Over at the journal Scottish Journal of Theology, Douglas A. Campbell has published a further critique of N.T. Wright’s Paul and the Faithfulness of God. Campbell offered his initial review of Wright’s book at Marginalia on N.T. Wright and the Lutheran-ness of Paul (2015), but he has more to say in a new article “Panoramic Lutheranism and apocalyptic ambivalence: An appreciative critique of N. T. Wright’s Paul and the Faithfulness of God,” SJT 69.4 (2016): 453-73.  Though sadly, the article does not engage with Wright’s response to... Read more

Check out my latest foray on The Drum into Aussie politics arguing that Australia needs a commissioner for political pluralism in order to make sure that extreme views from the margins like civic totalism (from the left) and ethno-nationalism (from the right) never gain a foothold in our pluralistic democracy. Why Australia Needs a Commissioner for Political Pluralism In a nutshell, it is about how to inoculate your country against the rise of a leftist dictator or a right-wing demagogue (ya’all... Read more

There is a great piece by Kate Harrison Brennan on No Place for Exile: How Christians Should (Not) Make Sense of their Place in the World. She argues that: Christians, however, cannot return to God’s true vocation by re-claiming the position of exile, or by re-claiming the powerful position of Jerusalem (a point made by John Dickson). Instead, we can and must mirror, as Bretherton suggests, the theo-logic of Jeremiah 29 by following the way of the cross. It is in... Read more

I just heard the official news that the newly appointed editors for the NIGTC are Todd Still and Mark Goodacre. In my mind, that is a great choice for Eerdmans and two excellent guys to lead an excellent series. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. has signed two leading New Testament scholars—Mark Goodacre, professor of New Testament and Christian Origins at Duke University; and Todd D. Still, Charles J. and Eleanor McLerran DeLancey Dean and William M. Hinson Professor of Christian... Read more

For those interested, my book Jesus the Eternal Son: Answering Adoptionist Christology is now available for pre-order from either Eerdmans or Amazon.com. Available in July 2017! Only $18.00 USD!! 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... Read more

There are many commentary series that claim to be “international,” but the one series that is the most international and the most ethnically diverse is the New Covenant Commentary Series edited by Craig Keener (American) and myself (red-headed Aussie who self-identifies as an Anglo-Ranga). The three most recent volumes in the series are Andrew Mbuvi (from Kenya in Africa) on 2 Peter and Jude, Kim Huat Tan (Singapore) on the Gospel of Mark, and Nijay Gupta (Indian American) on 1-2 Thessalonians... Read more

Here is one very good reason why we should never stop teaching biblical languages in our schools, colleges, and seminaries. Read more

If 2016 was not already been bad enough (save wins by the Cubs in baseball, Cronulla in rugby league, and the Bulldogs in AFL), last week we had the passing of Catholic biblical scholar Joseph Fitzmyer S.J. Fitzmyer was the vanguard of American Catholic biblical scholarship in the post-Vatican II era. He and Raymond Brown set a high bar for other scholars to follow in devoting themselves to the very best biblical scholarship with the blessing of their church. I’ll... Read more

For those who purchased my debut novel Iskandar – all four of you – I have another novel coming out fairly soon called The Divinity School. A Widower Catholic priest tries to reconcile with his gay daughter. A Rabbi confronts his abusive son-in-law A Muslim professor tries to stop a young girl from joining ISIS and An Episcopalian minister encounters naked nuns and Lutheran-Rastafarians The Divinity School is a novel that follows the lives of four of faculty members at an... Read more

An old acquaintance of mine, Dr. Michael Whitenon (Baylor Uni) has had his PhD thesis published which is a fascinating take on Mark’s christology. The book is: Hearing Kyriotic Sonship: A Cognitive and Rhetorical Approach to the Characterization of Mark’s Jesus (BIS 148; Leiden: Brill, 2016). In Hearing Kyriotic Sonship Michael Whitenton approaches the characterization of Mark’s Jesus from an interdisciplinary perspective and argues that many first-century listeners probably understood him as a divine Davidic king. It is an interesting studying... Read more