Is Schreiner a Binitarian???

I just finished reading Thomas Schreiner’s new New Testament Theology (2008) which is a massive work of nearly a thousand pages.  At the same time, I was reading F. Matera’s new NT Theology and I must say that I liked Schreiner’s approach more.  S. chose a primarily topical approach (in contrast to Matera’s quasi-historical/canonical approach) [...]

Five Books Every NT PhD Student Should Read (and they are not theological)

I have said before that when it comes to doing a good PHD, ‘the magic is in the method’ – that means that just doing exegesis of a passage is not enough (anymore). We need ‘fresh’ approaches to the NT, largely because it is well-worn ground. How can you find something original? [...]

Why Learn NT Greek? A Pedagogical Matter…

When I taught Greek at Gordon-COnwell Theological Seminary (Boston campus) I taught a night course to about two dozen students who worked full-time in their other jobs and studied at night and on the weekends.  This was exciting, as these students tended to be dealing directly with pastoral leadership questions and were passionate about learning.  [...]

How to do NT research – some thoughts

I have thought a lot lately about how I do research. It seems so often I end up accidentally stumbling onto the most formative essays and articles for my research. This is fortuitous, but how can I research in a more systematic and effective way? Well, I don’t know, but I feel [...]

Paul and Apostolic Identity – need some help/advice

My penultimate chapter that I am working on deals with Paul’s self-conception of his apostleship and where he derived this understanding from and how it developed in the articulation of his status and ‘calling’ in his letters.
The only thing I know of that is substantial is Shutz’s Paul and the Anatomy of Apostolic Authority.  Does [...]

New Book on Metaphors in Paul (Raymond Collins)

My thesis research is on how Paul used metaphors to reshape identity and ‘convert’ the imagination (as Hays would say) of his churches.  One can see an early attempt to explicate this in Paul Minear’s Images of the Church in the NT. I just saw announced a new book that goes even further than Minear [...]

A Small Celebration…

I began my blog about 20 months ago, and I am happy celebrate today getting just over 40,000 hits.  In light of this occasion, I decided to gather together some of my more popular ‘how-to’ posts for academic research onto one page for easy accessibility and review.  See the page above ‘Guide to Researchers’.
Also, you [...]

How to Choose and Use Academic Recommendations

As I am in the process of applying for academic jobs, I am confronted with the important matter of who to ask for a recommendation and why.  This raises an important issue: what are references for?  What kind of reference is most useful or impressive?  I don’t have the answers since I have only been [...]

Review of DEUTERONOMY IN THE NEW TESTAMENT

As some of you know, an ongoing interest of mine is the question of the relationship between the Old Testament and the New Testament.  Steve Moyise and Maarten Menken have been editing a series of books on how NT authors use certain Old Testament texts.  The series began with Psalms (2004, T & T Clark), [...]

Thoughts on Presenting a Scholarly Paper

This past week was about the sixth or seventh time I have presented a paper in a conference and I am actually starting to feel more comfortable with the whole process.  As I have been reflecting on the conference, I thought I would share some thoughts, both as a presenter and an audience member.
1. Always [...]