There are red heads in the Bible. According to legend, Judas Iscariot was a red head. And I interpret the Book of Revelation to mean that one day the world will be ruled by a triumvirate of red heads including myself, Nicole Kidman, and Horatio from Miami CSI. Anyway, here is a cool video that debunks many of the myths about red heads, also known as “gingers” and in Australia as “rangers”  and (ironically) as “bluey.” I like how the... Read more

Greg Monette has an interesting post on Why Bart Ehrman is Good for the Church. If you don’t know who Ehrman is, read his wikipedia entry here. He concludes: Bart Ehrman is showing evangelicals where their weaknesses actually are. We should thank him for this rather than berate him. Yes, he pushes the envelope. He’s a writer of popular trade books. Of course he’s going to do that. However, though he may be wrong on many of his startling claims,... Read more

During SBL back in November, I had one of the most memorable and sweet times of conversations deepening friendship with Jonathan Pennington. On a whim, and quite by accident, we ended up spending a few hours hanging out in conversation. I’m so thankful for God’s providence. Our conversation ranged from Messianic Judaism to Matthew and the Gospels to very personal things in our life and family, much more significant things than those of the academic sort. I really appreciate Jonathan.... Read more

Just saw this advertized through Joel Watts: John C. Poirier and Jeffrey Peterson (eds), Marcan Priority without Q: Explorations in the Farrer Hypothesis.  The blurb reads: This book discusses the composition of the synoptic gospels from the perspective of the Farrer hypothesis, a view that posits that Mark was written first, that Matthew used Mark as a source, and that Luke used both Mark and Matthew. All of the articles in the volume are written in support of the Farrer hypothesis,... Read more

Now N.T. Wright is not one to court controversy (with straight face), but his latest book is called Surprised by Scripture: Engaging Contemporary Issues (New York: HarperOne, 2014). Or is it called The Bible Says, its a bit confusing on the HarperOne webpage. Due out in March 2014. Here’s the HarperOne blurb: A thoughtful and provocative collection, in the vein of the intellectual spiritual classic The Weight of Glory, from N. T. Wright, the influential Bishop, Bible scholar, and bestselling author widely regarded as... Read more

Therefore, even as evil invaded the world through Adam, bringing death with it, so that death became a universal experience, because all are given over to sinning – In terms of evil and law, obviously evil was well and truly present in the world even before the law was given to the Israelites by Moses. But evil and law go together because evil deeds are not tallied up against anyone when there is no law to name evil deeds and... Read more

Late last year I wrote a post on women and church ministry and particularly my full embrace of the mutuality position otherwise known as egalitarianism, the view that women are gifted and called for every ministry of the church.  In a subsequent post, I followed up with a brief reflection on how my thinking about the Bible has matured over the course of a decade. This was one of the factors in my coming to embrace the position. In this... Read more

As a follow up to the last blog post, just heard about this new book which is just out! Austin Fischer  Young, Restless, No Longer Reformed: Black Holes, Love, and a Journey In and Out of Calvinism Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2014 Here’s the blurb: Does it really matter? Does it matter if we have free will? Does it matter if Calvinism is true? And does what you think about it matter? No and yes. No, it doesn’t matter because God... Read more

Over at SBC Tomorrow, there is a scintillating piece by Paul Owen (Montreat College, NC) about What is Wrong with the Young Restless and Reformed Movement? An Interpretive Essay. Owen himself is a Calvinistic Anglican (huzzah!) but he notes something about the psychological profile of the YRR: Calvinism today seems to appeal mostly to a certain sort of personality, and that personality is not always healthy. I have discovered that the person who really spends a lot of time talking about the... Read more

Over at New Leaven, T.C. Robinson ponders about the merits of my proposal in EvTh about a dual baptism view whereby churches could accept or even practice both modes of baptism. Robinson concludes: It’s a valiant proposal.  But some Baptists will not find Bird’s proposal satisfactory, concluding that he has fallen short.  Why?  Because a staple of the Baptist identity is the belief that local church membership is restricted to those who have professed faith in Christ and have publicly... Read more