Over at Bible and Interpretation, Michael Kok– a young scholar, who has written a wonderful PhD thesis on the second century reception of Mark’s Gospel – has posed some questions for the Early High Christology Club: First, is there a concern to date a “high Christology” as close as possible to the founding of the “Christian” movement?  Kok is concerned that scholars depict a situation where “recognition of Jesus’ divinity was a virtually instantaneous response to charismatic experiences rather than the... Read more

On the whole “exile” debate, note John Goldingay’s approach: We are not in exile; we are simply people who have been outvoted, literally and/or metaphorically. Exile happens to people who are not citizens and not members of imperial powers. We can’t use the image of exile to let ourselves off the hook of responsibility for the violence our nations undertake. Further, it’s surely not the case that most Christians see themselves as increasingly on the edge, at odds with the... Read more

David A. deSilva Day of Atonement: A Novel of the Maccabean Revolt Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel, 2015. Available at Amazon.com New Testament scholar David deSilva (Ashland Theological Seminary) has written an absolutely brilliant historical novel about the Maccabean revolt. The story is readable, the characters are believable, and the history accurate.  Reading this novel is also a great way to learn about Jewish history and the events that precipitated the Maccabean revolt, especially tensions caused by those who wanted to Hellenize... Read more

Over at Theologues is my lengthy and critical review of Tony Jones’ book Did God Kill Jesus? There is some okay stuff in this book, but on the whole, it is a failed attempt to displace traditional accounts of the atonement and it sets forth an impoverished view of God and an inadequate account of the cross.   Read more

I’ve been browsing through Bradley G. Green’s book Covenant and Commandment: Works, Obedience and Faithfulness in the Christian Life. I really liked his fair and sympathetic yet not uncritical reading of N.T. Wright on justification and his interaction with Andrew McGowan on federal headship in a messianic administration. A highlight was chapter six on justification, judgment, and the future, where his conclusions begins with this apt description: There is no reason for evangelicals to gloss over passages that speak of a... Read more

Michael J. Gorman Becoming the Gospel: Paul, Participation, and Mission Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2015. Available at Amazon.com Michael Gorman is a genius at weaving together Pauline theology, cruciformed spirituality, and the Missio Dei. This volume is part three of a “partly deliberate, partly accidental” trilogy beside the prior books Cruciformity and Inhabiting the Cruciform God. Here Gorman tries to show that in the first century the Apostle Paul wanted the communities he addressed to not only believe the gospel, but to become... Read more

Douglas A. Campbell Framing Paul: An Epistolary Biography Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2014. Available at Amazon.com Doug Campbell’s book is an adventurous, bold, and thought-provoking attempt to re-think Pauline chronology with a pure reliance on the epistolary data. Campbell makes some eyebrow raising claims like the Antioch Incident (Gal 2.11-14) precedes the Jerusalem meeting (Gal 2.1-10) – I’ve read before from Gerd Ludemann, but Campbell sets it up in his own way. He argues for the authenticity of  Colossians and Ephesians, dating them... Read more

Mark Sheridan Language for God in Patristic Tradition: Wrestling with Anthropomorphism Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2015. Available at Amazon.com In this volume, Mark Sheridan wrestles with biblical anthropomorphism, the depiction of God as a human figure, with human emotions and characteristics in Scripture. That God is not really like humans, goes back as far as Xenophon, and his attempt to distinguish the gods from Homeric myths. Others like Philo and Origen, interpreted scripture in such a way as to distinguish... Read more

Faithlife (aka Logos) has a great interview with Dr. Stephen Chester about the Apostle Paul. Stephen has done some great work on the reception of Paul among the Reformers, esp. Martin Luther. In fact, before anyone engages in Lutheran bashing, they really should a few articles by him (see here and here), as he shows the context, nuances, and development of Luther’s own thought. Any way, in the course of the interview, Stephen says some rather spiffy things about my... Read more

J.B. Lightfoot Eds. Ben Witherington & Todd Still The Acts of the Apostles: A Newly Discovered Commentary: The Lightfoot Legacy Set: Volume 1 Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2014, Available at Amazon.com J.B. Lightfoot (1828-89) was one of the preeminent biblical and patristic commentators of his day. Many had known about the collection of Lightfoot’s notes kept in  the Durham Cathedral library, but no one has analysed them or interrogated them. Then in 2013, Ben Witherington (channeling the investigative skills of his fictional character... Read more