Timothy George (Dean of Beeson Divinity School) is my favourite Southern Baptist, he’s a great historical theologian, and he shares his life story about his upbringing, how he came to faith, and his early ministry.  It is a great story! Listen to it here (biographical portions starts around 8 mins). Read more

As part of the NIV 50th anniversary celebration (see here), Douglas Moo gave a great presentation at ETS called, “We Still Don’t Get it: Evangelicals and Bible Translation 50 Years After James Barr.” You can watch the talk here. A great read for anyone interested in Bible translation and exegesis. It is “literally” the best Bible translation talk ever (FYI, see the video to understand the pun)! Read more

I have had finally gotten around to reading Jens Schröter’s book From Jesus to the New Testament: Early Christian Theology and the Origin of the New Testament Canon. It is a translation of his German, Mohr Siebeck volume Von Jesus zum Neuen Testament (2007). The translation was done my one of my very good friends Wayne Coppins. Now you will often read in blog posts, folks referring to others as their “friend”, so I should underscore this point by admitting... Read more

Thomas C. Oden A Change of Heart: A Personal and Theological Memoir Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 2014. Available at Amazon.com I have to say that Thomas Oden’s autobiography will probably be one of my favourite reads of 2015.  Oden recounts his beginnings as a radical lefty, a theologian into Bultmann, Freud, Nietzsche, and Marx, but then experienced a turn towards conservative theology through an encounter with the church fathers. Oden abandoned his idealistic pacifism and socialism and moved theologically after discovering... Read more

The on-line conference Ecclesia and Ethics run out of St. Andrews University will be hosting its third annual conference, this year on Human Sexuality (nothing controversial here, I’m sure) on 21 March 2015. Speakers include: Tremper Longman (Westmont), Irmtraud Fischer (U. Gratz), Preston Sprinkle(Eternity Bible College), Wesley Hill (Trinity School for Ministry), Jenell Williams Paris (Messiah College), Frank Heinrich (Deutscher Bundestag), and Andrew Marin (The Marin Foundation). There is also a call for papers looking for other presenters on the topic. Proceedings are scheduled to be published by T&T Clark. I’ve delivered a... Read more

N.T. Wright’s Simply Good News is discussed in a CT article by Andrew Wilson called The Greatest Hits of N.T. Wright. He gives a good review of the book which confirms my own impression that Simply Good News is a summary of several of Wright’s earlier books, even so, the last two chapters are still worth reading! Simply Good News may feel like a compilation album, better suited to newcomers than to those who have read Wright before. Depending on your tastes, then, it may prove slightly... Read more

The Theology Department of Houston Baptist University will be hosting a conference on “The Church and Early Christianity,” on 16-18 April 2015 at its campus in Houston. Main speakers are John Barclay, Ben Witherington, and Everett Ferguson – quite a line up. There is also a call for papers from other presenters too. Wish I was going! See details here.   Read more

I was saddened to hear the news of the passing of Marcus Borg, a former member of the Jesus Seminar, long time professor at Oregon State Uni, and the author of several popular books on religion like Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time and Speaking Christian. The book I co-wrote with James Crossley, How Christianity Began: A Believer and Non-Believer Examine the Evidence was loosely modeled on the Marcus Borg and N.T. Wright volume Jesus: Two Visions. Admittedly, our book didn’t sell as... Read more

Over at Live Science, Craig Evans has provided some clarification and comment on the claim that a first century fragment from the Gospel of Mark has been found in a mask for an Egyptian mummy. Evans says that the text was dated through a combination of carbon-14 dating, studying the handwriting on the fragment and studying the other documents found along with the gospel. These considerations led the researchers to conclude that the fragment was written before the year 90. With... Read more

Over at Grace for Sinners I was interviewed by Matthew B. Sims as part of his “Culture Creators” series about my life and work habits. Here’s the best part in my view: MBS: What’s the best cup of coffee you’ve ever had? MFB: I would rather be tied to a chair, have my eyelids glued open, and be forced to watch Rob Bell Nooma videos for all of eternity than drink a single sip of coffee. I hate coffee like... Read more