Matthew W. Bates, Salvation by Allegiance Alone: Rethinking Faith, Works, and the Gospel of Jesus the King (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2017) MIKE BIRD: I noticed that you translate Rom 1:17 as “The righteous one, Jesus the Christ, will live by pistis – that is, by his faithful loyalty to God.” How does this translation change things? MATTHEW BATES: Yes, I translate this way because I think Paul intentionally applies the text to the Christ as the allegiant one, but... Read more

Over at Christian Century, Ben Myers, Australia’s premiere theologian, has a great annotated list of recent theological books to read. Well worth consulting if you want to know what’s new and worth reading. Read more

Matthew W. Bates, Salvation by Allegiance Alone: Rethinking Faith, Works, and the Gospel of Jesus the King (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2017) MIKE BIRD: In this book you argue that pistis should often – but not always! – be understood with connotations of “allegiance.” So rather than justification by faith alone we have justification by allegiance alone. Dude, seriously? You do know it’s like the 500th anniversary of the Reformation right? Aren’t you turning faith into a work, confusing law... Read more

Over at RBL is my review of  Terrance Callan, Acknowledging the Divine Benefactor: The Second Letter of Peter. I’m planning to spend a lot of time in the future on 2 Peter and Jude, so this was great to read. In sum: I find Callan’s commentary to be a careful and deliberate application of Vernon Robbin’s socio-rhetorical method to the text of 2 Peter. Such a method is useful for explicating the rhetorical force and various textures of a given text.... Read more

Make sure you come to Ridley College’s annual preachers conference, this year focusing on Paul’s letter to the Romans! Tuesday 22nd August -Thursday 24th August, 2017 Speakers will be Ray Galea (Multi-cultural Bible Ministry in Sydney) and Mike Bird (Ridley College, Melbourne). Hope to see you there! Read more

From Ridley’s NNY Read more

Over at The Guardian (of all places!) Simon Gathercole has a great piece on What is the Historical Evidence that Jesus Christ Lived and Died? He concludes: These abundant historical references leave us with little reasonable doubt that Jesus lived and died. The more interesting question – which goes beyond history and objective fact – is whether Jesus died and lived. To be blunt, I regard Jesus mythicism as pure pseudo-historical dogma by a few cranky atheists. For them, the non-existence... Read more

From Ridley’s NNY! Read more

Over at ABC Religion & Ethics, Richard Hays has a great Easter reflection: What is Handed Over: Maundy Thursday, Memory and the Gospel. When we remember the Lord’s death, we suddenly see that Jesus’s act of footwashing, like his self-emptying death on a cross, comes into focus as a revelation of the true character of God. God hands himself over to us and for us. And so the bread and wine that we share this evening invite us to remember... Read more

Ridley College is Hosting a Conference on Evangelical Women in Academia  Saturday 22nd July, 2017  9 am – 4 pm Speakers: Lynn Cohick and Delle Matthews Women’s writing and women’s voices are underrepresented in evangelical academia in Australia, and experience of women’s leadership is limited. This conference offers an opportunity for women theological students, graduates and teachers to gather for encouragement, edification and networking. It aims to help us develop as evangelical women in academia whether as students, as teachers,... Read more