David J. Downs & Matthew L. Skinner (eds.) The Unrelenting God: God’s Action in Scripture: Essays in Honor of Beverly Roberts Gaventa Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2013. Available at Amazon.com Beverly Gaventa is a brilliant scholar, having made contributions to the study of Luke-Acts and Paul. She is now at Baylor Uni having taught for many years at Princeton Theological Seminary and at Columbia Theological Seminary. We all anxiously await her Romans commentary in the NTL series! During my doctoral... Read more

The latest issue of Credo Magazine is out with a specific focus on “Justification: The Doctrine of Which the Church Stands or Fall.” In it, Tom Schreiner has a piece on N.T. Wright Under Review: Revisiting the Apostle Paul and His Doctrine of Justification. For a summary of the main arguments, see Justin Taylor’s overview of Schreiner’s main points. Read more

Denny Burk What is the Meaning of Sex?  Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2013. Available at Amazon.com By Kara Martin Denny Burk is correct when he says that we live in a world confused about sex. The link between the biblical understanding of sex and relationships that defined the mores of society has almost completely disintegrated in the past 40 years. In his book Sex and iWorld, Dale Kuehne points out that society now supports any sexual activity or expression as long... Read more

Over at TGC, Tullian Tchividjian offers an interesting spin on the Parable of the Good Samaritan. He writes: If Jesus had been asked, “How should we treat our neighbors?” and had responded with this story, perhaps “Be like the Good Samaritan” would be an acceptable interpretation. Instead, Jesus was asked, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” He was asked a vertical question (a question about a person’s relationship to God) rather than a horizontal one. The lawyer was,... Read more

One of the themes of which I’ve been personally preoccupied in recent months is the idea of the suffering of God. I was just journalling this morning about my desire to be even more focused on this theme. I have been finding of late that my imagination has a significant amount of power in creating new realities in the “real” world. Anyway, I could say more, and will say more about that at some later point. On the theme of... Read more

Bart Ehrman has a new book due out in March titled, How Jesus Became God: The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from Galilee (New York: HarperOne, 2014). I blogged about it earlier here. The blurb for the book on Amazon.com reads: New York Times bestselling author and Bible expert Bart Ehrman reveals how Jesus’s divinity became dogma in the first few centuries of the early church. The claim at the heart of the Christian faith is that Jesus of Nazareth was, and is,... Read more

The renowned American New Testament scholar Richard Hays was  in Australia last year attending a conference in Perth. While on a train, he got talking to someone who asked him what he was doing in Australia. He replied that he was attending the Society of New Testament Studies conference. Sensing the person’s confusion he clarified that he was a New Testament scholar from Duke University. The person on the train responded with a question, “Is that associated with any particular... Read more

I’ll be teaching a course on John’s Gospel next month for Logos for their Mobile Ed program. I’m looking forward to it although it will be a new experience. It will be an additional treat to go out to the Seattle area for a week.  I’ve been teaching John at NPU for as long as I’ve been there – 8 years. In preparation for the course, I picked up Lars Kierspel’s book The Jews and the World in the Fourth Gospel:... Read more

Thanks to Chris Keith, Dale Allison, and Anthony Le Donne, no one seems to believe that the various criteria of authenticity can really prove or disprove any element of the Jesus tradition. So, I’ve come up with a new, very Australian, criterion of authenticity. I call it the “criterion of the vibe.” See the video below: Read more

Over at TGC is a great piece by Michael Morgan on What I Learned About Sabbaticals by Finally Taking One. Despite teaching biblical studies and theology for nearly ten years I’ve never had a sabbatical. Since I’ve changed institutions twice (began at Highland Theological College went to Brisbane School of Theology then to Ridley Melbourne) I’ve departed  just when I’ve been due for a sabbatical and then had to go to the bottom of the cue again (though Ridley has... Read more