Good quote from Christopher Bryan (The Resurrection of the Messiah,  on how the resurrection was not simply a community forming myth: “[T]he apostles’ contemporaries – Jew and Gentile alike – will have been just as aware as we are that the dead generally stay dead. Therefore the apostolic claim will have sounded initially just as surprising and unlikely to most of them as it does to us. Nonetheless, the Christians seem stubbornly to have persisted in it: in their proclamation, iin... Read more

Sad news, last night we heard reports of the passing of Dallas Willard (known for his work on Christian spirituality) and Geza Vermes (known for his work on Jewish Roman history, Dead Sea Scrolls, and the historical Jesus). On the CBE blog is an interesting piece, Is Egalitarianism a Slippery Slope? I used to think this, until I learned about a few egalitarian institutions that actually became more conservative over time (like McMaster Divinity College). Excellent piece over at BAR on... Read more

Okay, the news and net is flooded with stuff on infanticide. Here is some of it. Top of the list is that the Journal of Medical Ethics has dedicated a whole new issue to the infanticide debate which includes a range of views about infanticide. The journal editor Julian Savulescu writes in his editorial: In January 2012, the Journal of Medical Ethics published online Giubilini and Minerva’s paper, ‘After-birth abortion. Why should the baby live?’. The Journal publishes articles based on the quality of their argument,... Read more

When I was doing my Ph.D. on Matthew I remember having a conversation with my supervisor Markus Bockmuehl, I think it was in the accompany of others, about the question of historicity in the Gospels, particularly the Transfiguration. Markus has a high view of Scripture, but holds it critically. I was thankful for a mentor who, by example more than by explicit advice, gave me a way to hold on to the historicity of the Gospels while dealing with them... Read more

As a follow-up to my earlier post where I pointed out that the rhetoric of the new atheist’s does not bother college-age Christians as much as historical criticism does, I’m glad to announced a forthcoming book edited by Christopher Hays and Christopher Ansberry on Evangelical Faith and the Challenge of Historical Criticism which is an edited collection of essays on the topic (coming out in June with SPCK!). Here are some endorsements for the book: ”Chris Hays and Chris Ansberry engage... Read more

We all knew this was coming. In this report a gay man in a partnered relationship in New Zealand is taking the Anglican Bishop of Auckland to the Human Rights Tribunal for discrimination because the diocese will not ordain him to the priesthood. Ironically, the Anglican Church of NZ is very likely to ordain open and practicing homosexual persons in the next few years (well, probably). Ironically, some people want to insist on separation of church and state to stop... Read more

I’ve taught NT in three different theological colleges across the world.  In the Introduction to the Gospels course taught in all three colleges each one had Richard Burridge’s Four Gospels, One Jesus? A Symbolic Reading on their reading list! There is a reason for that, Burridge has written a rather useful intro to the four Gospels. In fact, SPCK has now added the book to their “classics” list. The book is now in its second edition with updates on reception history, the... Read more

Interesting article in TimeIdea on In the War Over Christianity, Orthodoxy is Winning by Mary Eberstadt. As changing views on gay marriage, among others, go to show, secularization marches on. Traditionalists may be on the losing end of historic real estate, at least for now, as well as booed out of the public square for their views on sex. Down the road, though, they still look to possess something else critical — a growing congregation without which every church, after... Read more

I’ve just finished reading Christopher Bryan’s The Resurrection of the Messiah (Oxford: OUP, 2011) and I rather liked this quote in his conclusion: Paul, the earliest of our witnesses is, as we have seen, particularly clear. We have noted how, in I Corinthians 15:27-28 he spells out, in his own way, precisely the point that Nicea would  eventually make by means of the homoousion – that the subjection of all things to the Son involves not two rival divine principles but the sovereignty of the one God who is truly... Read more

I have more Mark commentaries than other book of the NT. There are so many really good one’s. Vincent Taylor, C.E.B. Cranfield, R.T. France (good old British one’s), Rudolf Pesch (best German commentary), Craig Evans (good on religionsgeschichte), A.Y. Collins (dense and nearly definitive), M. Eugene Boring (great on literary theological themes), Ben Witherington (Mark is one of his best commentaries), and esp. Robert Gundry (who nails the purpose of Mark).  Ched Myers’ Binding the Strongman is well-known for its liberationist... Read more