Concordia Seminary (Fort Wayne) Symposium – papers posted online

My wife is from Fort Wayne, Indiana.  Heard of it?  Whenever we travel back to the US we make a visit to her parents.  And, as our Durham library is all but useless when it comes to theology holdings, I try to pop in to Concordia Theological Seminary to see what they have there.  You [...]

New Book: Holiness and Ecclesiology in the NT

This edited volume of essays involves two important subjects: holiness and the church/people of God.  The general orientation of the contributors is towards a view of holiness that acknowledges the communal dimension of the biblical message of sanctity.  And, the list of authors is quite impressive: George Brooke (DSS), Richard Bauckham (Gospel of John), I. [...]

A Couple of Disturbing Trends in Pauline Scholarship

Recently, as I was perusing a book on Paul’s temple imagery in 1 Corinthians, I was struck by a couple of trends in how scholars approach his letters.  The first is the matter of determining authorial intent.  Call me old fashioned, but a reading that takes no interest in what Paul actually intended is doomed [...]

Book Review: Our Mother Saint Paul

Beverly Gaventa is one of my favorite pauline scholars – clear, balanced, exegetically-skilled and knows her primary sources well. This book is no exception in that regard. One is almost always disappointed to discover, though, that the chapters of the book have been (more or less) published previously as essays and articles in [...]