Just out is a book by my friend and former colleague John R. Coulson on The Righteous Judgment of God: Aspects of Judgment in Paul’s Letters (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2016), for which I was honored to have written the foreword. Coulson does an admirable job of looking at all the (in)famous judgment texts in Paul and always comes to sound conclusions. A learned student for anyone interested in Pauline eschatology See also his recent article: John R. Coulson, “Jesus and... Read more

Jesus the Eternal Son: Answering Adoptionist Christology Paperback – July 13, 2017 by Michael F. Bird (Author) #1 New Release in Paul’s Letters Adoptionism—the idea that Jesus is portrayed in the Bible as a human figure who was adopted as God’s son at his baptism or resurrection—has been commonly accepted in much recent scholarship as the earliest explanation of Jesus’s divine status. In this book Michael Bird draws that view into question with a thorough examination of pre-Pauline materials, the Gospel... Read more

I’ve been watching The Young Pope, an intriguing TV series on HBO about, well, a young Pope. He’s a suave and dashing figure, entirely unlikeable, serious parental issues, hovering somewhere between closet atheist and bonafide saint. When I first started watching the series I thought it was anti-Catholic porn. The ultimate progressive fantasy, imagine a Pope who was an atheist and tries to bring the whole thing crashing down. But then it admixes real deep spiritual, ethical, and ecclesiastical textures,... Read more

Over at CT is my review of Gordon Smith’s book Evangelical, Sacramental, & Pentecostal: Why the Church Should Be All Three. It’s a good book, an exercise in global ecumenism, thick ecclesiology, and practical suggestions in a world where Pentecostalism is the fasting growing form of Christianity. I conclude: Anyone who has read Acts 2:42–47 can see that the church is meant to be a community of Spirit, Word, and sacrament. If we prioritize one of these and neglect the other... Read more

Over at the CSCO blog from the University of Edinburgh is my short article on When Did Jesus Get Adopted as God’s Son? Now maybe there was an adoptionist christology somewhere in the diverse effusion of Christian groups in the first and second centuries. But Rom 1:3-4 is no smoking gun for it and neither do the Ebionites appear to have maintained such a position. One will have to look elsewhere.   Read more

This is what I think the victorious Christian life looks like: it is the pain, frustration, and misery of the faithful. Read more

I was interviewed by Eric Metaxas on his radio show/podcast about my books What Christian Ought To Believe and The Divinity School. Great chat about the Apostles’s Creed, dirty Koalas, writing fiction, and religious liberty. Read more

Over at Commonweal – a progressive Catholic magazine – Prof. Paul Griffiths explains why he resigned from Duke Divinity School. Harsh and direct disagreement places thought under pressure. That’s its point. Pressure can be intellectually productive: being forced to look closely at arguments against a beloved position helps those who hold it to burnish and buttress it as often as it moves them to abandon it. But pressure also causes pain and fear; and when those under pressure find these... Read more

Here are my top ten volumes on Luke-Acts to put on your bookshelf or to assign to a class for a reading list. Adams, Sean A., and Michael Pahl (eds.). Issues in Luke-Acts: Selected Essays. Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias. An excellent collection of essays on what is happening in Luke-Acts these days, covers genre, unity, christology, etc. Longenecker, Bruce W. 2016. The Lost Letters of Pergamum: A Story from the New Testament World. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker. A work of fictional... Read more

Luke-Acts is a highly significant double work within the New Testament. First, it is the largest sub-corpus of the New Testament. Luke-Acts makes up a whopping 28% of the New Testament, whereas Paul’s letters comprise only 24%, and the Johannine corpus covers a mere 20% (and that’s assuming the authenticity of the authorship of all the writings attributed to Paul and John which is disputed). Second, Luke is both an Evangelist and the first church historian. He has his own... Read more