Jesus
Why I disagree with Tom Wright about the triumphal entry and divine kingship:
A key text for Tom Wright’s “gospel christology” is the account of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem (Matt. 21:1-9; Mk. 11:1-10; Lk. 19:28-40). In Simply Jesus: A New Vision of Who He Was, What He Did, and Why He Matters, which is excellent in many ways, this story is the climax...
(29 Jan. 2012)
Christmas now and then:
The true meaning of Christmas—as a Christian rather than a pagan celebration—is represented in the popular imagination most commonly by the serene tableau of the radiant baby Jesus in a manger, surrounded by his parents, a few inquisitive cherubs, rustic shepherds, and resplendent wise men,...
(21 Dec. 2011)
Why N.T. Wright's narrative of Jesus is not narrative enough (reflections on the inaugural lecture):
In his recent inaugural lecture at the University of St Andrews Tom Wright talks about his leading concerns about the state of Gospel studies. In particular, despite generations of redaction criticism and narrative criticism, he remains unconvinced that that “the main message of the gospels...
(7 Nov. 2011)
The right reason for crying "Abba! Father!":
It’s a long time since I’ve sung “Abba, Father, let me be yours and yours alone” in public, but it’s the song that is now rather dated, not the sentiment. Evangelical theology is quite insistent on the fact that as Christians, as sons and daughters of the Father, we...
(29 Oct. 2011)
We do not know Jesus if we know him only as a personal saviour:
In his book Constructing Jesus: Memory, Imagination and History, Dale Allison puts forward a number of arguments in support of his view that Jesus is presented in the New Testament as an eschatological figure, whose identity and vocation must be explained with reference to Jewish apocalyptic themes...
(27 Oct. 2011)
Quote: James D.G. Dunn: There is no objective Jesus:
In the study of history there are no objective facts, only interpreted data. There is no objective Jesus, no artefact (‘the historical Jesus’) at the bottom of the literary tell to be uncovered by clearing away all the layers of tradition. All we have is the remembered Jesus, Jesus seen...
(13 Oct. 2011)
Jimmy Dunn: one God, one Lord, and the shema:
During a lively dialogue with Larry Hurtado at the British New Testament Society conference this morning Jimmy Dunn put forward his well known view that there is a significant functional differentiation—even subordination—between Jesus and God in the New Testament that should not be obscured in our...
(3 Sep. 2011)
Out of Egypt I called my son: the rabbit in the hat trick:
There are a number of well known “misreadings” of prophecy in the New Testament, where the writer, in his enthusiasm to prove that Jesus is Israel’s messiah, appears to have found a meaning in the text that simply is not there—rather as a magician pulls a rabbit out of an empty...
(24 Jun. 2011)
Jesus, in a small closed box:
The biblical story of Jesus is a very long one. It reaches back to the creation of all things; it concludes with the re-creation of all things and the symbolic presence of the Lamb in the glorious city of the creator God. If we superimpose on this already complicated biblical story the church...
(7 Jun. 2011)
Scot McKnight and Jesus’ ethic of the kingdom:
I really like Scot McKnight’s book A New Vision for Israel. There are a couple of areas of “structural” disagreement, if you like. I touched on the question of the finality of Jesus’ understanding of the coming kingdom of God in a previous post, to which Scot helpfully...
(18 Feb. 2011)
