In Steven D. Smith’s Pagans & Christians in the City: Culture Wars from the Tiber to the Potomac (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2018) there is one juicy anecdote that I think can be applied to so many debates about various groups in relation to the first Christians. Smith takes issue with those who argue that there really wasn’t much of a difference between paganism and Christianity. He has in mind especially Guy Stroumsa’s argument in The End of Sacrifice that ancient Christianity was... Read more

Steve D. Smith Pagans & Christians in the City: Culture Wars from the Tiber to the Potomac Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2018. Available at Eerdmans and Koorong. This is definitely one of the more interesting books I’ve read of late. Smith’s basic thesis is that paganism never really went away and today’s cultural wars are really just a rehash of the old pagan vs. Christian debates. The contest is between those who say that sum of all value and meaning... Read more

After Christianity Today’s call for the removal of Donald Trump from office a number of evangelical leaders have rushed to Trump’s defense including Franklin Graham and now theologian Wayne Grudem. Grudem is a well-known theologian in evangelical circles, having written a popular theology textbook, he helped found the Council for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, and has written helpful books on 1 Peter and spiritual gifts. I once had breakfast with him at Tyndale house about ten years ago where he... Read more

Find here the link to an article I wrote for the Christian History Institute about the apostle Paul and friendship. Here’s some key quotes: Paul’s notion of loving friendship was something of a revolution in the ancient world. Philosophers of the late Roman republic like Cicero (106–43 BC) and of the early empire like Seneca (d. 65 AD) wrote much about the nature, benefits, ethics, and goodness of friendship (see “A pure and holy love,” p. 18). Yet this friendship... Read more

James Sawyer Resurrecting the Trinity: A Plea to Recover the Wonder and Meaning of the Triune God Weaver Book Company (Wooster, OH), 2017. Availabe at Amazon.com Review by Dr Kate Tyler As a systematic theologian who spent the years of my thesis-writing becoming familiar with the work of Thomas Torrance, and how his doctrine of the Trinity informs his ecclesiology, it was a delight to pick up Sawyer’s Resurrecting the Trinity, with his unselfconscious acknowledgment that the trinitarian perspective developed... Read more

Grant Macaskill Autism and the Church: Bible, Theology, and Community Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2019. Available at BUP. This is easily one of my favourite books of 2019. Moreover, it is a book that I would urge every church pastor to read because all of our churches will have people, especially children, on the autism spectrum. So definitely add this to your reading list for 2020. I should note that I have a son who is on the autism... Read more