In light of recent sanctification wars, thought I’d post this quote I just read in Rob Jewett’s Romans commentary. “Honesty about the dilemmas of current Christian ethics should not be allowed to override the evidence in Paul’s own letters of an expectation of ethical transformation.” Amen. Read more

Wish I was going to the Mere Anglicanism Conference in Charleston, South Carolina, 22 January 2015. The line up of speakers includes: Ross Douthat, Mary Eberstadt, Os Guiness, Alister McGrath, Bishop Michael  Nazir-Ali, and N.T. Wright. The theme is: Salt and Light: The Christian Response to Secularism. Actually, come to think of it, I might actually be in the USA in January 2015 … hmm, might make it after all! Read more

Sunday 29th of June is the Feast of St. Peter and St. Paul according to the martyrological calendar. Think I’ll celebrate by re-reading Markus Bockmuehl’s chapter on Peter and Paul’s “tense but vital” relationship in his The Remembered Peter in Ancient Reception and Modern Debate. Read more

In a letter to Ebenezer Blackwall, dated 20 December 1751, John Wesley explains his evangelistic method with a view to balancing law and gospel: I mean by ‘preaching the gospel’ preaching the love of God to sinners preaching the life, death, resurrection and intercession of Christ, with all the blessings which in consequence thereof are freely given to true believers. By ‘preaching the law’ I mean explaining and enforcing the commands of Christ briefly compiled in the Sermon on the... Read more

Through a friend I came across Paula Fredriksen’s review of N.T. Wright’s Paul and the Faithfulness of God, which includes this rather damning indictment of his work: [Wright’s] interpretive context is generated not by a critical sifting of primary evidence but by the requirements of his master narrative’s plot: how Paul invented a triumphalist, eschatologically realized Christian theology. In this regard, Paul and the Faithfulness of God represents a return to the good old days, pre-1977 (Sanders’ Paul and Palestinian Judaism), pre-1963 (Stendahl’s “Paul and the... Read more

Eddie Byun Justice Awakening: How Your Church Can Help End Human Trafficking Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 2014. Available at Amazon.com By Kara Martin Eddie Byun’s book, Justice Awakening, gives such a biblical response to this issue, as well as optimistically claiming to teach, “How you and your church can help end human trafficking”. That is what is different about this book. While others, like David Batstone’s excellent Not for Sale, have highlighted the problem, Byun wants to energise the church... Read more

Gradually working my way through Oliver D. Crisp and Fred Sanders (eds) on Christology Ancient and Modern. Thought Crisp and Sanders gave a great opening quote: “There can be no Christianity without Christ. There can be no Christian doctrine without Christology. And there can be no future for a church that does not take seriously the dogmatic task of thinking through the implications of the biblical and ecclesiastical traditions and what they say about the person and work of Chrsit in order... Read more

Over at the SMH, religion journalist Barney Zwartz has an interesting piece on Secular and Religious Progressives Can Work Together.  In it he shows that religious conservatives are on the decline in the US, in terms of both numbers and influence, which has lessons for Australia. Zwartz gives a good picture of the status quo when he writes: “In the US, according to the Brookings Institute, young adults identify religion with the Republican Party, intolerance and homophobia, and distance themselves.... Read more

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What does profession “Jesus is Lord” mean for us today? Well, some time ago H.A.A. Kennedy opined that “the term ‘Lord’ has become one of the most lifeless words in the Christian vocabulary.” When the title “Lord” lost its reverence it also lost its relevance and the title was reduced to something like “a spiritually meaningful religious leader.” That is such a travesty because adoration of Jesus as Lord is no empty confession and not a vague religious platitude. More... Read more