Michael Gorman: St. Paul’s Epistle to the American Churches

Last updated on: August 21, 2019 at 6:49 pm By Michael F. Bird

In the best display of anachronistic pseudonymity that I’ve read, Michael Gorman’s new book, Participating in Christ: Explorations in Paul’s Theology and Spirituality, includes a letter from Paul to the American churches. You can read the whole “letter” at Christian Century. Here’s part of it: To be in Christ is also to be an alternative community, even an alternative political community. Your Christian communities need to be more political. I do not mean that you should be trying to grab political power or looking for... Read more

Is most evangelism pointless and pelagian?

Last updated on: August 19, 2019 at 8:06 pm By Michael F. Bird

A few months ago, over at the First Things podcast was a discussion between Rusty Reno and Lutheran Pastor Kevin Martin on “Proselytizing, a Pelagian Temptation.” Martin doesn’t think anything like personal evangelism or market-place evangelism is found in the NT. What is more, the belief that we must convert people for God – because God cannot do it without us – is positively pelagian! As someone who has done everything from street-preaching, to door-to-door visits, to counseling at altar... Read more

Baptist and Anglican Discussion on the Doctrine of the Church

Last updated on: December 8, 2019 at 6:53 am By Michael F. Bird

I had the pleasure of being involved in a terrific panel discussion at the Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary library about the doctrine of the church. It was a cracking good time chatting with Dr. John Hammett (Senior Professor of Systematic Theology and the John Leadley Dagg Chair of Systematic Theology) and Dr. Scott Hildreth (Assistant Professor of Global Studies and George Liele Director of the Center for Great Commission Studies) about Anglicanism, baptism, mission, and multi-site churches. There was a... Read more

Jewish views about the Kingdom of God

Last updated on: August 18, 2019 at 10:29 pm By Michael F. Bird

I’m currently back working on the kingdom of God in the OT and second-temple Jewish literature, and I’m proposing this as a short taxonomy of views. No doubt some of these overlapped, but I think the main options are as follows: (1) Heavenly. Given that Yahweh was king of heaven (Dan 4:34; T.Abr. 7.7) and heaven was his throne (Ps 103:19), it was natural to think of God’s kingdom in heavenly dimensions, even a heavenly counterpart to Jerusalem (Gal 4:26).... Read more

Christian Grief – Walking Through Twilight

Last updated on: November 30, 2019 at 9:01 pm By Michael F. Bird

Douglas Groothius Walking Through Twilight: A wife’s illness – a philosopher’s lament Downers Grove, IVP, 2017. Available at IVP and Amazon.com By Jared Catchpoole At some point, we all will ask ourselves the question, why do I hurt? It seems inevitable that in our lives we will face suffering and hardship and eventually be confronted with the penultimate reality of our own death. And it is remarkably refreshing that Christianity deals with these kinds of question about sorrow and grief and... Read more

Nicholas Perrin on The Kingdom of God

Last updated on: November 30, 2019 at 9:00 pm By Michael F. Bird

Nicholas Perrin The Kingdom of God: A Biblical Theology (Biblical Theology for Life; ed. Jonathan Lunde) Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2019. Available at Zondervan and Koorong. Nick Perrin, new president of Trinity International University, has written a great book on the kingdom of God, which includes a very helpful biblical exposition of the theme of God’s kingdom in Scripture with a mind for relevance on what it means today. Best quote from the book is when Perrin indicates how central... Read more

A Week in the Life of a Slave

Last updated on: December 11, 2019 at 8:44 pm By Michael F. Bird

Review by Dr. Jason Park John Byron’s A Week in the Life of a Slave takes a very interesting approach to Paul’s letter to Philemon. Narrated from a third-person omniscient perspective, his book is almost ready as a screenplay for an episode of Season 2 of the popular TV show Paul, Apostle of Christ, and if it were to be aired, it would likely win an award or two. As fascinating as it may be, the major drawback of this kind of... Read more

N.T. Wright on the British View of American Religion and Politics

Last updated on: December 1, 2019 at 3:29 pm By Michael F. Bird

Over at the Atlantic, Emma Green interviews N.T. Wright on The Crisis of American Christianity, Viewed From Great Britain. Emma Green: Do you worry that the strong association between Christianity and politics in the United States—and specifically the alignment between the religious right, evangelicals, and the Republican Party—will permanently shape the image of Christianity? N. T. Wright: Part of the problem here is the word evangelical. I know a lot of people who have basically abandoned it since the whole [Donald] Trump... Read more

Remembering Larry Hurtado (1943-2019)

Last updated on: November 30, 2019 at 8:54 pm By Michael F. Bird

The final day of SBL was sad as we heard the news of the passing of Prof. Larry Hurtado who died after a battle with Leukemia. Larry was a brilliant scholar of Christian origins, having contributed important works on textual criticism, the birth of Christianity, and esp. the emergence of early high christology. Larry was an ordained Pentecostal minister and remained a Christian throughout his life. He was primarily a historian rather than an apologist. A highlight of my career... Read more

Disability and the Quest for the Inclusive Church

Last updated on: August 6, 2019 at 11:39 pm By Michael F. Bird

I wrote this for the August issue of The Melbourne Anglican: The Church must help people with disabilities to flourish People living with disabilities need more than inclusion in the church; they need to fully belong to the church, writes Michael Bird. An important yet often neglected subject of consideration for both our practice of church and the training of clergy must be that of disability. The fact is that our churches are filled with people who are either born... Read more