I’ve been reading Roger Olson and Christian Winn on Reclaiming Pietism which urges the case for reclaiming pietism as a way of shaping evangelicalism. It’s a great book and I thought the main tenets of conclusion were worth sharing. “If evangelical Christianity is anything, it is orthodoxy on fire, ‘head belief’ and ‘heart experience’ brought together.” “First, doctrine informed by Pietism should be ministerial rather than magisterial. It aims should be inspiration and instruction, not mere propositional knowledge. And doctrine, as important as it... Read more

The latest issue of JSHJ includes: Eric Eve Orality is No Dead-End Sean F. Everton What Are the Odds? The Jesus Seminar’s Question for Objectivity Tobias Hagerland The Future of Criteria in Historical Jesus Research Jordan J. Ryan Jesus at the Crossroads of Inference and Imagination: The Relevance of R.G. Collingwood’s Philosophy of History for Current Methodological Discussions in Historical Jesus Research. Read more

Christopher J.H. Wright The Message of Lamentations (BST) Downers Grove: IVP, 2015. Available at Amazon.com By Jill Firth Christopher Wright sets the Book of Lamentations in our contemporary life context by dedicating the work to Syria’s suffering children and by including a frontispiece of an agonised woman during floods in Northern Pakistan in 2011. In his Preface, Wright notes his lack of personal experience of the kind of devastation which is experienced in Pakistan and Syria, and which forms the... Read more

Robin A. Parry The Biblical Cosmos: A Pilgrim’s Guide to the Weird and Wonderful World of the Bible. Cambridge: Lutterworth Press, 2015. Available at Amazon.com Reviewed by Jill Firth ‘This book is smokin’ hot! I wish I’d read this while I was alive’ (St Augustine) Roaaaaarrrr! (Leviathan, mythical chaos monster) These imaginative ‘recommendations’ which introduce Parry’s introduction to the biblical cosmos give an orientation to his weird and wacky style, however, the book also carries endorsements from Hans Boersma (Regent College... Read more

Fortress press had a 20 page excerpt of Josh Jipp’s book Christ is King: Paul’s Royal Ideology.  Here’s the blurb: Until recently, many scholars have read Paul’s use of the word Christos as more of a proper name (“Jesus Christ”) than a title, Jesus the Messiah. One result, Joshua W. Jipp argues, is that important aspects of Paul’s thinking about Jesus’ messiahship have gone unrecognized. Jipp argues that kingship discourse is an important source for Paul’s christological language: Paul uses royal language to present... Read more

Just found this great quote by James Scott about the opening of Mark’s Gospel and the theme of “end-of-exile.” ‘Taken as a whole, then, the introduction to Mark’s Gospel provides a mutually reinforcing, prophetic picture of the focus and intent of Jesus’ appearance on the scene: he will be the divinely appointed messenger of a gospel that, through his words and deeds, inaugurates the long expected end of exile and restoration of Israel.’ From DJG, second edition. Read more

Another one year position at Wheaton College, this time for someone with a NT/Archaeology background. WHEATON COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF BIBLICAL AND THEOLOGICAL STUDIES Wheaton College seeks candidates who are specialists in New Testament Literature and Exegesis with expertise in Second Temple Archaeology and History or Classical Archaeology and History for a Visiting Assistant Professor of New Testament and Archaeology.  The position is a non tenure-track appointment for one year. The successful candidate will have a Ph.D. completed by time of... Read more

Can anyone name me the NT scholar who said this about the citation of Jer 31.15 in Matt 2.18? ‘The tears of exile are now being “fulfilled” – i.e., the tears begun in Jeremiah’s day are climaxed and ended by the tears of the mothers of Bethlehem. The heir to David’s throne has come, the Exile is over, the true Son of God has arrived, and he will introduce the new covenant (26:28) promised by Jeremiah’. See the answer in... Read more

Ridley College, with guest contributor Peter Leithart, have produced a volume on what to do when Christians disagree. It called: Mending a Fractured Church: How to Seek Unity with Integrity (Bellingham, WA: Lexham, 2015) edited by Michael Bird and Brian Rosner. This volume seeks to answer such questions about pursuing unity amidst diversity and controversy, looking to the Bible for examples of how to behave when Christians differ. Speaking to pastors, churches, and seminary students, this book provides a guide to... Read more

Kevin Emmert has a piece over at CT about Robert Gundry’s controversial new book which argues that Matthew’s Gospel portrays Peter as a false disciple of Jesus. The book in question is Peter-False Disciple and Apostate According to Saint Matthew and you can watch Gundry’s lecture about his thesis of Matthew’s portrayal of Peter here. The CT article has some quotes from myself and Craig Keener. Craig Keener of Asbury Theological Seminary isn’t so sure that Matthews’s account of Peter is so... Read more