Big Up a Blogger

One of the things I've enjoyed about getting back into blogging has been catching up with some blogs that I haven't read for a while. I've been working my way through my blogroll which I use bloglines to keep an eye on. I thought I'd big up some of the bloggers I enjoy.

First up, is my friend Michael Pahl who blogs over at The Stuff of Earth.
Michael is from Calgary. I got to know him when he was over here to do the residential period of his PhD which he did at Birmingham University and has recently completed. He is a wonderful guy and a great scholar. His blog is a biblioblog covering various aspects of New Testament studies, as well as family stuff, and er.. icehockey.

To be honest, I'm slightly jealous of him, because he lives in Canada (and gets to go hiking in places like this) and because he is a New Testament lecturer which I kind of dream of doing one day. He is much smarter than I am though.

As well as keeping us up to date with the latest issues of the main New Testament Studies journals he produces some fascinating series. I thought I'd point to a couple:

What is the gospel? explores what is surely the most important question of our time from three angles:
the jewish scriptures
the death and resurrection of jesus
the roman imperial propaganda

followed by a a summary

he then offers the following concluding reflections :

concluding reflections 1
concluding reflections 2
concluding reflections 3

Another good series is popular myths of evangelicals

Some of these might apply more to North American evangelicalism, or the particular brand he describes as "fundagelicalism", but they are well worth a read.

"creation" = "creationism"
the eschaton = "the pre-trib rapture"
the bible is "the word of God"
innerancy guarantees orthodoxy

and a couple of other interesting posts:

pistis christou: the "faithfulness of christ

and one directly relevant to my MPhil dissertation

barclay, wright, and paul's anti-imperialism

very good stuff. thanks michael