Writing to focus on your contribution

I’ve given a workshop on how to write your thesis so that you focus on your contribution to knowledge for our postgraduate research conference at Trinity College Bristol this week. Here are the slides from the workshop, which will give you a flavour of what I’ve talked about. One slide is a link to a Beatles’ song, so I’ve given you the link to the YouTube video for your delectation.

Saul’s change of name to Paul

The lovely people at the Logos Academic blog kindly commissioned and published a piece from me on what Saul of Tarsus’ name changed to Paul. This is an issue I had to think about in the light of this shift in Acts, and the fact that he’s always ‘Paul’ in his letters. Enjoy! Comments are most welcome.

Sermon on John 1:1-18

I had the fun of opening a series of sermons on John’s Gospel for St Mary’s, Sileby last Sunday, 5 March, and they’ve made the sermon available on their Youtube channel. So I thought I’d share it with my blog readers. I begin by looking at John’s purpose in writing, focusing on John 20:30-31, and then turn to look at how John opens his Gospel in a way which prepares for an anticipates what he will say in the whole book. Comments most welcome.

Isaiah 7:10-17: slides and video from a sermon

I learned a great deal by working on a sermon on Isaiah 7:10-17 with the quotation of Isaiah 7:14 in Matthew 1:22-23 for our church, Emmanuel, Loughborough, yesterday (Advent 4, 18 December). I’m particularly grateful to my friend Dan Gurtner, who is working on the revised Word Biblical Commentary on Matthew, for helping me think about how Matthew ‘reads’ Isaiah, although he should not, of course, be held responsible for my conclusions. Here are the video (just over 21 mins) and the slides from my Continue reading →