Paul’s remarks lambasting his imaginary Jewish opponent for hypocrisy and an acute sense of self-superiority are not abstract. It does not apply exclusively to the Jews or just to moralizing pagan philosophers. Paul’s arguments are applicable to Christians too. In fact, what Paul says in Romans 2 against hypocrisy and a superiority complex provide the premise for cultivating an ethic of mutual acceptance within the Roman congregations in Romans 14–15. According to Robert Jewett, Paul here has the goal of... Read more

The latest issue of Themelios is out with a great cohort of editorials, articles, and reviews. See esp. D.A. Carson on recent approaches to Kingdom and Mike Ovey on how Christians have gone from a moral majority to an immoral minority. Including a review of The Apostle Paul: Four Views by Matthew Harmon. Read more

Trans. David R. Maxell Ed. Joel C. Elowsky. Commentary on John: Cyril of Alexandria (Volume 1) Ancient Christian Texts. Series Eds. Thomas C. Oden and Gerald L. Bray. Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 2013. Available at Amazon.com IVP’s series of patristic commentaries in the ACT series has produced another gem. Cyril of Alexandria’s commentary on John is a classic in patristic exegesis of the Fourth Gospel with its Scripture saturated study and its polemical drive against the Arians. According to the blurb:... Read more

Can’t believe that I did not know that Sherif Girgis visited Australia back in July. Girgis is the lead author in what I think is the best book giving a legal and philosophical response to arguments for same-sex marriage (without resorting to arguments that run “God made Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve”). The book is called What is Marriage? Man and Woman: A Defense and I blogged about it earlier. Any way, he was interviewed by the Australian Christian... Read more

My good friend John Dickson – historian, apologist, pastor extraordinaire – has a great piece over at ABC Religion and Ethics giving a devastating critique of Reza Aslan’s book Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth.  If Reza Aslan’s outrageous self-promotion in his Fox News interview was enough to make you think he was a crank, Dickson exposes the fallacies and inaccuracies of Aslan’s book. Dickson really rips the spine out of Aslan’s portrait of Jesus by showing... Read more

I have only just realized that Zondervan has put up an excerpt from Evangelical Theology on-line featuring the introduction and the first two chapters about prolegomena. A good summary of what I say is: If prolegomena is concerned with orientating ourselves to the theological task and setting forth the divine revelation, then the primary function of an evangelical prolegomena should be a setting out of the gospel. The gospel explains why we are in the theological race in the first place, and the gospel... Read more

I just got news that Logos is offering a pretty juicy discount for pre-publication orders of my Evangelical Theology on their website. Normally the book will retail at print price for about $40. However, Logos is offering a pre-pub ebook price of $27! There is also a glimpse at some sample pages. For those interested, here is the TOC: Prolegomena: Beginning to Talk about God The God of the Gospel: The Triune God in Being and Action The Gospel of the... Read more

In the latest issue of JETS are two very good pieces about evangelicalism: D. Keith Campbell, “The American Evangelical Academy and the World: A challenge to Practice More Globally.” In this article, Campbell argues that rather than bemoan the mass of freshly minted Ph.Ds in biblical and theological studies who are flooding the job market that we should be looking to direct them towards missional opportunities in the rest of the world. It is possible to contribute to mission, the church,... Read more

There is a nice promo of The Apostle Paul: Four Views over at Zondervan’s Koinonia blog including an excerpt from the introduction. Read more

Larry Hurtado reports the sad passing of Prof. Sean Freyne. Freyne was an expert on Galilee and its relevance to NT studies. My favourite quote from his work was: ‘Either we accept that the early followers of Jesus had some interest in and memory of the historical figure of Jesus as they began to proclaim the good news about him, or we must abandon the process entirely’.[1] [1] Sean Freyne, Jesus, A Jewish Galilean: A New Reading of the Jesus-Story... Read more