Paul – The Two Cities

The Bottom Line: What does a correct understanding of 2 Cor. 5:10 mean for each of us in particular, and for the spread of the Good News of the Gospel generally?

Nov 22, 2024

Psalm 143:10 (ESV): Let your good Spirit lead me on level ground! Has the Gospel message over the years been delivered on smooth and level ground? In other words, has the message been simple, understandable, and direct? I would suggest that it has become overly complicated and jumbled, full of unnecessary twists and turns and rough spots. For example, we have raging debates on the role of works in salvation, speculation about what happens between when...

The Divine Heartset in Philippians with Dr. Crispin Fletcher-Louis (Podcast)

Sep 4, 2024

In this episode we’re joined by Dr. Crispin Fletcher-Louis, who is a Fellow at the University of Gloucestershire and the author of the book that we’re discussing in this episode, The Divine Heartset: Paul’s Philippians Christ Hymn, Metaphysical Affections, and Civic Virtues (published by Cascade). Over the course of our conversation, we talk about Dr. Fletcher-Louis’s massive volume on the Christ Hymn in Philippians 2, in which he makes several fascinating exegetical decisions rooted in...

Postscript to an Article on the Judgment Seat of Christ in 2 Cor. 5:10

Aug 9, 2024

In response to my full article on a new reading of 2 Corinthians 5.10 (which you can read here in full), Dr. Garland wrote: “Tom rightly points [out] that one’s unexamined presuppositions about what the text says tends to predetermine the reading of the Greek grammar. If one assumes the interpretation is correct, one is less likely to probe as exhaustively as Tom has done [on] the grammatical complications” (his full reply to the short...

Jeannine K. Brown, Embedded Genres in the New Testament: Understanding Their Impact for Interpretation (Reflections for 2 Corinthians 5:10)

Jul 15, 2024

Dr. Jeannine Brown’s new book, Embedded Genres in the New Testament: Understanding Their Impact for Interpretation (Baker), was a delight to read and should benefit both scholar and lay Christian alike. What intrigued me the most was the preliminary matter of attempting to identify and sort through various subgenres within larger works, and then how to go about analyzing their interrelationships. As I read the book, I couldn’t help thinking about its potential relevance to...

Paul and the Resurrection of Israel with Dr. Jason Staples (Podcast)

May 1, 2024

In this episode, we’re joined by Dr. Jason Staples, who is Asst Teaching Professor in the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at North Carolina State University, and the author of The Idea of Israel (CUP) as well as the more recent book that we’re discussing in this episode, Paul and the Resurrection of Israel (also with CUP). Over the course of our conversation, we talk about the imprecision in how we often use the...

A Disabled Apostle with Dr. Isaac Soon (Podcast)

Nov 8, 2023

CW: references to self-harm. In this episode we’re joined by Dr. Isaac T. Soon, who is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Crandall University in New Brunswick, and the author of A Disabled Apostle: Impairment and Disability in the Letters of Paul (published by Oxford University Press). Drawing upon the cultural model of disability, Dr. Soon explains that Paul likely had three kinds of disabilities, in terms of how these conditions were stigmatized in the...

Artemis of the Ephesians with Dr. Sandra Glahn (Podcast)

Oct 4, 2023

In this episode we’re talking about Artemis of the Ephesians with Dr. Sandra Glahn, who is Professor of Media Arts and Worship at Dallas Theological Seminary, and the author of the book that we’re excited to discuss on this episode, Nobody’s Mother: Artemis of the Ephesians in Antiquity and the New Testament (published by IVP). Over the course of our conversation, Dr. Glahn talks with us about how scholarship on Artemis of the Ephesians has...

Pauline Theology as a Way of Life with Professor Joshua Jipp (Podcast)

Sep 20, 2023

In this episode we’re joined by Professor Joshua Jipp to talk about Pauline Theology as a Way of Life. Professor Jipp is Professor of New Testament and Director of the Carl F. H. Henry Center for Theological Understanding at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (Deerfield, IL), and the author of the book that we’re excited to talk about in this episode, Pauline Theology as a Way of Life: A Vision of Human Flourishing in Christ (published...

Early Christian Protagonists and their Impairments with Dr. Kylie Crabbe (Podcast)

Feb 1, 2023

Alt txt: photo including the title of the episode next to images of our guest, Dr. Kylie Crabbe, a few of our co-hosts, Dr. John Anthony Dunne, Stephanie Kate Judd, and Rev. Dr. Chris Porter. Continuing our series on disability and theology, we conclude our look at textual matters within this series by looking at protagonists and their impairments in early Christian literature with Dr. Kylie Crabbe, who is Senior Research Fellow in Biblical and...

Identity & Religious Enmity with Dr. Sam Perry and Dr. Elizabeth Shively (Podcast)

Jun 22, 2022

In this episode we debrief a recent conference on socio-scientific approaches to religious enmity that Dr. Chris Porter organized at Trinity College, Melbourne. For this conversation we are joined by two keynote speakers from the conference: Dr. Sam Perry, who is Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Oklahoma, and Dr. Elizabeth Shively, who is Senior Lecturer in New Testament at St Mary’s College at the University of St Andrews (in...