Best Books Awards 2020: Category—Paul

Last updated on: December 13, 2020 at 12:04 pm By Nijay Gupta

So many great books on Paul this year! And the winner is… Lisa Bowens, African-American Readings of Paul This is not an “easy” book to read cover-to-cover, but it is incredibly insightful and superbly written. Thank you, Dr. Bowens, for the gift of this needed scholarship on the richly diverse African-American interpretations of Paul throughout the years. Read the interview I conducted with Bowens earlier this year: HERE Runner-Up Luke Timothy Johnson, Constructing Paul If you are tired of the “consensus”... Read more

Best Books Awards 2020: Gospels: And the Winner Is…

Last updated on: December 11, 2020 at 11:58 am By Nijay Gupta

It’s December, so time for the CRUX SOLA Best Books Awards 2020. There will be (8) categories (so 8 posts). Today I announce my winner (and honorable mentions) fort the category JESUS AND THE GOSPELS. Jesus and the Gospels WINNER: Helen Bond, The First Biography of Jesus “Bond’s book shows the real interpretive payoffs of reading Mark in the genre of Greco-Roman biography. It is well-researched and masterfully written.” Runner Up: Matthew Thiessen, Jesus and the Forces of Death “Fresh, provocative, convincing”... Read more

Marc Cortez (Wheaton College): Christian Theologians to Read and Follow

Last updated on: December 11, 2020 at 6:20 am By Nijay Gupta

Marc Cortez, Professor of Theology, Wheaton College and Graduate School Why do you love teaching and researching about Christian theology? Where to begin! The most obvious response is that God is infinitely amazing, all that he has done is inexhaustibly fascinating, and a right understanding of God and everything in relation to God should fundamentally shape every aspect of human existence. That seems to provide a rather rich starting point for why I love theology! All of those same reasons... Read more

Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen (Fuller Seminary): Christian Theologians to Read and Follow

Last updated on: December 10, 2020 at 6:34 am By Nijay Gupta

Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen, Professor of Systematic Theology, Fuller Theological Seminary and Docent of Ecumenics, Faculty of Theology, University of Helsinki Why do you love teaching and researching about Christian theology? Christian (systematic) theology is far more than a discussion of doctrines, as important as that is. Theology is about a comprehensive, “world-embracing” vision of God and the world. If so, nothing is more exciting and exhilarating than helping students capture that life-affirming hopeful vision and begin to apply it... Read more

Daniel Castelo (Seattle Pacific University): Christian Theologians to Read and Follow

Last updated on: December 9, 2020 at 6:50 am By Nijay Gupta

Daniel Castelo, Professor of Dogmatic and Constructive Theology at Seattle Pacific University and Seminary Why do you love teaching and researching about Christian theology? I love teaching and researching Christian theology because in doing so I feel most alive. I felt the call to pursue this work fairly early in my life (as a teenager), in particular upon reading Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Discipleship. I realized by reading this work that there was a world out there where people loved God with... Read more

Ellen T. Charry (Princeton Seminary): Christian Theologians to Read and Follow

Last updated on: December 8, 2020 at 6:36 am By Nijay Gupta

Ellen T. Charry, Margaret W. Harmon Professor of Systematic Theology Emerita, Princeton Theological Seminary Why do you love teaching and researching about theology? I love teaching theology because it gives students a bigger monitor with which to see God, the world, and themselves. Placing a new idea before someone and seeing a few open their eyes to it is thrilling because ideas shape values, attitudes, behavior, and identity. In any class if 10-15% are able to lift their lids... Read more

“The Way of Christ”: Patristic Reception of Galatians 6:2 (by Cody Matchett)

Last updated on: December 7, 2020 at 12:16 pm By Nijay Gupta

My Northern Seminary faculty assistant, Cody Matchett, wrote an excellent paper on “Law of Christ” (Gal 6:2) for a recent seminary course I taught on Galatians. I asked him to share (briefly) a short version of his work. Cody looked at several of the earliest patristic writers’ understanding of “Law of Christ.” He offers excerpts as well as his own synthesis and final reflections on the meaning of this much debated Pauline phrase. Not Law, but the way of Christ... Read more

Matthew Levering: Christian Theologians to Read and Follow

Last updated on: December 7, 2020 at 6:27 am By Nijay Gupta

MATTHEW LEVERING, Professor in the Department of Dogmatic Theology, University of Saint Mary of the Lake Why do you love teaching and researching about theology? The questions of theology are very personal for me. I don’t take faith for granted—I am grateful to God for reaching out to me in mercy, calling me into his life in Jesus Christ. Absent God, the world would strike me as a profoundly dark place. I recall interviews in which Woody Allen bemoans the... Read more

Karin Spiecker Stetina (Talbot School of Theology): Christian Theologians to Read and Follow

Last updated on: December 3, 2020 at 8:53 am By Nijay Gupta

Karin Spiecker Stetina, Associate Professor, Biola University/Talbot School of Theology Why do you love teaching and researching about Christian theology? I am passionate about teaching theology that is aimed at loving the Lord our God with all our hearts, minds, souls and strength (Matt. 22:37). I aim to relate theology to following Christ in daily life. I have taught theology and church history for over 20 years at Wheaton College and Biola University. My research interests include Reformation theology and... Read more

Kevin J. Vanhoozer (Trinity Evangelical Divinity School): Christian Theologians to Read and Follow

Last updated on: December 1, 2020 at 10:04 am By Nijay Gupta

Kevin J. Vanhoozer, Research Professor of Systematic Theology, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School Why do you love teaching and researching about Christian theology? Teaching and researching Christian theology enables me to do (almost) all the things I love: delve into and interpret Scripture; develop doctrine and make disciples; make sense of human experience and contemporary culture; integrate biblical studies, church history, and philosophy. Christian theology is the greatest intellectual challenge of which I am aware. The ultimate point of seeking understanding... Read more