Recent posts

Answers to questions about the narrative-historical method
I was asked earlier in the year to answer a few questions about the “narrative-historical” approach to reading the New Testament, which has been the focus of this blog and a handful of books. I didn’t notice that the whole thing had to be done in 500 words and set about writing this rather lengthy… ( | 9 comments)
Scot McKnight, Matthew Bates, and Greg Gilbert on the gospel
The merry-go-round of the debate between Scot McKnight and Matthew Bates, as exponents of a “King Jesus” gospel, and Greg Gilbert, representing a more traditional Reformed emphasis on justification by faith, continues to spin noisily. Gilbert has issued a response to the criticism he received from… ( | 5 comments)
The gospel is changing, but there’s still some way to go
Matthew Bates will think I’ve got it in for him, but that’s not the case. I love the direction he is moving in. I just don’t think he’s taking the journey seriously enough. He has a piece on Scot McKnight’s Jesus Creed blog asking whether Together for the Gospel and The Gospel Coalition are… ( | 10 comments)
Kingdom come and gone: is Jesus all he’s cracked up to be?
Peter asks a question that gets right to the heart of my attempt to follow the historical narrative of scripture through to our own time. This is exactly the sort of conundrum that a consistently developed narrative-historical method throws up—and, I think, solves: I don’t mean any disrespect,… ( | 13 comments)
This is the best theological reflection on the coronavirus pandemic that I have read so far
This is the best theological reflection on coronavirus that I have read so far. It’s a Jesuit Review essay by Tomáš Halík, who is a Catholic priest and a professor of sociology at Charles University, Prague. It offers something of the prophetic perspective that is missing from much of the bland and… ( | 2 comments)
Biblical scholar says that COVID-19 is not an “act of God”. Is he right?
In a Seven Minute Seminary video on the will of God and natural disasters Ben Witherington, who is a very good biblical scholar, argues emphatically that COVID-19 is not an “act of God”. One of the main tasks of Jesus’ earthly ministry, he says, was to get rid of disease, decay, and death so it is… ( | 24 comments)
Paul’s narrative world: roughly why I disagree with N.T. Wright about the meaning of “propitiation by his blood”
My wife thinks this is rather heavy reading for Easter, so be warned….The doctrine of “penal substitutionary atonement”—the idea that God punished Jesus on Good Friday in our place—divides Christians: some find it theologically profound, others find it morally repugnant. My argument has been—… ( | 0 comments)
The reconciliation of “all things” by the blood of his cross
A popular text for people who would like to think that in the end all people will be saved is the assertion in Colossians 1:19-20 that through Christ God was pleased to “reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.” Steve Chalke, for… ( | 1 comment)
Where is the God of history in this pandemic?
Enough of Steve Chalke’s book, let’s get back to coronavirus. How do we talk about it theologically? Or, as Baptist theologian and ethicist Roger Olson asks, “Where is God in this pandemic?” Coronavirus is not one of the four horsemen of the Apocalypse—that was a very different future, from a very… ( | 2 comments)
Review of Steve Chalke’s The Lost Message of Paul, part 3: atonement, hell and universalism
Enough of the pandemic, let’s get back to Steve Chalke’s book The Lost Message of Paul. Chalke is a somewhat post-evangelical leader in the UK with excellent credentials. In this book he is using the “new perspectives” on Paul that have emerged in New Testament scholarship in recent… ( | 2 comments)
Coronavirus—Tom Wright says that Christianity offers no answers. Is that the best we can do?
Tom Wright has written an Ideas piece for Time Magazine in which he argues that Christianity is not supposed to give answers about the coronavirus. It’s our rationalist culture, he says, that needs a reason for everything, and it’s rather “silly” to ask whether the pandemic is a punishment or… ( | 9 comments)
Review of Steve Chalke’s The Lost Message of Paul, part 2: a digression
I made the comment in part 1 of this review of Steve Chalke’s The Lost Message of Paul that he has worked hard to integrate recent New Testament scholarship into his analysis of Paul but that in the end his personal judgment as a post-evangelical pastor gets the better of him. That started… ( | 1 comment)
Nein, das coronavirus ist nicht die Apokalypse; es könnte schlimmer als das werden
Ich habe bisher nur eine Person gehört – ein junger New Yorker, der im Fernsehen interviewt wurde –, die das Wort “apokalyptisch” im Zusammenhang mit der COVID-19-Pandemie verwendet. Ich denke, dass wir in der Regel sehr pragmatisch vorgehen. Aber es ist noch zu früh, und in dem Maße, wie die Zahl… ( | 0 comments)
Review of Steve Chalke’s The Lost Message of Paul, part 1: new perspectives
Steve Chalke is a British “Baptist minister, author, speaker, justice campaigner, broadcaster, social entrepreneur and former UN Special Advisor on Human Trafficking”, and the founder of the Oasis Trust. The Lost Message of Paul is his belated sequel to The Lost Message of Jesus,… ( | 5 comments)
No, coronavirus is not the apocalypse; it could be worse than that
[If you’re looking for a German version of this post, you’re in luck.] I’ve heard only one person so far—a young New Yorker, interviewed on TV—use the word “apocalyptic” in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic. Mostly, I guess, we are being very pragmatic about it. But it’s early days… ( | 6 comments)
Does Paul think of Jesus as an “angel of God”?
In his book How Jesus Became God: The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from Galilee, Bart Ehrman argues that in Galatians 4:14 Paul in effect speaks of Jesus as an angel:You know that because of a weakness of the flesh I first proclaimed the good news to you, and you did not despise or spit… ( | 3 comments)
Where is Jesus in the Old Testament?
Alastair Roberts asks, “Where is the Trinity in the Old Testament?” He is quite candid about the fact that the “philosophical cast and categories of these later disputes transposed the biblical material into very different idioms and discourses animated by rather different concerns”; and he warns… ( | 7 comments)
The ancient narrative in which we are surprised to find ourselves
James Mercer is on the ministry team of the Benefice of St Aldhelm in Purbeck on the south coast of England. I’ve known him for some years, and we’ve had a few good conversations about the practical application of the narrative-historical method. He posted this bold, inspiring and beautifully… ( | 7 comments)
How, why and when to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling
Paul’s exhortation to the Philippians to “work out (katergazesthe) your own salvation with fear and trembling” is a bit of a puzzle. Are we saved by works after all? Remembering the exodus, the Psalmist declares, “Yet God is our King from of old; he worked salvation (eirgasato sōtērian… ( | 5 comments)
Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so?
I wrote a piece a while back about a Barna Group report on evangelism in the UK, which took the goal of evangelism to be the transformation of individuals and communities “by Jesus’ love”. I made four broad points: 1) there is no simple universal “gospel”; any decisive proclamation of good news… ( | 9 comments)