Here’s an argument for the upshot of a bad marriage for success in ministry. Wesley’s relationship with his wife continued to be distant and unhappy . . . According to an early biographer, Wesley “believed the Lord overruled this painful business for good; and that, if Mrs Wesley had been a better wife, he might have been unfaithful to the great work to which God had called him”. Whether or not their unhappiness was the work of God, there can... Read more

More articles on the infanticide controversy can be found at SMH, the Conversation, Eureka Street (highly recommended!), and also Front Porch Politics (very good too). Read more

Over at The Sacred Page, my buddy Michael Barber shows his interest about my forthcoming book on the Gospels and highlights, of all things, an amusing limerick about C.H. Dodd that I cited in a footnote in an old BBR article! Read more

“New Testament scholar N.T. Wright reveals how we have been misreading the Gospels for centuries, powerfully restoring the lost central story of the Scripture: that the coronation of God through the acts of Jesus was the climax of human history. Wright fills the gaps that centuries of misdirection”. Read more

Interesting article in the National Times about the state of religion in Australia. Though it does come to a rather banal conclusion: So, what should the churches do? All would love to see more people come through their doors, but no matter what they do, most Australians – and in particular, most Australian men – simply sidle away again. Perhaps ministers should talk less about belief, and more about belonging. Perhaps they should not present their teachings as cut and... Read more

Ben Witherington Paul’s Letter to the Philippians: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2011. Available at Amazon.com This new volume in the SRC series is not simply a rehash of BW3’s earlier Philippians volume (Friendship and Finances in Philippi: The Letter of Paul to the Philippians [Harrisburg, PA: TPI, 1994]), but constitutes a fresh engagement with the letter in light  of the explosion of recent studies on Philippians in recent years. BW3 call Philippians a much “beloved” and “belabored”... Read more

Following the CSCO listing of top ten books for NT grad students to read, here’s my own: 1. Textual Criticism: David Parker, An Introduction to the New Testament Manuscripts and Their Texts. 2. NT Greek: Stanley E. Porter, Idioms of the Greek New Testament. 3. Christian Origins: Christopher Rowland, Christian Origins. 4. Historical Jesus: Gerd Theissen and Annette Merz, The Historical Jesus: A Comprehensive Guide 5. Gospels: Martin Hengel, The Four Gospels and the One Gospel of Jesus Christ. 6.... Read more

O God, whose glory it is always to have mercy: Be gracious to all who have gone astray from your ways, and bring them again with penitent hearts and steadfast faith to embrace and hold fast the unchangeable truth of your Word, Jesus Messiah your Son; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns one God, for ever and ever. Amen. Read more

In recent years I’ve read a number of biographies about NT scholars. Here’s my favourite one’s Werner Neuer, Adolf Schlatter: A Biogrpahy of Germany’s Premier Biblical Theologian (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1995). Paul R. Beasley-Murray, A Personal Portrait of the Life of George Raymond Beasley-Murray (Carlisle: Paternoster, 2002). Tim Grass, F.F.Bruce: A Life: The Definitive Biography of a New Testament Scholar (Milton Keynes: Paternoster, 2012). John D’Elia, A Place at the Table: George Eldon Ladd and the Rehabilitation of Evangelical... Read more

Hi. I’m a shouty man, and I’m here to tell you about the latest in left wing health care. The philosophical left likes to be radical, but in case you haven’t noticed, when your radical views become mainstream, it gets harder every decade to find ways to be more radical. So, if you’re not getting your radical jollies off on gay marriage, portable euthanasia clinics, and partial-birth abortions, there is a whole new vista of radicalism opening up for you... Read more