The latest issue of the Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus is a bumper one, almost monograph size, with a collection of essays dedicated to Jesus scholarship of E.P. Sanders and N.T. Wright. And who says historical Jesus research is dead? Well done to Anthony Le Donne and James Crossley for organizes this volume. And big thanks to Robert Webb for years of service getting the journal up, running, and keeping it going despite multiple-changes of publisher. Helen K. Bond:  E.P.... Read more

The other night I was walking down Lygon Street in Melbourne, a street filled with ritzy restaurants, and I saw a political poster by The Sex Party (yes, such a thing exists, even pimps and sex traffickers have their own political party) and the poster’s slogan read “Tax the Churches.” That kind of sums up the secular fanaticism in Australia. Given that context, there is an excellent piece in The Australian by Greg Sheridan who aptly describes the secular fundamentalism of the... Read more

As a follow up from John Pavlovitz’s 5 Things I Wish Christians Would Admit about the Bible, I’ve included my own list of 7 Things I wish Christians knew. 1. The Bible did not fall out of the sky, bound in leather, written in English. The Bible is not a single book, but more of a complex library, written over some 1500 years, in the languages of Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. There were real human processes behind its composition and canonisation... Read more

In the latest episode of The Now and the Not Yet we: – Discussion on “Do Christians and Muslims worship the same God?” – whoa, big controversy here! – Review of Richard Longenecker’s Romans in the NIGTC series. – Review of Bruce Longenecker’s Lost Letters of Pergamum. – Michael Bird is forced to drink coffee against his will! Remember, if you like the show then please like, subscribe, and share!   Read more

Presbyterian theologian Peter Leithart (Theopolis Institute) gives a nice plug to my imminently released book What Christians Ought to Believe over at First Things. Of late, many within the evangelical Protestant world have been calling for some form of ressourcement, renewed attention to the early church’s creeds, theologians, liturgies, and practices. Michael Bird’s What Christians Ought To Believe is one of the best of the lot. Bird, a New Testament scholar at Ridley College, Melbourne, doesn’t assume much prior knowledge of the creed, of creedalism,... Read more

On Tuesday 12 July 2016, I will be speaking at Mentone Baptist Church in Melbourne along with Tim Wilson (former Australian Human Rights commissioner and Liberal candidate for Goldstein) on a symposium about “Freedom of Speech in Australia.” My particular topic will be: Free Speech, Religion, and the New Tolerance. You can get info here and register to attend. Read more

Given the election season in the USA and Australia, it is fitting that Zondervan’s Jeremy Bouma posted a summary of my take on Romans 13:1-7 from my commentary on Romans in the SGBC series. Caveat: When to Resist Governing Authorities Is Paul’s teaching an unqualified statement that gives “governments a license to do whatever they want to whomever they want and the citizens just have to take it”? (449) Bird says no. Consider Stanley Porter’s condition: qualitative superiority. “According to... Read more

Scott Harrower continues his Christian Imaginations series on Dante. Read more

The other week I had the pleasure of having coffee (i.e. coke) with Keith Stanglin from Austin Graduate School of Theology where he kindly gave me a copy of their journal Christian Studies which had several nice pieces, including one by Jeffrey Peterson on “Confessions of Faith in the New Testament.” There Peterson briefly discusses texts like Acts 8.37, 1 Cor 15.3-5, 2 Cor 4.5, and 1 Jn 4.2-3 and how they represent short summaries of the faith. While I’m out and... Read more

From the Wisconsin Center for Christian Study, there is an on-line Udemy course with N.T. Wright on Romans you can do with the first two episodes available for free as a preview. Pitched at a lay level, ideal for small groups, and individual Bible study. Read more