In too many ways to get into, theology has been detached from Christian practice.  This is tragic, since theology is critical reflection on what we’re doing as followers of Jesus.  It isn’t an abstract pursuit for its own sake without any practical payoff. Bruce Longenecker nicely captures the relationship of theological language to the flourishing […]

I’m looking for a few readings for my Galatians class on justification, and I came across this excellent few paragraphs. Who said it? In its universal sense justification seems to underlie Paul’s argument for the universality of the gospel; there is no distinction between Jews and Gentiles.  But in its more restricted sense justification is […]

Michael Pahl has some excellent posts on what it means to be evangelical, issuing a call for radical evangelicalism. He notes some of evangelicalism’s problems, including its tribalizing tendencies and its grasping for cultural power.  One problem to which I’ve given some thought is how it is that many evangelical institutions have unspoken doctrinal lines […]

I’m teaching Galatians this fall and revisiting the relationship of Christianity to Judaism.  This letter of Paul has been read in Christian history to entail a rejection of Judaism.  I think this is a misreading, but that, of course, demands working through a number of texts. As it happens, I’ve also just re-read Mark Nanos’s […]

Here’s my paper on Paul’s political vision.  The Talking Points day conference at GRTS provided an opportunity for me to sketch this out, and I’m looking forward to developing it further at the Wheaton Theology Conference next Spring. For that presentation, I’ll probably develop sections on Romans 13 and Paul’s use of the Household Code […]

Paul speaks of his cruciform ministry as a performance of the death of Jesus in 2 Corinthians 4.  In a rhetorically beautiful passage, Paul dwells on the paradox of inhabiting a broken creation while being sustained by the God of all creation. Paul and his ministry partners “do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ […]