One of the more disheartening elements of a veteran New Testament professor is the routine encounter with younger New Testament scholars and professors who have not read those who shaped my mind when I was their age. Too many, for instance, know about the scholars — and can be quite critical of them — but have not read them. Thus, I think of A.M. Hunter, T.W. Manson, J. Jeremias, O. Michel, E.P. Sanders, as well as Rudolf Bultmann, Günther Bornkann, Oscar... Read more
Defending the City of God: A Medieval Queen, the First Crusades, and the Quest for Peace in Jerusalem by Sharan Newman. NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014. Review by Lynn Cohick, professor of New Testament at Wheaton College, and author of Philippians in the Story of God Bible Commentary. An academic tour of the Holy Sepulcher this summer by a German scholar whose PhD work is in the early centuries of Christianity, and who has lived in Jerusalem for more than two decades... Read more
A tree with forty different fruits! And it’s a gorgeous tree, to boot. (Could be a hoax, but I can’t see that it is. But it definitely rivals the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in Eden.) A wonderful new blog begins about kids in faith and parenting. Are we nurturing kindness and compassion in our children? Recommendations: Weissbourd and his cohorts have come up with recommendations about how to raise children to become caring, respectful and responsible... Read more
Which means, Kris is smart. (No surprise there.) Source. In short, the most informed consumers usually buy generic products, claims a new paper by economists from Tilburg University in the Netherlands and the University of Chicago. Their research estimates Americans are wasting about $44 billion a year on name brands, when they could be buying the exact same products if they switched to cheaper store brands. Store brand products cost on average about half the price of national brands. Take that bottle... Read more
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Mary Schweitzer is a paleontologist who specializes in molecular paleontology, that is in the detection and interpretation of original molecular fragments in well-preserved fossil specimens. She is best known for discovering what appears to be biomolecules, remnants of soft tissue, blood cells, vessels and such, in ancient fossils including a 68 million year old Tyrannosaurus Rex (One nicknamed Big Mike, not Stan the one pictured here which is in the Natural History Museum at Oxford). Her discovery of soft tissue... Read more
If you believe in the immortality of the soul, so it would seem, you would have to believe in endless punishment of the wicked or universalism. In the history of the church, belief in the immortality of the soul has been a constant. Not all, but most have believed God made humans immortal. While N.T. Wright, especially in Surprised by Hope and more academically in The Resurrection of the Son of God, has labored to prove that this is not only a... Read more
I am standing at the pillar that was chipped away so a platform could be built on which Thomas Cranmer was sentenced to death under Mary (Bloody Mary), and behind me is the pulpit where C.S. Lewis delivered his famous sermon, “The Weight of Glory.” The church is the University Church, St Mary of the Virgin, in Oxford. Kris and I spent a week in Oxford for the BioLogos annual meeting for the research grantees. Though we lived a year... Read more
Confessions from a Local Pastor There’s something addictive about a stage and a microphone and the status that often comes with it. It is a gift from God, but power and authority can easily be abused. So, maybe it’s time for a little confession from a pastor. As much as I love what I do, there are a few strangers that continually knock at my door. Sadly, these strangers have often become more than acquaintances. They are the desire for... Read more
Psalm 119:49 is the kind of hope we find in all those who long for redemption, who long for God to make God’s glory present, and who yearn for justice. In fact, people like Mary and Simeon and Anna — from Luke’s first two chps — are the kind for whom this prayer is so characteristic. Here it is: Remember your word to your servant, in which you have made me hope. Two points: First, it is likely (in my mind)... Read more
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