One discernible trend in scholarship is that Jesus, historical or otherwise, is only accessible through the memory, tradition, and theology of his later followers: Allison (“The Historians’ Jesus and the Church,” 94) puts it eloquently: “Jesus’ identity cannot be sundered from a whole constellation of post-Easter circumstances: somebody attributed to him the remarkable Sermon on the Mount, and somebody else remembered his death by creating Mark’s stark and moving passion narrative, and somebody else penned Luke’s beautiful and human Gospels,... Read more

David G. Horrell The Making of Christian Morality: Reading Paul in Ancient and Modern Contexts Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2019. Available at Eerdmans and Koorong. This volume of collected essays by David Horrell covers aspects of Paul’s churches, Pauline ethics, and ethical readings of Paul. There are some definite highlights. In “The Letters for All (Local) Christians” Horrell does for Pauline communities what Bauckham did for Gospel communities, viz., shows that Pauline churches were not independent and isolated communities but... Read more

Kelly M. Kapic with Justin Borger The God Who Gives: How the Trinity Shapes the Christian Story, 2nd edition. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2018. Available at Zondervan and Koorong. By Dr. Kate Tyler The God Who Gives is a trinitarian approach to biblical theology, with an extended focus on what it means for humanity to belong to God, and by extension, to take part in the mission of God. Reminiscent in many ways of Kathryn Tanner’s emphasis on God as... Read more

Branch, J. Alan. Affirming God’s Image: Addressing the Transgender Question with Science and Scripture. Bellingham WA: Lexham, 2019. Available at Logos. Review by Suzanne Day Affirming God’s Image: Addressing the Transgender Question with Science and Scripture is a concise, well-researched book aimed at helping Christians understand and respond to the modern phenomenon of transgenderism. Branch addresses different facets of transgenderism, including history, vocabulary, scripture, science, treatment and Christian responses. This book is a helpful resource addressing a very relevant issue.... Read more

Hi everyone, in the first formal episode of #PlanetTheology we give a bit of an introduction to ourselves and what we are thinking about, before discussing psychology and religion and then Trinity Without Hierarchy. Read more

I’m reading  Pablo Richard, Apocalypse: A People’s Commentary on the Book of Revelation (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1995), which ends with these words (172-73): In the first place the book of Revelation is important for moderating the radical and fundamentalist apocalypticism that has invaded our society, especially now that the end of the twentieth century and the end of the second millennium is approaching. Revelation is customarily manipulated by fundamentalistic sects, both Protestant and Catholic. A historical and liberating interpretation of Revelation can... Read more

Nice quote from James Dunn on the apostle Paul as not so much a theologian but as a theologizer: Writing a theology of Paul, in other words, is like trying to listen to a sequence of varied dialogues, of which we can hear clearly one side of the dialogue, but which we must understand as a dialogue, otherwise we will inevitably misunderstand what Paul says. One cannot hope to write a theology of Paul except by listening to his letters... Read more

James D. G. Dunn Jesus According to the New Testament Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2019. Foreword by Rowan Williams Available at Eerdmans and Amazon.com. Experienced New Testament scholar James D. G. Dunn has published his research on Christian origins in numerous commentaries, books, and essays, most notably, the Christianity In the Making series (Eerdmans). In this short, simple, easy to read book designed especially for a lay audience -based itself on lectures given in Chichester and Canterbury Diocese- Dunn focuses his fifty-plus... Read more