I really love the Gospel According to Mark. It is simple in construction compared to the other Gospels, yet it is also extremely profound within that relative simplicity. I was reminded of this recently in prepping for a Sunday School class that I am currently teaching on the book. I was teaching on what is arguably my favorite pericope in Mark’s Gospel: Jesus’s calming of the storm in Mark 4:35-41. The literary genius that goes into this short pericope is... Read more

I have been reading a fascinating book over the last several days. Philip Jenkins is well-known for his writing on the topic of modern, Majority World Christianity, especially in regions like Africa, South America, and Asia. His book, The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity (Oxford University Press, 2011), is a fascinating investigation into the rapid rise of Christianity in the non-Western world/Global South. Personally, I also find the book quite encouraging. As a confessionally orthodox Christian living in... Read more

Another day, another book review over at the New York Times extolling a tome that seeks to show how the “barbarous” and “thuggish” early Christians destroyed the “enlightened” and “cosmopolitan” order of the ancient pagan world. The book in question is the The Darkening Age: The Christian Destruction of the Classical World by Catherine Nixey (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2018). The review summarizes the general argument of the book in short order, namely that, contrary to conventional wisdom, the entrance of... Read more

Over at The Atlantic, there is an interesting article by Sigal Samuel about the religious nature of many atheists in America. Yes, you read that right, religious atheists.  Of course, there is a good bit of provocative overstatement in the title. The actual demographic that Samuel is referring to is the much-discussed “nones” category. This is a larger umbrella term for anybody who does not subscribe to a defined religious tradition or denomination. Atheists, agnostics, apatheists (those are simply apathetic... Read more

  Well, we have arrived at the end of Michael Bird’s excursion through the various adoptionist readings of several key New Testament texts in his Jesus the Eternal Son: Answering Adoptionist Christology. With the last two chapters of the book Bird seeks to answer the questions of (1) roughly when adoptionist Christologies actually arose and (2) why adoptionism has experienced a resurgence of popularity in certain academic circles in the last century. The title of chapter five, “How Jesus Got... Read more

Another entry into this blog series, another twoish-week delay. I could say that I was working on a number of other writing projects, a lecture tour, and designer ink pens with my face on them (awe yes, that is the dream isn’t it?). I could say all that, but the truth is that laziness has simply gotten the better of me when it comes to writing. I have a day job and by the time I come home, the last... Read more

Hello readers! And welcome back to my chapter-by-chapter coverage of Michael Bird’s book, Jesus the Eternal Son: Answering Adoptionist Christology. As usual, life circumstances prevented me from getting this post out in a timely fashion. This time though, it was the positive of having my two best friends from seminary come and visit me for Easter; much preferred to my computer being out for repairs. Also there was the usual mishmash of work and the ease of watching Netflix versus... Read more

Well, after about a two-week long hiatus due to my computer being in the shop for keyboard repairs, I am finally back to go over the second chapter of Michael Bird’s book Jesus the Eternal Son (Eerdmans, 2017). In this chapter, Bird begins to dive into some of the key biblical texts that are often put forward in favor of adoptionist Christological readings. The passages he specifically tackles in this chapter are those that seem to point to adoption in... Read more

As noted in my previous, introductory post for this series, I will be attempting to work my way, chapter by chapter, through Michael Bird’s recent book, Jesus the Eternal Son: Answering Adoptionist Christology (Eerdmans, 2017). And so I will begin, as expected, at the beginning. Bird opens the first chapter of the book with a brief exposition on the development of various Christologies in the earliest days of the Christian movement. While Bird notes that the discussion in itself is... Read more

After a month away from blogging (I recently started a new job and have had some other life events occur), I’ve decided to try something new. In the past I’ve generally tried to rack my brain for topics to write about. I’ve written about selections from various books I’ve been reading, cultural topics, and other miscellaneous items. What this has resulted in is a bit of a mishmash of articles on this site. However, with this post I am going... Read more