I don’t want to alienate my conservative American friends, but this video about the NRA, Gun Control, and Australia is hilarious! Read more

The Apostle Paul struggled for legitimacy. That is evident from Galatians, Philippians, and 2 Corinthians. Some Jewish Christians contested Paul’s apostolic credentials and the validity of his proselytism-free gospel. So when Paul writes to the Romans, with a view to visiting them, it is a risky venture. He knows that his reputation was subject to misrepresentation (see Rom 3:8). Would the Roman Gentile Christians recognize him as their apostle? Could he count on their support for a mission to Spain? Would he able... Read more

Brian LePort is reading Jesus is Lord, Caesar is Not: Evaluating Empire Studies in New Testament Studies and he has some quotes from my essay “‘One Who Will Arise to Rule Over the Nations’: Paul’s Letter to the Romans and the Roman Empire” and a description of the essay itself. Read about it here. Read more

Over at Leadership Journal is an interview with my good friend John Dickson on The Church in Secular Culture. John is co-founder of the Center for Public Christianity and senior minister at St. Andrews Anglican Church in Sydney. He argues that we have to stop assuming Christianity’s privileged position in society. We cannot admonish the masses to return to the faith, most of whom have no faith. He says: When you move out of admonition into mission, you realize Australia is... Read more

You can now pre-order my forthcoming Evangelical Theology from Amazon.com … if you’re into that! Due out 29 Oct 13. Here’s a blurb: Evangelical Theology is a systematic theology written from the perspective of a biblical scholar. Michael F. Bird contends that the center, unity, and boundary of the evangelical faith is the evangel (= gospel). The evangel is the unifying thread in evangelical theology and the theological hermeneutic through which the various loci of theology need to be understood.... Read more

Some of you might be familiar with the work of Candida Moss on martyrdom. Her monograph Ancient Christian Martyrdom: Diverse Practices, Theologies, and Traditions and her more popular piece The Myth of Persecution: How Early Christians Invented a Story of Martyrdom. The her most recent work, Moss argues that Christians invented or inflated stories of martyrs. A good response to Moss is made by my friend Michael Jensen in a piece at ABC Ethics and Religion on-line entitled Christian Martyrdom and Modern... Read more

Today I did a seminar with my students where we read Bruce McCormack’s piece on  “‘With Loud Cries and Tears’: The Humanity of the Son in the Epistle to the Hebrews,” in The Epistle to the Hebrews and Christian Theology, ed. R. Bauckham et al (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2009). McCormack constructs a Reformed Kenotic Christology by building on John Owen, Karl Barth, Hans Urs von Balthasar and a bit of John Calvin.  In contrast to the Lutheran genus majestaticum – where... Read more

The University of Zurich is set to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of one of its former professors and rectors Eduard Schweizer by holding a seminar on “The New Testament and the Church.” Schweizer is best known for his three commentaries on the Synoptic Gospels. I particularly liked his one on Mark, but it was his Colossians commentary that was the particular stand out. I used it a lot in writing my own Colossians commentary. Schweizer was memorable... Read more

Over at RBL is a review of The Apostle Paul: Four Views by Arthur Dewey. Read more

I. Howard Marshall, Volker Rabens, and Cornelis Bennema (editors) The Spirit and Christ in the New Testament and Christian Theology Essays in Honor of Max Turner Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2012. Available at Amazon.com Max Turner has had a distinguished career in NT studies as both a teacher, supervisor, and author. His work on the Holy Spirit has moved the conversation forward in several ways (esp. in Luke-Acts) and his many articles about the Holy Spirit are a good introduction... Read more