The ‘evil book’ is out!

I’m delighted to say that the book arising from our excellent conference on evil in second temple Judaism and early Christianity in the Centre for the Social-Scientific Study of the Bible at St Mary’s University, Twickenham, held in May 2014, is now out and available from Mohr Siebeck. Edited by my excellent colleague Chris Keith and Loren Stuckenbruck, it’s a splendid collection of excellent material from a stellar collection of contributors which will fill a real gap in scholarship. Here’s a listing of the contents: Christopher A. Rollston: An Continue reading →

How to get published—advice from Katya Covrett of Zondervan

Here’s a very helpful part I of an article on how to get published in theology by the excellent Katya Covrett, Executive Editor at Zondervan (picture above) and also part 2 here. This is good, wise advice from someone who deals with lots of book proposals, and it’s worth careful attention if you would like to publish your work. It’s a follow-up to an earlier, very good article on why there are so few published female biblical scholars here. I recommend all three articles highly. Continue reading →

In the footsteps of Judas (TV show)

I was thinking I’d write a review/summary of the BBC show In the Footsteps of Judas, shown on BBC1 on Good Friday—but Ian Paul has done such a good job that I’ll simply point you to his blog on the show. In sum: a very worthwhile show with good scholars (Simon Gathercole, Helen Bond, Joan Taylor, Anthony Cane, Peter Stanford) and a good presenter holding the thread together (Kate Bottley, of Gogglebox fame). Well worth an hour of your time—still available for another 25 days on iPlayer here.

How more scholars do research

My friend Nijay Gupta (above, centre) continues to interview NT scholars on how they do their research and shares the results on his blog. There are some interesting patterns starting to emerge, and some very helpful ideas from the contributors. The latest are from David Horrell (who is writing the ICC in 1 Peter, so I’m particularly interested, as a fellow-commentator) and Helen Bond (a brilliant NT historian). Keep up the good work, Nijay!

British New Testament Conference at St Mary’s in 2018

Put the date in your diaries! The British New Testament Conference will be meeting at St Mary’s University, Twickenham on Thursday 6 to Saturday 8 September 2018. This excellent annual gathering of established scholars and research students meets each year and moves around the universities, so we are delighted that the British New Testament Society committee have accepted the invitation from our Centre for the Social-Scientific Study of the Bible to come to St Mary’s.