I just heard from Wipf & Stock that my Colossians and Philemon commentary (NCCS) is now available from Amazon on kindle for only $9! Still my favourite Pauline book!   Read more

David Firth The Message of Joshua (BST) Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 2015. Available at Amazon.com By Jill Firth Richard Dawkins describes the Book of Joshua as ‘a text remarkable for the bloody massacres it records and the xenophobic relish with which it does so.’ He continues by comparing the entry to the Promised Land as ‘morally indistinguishable from Hitler’s invasion of Poland, or Saddam Hussein’s massacre of the Kurds and the Marsh Arabs.’ Christian readers of Joshua might also find... Read more

A hilarious list from Jessica Misener at Buzzfeed on 29 Things You’ll Only Understand if You’ve Gone To Divinity School. My favourites are: # 1, 4, 7, 9, 10, 12, 13, 25.     Read more

Meda A. A. Stamper Embodying Mark: Fresh Ways to Read, Pray and Live the Gospel London: SPCK, 2014. Available at Amazon.com The Gospel of Mark is my favourite Gospel, so naturally I was thrilled to come across Meda Stamper’s slender volume on the Gospel of Mark and discipleship. This volume, useful for individuals and groups, takes the reader through the Gospel of Mark, along the themes of Following the Teacher, Healer, Shepherd, Beloved, Lover, and King. It provides a text to... Read more

A blast from the past, the comical Biblica Hipsteria video, because it is April Fool’s Day. Read more

A nice article by author Addie Zierman on A Toast to My Journey with Wine, which is about the joys of discovering wine after a youth of abstinence, and learning to enjoy it responsibly. I really do enjoy my wine, especially on weekends, with Italian and Indian food, but I’ve learned the rule, three glass limit! I like what she says: When we do wine right, it’s communion. It’s a holy mystery. It’s a gift. But it’s also possible to do... Read more

In what will no doubt be a game changer in biblical studies, recent excavations have uncovered a document that appears to resemble the shared tradition of Matthew and Luke, i.e., the Q source! Initial reports are trickling in but it looks authentic. Peter Williams blogs about it at Evangelical Textual Criticism! This is huge! Read the comments to get more news as it arrives. On a pastoral note, someone needs to keep all Farrer Theorists on a suicide watch until this thing clears-up! Read more

In her forthcoming book Gisela Kreglinger offers a fresh, holistic vision of the Christian life that sees God at work in all created things, including vineyards, the work of vintners, and the beauty of well-crafted wine shared with others around a table. Kreglinger begins by examining wine in the Bible, in the history of the church, and in the Lord’s Supper, and these reflections culminate in a theology of joy and feasting that celebrates the human senses as gifts for tasting the... Read more

Coming in October 2016! Though Paul is often lauded as the first great Christian theologian and a champion for Gentile inclusion in the church, in his own time he was regarded as a strange and controversial figure. In this book Pauline scholar Michael Bird explains why. An Anomalous Jew presents the figure of Paul in all his complexity with his blend of common and controversial Jewish beliefs and a faith in Christ that brought him into conflict with the socio-religious scene... Read more

I had the great privilege of being invited to give a lecture at the Lanier Theology Library in Houston, Texas, USA back in February of this year. I gave a lecture on the Apocalyptic Paul, specifically, “A Story of Paul’s Theology Between Messianic Event and Salvation History.” It is partly an appreciation and a critique of the Apocalyptic Paul of Lou Martyn and, to a lesser degree, Douglas Campbell. The lecture itself is something of a preview of a chapter from... Read more