Craig C. Hill Servant of All: Status, Ambition, and the Way of Jesus Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2016. Available at Amazon.com. To be brutally honest, I have to confess that I have an ego the size of the Grand Canyon. I always have to dominate the social and intellectual spaces around me usually through humour and hubris. My self-esteem and self-worth is very much tied to my achievements as a scholar, which I know is both unhealthy and unspiritual. I... Read more

Paul and Empire is an amazing topic of study. Was Paul anti-empire or pro-Roman empire? Among scholars, I can’t help but notice that when a Republican is in power that there is a spike in anti-imperial readings of Paul and then folks get all Constantinian or Nieburhian when a Democrat holds the top job. But hey, I’m Australian, so what do I know. Anyway, a great book to read on the subject of Paul and empire, one that was very... Read more

Abigail Carroll A Gathering of Larks: Letters to St Francis from a Modern-day Pilgrim Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2017 Available at Amazon.com Reviewed by Felicity Clift Dear Friend of the Wild, Dear Lord of the Revels, Dear Wounded Saint, Dear Francis… Francis of Assisi, the famous saint, is the imaginary recipient of this collection of letters from Abigail Carroll titled, A Gathering of Larks: Letters to Saint Francis from a Modern-day Pilgrim. Indeed, this collection is a little... Read more

David G Firth and Lindsay Wilson (eds)  Interpreting Old Testament Wisdom Literature.  Downer’s Grove, IVP, 2017. Available at Amazon.com By Jill Firth Wisdom literature has been the poor relation of Old Testament studies for much of scholarship’s recent history. This volume brings attention to a range of recent scholarship that shows the importance of wisdom books and wisdom thinking in the Old Testament. Craig Bartholomew reviews developments in the field over the past century by examining ‘a series of turns’... Read more

As some of you know, a couple of months ago I published a novel called The Divinity School – thanks to those who have read it so far – which follows the drama and comedy of an interfaith studies center and its faculty at the fictitious Hamilton University in North Carolina (“let the reader understand”). Much of the story follows Fr. Andrew Stevens, a Catholic priest, who the administration is trying to remove because the campus LGBTIQ group have been complaining... Read more

Thomas Kaufmann  A Short Life of Martin Luther Translated by Peter D. S. Krey and James D. Bratt. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2016. Available at Amazon.com By Jill Firth This English translation of Kaufmann’s Short Life of Martin Luther has been hailed as ‘superb.’ Thomas Kaufmann is a professor of church history at the University of Göttingen. A scholar of the Lutheran Reformation, his publications in German have included a history of the reformation in Germany, Luther and the Jews, sacramental... Read more

The latest issue of JSHJ 14.3 (2016) is out and it has some great articles including: Tom Holmen Crucifixion Hermeneutics in Judaism at the Time of Jesus This essay strongly suggests that prior to Jesus’ death and its interpretation Judaism knew no interpretative means capable of transforming the ignominious death of crucifixion into something favorable. James McGrath Obedient Unto Death: Philippians 2:8, Gethsemane, and the Historical Jesus Despite the extensive attention that has been given to Philippians 2:6–11 in relation to its... Read more

E.P. Sanders Paul: The Apostle’s Life, Letters, and Thought Minneapolis: Fortress, 2015. Available at Amazon.com E.P. Sanders, surely one of the most significant NT interpreters since the late 70s, has published his life and thought of Paul. It is not quite a Pauline biography but certainly not a Pauline theology either. More of an extended sketch of Paul’s life and thought as known from his letters. Despite the impression that the typesetting and binding were done  on the cheap in a... Read more