Lunch with Greg Beale!

Earlier today, the Th.M. students at Western Seminary had the chance to eat lunch with Dr. Greg Beale from Westminster Seminary. And, we had a fabulous time talking about Peter Enns‘ book Inspiration and Incarnation and how the discussion around that book developed at both Wheaton and Westminster (yes, the very first question anyone asked was what Beale thought about that whole situation), inerrancy and how you interpret Genesis 1-2, New Testament theology, the use of the Old Testament in the New Testament, and interesting/exciting areas of study for new biblical studies scholars. All that in just over an hour. It was fascinating.

Why am I telling you this? Mostly because every now and then I like to rub in how great our Th.M. program is by pointing out the cool things that we do. I realize that this may frustrate those of you who are not a part of this amazing program. And, I’m okay with that.

If any of the Th.M. students who were at the lunch happen to see this post, I’d be curious to know what you found most interesting in the conversation. So, let us know what you thought.

Flotsam and jetsam (6/22)

• Koinonia lists its readers favorite blogs. Congratulations to Nick for getting a lot of love in the list.
• The annual Barth conference is underway at Princeton. Halden has posted on it here along with an excerpt from Nate Kerr’s paper.
• Peter Enns has finished his series on reading Genesis 1-2 in light of other creation stories.
• James Smith gives a few thoughts on David Kelsey’s Eccentric Existence from a forthcoming review article that he’s doing. From these excerpts, I think it would be quite an understatement to say that he likes the book.
• Ben Myers comments on his experience reading Bonhoeffer over the last couple of years, along with some brief thoughts on three new books.
• And, here’s a BBC story about the discovery of an ancient Egyptian city that they think might have been the Hyksos capital. (HT Evangel)

Flotsam and jetsam (6/8)

• Jesus Creed reviews Marilynne Robinson’s new book, An Absence of Mind. If she isn’t already, she really should be on your “must read” list. And there’s a review of John Stott‘s new The Radical Disciple over at ERB.
• NPR did a story today about a group of Italian women, all of whom are or have been priests’ lovers, who wrote a letter to the Pope asking that clerical celibacy be reconsidered.
• After an earlier post in which he pointed out the similarities between the Genesis creation account and other creation myths like Gilgamesh and Atrahasis, Peter Enns now looks at the theological distinctives of the Genesis account.
• Ben Myers posted his thoughts and resources from a talk that he recently gave on “God and evil.” The resources are interestingly diverse and he concludes: “A Christian response to evil is not theodicy, but struggle – the struggle of taking God’s side against the world’s disorder, and of refusing to treat evil as an acceptable part of a larger harmonious vision.”
• James McGrath offers a roundup of posts related to the recent discussion of diversity and unity in the early church.
• Justin Taylor notes three new introductions to the Reformation.
• And, they think they’ve discovered a gladiator graveyard in northern England.