Tag Archives: Pauline communities

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 →

Review: John Barclay’s new booklet on grace in Paul

Can you sum up a massive (672 pages) book in 28 pages? Professor John Barclay demonstrates in this fine Grove Biblical booklet that the answer is ‘Yes’. I had the privilege of being in a reading group which worked through Barclay’s big book, Paul and the Gift (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2015) in the earlier part of this year, and I am hugely impressed that he has such a good grasp of his own argument that he can express it both clearly and succinctly—an ability that many academics would Continue reading →

Vicky Balabanski responds to Richard Fellows

I am pleased to host a response by Dr Vicky Balabanski to a blog piece by Richard Fellows critiquing her recent important article ‘Where is Philemon? The Case for a Logical Fallacy in the Correlation of the Data in Philemon and Colossians 1.1-2; 4.7-18’, JSNT 38 (2015), 131-50 (you’ll need access to JSNT online to see the full pdf here). Here’s the abstract of Dr Balabanski’s article: Based on the internal evidence of the letters to Philemon and to the Colossians (Col. 1.1-2; 4.7-18), this article contends that 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 →

There’s still time to register for our ‘Cities of God?’ conference at St Mary’s

There’s only a week to go until the ‘Cities of God?’ conference on Friday 22 and Saturday 23 May, and you still have time to register! We’re organising this exciting conference, bringing together Classicists, New Testament scholars and Human Geographers to look at early Christian engagement with and reflection about cities at St Mary’s University, Twickenham (London) as part of our Centre for the Social-Scientific Study of the Bible. There is still some space to register, so don’t miss out! The programme and paper abstracts are available, and Continue reading →