Lutheran pastor, blogger, and seminary student Jordan Cooper has written a book called The Righteous One: An Evaluation of Patristic Soteriology in Light of the New Perspective on Paul. I think patristic perspectives can show just how much of the NPP is not new and how many of our concerns can be quite foreign. For my mind, Augustine and Chrysostom are good examples of folks who engaged in theological and social readings of Romans. Justin Martyr’s debates with Trypho highlight the... Read more

I know you can get some really weird book reviews on Amazon.com, but the following “review”  of Thomas E. Phillips’ Reading Issues of Wealth and Poverty in Luke-Acts is a really doozey review that looks like someone just trying to be a funny twit (aka Dr. H. Scaballa). This books certainly defines a revolution in Luke-Acts studies. THERE ARE few scholars in the field who write with such alacrity and insight as Thomas E. Phillips SBFM. Also, his perspective as a professional... Read more

In celebration of the 50 years since Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream Speech,” I thought I’d post my favourite quote of his: “The church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society.” – From “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” Read more

Over at ABC Religion and Ethics, Cardinal George Pell has a good article The Meaning of Religious Freedom and the Future of Human Rights. I liked these points: Freedom of religion is not just freedom to go to church on Sundays or pray at home. It also means being free to act on your beliefs in the public square, to speak about them and seek to persuade others. It means not being coerced or bullied into silence by speech-control and equality... Read more

Over TGC, Matthew Barrett opines the recent trend of pastors bringing tablets rather than Bibles to church in his interesting piece Dear Pastor, Bring Your Bible to Church. He argues that something is lost aesthetically and even theologically by his change in media. In sum, as good as tablets are, we should still be preaching from a printed Bible. I have to say that this is not a new problem. The church has long had to wrestle with how to... Read more

I’m glad to say that in March 2014, Eerdmans will be releasing my book, The Gospel of the Lord: How the Early Church Wrote the Story of Jesus. Available for pre-order on Amazon.com. 425pp. The title is inspired by John Cassian: “Hear the Gospel of the Lord, or rather hear the Lord Himself saying of Himself: ‘This,’ says He, ‘is life eternal, that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent.’ You heard above... Read more

Given all of those failings, is there benefit in being Jewish, or any point in circumcision? Well, indeed there is! For a start, the Jews have been entrusted with delivering the promises of God to the nations. But (for sake of argument) what if some Jews turned out to be unfaithful to that covenantal vocation? Will their failure to be faithful mean that God himself has been unfaithful to his people? No flipping way! May God he proved right and... Read more

Over at NT Exegesis, Brian Renshaw has a good review of Jesus is the Christ: The Messianic Testimony of the Gospels. Brian concludes: The insights into the themes and theology of the Gospels are worthy to be read for anyone being introduced to the Gospels. After reading this book students will be able to read the Gospels individually and understand how each story stands in relation to the whole. If one is not convinced that the Gospels present Jesus as the... Read more

In the latest issue of Themelios, Prof. D.A. Carson has a good article giving an overview and response to recent approaches to the Kingdom of God. It’s a very helpful piece as a precis of what is going down on the issue of kingdom eschatology and ethics with some thoughtful critiques following. I esp. liked the line: “One wonders what stances Kuyper would have adopted had he been born in China in 1940.” True point, our views of gospel, kingdom,... Read more

Michael Barber has a great post with a series of diagrams about the ways in which the Synoptic Problem is allegedly “solved.” There is a definite evolution from simplicity to complexity in the range of solutions presented. It is a reminder of just how daunting the Synoptic Problem can be to first year students. FWIW, at SBL, I’m giving a paper on the Holtzmann-Gundry Thesis (see here). Read more