Baker Academic has now posted their new catalog of Spring books. A couple of notables: Richard Bauckham’s The Jewish World Around the New Testament. I am particularly interested in these chapters: ‘The Rise of Apocalyptic’, ‘The Delay of the Parousia’, ‘The Son of Man: “A Man in My Position” or “Someone”?’, ‘The Parting of the Ways: What Happened and Why’, ‘The Relevance of Extra-Canonical Jewish Texts for New Testament Study’, ‘What if Paul had Traveled East Instead of West’, ‘Covenant,... Read more

I am pleased to report that I will presenting a paper at the Eastern Great Lakes regional SBL in April (8-9).  The title is: HUMAN IDOLATRY AND PAUL AS FAITHFUL WORSHIPPER OF GOD: RECONNECTING ROMANS 1.18-32 TO 1.8-15 In recent years, scholars have begun to view Romans 1.18-32, with its recounting of the down-spiraling and degrading of humanity, as a center of gravity for the overall concern of Romans.  Thus, links have been found especially between 1.18-32 and key arguments and... Read more

Every Monday I drive six hours total from Ashland (OH) to Detroit (MI) to teach Greek at our extension campus.  My travelling companion for many weeks has been Prof. John Goldingay.  Well, he is not in the car….but he is on my ipod.  I spent dozens of hours listening to his thoughts in hermeneutics and also the Pentateuch.  I recent days I have been gleaning wisdom from his thoughts on the prophets.  Unlike many fortunate others, I had not known... Read more

One of my favorite things about the annual SBL meeting is arriving on Friday and seeing old friends at the Institute for Biblical Research meeting: good folks, good food, a nice discussion, and a free book!  What more could you ask for! Well, next year the keynote speaker will be Scot McKnight and he will be presenting on the topic of atonement.  On Saturday, J. Sklar and Ben Witherington will offer further thoughts on atonement (OT and NT, properly) with... Read more

I am currently doing lecture prep for a discussion of the giving of the law in Exodus.  I will focus about 45 minutes on the Decalogue.  The three main sources I will be studying are these: Patrick Miller, The Ten Commandments (WJK) C.E.  Braaten and C. Seitz, I am the Lord Your God: Christian Reflections on the Ten Commandments (Eerdmans) B. Childs, Old Testament Theology in a Canonical Context (Fortress): 63-83. What other good discussions are there?  I am interested... Read more

As I prepare lectures for next year, I have currently been working through Exodus.  Here are some of my favorite resources. Commentaries Exodus (OTL; Brevard Childs; WJK) – a classic and very influential methodologically. Exodus (Interpretation; Terence Fretheim; WJK) – short, but theologically insightful.  Great for preaching preparation. Exodus (New Interpreter’s Bible I; Walter Brueggemann; Abingdon) This series lends itself to good discussion of the modern relevance of the text. Exodus (NAC; D.K. Stuart; Broadman and Holman) Excellent mixture of... Read more

As I continue to make the transition from grad student (digging into monographs and articles) to new instructor (forced to teach and think broadly), I have entered the world of finding good textbooks.  Not ones that always get all of the details right, but the ones that focus on what is important to learning, demonstrate the tools of the trade, and make theology/Biblical studies interesting, useful, and relevant.  No small tasks for some!  Well, though I am early in my... Read more

I recently got this very important questions from a commenter.  This is a difficult question to answer in a brief and straightforward way.  One ‘right’ answer is NO – please choose another profession, this one is taken.  There are way too many Phd folks of higher calibre who will struggle for many, many years to find any job, let alone the one they imagined or hoped for.  So, unless you have a direct line from God telling you that this... Read more

Truth be told, I have always loved Asbury Theological Seminary.  When I was deciding between seminaries for my MDIV, Asbury was in my top four (along with Fuller, Regent, and Gordon-Conwell).  Well, as of recently, they have officially accepted me as an adjunct online-instructor and I can begin teaching courses for them.  (Whereas at some institutions, bringing on an adjunct is a matter of point and click, at Asbury there is a lengthy process and the approval must come from... Read more

I thought I would direct your attention to David Horrell’s excellent review of Magnus Zetterholm’s Approaches to Paul in Review of Biblical Literature (found HERE). In fact, I have my own review of Zetterholm’s book coming out in RBL and Horrell and I share many of the same criticisms of the book.  But I sincerely feel that Zetterholm has done a lot of excellent work summarizing the views of various scholars and it would be a very useful resource to... Read more