Craig Keener on the Gospel

Craig Keener has published a long entry on ‘Gospel, Good News’, which is available in the free, online St Andrews Encyclopaedia of Theology (here, and as a pdf here).

Summary as follows:

‘The New Testament gospel, or “good news”, is especially the announcement of Jesus’ saving death and resurrection. The New Testament explains that it is “according to the scriptures.” This means that this good news must be understood in light of the backstory of God’s saving acts in history. It also means that it must be understood especially in light of the Old Testament prophetic promise of future restoration effected through Jesus the Messiah. This article surveys some suggested background for the primary early Christian use of “gospel”, some key New Testament uses of the terms translated as “gospel” and “preach the gospel”, the development and relevance of this gospel for the first-century Gospel texts, and (briefly) some of the language’s subsequent interpretations and applications.’

The Master’s Seminary Journal 30, 2 (2019)

The latest Master’s Seminary Journal has been posted online. Individual essays are available from here, and the whole issue is available as a pdf here. I struggle with the somewhat strident tone and theological stance of some of essays published in this journal, but the volumes often contain interesting and valuable pieces. In this case, I’m particularly curious to read the final article on application and implication in preaching.

Editorial

F. David Farnell

Are the Canonical Gospels to Be Identified as a Genre of Greco-Roman Biography? The Early Church Fathers Say ‘No.’

Liberal-critical and evangelical-critical scholarship has recently attempted to identify the Gospels with the ancient style of writing known as Greco-Roman biography. The author has already established this position as highly tenuous, reflecting a cycle in New Testament studies that often seeks novelty in interpretation (cf. Acts 17:21, καινότερον—”new,” “unique,” “novel”). A close examination of the nascent church Fathers, especially as found in the first great church historian, Eusebius, reveals that the early church decidedly rejected the Greco-Roman historiographic tradition. Prominent early Fathers deprecated the quality of historians like Thucydides and Plutarch who are now identified with the Gospel tradition in New Testament scholarship. Instead, the early Fathers identified the historiography of the Gospels with the Hebrew tradition as evidenced in the Old Testament, reflecting the historical genre of Old Testament promise, now seeing the fulfilment of those promises. They also affirmed the absolute trustworthiness and accuracy of the canonical Gospels as produced of the Holy Spirit of truth. Once again, critical scholarship, being influenced by the Enlightenment, has chosen to disregard the voice of the early church as the nature of the Gospels.

Jamie Bissmeyer

Job’s Eschatological Hope: The Implications of Job’s Redeemer for Social Justice

The purpose of this article is to identify the person of Job’s perspective on issues pertaining to social justice, in order to show that Job places his hope of social justice issues being resolved in God’s unique ability to make a just society in the end times. First, background material to the book of Job will be explained, to give context to Job’s statements about a Redeemer. Second, statements in the book of Job regarding the oppression of the poor by the wicked in society will be examined, in order to establish that the book of Job relates to social justice issues. Third, Job’s own perspective on social justice issues will be examined. Fourth, Job’s solution to social justice issues will be explained, with a focus on Job 19:25-26. Finally, Job’s solution to social justice issues will be applied to current social justice issues faced by pastors. 

Carl A. Hargrove

And How Shall They Hear Without a Preacher? A Biblical Theology of Romans 9-11

Romans 10:14 (“And how shall they hear without a preacher?”) and accompanying verses are frequently used completely out of context for ordinations or missionary commissioning services, as if in these verses God is calling for preachers to be sent out. Other preachers and teachers completely omit Romans 9-11 in much or all of their teaching or preaching and, by default, these verses have no influence on their theology. As this article will show, these Holy Spirit-inspired Scriptures: (1) Are not rhetorical questions asked by God; (2) rather they are part of God’s answers given by means of the apostle Paul as to His trustworthiness and omnipotence, particularly related to His Word. Further, (3) when “the fulness of the Gentiles has come in,” this will also mean that “the partial hardening of [national] Israel,” has ended and thus Romans 11:25 will be fulfilled, (4) as Israel’s Deliverer will come from Zion and through the blood of the New Covenant, He will remove their sin and ungodliness from a promised Jewish remnant, (5) ultimately blessing the entire world of redeemed Jews and Gentiles.

Cory M. Marsh

A Dynamic Relationship: Christ, the Covenants, and Israel

As recently highlighted in Peter Gentry and Stephen Wellum’s Kingdom Through Covenant (2012), furthered by Wellum and Brent Parker’s Progressive Covenantalism (2016), the notion of covenant is both popular and controversial within biblical theology. While these two works focused on forging a via media between dispensational and covenantal theology, occupying the center of the debate on all sides were questions related to Christ and His relationship to the biblical covenants. The current article explores questions raised from these and other works related to Christ’s relationship to the covenants and defends the only option consistent with a literal methodology: Christ relates to each of the biblical covenants dynamically as recipient, fulfillment, and/or mediator – and does so without collapsing any promised future for national Israel.

Jay Street

Romans 7: An Old Covenant Struggle Seen through New Covenant Eyes

Romans 7 is possibly one of the most cherished texts in church history. But it is also one of the most controversial passages in Scripture. Many resonate with Paul’s ambivalence and insist that Paul is speaking about the Christian’s daily struggle with sin. Others strongly disagree and purport that Paul’s struggle is too defeating for the Christian life, and he must be speaking for unbelievers. However, it will be argued in this article that both sides of the debate have been speaking past each other for centuries because both sides are asking the wrong question. This is not a passage about whether Paul is speaking as a Christian or not, but whether Paul is speaking as someone under the Old Covenant or the New Covenant. Thus, when the reader’s perspective is properly adjusted, he can rightly ascertain Paul’s spiritual status in the passage – Paul is speaking as a believer under the Old Covenant before the inauguration of the New Covenant.

David Beakley and Johann Odendaal

The Reformation’s “Macedonian Call” to Africa – the Long Way Around

The purpose of this article is to demonstrate how the influence of the Reformation came to Africa. The article is divided into two sections. The first section explains how the Reformation was stopped in North Africa through two problems: indigenization lacking doctrine, and doctrine lacking indigenization. The second section details the open door for the Reformation through the German Baptist mission work in South Africa. Finally, the article concludes with recommendations for creating sustainable mission work through a focus on strong discipleship model along with a commitment to indigenization of church leadership.

Carl A. Hargrove

Implication and Application in Exposition, Part 2: Principles for Contemporary Application

A significant concern for the expositor is navigating the relationship of interpretation and application. A part of the navigation is understanding the complement of the implications of a given text to the proper application. Teachers and expositors who want to make meaningful application of the passage or verse must bear in mind appropriate principles if they are to navigate from the ancient context to their contemporary audiences; if not, there will be misapplication on the one hand or not using the Scriptures to bear on the actions of listeners on the other.

Reviews

Themelios 44, 1 (April 2019)

The latest Themelios is online here (and available here as a single pdf), containing the below articles. This issue contains the irenic exchange of views on spiritual gifts between Andrew Wilson and Thomas R. Schreiner (both of whom have recently published books on the topic) at the 2018 Annual Meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society in the Perspectives on the Spiritual Gifts session.

Editorial

Brian J. Tabb

Themelios Then and Now: The Journal’s Name, History, and Contribution

Strange Times

Daniel Strange

Sad Solo

Andrew Wilson

The Continuation of the Charismata

This article first defines the scope of the debate over whether or not Christians today should earnestly desire spiritual gifts, especially prophecy. The author then offers three key arguments for the charismatic position and concludes by raising and responding to the strongest argument for cessationism.

Thomas R. Schreiner

A Response to Andrew Wilson

Thomas R. Schreiner

It All Depends Upon Prophecy: A Brief Case for Nuanced Cessationism

Nuanced cessationism can be defended from a number of angles, but one of the most significant is from the nature of prophecy. The argument defended here is that NT prophecy is infallible and inerrant just like OT prophecy. Various arguments are given by some continuationists to establish the fallibility of NT prophecy, but it is argued here that they are unconvincing. Since NT prophecy is infallible and inerrant like OT prophecy and since the church is established upon the foundation of the apostles and the prophets (Eph. 2:20), we have significant evidence that NT prophets no longer exist today inasmuch as the doctrinal foundation of the church has been laid once for all. First Corinthians 13:8–13 is a good argument for all the gifts lasting until the second coming, but this text does not demand that all the gifts continue until the second coming.

Andrew Wilson

A Response to Tom Schreiner

Richard M. Blaylock

Towards a Definition of New Testament Prophecy

Despite a number of recent proposals, scholars have yet to reach a consensus regarding what the New Testament prophets were actually doing when they prophesied. In this essay, I attempt to make a contribution to New Testament studies by working towards a definition of New Testament prophecy. I proceed in three steps. First, I survey five different views on the nature of New Testament prophecy. Second, I analyze relevant texts from the New Testament to answer the question: what kind of an activity was New Testament prophecy? Third, I evaluate the arguments made for both limited prophetic authority and full prophetic authority. On the basis of the study, I conclude that prophetic activity in the New testament (1) is a human act of intelligible communication that (2) is rooted in spontaneous, divine revelation and (3) is empowered by the Holy Spirit, so that prophecy (4) consists in human speech or writing that can be attributed to the members of the Godhead and (5) that always carries complete divine authority.

Vern S. Poythress

The Boundaries of the Gift of Tongues: With Implications for Cessationism and Continuationism

Speaking in tongues potentially includes three subcategories: (1) known language; (2) unknown language; and (3) language-like utterance – an utterance consists of language-like sounds but does not belong to any actual human language. Category (3) occurs today in charismatic circles. Given that the church in Corinth was permissive, it can be inferred that category (3) may have occurred at Corinth. Moreover, each of the three categories can occur either in inspired, infallible form or noninspired, fallible form. Thus, it is possible to hold a cessationist view of inspiration (no more infallible utterances) and a continuationist view with respect to noninspired forms.

Ben C. Dunson

Biblical Words and Theological Meanings: Sanctification as Consecration for Transformation

Protestants have traditionally understood sanctification as God’s work of gradual spiritual transformation over the entire life of every believer. Recent biblical scholarship has argued that such a definition does not actually correspond with the meaning of biblical terminology for sanctification, which refers to a single and definitive setting apart of believers at conversion. Some have also insisted that this calls into question the wisdom of using the word “sanctification” to describe how God transforms Christians throughout their lives. This article examines these competing perspectives, concluding that biblical terminology for sanctification, while indeed definitive in nature (indicating a once-for-all action occurring at conversion), is also integrally connected in the Bible with the process of spiritual transformation begun at conversion. The article then provides some reflections on how definitive and progressive dimensions of sanctification can (and should) be held together in a doctrine of sanctification.

Lydia McGrew

Finessing Independent Attestation: A Study in Interdisciplinary Biblical Criticism

The claim that some incident or saying in the Gospels is multiply and independently attested is sometimes made in the wrong way by biblical scholars. Insights from formal epistemology can help to sharpen the requirements for alleging independent attestation to avoid such problems. In the course of this analysis it becomes clear that independent attestation is entangled with the connection between the documents and the facts, so that it is not possible simultaneously to theorize that the differences between accounts are due to the authors’ embellishment while also arguing persuasively that the accounts have the relevant kind of independence for multiple attestation. I discuss three cases where independence has either been claimed inaccurately or has been claimed in such a way that the scholar’s own theory blocks the route to arguing independence. This study illustrates the need for cross-disciplinary interaction in biblical criticism.

Michael Allen

Disputation for Scholastic Theology:Engaging Luther’s 97 Theses

The essay first seeks to unpack the anthropological and soteriology teaching of Martin Luther’s diatribe “against scholastic theology,” that is, against Semi-Pelagian or Pelagian moral anthropology in his 97 Theses of September 1517. Second, the essay turns to ways in which the theological task is located by Luther in the history of sin and grace, thus connecting his teaching against the anthropology of the scholastics with his methodology for studying theology academically, further clarifying the precise nature of the objections to scholasticism raised by Luther and other reformers (such as Calvin). Third, the essay concludes by charting a set of four protocols for systematic or scholastic theology today, so as to reconfigure the intellectual practice as an exercise in intellectual asceticism or discipleship that is part of the broader process of the sanctification of human reason.

Book Reviews

Holiness 3, 1 (2017) on Holiness and Pastoral Relationships

The latest issue of Holiness, the journal of Wesley House Cambridge is now available online, this one devoted to ‘Holiness and Pastoral Relationships’.

The editor, Andrew Stobart, leads into the theme with a reflection on the Wesleyan Methodist Conference, meeting in Liverpool in 1820, and being faced with a sharp decline in membership. Among the range of measures adopted, ‘increased pastoral intercourse’ with Methodist people ‘at their own homes’ was recognised as an ‘absolute obligation’. The Conference encouraged its ministers to show ‘unremitting diligence’ in conducting pastoral visitation, which included ‘giving seasonable counsel’, ‘exhorting them to a faithful and loving observance of all the duties of personal and family religion’, and ‘kindly inquiry into their Christian experience’.

The entire journal, containing the below collection of peer-reviewed essays, lecture, and short articles, is available as a pdf here.

Bill Mullally

The Effect of Presence and Power in the Pastoral Supervisory Relationship

This article addresses the important elements of presence and power in the pastoral supervisory relationship. It is based on qualitative research, which used a questionnaire methodology with six Methodist ministers, all of whom had taken part in group pastoral supervision for a period of two years. The aim of this research was to gain insight into their experience of the supervisory process. The article explores how an open, authentic and trusting environment can be created within the pastoral supervisory relationship that has regenerative and healing potential, whereby ministers will be better able to face the challenges of ministry. It contends there is a need for well-qualified, skilled and spiritually sensitive supervisory support for ministers. Such pastoral supervisors will understand the dynamics of power and presence to create a sacred space for ministers to ‘come apart and reflect a while’. This covenant relationship creates transformational possibilities for those who commit to the journey.

James Dunn

Why Four Gospels? Why Only Four?

This is a transcript of the 2016 Fernley-Hartley Lecture, which was delivered during the 2016 British Methodist Conference at the Lambeth Mission, London, and is published here with acknowledgement to the Fernley-Hartley Trust. It stands largely unchanged from its first delivery in the hope that the texture and tone of the lecture might also be retained. The article argues that answering the questions ‘Why four Gospels?’ and ‘Why only four?’ provides a clear picture of the character of the gospel of Jesus as ‘the same yet different’, as well as a challenge to today’s Christians to retell the good news in their own contexts with equal or equivalent effect. The article discusses the context in which the four canonical Gospels were recognised, pointing out that the term ‘gospel’ was coined in the process. The distinctive emphases of the Synoptics and John show how the same story can be told differently, an essential restatement of the same message for new and changing audiences.

Christopher Collins

Reimagining Dementia: Seeing Ourselves More Fully in the Dementia-Diagnosed

How does the Church respond to the increasing number of dementia-diagnosed within our communities? This paper argues that the Church inhabits Kitwood’s ‘standard paradigm’ of dementia, which focuses on the loss and decay of the person. This diverts our attention away from a more theologically nuanced understanding of the person and personhood. Using Lartey’s Theological Form model of action and reflection, I will reflect on the pastoral experience of caring for the dementia-diagnosed and seek to promote an alternative theology of personhood as relationship based on Moltmann’s ‘social trinity’ explored through the creation narrative of Genesis 2. This will allow us to develop an alternative model of pastoral care which enables us to see the ‘angelic mission’ of the dementia-diagnosed.

Paul Gismondi

Fear and Faith: Reflections on Ministry and Death

An experience of observing a cremation instigates theological reflection on the fear of death. Using Laurie Green’s model of action to reflection, and then reflection to action, the article moves through three cycles of theological reflection, exploring first the author’s response to the crematorium, then a subsequent encounter with a family during a funeral visit, and finally a conversation with colleagues. Each cycle produces further insights: the universality of death; the particularity of death; and a final glimpse of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. Through this, the author explores the interaction between his fear of death and his faith.

Catherine Minor

Beyond Horror: Mapping the Contours of Holiness in an Acute Hospital

Reflecting on the experience of hospital chaplaincy in an acute hospital in the north-east of England, this article explores the conviction that God is with us both in and beyond horror. Echoes of Scripture are identified in a number of pastoral encounters, which help to illustrate the presence of God in the midst of horror. The work of chaplaincy also points to God’s presence beyond the horror of present pain and death, turning the hospital into ‘holy ground’.

Elizabeth Dunning

A Good Death? Pastoral Reflections on Closing a Chapel

This article reflects on an experience of the closure of a chapel, exploring ways to challenge the assumption that closure is a failure. Noting the lack of intentional resources to aid churches considering closure, the author identifies the Passion and resurrection narratives as a biblical model for the stages of church awareness of change. Reflecting on these narratives enables the closure of a chapel to be considered as a fitting conclusion to work accomplished, as ‘a good death’.

Jane Leach

‘On Visiting the Sick’: The Art of Pastoral Conversation

This article is a transcript of a lecture delivered as part of the first series of Wesley Memorial Lectures given at Wesley Memorial Church in Oxford in July 2016. Originally entitled ‘Speaking of God in Private’, this lecture was followed by a second, ‘Speaking of God in Public’. It is included here as part of the ongoing journal series exploring what the sermons of John Wesley have done for us, and it stands largely unchanged from its first delivery in order to retain its texture and tone. This article addresses the questions of why in Western culture it is a problem to speak of God in personal conversation; why this is true even within some churches; and whether there are any pointers towards how intentional conversation about God might be recovered in the contemporary Western context in the sermon of John Wesley’s of 1786, ‘On Visiting the Sick’.

Janet Morley

‘I believe; help my unbelief!’ A Reflection and Intercession Based on Mark 9:14–29, and on John Reilly’s Painting, Healing of the Lunatic Boy

Gillian Houghton

Reflections on Self Portrait by Eddy Aigbe

Reviews

Centre for Public Christianity (August 2014)

Among other items of interest this month, The Centre for Public Christianity has a video interview with John Stackhouse on the ‘weirdness and plausibility of Christianity’, and a video interview with Paula Gooder covering ‘the historical Jesus, theology as a discipline, and the Gospels as literature’.

Simon Gathercole on the Gospel of Thomas

The latest briefing from Tyndale House features an interview with Simon Gathercole on the Gospel of Thomas, following the publication of a second monograph on the document.

‘The main reason I got into the study of the “other” Gospels is that I am always interested in the views people have about Jesus. After all, the question “Who is Jesus?” is and always has been at the heart of the Christian faith and of vital concern to Christians.’

Vern Sheridan Poythress on Inerrancy and the Gospels

Vern Sheridan Poythress, Inerrancy and the Gospels: A God-Centered Approach to the Challenges of Harmonization (Wheaton: Crossway, 2012), 238pp., ISBN 978-1-4335-2860-6.

Following on the heels of the earlier Inerrancy and Worldview by Poythress (see here) comes this volume, freely available in its entirety as a 3.2 MB pdf here.

Here’s some of the blurb:

‘Responding to the questions surrounding the Gospel narratives, New Testament scholar Vern Poythress provides an informed case for inerrancy in the Gospels and helps readers understand basic principles for harmonization. He also tackles some of the most complicated exegetical problems, showing the way forward on passages that have perplexed many, including the centurion’s servant, the cursing of the fig tree, and more.’

Centre for Public Christianity (October 2012)

The latest newsletter from the Centre for Public Christianity contains links to a video interview with Darrell Bock (on the trustworthiness of the oral tradition of the gospels), an audio conversation between Simon Smart and Justine Toh (on relationships in the iWorld), and a video interview with Richard Burridge (on what Jesus has to say about power).

Jonathan T. Pennington on Reading the Gospels Wisely

Having done some work myself on the theological significance of gospel narrative, I was very interested to see notice of the forthcoming book by Jonathan T. Pennington, Reading the Gospels Wisely: A Narrative and Theological Introduction (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2012), which I am confident (based on his published research on Matthew) will be excellent.

A friend has drawn my attention to a website containing a video introducing the book along with a summary of the book’s chapters, providing plenty to whet the appetite of those interested in the gospels and the relationship between the gospels and The Gospel.

Centre for Public Christianity Update (November 2011)

The latest email newsletter from the Centre for Public Christianity contains links to several video interviews, including one with Craig Keener on the gospels as ancient biographies and what that means for how we should read them, and a further installment of an interview with Iain Provan discussing the reliability, relevance and the violence of the Old Testament as well as the way that the Bible has shaped western culture.

A Conversation on the Bible and Culture (2)

Not long before he left LICC to take up a post at A Rocha, Nigel Hopper (Lecturer in Contemporary Culture and Communications Manager at LICC) asked me some questions about the Bible’s impact on culture and the implications for Christians and churches today. A trimmed version of our ‘electronic’ interview will appear in September 2011’s edition of EG, LICC’s quarterly magazine, but I will also post the transcript of the whole conversation over a series of entries here.

Earlier entries:

• A Conversation on the Bible and Culture (1)

Nigel: It seems to me, looking around, that the Bible – and the gospels in particular – increasingly serve as a foil for contemporary re-tellings, or re-imaginings of its story (usually of a sensational nature), Philip Pullman’s The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ being a recent example. Do you think this is helpful inasmuch as it puts the Bible in the limelight, and how can Christians ‘rescue’ the story of Scripture from contemporary interpretations?

Antony: Yes, it’s interesting to see how the figure of Jesus, however much he might be misunderstood, is deeply ingrained on our collective cultural consciousness. In The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ (London: Canongate, 2010), Pullman uses the idea of Mary having twins, one named Jesus and one named Christ, as a literary device to explore what he sees as the difference between the ‘historical Jesus’ and the ‘churchly Christ’. In part this becomes a way of Pullman representing the leaders of the future church who make sure that the ‘truth’ recorded in the gospels is what they consider it should have been. But he’s clear that he’s writing a piece of fiction, even if he also seems to be wanting to make a point by doing so.

More recently and perhaps more controversially, we’ve had James Frey’s The Final Testament of the Holy Bible (London: John Murray, 2011). The promotional blurb asks what you would do ‘if you discovered the messiah was alive today, living in New York, sleeping with men, impregnating young women, euthanizing the dying, and healing the sick’. And the cover asks us to ‘be enraged’ as well as to ‘be enthralled’ – so Frey knows that his book will shock and upset people. And it’s received mixed reviews so far.

Interestingly, there are clips on YouTube of James Frey, and via his own website, where he talks about his goal being ‘to create a new mythology, one that is relevant in a world of nuclear weapons, fast physics, the internet, genetic testing and manipulation; a world in which we know homosexuality is not a decision and a world where women have the right to choose how they live’. So, he’s upfront about his social and political agendas; and, as some reviewers have said, the fundamental idea behind the book is that love conquers all and organised religion is the source of all evil.

Of course, that message of love found on the lips of Jesus himself in the gospels, but there is a danger of severing the message from the larger story of Jesus to which it belongs.

And that, fundamentally I think, is the big issue with re-tellings of the story of Jesus. What seems to happen is that the story of Jesus becomes about something else – an exploration of the human need for love, for instance, or a critique of ecclesiastical authority – and it’s this ‘something else’ that becomes all-important. And in the telling of that ‘something else’, the gospels get left behind and (somewhat ironically) Jesus gets left behind!

Even well-meaning Christian readers can sometimes be in danger of abstracting ethical truisms or theological ‘nuggets’ from the gospel accounts of Jesus, as if the accounts themselves are just a convenient vehicle for those things and can then be left behind once we’ve worked out what the gospels are really all about. Except, of course, that the gospels are about Jesus, and we can’t separate the abstracted truths (about justice or love, say) from the larger story of Jesus – indeed, the larger story of Israel which the gospels say Jesus has come to fulfil.

So, books like those by Pullman and Frey might be helpful in that they shed light on certain contemporary aspirations and fears, and hopefully they’ll drive Christians back to the gospels again to see what Jesus is really like – not what we’d like him to be like, but as he really is. But, as I’ve tried to suggest, who Jesus is emerges out of the story which shows and tells his proclamation of the kingdom, his words and works, his death and resurrection – and it’s through the gospel narratives that his identity is revealed.

Catalyst 37, 4 (April 2011)

The latest Catalyst is online, with a nice mix of short articles:

C. Clifton Black

Preaching from the Gospels and Acts

Terry C. Muck

Worldview and the Missional Task

Alan G. Padgett

The Blossoming of Philosophical Theology: What’s New?

Pamela J. Scalise

Building an OT Library: Hosea–Malachi

Henry H. Knight III

Consider Wesley