Two interesting books on Paul are due for publication in the next few weeks and months. The first is Ligon Duncan's Misunderstanding Paul: Responding to the New Perspectives (out 19th October). Here's the blurb:

"Recent scholarship has challenged the Reformers' reading of Paul's epistles, especially in terms of justification by faith. Duncan finds the modern case unconvincing, pointing out what he sees as serious flaws in the arguments that go to the very heart of the meaning of the gospel."

It's a book aimed at the mainstream church rather than the academy, so it'll be interesting to see how Duncan interacts with the NPP. I'm expecting a Reformed rebuttal of N T Wright and Co and a strong affirmation of the traditional evangelical reading of Paul. There's plenty of that kind of thing on the web already, but (hopefully) this will be of better quality.

A book that I'm really looking forward to is Chris Vanlandingham's Judgement and Justification in Early Judiasm and the Apostle Paul (30th Nov), which looks like it'll be a really good book. I'll post some more details when they become available.

Another late night public ponderance...

For as long as I can remember, I've nearly always heard the Gospel presented as an alternative to those who are trying to "earn" their salvation by performing good works. We can't build a bridge across to God by our own good works, the only solution is to place our trust in Jesus and stop relying on our own good deeds.

This is is true, in a broad sense, but something about it bothers me deeply: why do we assume that most or all people who are not "saved" are trying to earn their way to God by good works? I cannot recall having ever actually met anybody who was trying to earn their salvation in this way, either consciously or subconsciously. Generally speaking, I think that most people consider the idea of God, salvation, and the church as something that is utterly irrelevant to their everyday lives. Telling people that faith in Christ will save them from trying to earn their salvation by works is great - if that's what they are actually trying to do - but most people are not, and to the extent that we preach the Gospel as simple faith as an alternative to "good works", we are making it irrelevant and unintelligible.

Two interesting posts on this subject caught my attention today:

John Pettigrew links to an evangelistic website (with the obligatory dig at Roman Catholics) that is designed in a way that is more likely to produce an epileptic fit or migraine rather than converts. I especially like the error message that it generates that says "You are possibly not secure in your own personal faith...click here", and this bit on hell:

HELL IS A REAL PLACE AND IT IS NOT FUN 

It makes hell sound like a disappointing theme park you might get to by driving down the M6.

Dwight approaches the subject of evangelism from a rather different angle:

"The word "evangel" [...] was applied by the New Testament writers to the event of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. ‘Evangelism’, then, is simply relating this good news. But, it has come in evangelical terms to mean speaking to non-Christians with the specific purpose of encouraging them to make an on-the-spot commitment to become a Christian.

Thus, in evange-speak, sharing good news requires a programme, a plan, and a strategy. The effort creates fear in the committed believer who wishes to be true to his faith by witnessing. The results are often awkward—an indication that such methods are not normal."

Read the full article here.

What happened to Jesus' earthly father Joseph? He's a NT character who disappears after the nativity story and is seemingly never heard of again. Jesus has several brothers and sisters, so presumably he stayed with Mary at least long enough to father several children, but it seems odd that he never gets any mention at all. Mary does appear several times in the Gospels, but Joseph disappears from the scene altogether after journeying to Jerusalem with Jesus while Jesus was still a boy.

There is an early second century apochryphal text called The Story of Joseph the Carpenter that alleges that Joseph died aged 111 in the year 18 or 19, and that Mary was his second wife following the death of his first wife Melcha (also called Escha or Salome), and that this woman was also the mother of James the Apostle, who was thus only really the step-brother of the Lord. I'm not sure that this text is what you'd call a primary source for the life of the historical Joseph, but it's interesting that we know so little about a man who (we would expect) would have been so massively influential on Jesus. Intriguing.

I shouldn't drink Coke before I go to bed.

Doh. I've written the first part of the series of posts looking at hell, but I made the mistake of writing it on my girlfriend's laptop (which has no internet access) and so it's likely to stay there until the end of the week.

In the meantime Kim Fabricius has written Ten Propositions on Hell over at Faith and Theology, which is worth reading.