Inspired by a recent post by Chris Tilling on ’20 enjoyable books to read’, I thought another approach would be naming the scholars who have been most influential to me (and which books are especially good). This is not an exhaustive list nor is it in any special order. Let’s start with the Durham posse 1. James D.G. Dunn – why? The New Perspective, of course! But, also his work on the Holy Spirit. In terms of commentaries, his Romans... Read more

I returned back home to Durham (England) last week from a two week holiday in the US with my family. While in my hometown (Ashland, Ohio) I like to stop in the seminary (Ashland Theological Seminary) and visit with some of the profs there. Strangely enough, some of them I know because I went to high school with their kids! In any case, one of these profs (David Baker, OT scholar) is also the editor of Ashland Theological Journal and... Read more

Not long ago I had a serious scare – my laptop wouldn’t boot up WIndows XP. I was mortified! But, it did eventually work and I knew that was a clarion call for me to invest in an external hard drive. There are many choices. Dozens and dozens of choices. If you just want some place to ‘store data’, then just about anything will be safe. But, if you need more, I have a recommendation. I decided to invest in... Read more

I am currently on holiday in America visiting my parents.  While in my hometown, I like to visit with some of the professors at the local seminary (Ashland Theological Seminary).  This week I had the honor of having breakfast with NT scholar David deSilva.  He just finished a year in Germany on the prestigious Alexander von Humboldt fellowship (working on a book on rhetoric).  Whenever I am doing research which corresponds to any of his areas of expertise (and there are... Read more

So, if you have a long commute/walk to work (as I do) you are always looking for something to listen to on the way – especially anything free.  Well, a couple of days ago I stumbled on a goldmine – itunes-University.  If you have itunes (either for Mac or PC; free downloadable program to listen to music), you can click on the iTunes store and find the itunes-U icon on the top left.  What is it?  Several universities have uploaded... Read more

If you have not already heard, this years BNTS conference will take place at Durham University (September) at St. John’s College. The official website is ntgateway.com/bnts/. The webpage has recently been revamped (and looks a lot better now!) and the paper titles of the four plenary speakers have been posted: Professor John M. G. Barclay ‘Two Versions of Grace: Romans 9-11 and the Wisdom of Solomon’ Professor Loveday Alexander ‘The Myth of the Imprisoned God: Classical Intertextualities in the Acts... Read more

In a recent post I mentioned a great used bookstore for theological books in Cambridge (England; Galloway & Porter). A comment was made by Andrew Bourne that I should check out another bookstore for theological books in York (which is not far from Durham where I live). Well, it just happened that I was going to York the very next day, and I did make it to BARBICAN BOOKS (not far from the Shambles). Well, Andrew was right! It had... Read more

I am in Cambridge (right now at the Tyndale House) visiting David Nystrom (current PhD student at Cantab; MATR alum of Durham). Yesterday, we went book shopping in the city. After a quick stop at the Cambridge University Press shop (did you know they have the SNTS in paperback?), we went to a very special ship: Galloway & Porter LTD. They have shelves and shelves of clearance price biblical monographs and the like. I picked up three NT monographs for... Read more

Certainly anyone acquainted with Romans scholarship is aware of the perennial problem of determining the purpose of the letter (last will and testament, conflict resolution, practice speech for Jerusalem, ambassadorial letter, compendium of Christian doctrine, etc…).  contrast this with, let’s say, 1 Corinthians: we know how Paul knew of the problems and we basically know what problems they had.  But, what about Philippians?  Though much, much shorter than 1 Corinthians and Romans, its purpose (and even its provenance) is a... Read more

I would like to continue offering suggestions for reading scholarship in Paul’s letters with a view especially towards those who (like me) are looking for a list of the most useful (well-written) pieces. In this book (Romans) in particular, I am sure my list will vary quite a lot from someone else’s. Offer it, here, just as one man’s advice. Where to begin? Good question. I know of no really excellent short introductions to Romans, but a few things are... Read more