Think of a community that is divided, ethnically split, arrogant, challenged by a corrupt culture, and claiming to be followers of Jesus.   If you’re thinking of the churches in first century Rome, you’re right.  Paul wrote his most famous and significant letter to a community with all sorts of challenges. It’s a shame we often neglect the community and the people behind this very important letter. Buy the book here: Reading Romans Backwards We neglect the community when we begin at... Read more

I am beginning a series of post every week or so looking at what is often called “creation care” and the biblical mandate for human interaction with the earth on which we live. To begin we are revisiting a book I read through several years ago when it was new: Let Creation Rejoice: Biblical Hope and Ecological Crisis by Jonathan Moo and Robert White. The second chapter Life on Earth Today looks at the ways in which human activity has... Read more

Yes, pastor-preacher, this one’s for you and you know what that title means. The subtitle of Frank G. Honeycutt’s is “Daily Habits for the Busy Preacher.” The book is called Sunday Comes Every Week. It’s a beauty. Filled with pastoral wisdom for the busy pastor-preacher. Each day of the week contributes to the pastoral life and the pastoral sermon in a different way, not legalistically but topically: Monday: listening Tuesday: hearing Wednesday: exegeting Thursday: naming Friday: a pastor looks back Saturday:... Read more

In their new book, Michael Bird and Scott Harrower (Trinity without Hierarchy: Reclaiming Nicene Orthodoxy in Evangelical Theology,) collect essays that both criticize what must be called a Complementarian sub-Trinitarianism and they also offer an alternative in the classical Trinitarian orthodoxy of the church. This is an important book. Well done. Short essays on targeted topics. One of the early essays is by Madison Pierce and it’s big contention is that the Trinity does not have tiers (as some complementarians... Read more

Walter Moberly, The Bible in a Disenchanted Age: The Enduring Possibility of Christian Faith, explains why he finds the Bible and the Christian faith both plausible and convincing. Although the Bible is important, it doesn’t work in a vacuum. In chapter 3 he “suggested that people are most likely to take seriously the Christian privileging of the Bible and Jesus if they encounter the lives of Christians as plausibility structures that moves them towards the Christian way of life and... Read more

When theology is reframed for a flourishing, a kingdom life what does it look like? Miroslav Volf and Matthew Croasmun, in For the Life of the World, present a sketch of an answer in their last chp under two major categories: form and content. We look at content but here’s a summary statement: … the Christian faith offers a specific account of the character of the transcendent realm and how it relates to the mundane, a particular vision of God and... Read more

Reading Romans (Ask Scot Edition) – KR 131 Register for the Webinar on 5 Advantages to Teaching and Preaching Romans Backwards >>> www.seminary.edu/webinar-romans/ Order a copy of Reading Romans Backwards >>> amzn.to/2WHKRth Paul reveals more about the community behind his letter to the churches in Romans than any other of his letters. Join Dr. Scot McKnight as he unpacks how Paul’s letter to the Romans was more than a theological text to be argued about. Romans is a persuasive letter... Read more

I wasn’t aware of the gift of Carolyn Custis James to the church until I heard her speak at Grand Rapids Theological Seminary, April 16, 2019, at the Talking Points seminar “Women in the Kingdom.” The session that riveted my attention and set my heart ablaze was Carolyn’s flyover of the Book of Ruth; a talk titled “The Gospel of Ruth.” I learned she had a book with the same title as her talk. Determined, I thought, “I’ve got to... Read more

Almighty and everlasting God, you have given to us your servants grace, by the confession of a true faith, to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity, and in the power of your divine Majesty to worship the Unity: Keep us steadfast in this faith and worship, and bring us at last to see you in your one and eternal glory, O Father; who with the Son and the Holy Spirit live and reign, one God, for ever and ever.... Read more