Tag Archives: ecclesiology

Some recent writing and publishing from me

                       I  had a quite spell away from on the blog in the Spring, partly because I’ve been writing and publishing quite a bit. Here’s a note of four that are out and available, and a couple of others that are forthcoming. More are in the pipeline, but I can’t tell you about those yet… Now available ‘Evil in Ephesus: Acts 19:8–40’ in Evil in Second Temple Judaism and Early Christianity, ed. Chris Keith and Loren Stuckenbruck, WUNT II/417 Continue reading →

Adelaide College of Divinity/Flinders University slides

Here are the Keynote slides from my Adelaide College of Divinity and Flinders University Annual Public Lecture yesterday evening in Adelaide on ‘Leadership, lifestyle and the book of Acts’. I’m very grateful to the faculty and staff of ACD, especially Dr Vicky Balabanski, for their  kind invitation and hospitality. I aim here to look at what leadership looks like in Acts, arguing that the primary leadership to attend to is divine—God drives the mission and growth of the believing community in Acts, regularly in spite of human leadership, and frequently against the opposition of some Continue reading →

Places still available for the Cities of God? conference at St Mary’s University

There are still some places available to register for the excellent ‘Cities of God?’ conference happening at St Mary’s University, Twickenham (London) on Friday 22 and Saturday 23 May. We have an outstanding line-up of speakers from New Zealand, Germany, Norway, USA, and the UK—a mixture of Classicists, New Testament scholars, and Human Geographers—and their papers cover a fascinating range of issues and perspectives on early Christian engagement with and reflection on the ancient urban setting(s). More details here, including the conference programme, abstracts of the papers, and Continue reading →

Learning and church structures: a stimulating book by Claire S. Smith

This book addresses a really important topic, the ‘learning’ nature of the Pauline communities (especially in Corinth, Ephesus and Crete)—although the title is technical rather than inviting—and it’s stimulated me to write about a particular point arising from it. In general, I’ve enjoyed reading Claire Smith’s book and a full review (I wrote almost 2500 words) will appear on the excellent Review of Biblical Literature in due course (I’ll post here when the time comes). The particular point that I want to note here is Continue reading →