my monograph, Worship That Makes Sense to Paul, in the 21.2 issue, written by Don Garlington. I appreciate the positive review and that he seemed to really “get” what the book was all about. My supervisors would be proud 🙂 It is nice to feel a sense of appreciation from “the guild” for your hard work. Don –... Read more

Having recently perused the latest catalog from Zondervan, I got excited about these future releases… D. Bock, A Theology of Luke and Acts (sometime in 2012). Miles van Pelt, Basics of Biblical Aramaic (maybe just released?) – we used Johns in Seminary, which worked fine, but I suspect van Pelt will really make it easy on the eyes and brain. Four Views on the Spectrum of Evangelism (eds. A.D. Naselli and C. Hansen): perspectives: -K.T. Bauder: Fundamentalism -Albert Mohler: Conservative evangelicalism -John Stackhouse:... Read more