• About

The Cruciform Pen

~ toward a cross-shaped life

The Cruciform Pen

Monthly Archives: March 2016

Peter Stuhlmacher on N.T. Wright’s Method

31 Thursday Mar 2016

Posted by thecruciformpen in Resources, Reviews

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Exegetical Method, God and the Faithfulness of Paul, N. T. Wright, Paul and the Faithfulness of God, Peter Stulmacher

Senior theologian Peter Stuhlmacher, from University of Tübingen, has contributed a chapter entitled “N.T. Wrights’s Understanding of Justification and Redemption” in God and the Faithfulness of Paul (Mohr Siebeck 2016). He has some important criticisms as well as a few affirmations.

Here is a quote from Stuhlmacher regarding Wright’s exegetical method (page 371):

Rather than beginning with the historical origin of the individual texts and their statements, Wright prefers to work with entire passages, biblical contexts, and macro perspectives (PFG 965). He immerses himself into the Pauline world of ideas, Paul’s uses of Scripture together with the expectations  of salvation, reconstructs these and integrates Paul’s writings into that reconstruction. This constructive procedure uncovers some new matters that previously remained obscure. But it also gives Wright’s presentation a largely hypothetical character.

Dunn Thinks Wright’s PFG is Too Little Aligned with the New Perspective on Paul

28 Monday Mar 2016

Posted by thecruciformpen in People to Know, Resources, Reviews

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

James D.G. Dunn, N. T. Wright, New Perspective on Paul

I am reading through God and the Faithfulness of Paul: A Critical Examination of the Pauline Theology of N.T. Wright (Mohr Siebeck 2016) and came across this surprising, and somewhat telling, quote from James D.G. Dunn (himself one of the major proponents of the “New Perspective on Paul”) regarding Wright’s big book Paul and the Faithfulness of God:

So what to make of Wright’s (final?) assessment of and contribution to “the new perspective on Paul?” The chief sense is one of disappointment that the new perspective proved to be not very important for him in his climactic treatment of Paul.

[quote from pg. 357]

It seems that, for Dunn at least, N.T. Wright is not “new perspective” enough!

Hmm…

An Easter Prayer by Karl Barth

27 Sunday Mar 2016

Posted by thecruciformpen in Prayers, Resources

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Easter, Karl Barth, prayers

karl barth

Here is an Easter prayer taken from Fifty Prayers by Karl Barth (Westminster John Knox Press 2008, kindle edition):

Lord God, our Father, you are the light in which there is no darkness. And now you have kindled in us a light that can never be extinguished and that will ultimately drive out all darkness. You are the love that knows no coldness. And now you have loved even us and freed us to love you and each other. You are the life that mocks death. And now you have given us access to this eternal life. You have done all this in Jesus Christ, your Son, our brother.

Do not let us – let none of us – remain dull and indifferent to your gift and revelation. Let us on this Easter morning see at least something of the riches of your goodness; let it enter into our hearts and minds, and let it enlighten us, uphold us, comfort us, and admonish us!

None of us is a great Christian; rather, we are all very small Christians. But your grace is sufficient for us. Awaken us to the small joy and thankfulness that we are capable of, the timid faith that we bring , the incomplete obedience that we cannot refuse – to the hope in greatness, wholeness, and completeness that you have prepared for us in the death of our Lord, Jesus Christ, and that you have promised us in his resurrection from the dead. We ask that this hour may serve that purpose. Amen.

Easter in the Belly of Nothingness

26 Saturday Mar 2016

Posted by thecruciformpen in Prayers

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Easter, Good Friday, prayers, Walter Brueggemann

Jesus' body

Here is a timely prayer by Walter Brueggemann from his book Prayers for a Privileged People (Abingdon Press 2008).

Easter in the Very Belly of Nothingness

Death will be all right for us when it comes. But dying is another matter — so slow, so painful, so humiliating.

Death will be a quick turn, the winking of an eye, but dying turns and twists and waits and teases.

We have not died, but we know about dying: We watch the inching pain of cancer, the oozing ache of alienation, the tears of stored up hurt.

We can smell the dying of bombs and shells,  of direct hit and collateral damage, of napalm spread thin and even of cities turned craters, of Agent Orange that waits years to show, and lives turned to empty stare.

We watch close or distant; we brace and stiffen, and grow cynical or uncaring.

And death wins — we, robbed of vitality, brought low by failed hope, lost innocence, emptied childhood, and stillness. 

We keep going, but barely; we gather at the grave, watching the sting and the victory of dread.

But you stir late Saturday; we gather early Sunday with balm and embracing, close to the body. waiting for the smell but not; dreading the withered site… but not; cringing love lost… but not here.

Not here… but risen, gone, awakened, alive!

The new creation stirs beyond the weeping women; O death… no sting! O grave… no victory! O silence… new song! O dread… new dance! O tribulation… now overcome!

O Friday God — Easter the failed city, Sunday the killing fields. And we, we shall dance and sing, thank and praise, into the night that holds no more darkness.

 

God and the Faithfulness of Paul

25 Friday Mar 2016

Posted by thecruciformpen in People to Know, Resources, Reviews

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

N. T. Wright, Paul's Epistles, Pauline Theology

I just received my copy of God and the Faithfulness of Paul: A Critical Examination of the Pauline Theology of N.T. Wright, just released this month.

God and Faithfulness of Paul

Last summer I read N.T. Wright’s magnum opus, Paul and the Faithfulness of God. I can safely say that it was the longest book I have ever read, cover to cover, by far: a whopping 1,519 pages of text. It was a big deal. And I am glad that I did. Since the purpose of this post is not to review Wright’s PFG suffice it to say that it has changed the way I read Paul’s letters; indeed, I have learned an enormous amount about the significance of the entire story line of Scripture from Genesis to Revelation, creation to new creation. Wright’s work is stimulating and thought-provoking in a way that increases my love for Holy Scripture and continually forces me to return to the text.

Paul and the Faithfulness of God

Wright’s work on Paul was monumental. Now I am super excited to begin reading this examination of his work from a group of international scholars. As stated in the introduction (page 6):

[T]his volume is neither a Festschrift nor a refutation, but something entirely different. It is perhaps best described as a conversation among those involved in biblical and theological scholarship as to the positive achievements, potential failings, matters requiring clarification, and future questions that Wright’s PFG elicits for his scholarly peers.

Click the following link to see the table of contents: God-and-the-Faithfulness-of-Paul.

D. A. Carson on the Authority of Scripture

21 Monday Mar 2016

Posted by thecruciformpen in People to Know, Resources

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

D. A. Carson, Interview, Scripture and Authority

Here is a 17 minute interview with D. A. Carson on the new book he edited, The Enduring Authority of the Christian Scriptures (Eerdmans 2016). With an all-star evangelical line up it’s a mammoth of a book at over 1,200 pages long. There are 36 chapters covering topics in the areas of historical issues, biblical & theological issues, philisophical & epistemological issues, comparative religions issues, and even a chapter on FAQ’s! 

 

Here is a list of the contributing authors:

James Beilby
Kirsten Birkett
Henri A. G. Blocher
Craig L. Blomberg
D. A. Carson
Graham A. Cole
Stephen G. Dempster
Daniel M. Doriani
Simon Gathercole
David Gibson
Ida Glaser
Paul Helm
Charles E. Hill
Peter F. Jensen
Robert Kolb
Anthony N. S. Lane
Te-Li Lau
Richard Lints
V. Philips Long
Thomas H. McCall
Douglas J. Moo
Andrew David Naselli
Harold Netland
Osvaldo Padilla
Michael C. Rea
Bradley N. Seeman
Alex G. Smith
R. Scott Smith
Rodney L. Stiling
Glenn S. Sunshine
Timothy C. Tennent
Mark D. Thompson
Kevin J. Vanhoozer
Bruce K. Waltke
Barry G. Webb
Peter J. Williams
John D. Woodbridge

Video

Brant Pitre on Jesus & the Last Supper

20 Sunday Mar 2016

Posted by thecruciformpen in Biblical Studies, People to Know, Resources

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Brant Pitre, Interview, Jesus, The Last Supper

Brant Pitre is quickly becoming one of my favorite Catholic authors (along with Scott Hahn). Although I’ve only read two of Pitre’s books, they are both excellently written (the other one I’ve read is Jesus, the Tribulation, and the End of Exile: Restoration Eschatology and the Origin of the Atonement).

Here is a 24 minute interview with Pitre on his new book Jesus and the Last Supper:

 

 

Two new books by Stephen J. Wellum

18 Friday Mar 2016

Posted by thecruciformpen in Biblical Studies, People to Know, Resources

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Christology, Covenant Theology, Dispensationalism, Progressive Covenantalism, Stephen J. Wellum

In 2012, Stephen J. Wellum co-authored Kingdom Through Covenant: A Biblical-Theological Understanding of the Covenants along with Peter Gentry. It was received well, though not without making a few people uncomfortable from both covenant and dispensational camps. The work was a critique of both systems (with regard to weaknesses perceived by Gentry and Wellum), but also intended to provide a constructive way forward via biblical theology. Here is a 5 minute YouTube video of Gentry and Wellum discussing Kingdom Through Covenant.Progressive Covenantalism
In the same vein, Wellum is now releasing Progressive Covenantalism: Charting a Way Between Dispensational and Covenant Theologies (B&H Academic).  Preorder on Amazon here.

god the son incarnate (wellum)

On a different note (more a systematic theology genre than a biblical theology genre) Wellum is releasing God the Son Incarnate: The Doctrine of Christ (Crossway). This is his contribution in the Foundations of Evangelical Theology series (a great series!). Preorder on Amazon here.

St. Patrick, Apostle of Ireland

17 Thursday Mar 2016

Posted by thecruciformpen in Historical Studies, People to Know, Resources

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Apostle of Ireland, St. Patrick

0317patrick-ireland

Today is St. Patrick’s Day, the day we remember the death of a slave turned missionary in the late 4th/early 5th century. Probably his most famous quote:

“Daily I expect murder, fraud or captivity, but I fear none of these things because of the promises of heaven. I have cast myself into the hands of God almighty who rules everywhere”


 

Some Academic Resources on St. Patrick:

  • The Book of Letters of Saint Patrick the Bishop by D. R. Howlett 
  • The Life and Legend of St. Patrick: Problems of Modern Scholarship by Ludwig Bieler (1949)
  • The Problem of St. Patrick by James Carney (1973)
  • Saint Patrick: His Origins and Career by R.P.C. Hanson (1997)
  • Saint Patrick A.D. 493-1993 by D. N. Dumville (1993)

 

Three Recent Articles

05 Saturday Mar 2016

Posted by thecruciformpen in People to Know, Resources, Reviews

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Intertextuality, Pauline Theology, Peter, Psalms, review, Textual Criticism

Here are three recently published articles that are pretty good reading:

  • “Another look at πιστις Χριστου” by Morna D. Hooker, Scottish Journal of Theology 69 (1): 46-62 (2016).
  • “The Number of Variants in the Greek New Testament: A Proposed Estimate” by Peter J. Gurry, New Testament Studies 62: 97-121 (2016).
  • “‘O Taste and See’: Septuagint Psalm 33 in 1 Peter” by Karen H. Jobes, Stone-Campbell Journal 18: 241-251 (Fall, 2015).

Let’s go in reverse order.

First, “O Taste and See” is classic Karen Jobes. She is an accomplished evangelical scholar on 1 Peter, with a top rated commentary on this epistle (see here). The article here is an exercise in intertextual interpretation looking at Peter’s exhortation to “crave pure, spiritual milk” (το λογικον αδολον γαλα επιποθησατε). Although sometimes understood as a reference to the word of God, Jobes rejects this reading. Instead by looking carefully at how Peter uses LXX Psalm 33 it makes better sense to see a reference to Christ himself as the pure, spiritual milk “which nurtures growth of spiritual life after rebirth into the new reality that Christ’s death, resurrection, and ascension has created…To crave the pure spiritual milk means to crave Christ himself, for only he can sustain the new life he created” (pgs. 249-250).

Second, Peter J. Gurry’s article on the number of textual variants in the GNT is a solidly researched article with an important find. Despite my hunch that there are probably only a small number of people interested in this type of research, it is nevertheless hugely important to get this kind of information correct. After a lengthy section discussing previous historical estimates, their problems, and his own methodology, Gurry proposes an estimate of about 500,000 variants (not including spelling differences). He only analyzes variants found in Greek manuscripts; that is, papyri, majuscules, minuscules and lectionaries, NOT versions, patristic citations, inscriptions, etc. (pg. 104). He defines a variant as “a word or concatenation of words in any manuscript that differs from any other manuscript within a comparable segment of text, excluding only spelling differences and different ways of abbreviating nomina sacra” (pg. 106). I will just add one more concluding thought on the value of the estimate:

“[O]ur estimate allows scholars to avoid passing the responsibility for their estimates to silent and invisible sources. The present estimate is based on a clear foundation in the available data and a clear method, both of which are open to public scrutiny. One hopes that these two qualities alone will be enough to discourage all of us from the continued rehashing of unverified and unverifiable information about the transmission of the Greek New Testament.” (pg. 118)

Third, “Another look at πιστις Χριστου” by Morna Hooker. The sheer amount of scholarly attention given to this phrase indicates the importance of it. Subjective genitive or objective genitive? Christ’s faith/faithfulness or our faith in Christ? In this paper, Hooker builds on her earlier work (‘Πιστις Χριστου’, New Testament Studies 35, 1989) by zeroing in on what exactly is meant by πιστις (pistis), particularly in some key texts in Romans. In doing so, she explores the relationship of human behavior and divine grace in the apostle Paul’s thought. She concludes by asking the question,

“So were Luther and his followers wrong? They were certainly not wrong to emphasize the role of faith. And as with the answers to our questions about other phrases we have briefly considered, it may well be that the answer to the question ‘Does this phrase refer to Christ’s faith or ours’? may be ‘Both’. Nevertheless, the faith/faithfulness is primarily that of Christ, and we share in it only because we are in him…In Christ, and through him, we are able to share his trust and obedience, and so become what God called his people to be.” (pg. 62)

Categories

  • Biblical Studies (19)
  • Historical Studies (12)
  • People to Know (26)
  • Poetry (2)
  • Prayers (7)
  • Research Topics / Book Ideas (3)
  • Resources (51)
  • Reviews (24)

Posts

  • September 2022 (1)
  • October 2020 (1)
  • February 2020 (1)
  • December 2019 (1)
  • August 2019 (1)
  • February 2019 (3)
  • December 2018 (1)
  • June 2018 (1)
  • May 2018 (2)
  • March 2018 (6)
  • January 2018 (1)
  • November 2017 (1)
  • October 2017 (1)
  • May 2016 (4)
  • April 2016 (3)
  • March 2016 (10)
  • February 2016 (1)
  • January 2016 (4)
  • December 2015 (5)
  • October 2015 (1)
  • September 2015 (6)
  • February 2015 (1)
  • January 2015 (6)
  • December 2014 (12)
  • November 2014 (8)
  • October 2014 (1)

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 181 other subscribers

Currently Reading

Blogs I Follow

  • Malcolm Guite
  • The Cruciform Pen
  • Crux Sola
  • βιβλιοσκώληξ
  • Holy Writ & Sacred Witness
  • Griffin Paul Jackson
  • Koine-Greek
  • Biblical Studies
  • Bible Design Blog
  • Theological Studies
  • καὶ τὰ λοιπά
  • Euangelion
  • Evangelical Textual Criticism
  • NT Blog

Blog at WordPress.com.

Malcolm Guite

Blog for poet and singer-songwriter Malcolm Guite

The Cruciform Pen

toward a cross-shaped life

Crux Sola

A Biblioblog with Nijay K Gupta

βιβλιοσκώληξ

βιβλιο: "book"; σκώληξ: "worm"

Holy Writ & Sacred Witness

...eyes on the Word; ears to the ground...

Griffin Paul Jackson

Word architect.

Koine-Greek

Studies in Greek Language & Linguistics

Biblical Studies

Making Biblical Scholarship Accessible

Bible Design Blog

Theological Studies

An Internet Resource for Studying Christian Theology

καὶ τὰ λοιπά

A blog by Daniel R. Streett all about Early Judaism, Biblical Studies, Koine Greek, καὶ τὰ λοιπά

Euangelion

toward a cross-shaped life

Evangelical Textual Criticism

toward a cross-shaped life

NT Blog

toward a cross-shaped life

  • Follow Following
    • The Cruciform Pen
    • Join 45 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • The Cruciform Pen
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...