Michael Jensen of Moore Theological College has a good discussion on What is Theology? He defines theology as: ‘Theology’ is the name we give to that activity of the mind which seeks to give a coherent and intelligible articulation of the truth about God and his relation to the world, drawn from the scriptures and addressed to our contemporaries. Jensen’s exposition of that definition is helpful too, but I’d pose the same question in the form of multiple-choice. Theology is... Read more

The Australian Newspaper has a good article on “Christians of the Nile” that refers to Egyptian Coptic churches as great tourist sites (where flies know not to enter sacred spaces). Worth a read. I hope to visit Egypt one day and would love to see some ancient churches around there. Read more

Over at the Guardian, Robert Morgan has a great obituary on the life of C.K. Barrett which is worth reading. HT: Sean the Baptist. Read more

John Dunne, a Ph.D student at St. Andrews, has a piece on Is the aNTiWright Polemic Justified? Which is a make shift apologia of Wright to evangelicals. A positive mention in dispatches for yours truly. Though sadly, when I read Dunne’s defense of his doktorvater, I’m reminded of the words of Luke 16:31. Read more

Over at Sydney Anglicans, Michael Jensen has a provocative post on the crisis in theological education. He also gives a list of what to look for and what to stay away from in a theological college. I resonate with most of his contentions, however, I am far more positively disposed to on-line learning than he is due to my experience teaching at HTC/UHI in the UK. In short, distance education these days is not just receiving a reading list and work... Read more

Over at the Aussie Pregrino, my friend Rev. Cameron West, blogs on Cheap Grace, Liberalism, and Folk Evangelicalism, where he opines the lack of commitment to discipleship in popular evangelicalism. He writes: To follow the one crucified on our behalf is to take up our own cross, to sacrifice for others and (perhaps most forgotten for contemporary folk-evangelicalism) to be at odds with the ones who crucify. To follow the one risen as the first fruits of the new creation... Read more

One of the most memorable quotes from Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s book Nachfolge (“Discipleship”) is this little ditty: “Only the believing obey, only the obedient believe”. In the summer theology reading group I was leading with a group of college students, this statement provided the most heated conversation we had all summer. No one, of course, had a problem with the first side of the equation “only the believing obey”. But the other side, “only the obedient believe”, was a hard theological... Read more

I’m joining the Hitchhiker’s Guide to Jesus blog tour. Which is basically a Baker promo of Bruce N. Fisk’s new book called, of course, A Hitchhiker’s Guide to Jesus. There is a chance to win some cool Baker books on Jesus too (see the link). Other people who will be posting about the book include Tim Gombis, Michael Gorman, John Byron, Nijay Gupta, & James McGrath. I have to confess that this really is a clever and cute little introduction... Read more

Scot McKnight’s final chapter in his new book The King Jesus Gospel: The Original Good News Revisited begins with a brilliant analogy. He tells of visiting a site in Ireland while giving lectures there called Newgrange. I’ve been to Ireland, but never there. Newgrange is famous because it has what appears to be a 5000 year old burial site. However, no one really knows what it means. Who put it here and for what reason? What is its meaning? We... Read more

Who can name the author of this quote? The Christian church has off and on, sufficiently or insufficiently been aware of that [the church’s continuity with Israel]. Sometimes she has regularly related the New Testament to the Old, but at other times (unfortunately, more often) she has read the New separate from the Old. In some respects she is intensely concerned with the Old Testament; think of the important place Israel has in her instruction or the Psalms in her... Read more