Fleming Rutledge, in her book The Crucifixion, makes one of the most robust and concerted defenses/explanations of substitutionary atonement in recent years (even “penal” substitution in a sense, though heavily qualified). All the more interesting because she is a mainline Episcopalian and outside the usual evangelical networks who like to espouse such things. She begins by noting: “It is not an exaggeration to say that in some circles there has been something resembling a campaign of intimidation, so that those who cherish the... Read more

I’m reading through Mary Eberstadt’s It’s Dangerous to Believe: Religious Freedom and Its Enemies which makes for a concerning read. On the one hand, I am a bit sceptical that Christians are a persecuted minority in the USA. Let’s be real, every president at least makes the effort to feign some kind of faith. And Christians in Raleigh, however secular it might seem, do not suffer like Christians in ancient Rome or in modern Ramadi. What is more, conservatives need to be careful that... Read more

My soon-to-be former PhD student Brian Wright has a great article on: “Ancient Rome’s Daily News Publication With Some Likely Implications For Early Christian Studies,” TynBul 67.1 (2016): 145-160. He’s the blurb: A detailed study on ancient Rome’s daily news publication is currently`absent in early Christian studies. This article seeks to begin filling this lacuna by surveying the history of this Roman news bulletin and highlighting the sorts of data that must be taken into account in order to determine the publication’s subject matter,... Read more

There are a stream of books and articles coming out that address the question as to whether the Greek word pistis denotes/connotes faith, faithfulness, or loyalty Teresa Morgan, Roman Faith and Christian Faith: Pistis and Fides in the Early Roman Empire and Early Churches (Oxford: OUP, 2015). This study investigates why “faith” (pistis/fides) was so important to early Christians that the concept and praxis dominated the writings of the New Testament. It argues that such a study must be interdisciplinary, locating emerging... Read more

I’ve just finished teaching a week long course on the Gospel of Mark for Malyon College in Brisbane. I’m pretty up on my Marcan literature, but I found David Garland’s A Theology of Mark’s Gospel (BTNT) and M. Eugene Boring’s Mark (NTL) to be excellent reads to catch up on stuff. Any way, Gene Boring has a great little descriptor on parables which is worth reading: Parables are polysemic; that is, they generate new meaning in new situations. While a parable cannot “mean” simply... Read more

I’m reading through parts of Christian Dogmatics, in particular, Scott Swain’s essay on the “Divine Trinity,” where he notes: The Father is the fontal source of the Son and the Spirit, and these relations manifest his distinct personal perfection. However, the Father’s identity as fontal source of the Son and the Spirit is not (even logically) prior to the existence of the Son and the Spirit but is rather constituted by his eternal relations to the Son and the Spirit … For this reason,... Read more

I highly recommend the latest episode of the Kingdom Roots podcast  where Scot McKnight interviews Pastor Derwin Grey on reconciliation and multi-cultural churches, especially in light of the recent spate of racially motivated shootings in the USA. Listen to it! Read more

Last night I spoke at a forum on Religion and Freedom of Speech at Mentone Baptist Church in Melbourne. The two speakers were myself and Tim Wilson. In my talk, I basically described the current conflict about religious freedoms vis-a-vis sexual minorities in the USA and Australia, and offered my own prognostication as to how it will probably unfold in the future. Tim Wilson is the former Australian Human Rights commissioner and the federal member for Goldstein (in American talk,... Read more

Michael Allen and Scott R. Swain (eds.) Christian Dogmatics: Reformed Theology for the Church Catholic Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2016. Available at Amazon.com This is a terrific book covering the major theological loci by a venerable cast of contributors. Importantly, the book shows how Reformed theology is a genuinely catholic theology, that is resourced by the breadth of the whole Christian tradition. I particularly liked Michael Allen’s gospel-centered approach to the knowledge of God, Scott Swain’s comments ruling out hierarchy... Read more

Larry Hurtado just posted on this over at his blog and it is a good 10 minute video that provides a summary of much of his work. Read more