Have you ever heard of Ilse Fredrichsdorff? In Robert Yarbrough’s excellent book, The Salvation-Historical Fallacy (p. 342, n. 9) he gives this quote from the preface of M. Albertz, Die Botschaft des Neuen Testament (1947-57) which left me gob-smacked: “This book is dedicated to the young brethren of the Confessing Church. I was united with them in my office as leader of the Office of Theological Examination of the Confessing Church in Berlin-Brandenburg. I was all the closer to these brethren, whose status was... Read more

I don’t want to turn this blog into a John Piper bash-fest, but there was a genuinely good FB post from Wheaton professor Sandra Richter to Piper’s claim that women professors don’t belong in seminary: I keep finding my name posted all over Facebook in response to John Piper’s latest presentation on why women are not allowed to pursue their gifting to teach and preach. I have a lot of respect for John Piper. He has accomplished some amazing things... Read more

A seminary is not a church, it is not governed like a church, nor does it have the same form and function of a church. This is precisely why some complementarians are very comfortable with having women teach in a seminary. Read more

While I was sleeping I woke up to discover that N.T. Wright has offered a brief yet penetrating critique of David Bentley Hart’s NT Translation and Hart has, in turn, responded with a riposte of wit and indignation. In all honesty, I think Wright’s and Hart’s translations are both quite enjoyable reads, thought-provoking in places, and frustrating in others, and both charactertized by their respective theological proclivities. I am left wondering what Stanley E. Porter and Constantine Campbell might say to both of... Read more

I’ve been in the USA for the last eight weeks and during that time I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Tony Merida from the Acts29 network for a podcast on the subject of “Gospelizing,” “Gracism,” and Church Planting. Great fun, do listen to the interview if you’re interested in the Book of Romans, Church Planting, and the relationship between grace and multicultural churches. Read more

Dom Crossan and his wife Sarah Crossan have a book coming out of images of Easter in the eastern orthodox churches. It is called Resurrecting Easter: How the West Lost and the East Kept the Original Easter Vision In Resurrecting Easter, bestselling author John Dominic Crossan and his wife, Sarah, uncover a very different vision of the Resurrection story from the one well-known in Western Christian tradition. Drawing on photographs taken during annual travels across Eastern Christianity sites, the Crossans note that... Read more

Orthodox Theologian David Bentley Hart has an article at Aeon on Everything You Know About the Gospel of Paul is Likely Wrong. After reading the article I was tempted to go all millennial by uttering the words, “I can’t even …” Hart pushes the Torrancian (and Doug Campbell) line that the Latin west has for too long (mis)-read Paul through the lens of Augustine’s notion of original guilt and focused on Latin categories of forensic guilt and innocence as the root... Read more

Prof. N.T. Wright is set to deliver the 2018 Gifford Lectures in Aberdeen on 12 Feb and 7 March. The Gifford lectures are traditionally about “natural theology” and Wright is only the second New Testament scholar ever invited to deliver this prestigious lecture series (the first was Rudolf Bultmann!). Wright’s topic is: Discerning the Dawn: History, Eschatology, and New Creation. Read more here.   Read more

I just heard the news that the Logos Institute for Analytic and Exegetical Theology at St. Andrews University has launched the Logia initiative which “seeks to support current female students and staff and encourage women to pursue divinity disciplines at the postgraduate level.” Ridley College has started an annual conference on Evangelical Women in Academia, with another one coming in 2018. At Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary there is nestled within their Kingdom Diversity center a Society for Women in Scholarship. I... Read more

Just saw that Wheaton College is having a conference called “Balm in Gilead” featuring Marilynne Robinson and Rowan Williams, 4-5 April 2018. Read more