Jerry L. Sumney Steward of God’s Mysteries: Paul and Early Church Tradition Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2017. Available at Amazon.com In this book, Jerry Sumney critiques those scholars who suggest that Paul was a second founder of Christianity or even a radical innovator in creating Christianity. Sumney particularly has in his sights Hyam Maccoby, Barrie Wilson, and James Tabor. Sumney’s approach is to set up some criteria for what counts as traditional material and then to look at Paul’s use... Read more

I just found, thanks to Chris Woznicki on twitter, William Naphy, “Geneva: Hospitality and Xenophobia” in Calvin and the Consolidation of the Genevan Reformation (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 2003), parts can be read on Google Books. Calvin himself was a French refugee to Geneva and many Genevans were concerned with the influx of more and more French refugees to who were flooding the city, especially those who could afford to buy citizenship. There were concerns about disease, inflation, food shortages,... Read more

Lynn H. Cohick and Amy Brown Hughes Christian Women in the Patristic World: Their Influence, Authority, and Legacy in the Second through Fifth Centuries Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2017. Available at Amazon.com These days there are few books where I learn a lot I didn’t know about before. On women in the early church, I like to think that I have an above average knowledge of the topic, from Mary Magdalene to Thecla, to Perpetua and Felicity to Augustine’s mother... Read more

Here is Craig Keener and I talking about the new covenant commentary series: Read more

For me, it was reading Romans 16, noting all the women that Paul mentions, noting what he describes them doing, that brought me to the egalitarian position. A couple of great things on the women of Romans 16 has just been published. First, over at Commonweal, Michael Peppard has an article on Household Names: Junia, Phoebe, and Prisca in Early Christian Rome. After analysing the women mentioned, he points out: “For those keeping score, that’s five evangelistic “workers” and one “apostle”... Read more

Over at Missio Alliance, Karina Kreminski has a great article on Should Men Mentor Women Ever After the #MeToo? At one level this should not be a problem, since men teach, coach, and train women all over the place, in various contexts, and this should be normal. However, I must say, that I am drop dead paranoid about avoiding any situation where I can ever be accused of harassing a female student. The mere accusation of impropriety or harassment is enough... Read more

I’ve always been intrigued by argument to the effect that something is good/right because it is “natural” or wrong/bad because it is “unnatural.” People have tried to argue for the validity of all sorts of things based on its authorization of “nature. To begin with, the very notion of “nature” is polyvalent. The vocabulary we use for the external world is freighted with various connotations. What we call “nature” often has romantic connotations of tranquility without toxicity; while “creation” implies... Read more

Michael Gorman (ed.) Scripture and Its Interpretation: A Global, Ecumenical Introduction to the Bible Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2017. Available at BakerPublishing.com This is a great introductory volume on biblical interpretation by interpreters from a variety of denominational and global perspectives. I especially enjoyed the essays on Africa, Africa-American, Latino/Latina, and Asian approaches to biblical studies. Hard to give a survey of each article, but there are some gems here, very good intro to the Bible for students, or anyone... Read more

Just saw this from Prof. Grant Macaskill of Aberdeen Uni The Centre for the Study of Autism and Christian Community hosts interdisciplinary research into the blessings and challenges associated with the presence of persons with autism in the Christian church. Autism is now recognized to be a common condition, and most Christian communities or families will have experience of it, in some form or another. It is easy to assume that autism can be considered in isolation from the faith... Read more