John Meier’s imaginative scenario with which he introduces his Marginal Jew project is something analogous to the experience four of us are having in Cambridge this week. We have been locked (not really locked) into the “hex” (not the bowels) of the Tyndale House Library (not the Harvard Library) in order to come to an agreement on the question of the Gospel, is it Cross or Kingdom (not a lest-common-denominator Jesus), being fed only bread and water until we finish... Read more

Trevor J. Burke The Message of Sonship Bible Speaks Today; ed. Derek T. Tidball Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 2012. Available at Amazon.com. The image of salvation as adoption is largely a Pauline metaphor (see Burke’s earlier volume, Adopted into God’s Family: Exploring a Pauline Metaphor), but here Burke explores an analogous theme, that is, sonship. Burke explores sonship as a biblical theme set in the coordinates creation, salvation, moral obligation, and restoration. He goes so far to state the entire... Read more

Australian Anglican minister, theologian, historian, and founding director of the Center for Public Christianity (CPX), and also all round good friend of mine, John Dickson, does a wonderful 10 minute interview with ABC’s One plus One. John has much to say about his own conversion, Christianity in society, and of course gay marriage. Watch the interview here. John comes into it at 10 mins 50 secs. Read more

When studying the person of Jesus Christ, his nature and his identity, should we begin with his works or with his person? This was one of the questions Bonhoeffer grappled with in his lectures on christology. Bonhoeffer points to the ambiguous nature of Jesus works as irrefutable evidence that beginning with Jesus’ works in studying him is to begin on the wrong foot. He writes, Even the works of Christ are not unambiguous. They are open to the most varied... Read more

Australia is an odd country in terms of church/state relationships. We have govt. funding for a school chaplains program (staffed mainly by evangelicals), yet we are one of the most secular countries in the world. Australia has more Buddhists than Baptists! In the latest issue of WSJ, there is a piece on Australians losing their faith based on statistics from the 2011 census. Australia is turning its back on religion. That’s the latest finding from a census completed by the... Read more

Bonhoeffer continues to be my theologian. I’ve been reading both his Life together and his lecture on Christology. I’ll have more to say about the latter in due course. In the evenings while here in Cambridge I’ve been reading Life Together. In the chapter “The Day Alone”, Bonhoeffer provokes reflection about the importance of solitude for community. He also provides practical advice and caution. Here are a few statements I found to be particularly stimulating: Whoever cannot be alone should... Read more

Karen Spears Zacharias (let’s just call her KSZ) interviews Scot McKnight about growing up dispensational and how he moved out of it. Note, Dallas and Liberty grads, you really, really should bookmark this page! It includes this quote: I went to college as a devout fundamental dispensationalist, but in college I discovered George Ladd’s The Blessed Hope. That book convinced me of the post-tribulation rapture, and from that moment on I was opposed to dispensationalism. Read at your own peril! Also... Read more

I’m glad to announce that my Ph.D padwan Adam Copenhaver has passed his doctoral viva. His thesis was: “The Colossian Heresy? An Investigation of the Christological Polemics and Socio-Cultural Background in Colossians.” Adam boldly argued for M.D. Hooker’s position that there was no specific “heresy” or “heretics” in Colossae, and Colossians was written as a general exhortation against a variety of possible religious encroachments against a cluster of house churches in the interior of the Lycus Valley. Well done Dr. Copenhaver! Read more

I am most pleased to see a relatively glowing review at RBL by M. Eugene Boring of Jason Hood’s published Ph.D dissertation The Messiah, His Brothers, and the Nations (Matthew 1.1-17). The opening line reads: This stimulating and well-written book is a revision of the author’s PhD dissertation accepted by Highland Theological College and the University of Aberdeen in 2009, supervised by Michael F. Bird and I. Howard Marshall. The author is Scholar-inResidence at Christ United Methodist Church in Memphis, Tennessee. Boring... Read more

Last week saw the Sydney launch of the book I co-edited with Gordon Preece called Sexegesis. There is a good write-up about the Sydney launch over at the Sydney Anglicans website. Bp Robert Forsyth, who launched the book in Sydney, stated: “What’s interesting is that this is not a book by the usual suspects. We in Sydney have had almost nothing to do with it. It’s a book written by evangelical scholars and ministers in places where I think the... Read more