In regards to Pope Francis’ willingness to call a commission to investigate whether women can serve as deacons in the Roman Catholic Church, a few writers have had something to say. First, Candida Moss wrote for The Daily Beast with a piece on “Does Pope Francis Have a Precedent for Female Priests?” If women were to be ordained as deacons, they would be permitted to give homilies in Church, their voices being heard as a central part of the mass in ways... Read more

I’m sure many of you have heard the news this week that British theologian John Webster unexpectedly passed away. Webster was a professor at St. Andrews University in Scotland and a celebrated Christian scholar. Stephen Holmes wrote a tribute to Webster for Christian Today and over at Mere Orthodoxy are some nice words about Webster’s description. I never met Webster, but I do recollect an excellent paper he gave at Tyndale House several years ago on divine immutability and divine impassibility... Read more

Christian Askeland taught an Honours course at Indiana Wesleyan University where he got students to make a short documentary about the Gospel of Judas … and it is really good. The young sheila Rachel Price (about 15:00 mins) is hilarious, I just want to fix her pronunciation so badly! I’m tempted to assign a task like this for my students in the future as part of their assessment, of course, it requires being tech savvy. Read more

I thought I’d share my top eight favourite podcasts programs: 8. Eric Metaxas Show.  I enjoy the Eric Metaxas show, it keeps me informed of politics and culture wars in America, Metaxas is super smart and quirky, but I’m silently grieving his (tacit) support for Trump. 7. Word Matters by Brandon Smith and Trevin Wax. These are two of my favourite Southern Baptist boys and they do a good job discussing difficult passages of Scripture and breaking it down so it is easy to... Read more

Over at Faith and Theology, Jeff Aernie has a great review of Richard Hays’ new book Echoes of Scripture in the Gospels. Hays has provided another masterful foray into the hermeneutical question of how the New Testament authors read Scripture:Echoes of Scripture in the Gospels (Baylor University Press, 2016). In this volume Hays turns his attention away from Paul and toward the authors of the fourfold Gospel. His primary aim, in his own words, is to offer “an account of the... Read more

Over at Theology in the Raw,  Josh Cramer  reviews my soon-to-be-released volume What Christians Ought To Believe: An introduction to Christian Doctrine through the Apostles’  Creed. Bird writes well and accessibly, at home quoting Irenaus/Pannenberg/Balthasar and Stephen Colbert/Joan Osborne/Star Wars. He combines solid biblical scholarship with good historical, churchly theology to ground the Creed in the Scripture’s story. He gives practical and political suggestions for how the Creed might impact Church and world; for Bird, the Creed is not a doctrinal statement... Read more

Over at Christianity Today is my article “God Ahead, Evangelicals, Use the P-Word,” about my journey into the Anglican priesthood and the meaning of priesthood for all types of Christian service whether ordained or not. This past November, at the gorgeous St. Paul’s Cathedral in Melbourne, I was ordained as a priest in the Anglican Church of Australia. When the archbishop laid his hands on me and prayed for me, I was overwhelmed with feelings of joy and divine pleasure. This... Read more

Over at Exegetical Tools is great review of God and the Faithfulness of Paul (see description here), which includes a nice sales pitch at the end: I highly recommend it to any students of Pauline theology and even to pastors who want to engage in rigorous Pauline debates. For Pauline scholars, it would be irresponsible not to own this volume!I highly recommend it to any students of Pauline theology and even to pastors who want to engage in rigorous Pauline debates. For Pauline... Read more

In this episode of the NNY, Scott Harrower and I: – Discuss the New Monasticism – Celebrate Queen Elizabeth II’s birthday – Review Bruce Longenecker’s The Cross Before Constantine. If you like the show, then please: – Hit “like” – Subscribe – Share with friends – Leave a comment     Read more

The latest issue of Interpretation (2016) is a special feature on the Gospel of Mark with some great articles on kingdom of God, disability and healing, cross over boundaries, and the Roman empire, all in relation to Mark. It includes an interesting article by Suzanne Watts Henderson on the kingdom in Mark’s Gospel. I think she wrongly plays off Christology and Kingdom, however, she does offer one very stirring description: Mark depicts God’s reign as an insurgent uprising at work on the earth... Read more