Where is God?

Where then is God in the War on Terror? Grieving and groaning within the pain and horror of his battered but still beautiful world. Stirring in the hearts of human beings the desire for a more credible structure of global justice and mercy. Burning into the imagination of human beings a hope that peace and reconciliation might eventually win out over suspicion and hatred, that the world may be put to rights and that we may anticipate that in the present time. My friends, we in our generation – and especially those of you in your teens and twenties – face a new world, full of possibilities for great good and great ill. I have argued this evening that the Christian gospel, revealing the mysterious God we discover in Jesus and the Spirit, offers a robust and rigorous framework for discerning where God is at work in the midst of the dangers and opportunities that confront us. All of us in our different callings are summoned to this task; some of you, perhaps, to make it your life’s work. Jesus is Lord. The Spirit is powerful. God is doing a new thing. Let’s get out there and join in.

N. T. Wright - Where is GOD in "the War on Terror"?

On James

Our resident Blog Expert on Jacobean studies has been catching up on some much needed blogging after some time doing actual work... :)

Be sure to keep a close on eye on this blog if you're interested in James. Unfortunately, all my research on James came to a holt when I couldn't get my grubby paws on Johnson's excellent commentary. I'm still working on a paper: Jesus' Death in James 5:6 but it needs time, which I don't really have at this point... Maybe next year... Jim offers Top Picks on James. I thoroughly agree with these suggestions! Although, I haven't read all of them...

The most helpful commentaries I've used are Davids NIGTC, then Hartin Sacra Pagina, then Wall, Community of the Wise. When Johnson arrives, I'm sure I'll add it to this list. Johnson's collection of studies [Brother of Jesus, Friend of God], for exegetical usefulness, is better than Bauckham's [Wisdom of James, Disciple of Jesus the Sage]. On the sayings of Jesus in James, Deppe and Hartin's work have proved very helpful. Commentaries by Moo and Martin have proved helpful, but at times eccentric or idiosyncratic. They are nonetheless very good.

We look forward to William Baker's work, as everything that I've read of his so far has proved useful, insightful and worthy of time. And of course, there is Scot McKnight's forthcoming commentary of James to expect. But that will be a while in the making...

Articles & Stuff

JETS has uploaded several new articles, including this cracking one from Kevin J. Vanhoozer Lost in Interpretation? Truth, Scripture, and Hermeneutics. Also interesting is Eden, The Temple, and the Church's Mission in the New Creation by Gregory K. Beale.

There's loads more, so check it out. My laptop is still being restored to a former glory, so research is still stunted... But, I'm going on leave in three days, so it'll all be ok then... Plus, it's only like FOUR WEEKS till I get married, so research is actually the last thing on my mind...

Take care, ciao

Sorry for the Delay

My laptop decided to blow up last week, so I'm without any web access/emails and cpu. This, as you can imagine is highly frustrating... I wrote my sermons by hand last week, I felt like Paul - I NEED A SECRETARY!

Needless to say, my research has come to a grinding holt, and will only resume once those evil critters from the insurance company get back to me...

Until then, ciao