Here is my interview with Dan Gurtner about the pseudepigrapha and how you can know more about it with the help of his book Introducing the Pseudepigrapha of Second Temple Judaism. When a student asks, “What is the pseudepigrapha?” What do you say? First, I congratulate them if they pronounce the word correctly! It’s not a very common word, and it is frequently both mispronounced and misunderstood. Generally, these are writings that celebrate some figure from Israel’s past. I say “generally”... Read more

Lee C. Camp Scandalous Witness: A Little Political Manifesto for Christians Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2020. Available at Eerdmans and Logos Previously I’ve looked at Darrell Bock and Tremper Longman’s books on Christianity in politics, both are from what I would call the “principled conservatism” side of the political spectrum. In this book, Lee Camp offers a manifesto for Christian political engagement, and he is from the slightly more progressive neck of the woods. For Camp, Christian identity and convictions are in... Read more

Tremper Longman III  The Bible and the Ballot: Using scripture in Political Decisions Grand Rapids,  MI: Eerdmans, 2020. Available at Eerdmans. The Bible and the Ballot proposes how to use Scripture in think about contemporary American political discussions. Christians regularly invoke the Bible to support their positions on many controversial political topics—gay marriage, poverty, war, religious liberty, immigration, the environment, taxes, etc.—and this book tries to work through several of those difficult topics. Tremper Longman –  well-known evangelical OT scholar –... Read more

Here is part 1 of a three-part series on Jesus, voting, and American politics. Darrell L. Bock How Would Jesus Vote? Do Your Political Positions Really Align with the Bible? New York: Howard Books, 2016. Available at Amazon Darrell Bock’s book, originally written for the 2016 US election is not less readable and applicable for the 2020 election. Bock canvasses some of the most contentious political topics of our day in light of the teachings of Jesus in the Gospels. The purpose... Read more

David C. Deuel and Nathan G. John Disability in Mission: The Church’s Hidden Treasure Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2019. Available from Koorong and Hendrickson Disability ministry and mission is ordinarily treated as something niche or peripheral. And yet 1 in 5 people in the world have a disability of some kind. Many of us will be born with a disability, acquire disability through accident or illness, or else age into disability. If you are going into ministry and missions, disability should... Read more

Matthew Thomas is the author of Paul’s ‘Works of the Law’ in the Perspective of Second Century Reception (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2020), which released on 20 October 2020. Here’s my interview with him: So who is Matthew Thomas? He’s just a kid trying to read the Bible! I’m originally from California, and my background is working in inner-city ministry with young people in Oakland, which I think is honestly still what I love more than anything else. I did Master’s... Read more

Tom, your new book is called Broken Signposts: How Christianity Makes Sense of the World, largely based on the Gospel of John. What are these signposts and how do they help us make sense of the world?  In my book Simply Christian  I listed four features of human life and aspiration which I called ‘echoes of a voice’: justice, spirituality, relationships, beauty. I made the point that we all know these matter and we all know we mess them up — and... Read more