Accepted for a PhD at Durham University

Send the Windsors to England

Resurrection Reality

The Syrophoenician woman
From the Sola Panel: One of Jesus’ most jarring statements occurs in the story of the Syrophoenician woman, Mark 7:24-27: And from there [Jesus] arose and went away to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And he entered a house and did not want anyone to know, yet he could not be hidden. But immediately a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit heard of him and came and fell down at his feet. Now the woman was a Gentile, a Syrophoenician by birth. And she begged him to cast

The community gospel part 2
On the Sola Panel: In my previous post, I mentioned a powerful and dangerous combination: A need in the world + an implication of the gospel of Jesus Christ. This formula is like dynamite. Used properly, it has the power to move mountains. But unless it is handled with care, there is the potential for grave and even life-threatening danger. The concept of ‘community’ is one example of the great power and also the great danger of this combina

The community gospel part 1: A powerful and dangerous formula
From the Sola Panel: On 7 May, 1867, a man called Alfred Nobel obtained patents for a very powerful and potentially very dangerous formula: 3 parts nitroglycerin—C3H5(NO3)3 + one part diatomaceous earth + a small admixture of sodium carbonate—Na2CO3 This is the classic formula for dynamite. Used properly, it can move mountains. But unless it is handled with care, it can destroy lives. Similarly, but far more seriously, there is another powe

Is Anyone Righteous?
From the Sola Panel: This is a postscript to my biblical word power

The arrogance of a theological liberal
Sometimes I’ve heard evangelicals (like myself) accused of being narrow-minded, sectarian, intolerant; acting as if they, and they alone, understand what the Bible is all about. But whatever accusation anyone could possibly throw at us along these lines has nothing on William Wrede, whom I’m reading to get a bit more acquainted with late 19th-century liberal scholarship on Paul. To Wrede, for example, we can attribute the influential idea that Paul was the real founder of Christianity (as opposed to Jesus), because Paul’s theology was at most points opposed to the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. In his book Paul, Wrede has some startling and often quite