Richard Hays: Theologian of the Cross, Member of the New Community

Wesley Hill explores why the New Testament scholar’s legacy echoes beyond the halls of the academy: “[T]he meaning of Scripture is ultimately written on the tablets of fleshy hearts,” wrote Richard Hays in the conclusion to his groundbreaking book Echoes of Scripture in the Letters of Paul. This statement was true not only of the … Continue Reading

Does God’s widening mercy contradict biblical sexual ethics?

Andrew Goddard writes: After much pre-publicity, which I reflected on at the time, The Widening of God’s Mercy: Sexuality within the Biblical Story (Yale University Press) has finally appeared. This enables an end to speculation as to why New Testament scholar, Richard B Hays (writing here with his son, Old Testament scholar, Christopher) has changed … Continue Reading

Does Jesus ‘declare all foods clean’ in Mark 7.19?

In September, Dr Logan Williams (University of Aberdeen) published a truly fascinating open-access academic article ‘The Stomach Purifies All Foods: Jesus’ Anatomical Argument in Mark 7.18–19‘ in the prestigious journal New Testament Studies. The essay won the Paul J. Achtemeier Award for New Testament Scholarship from the Society of Biblical Literature (the main global Anglophone … Continue Reading

The risen Jesus meets the Eleven in Luke 24

The gospel lectionary reading for the Third Sunday of Easter in Year B is Luke 24.36b–48, the episode where Jesus meets the disciples after the encounter on the Emmaus Road and before the Ascension. (The lectionary readings for the Third Sunday in Easter ignore the particular gospel for the year, and instead cycle round Luke … Continue Reading

Is there an analogy between divorce-and-remarriage and same-sex marriage?

Ann Onymous writes: The journey to remarriage following a divorce is necessarily a painful one. Although it is now something of a trope (with increasing divorce rates and newspapers reporting on more and more celebrities and politicians who are on their third or fourth marriage) that marriage is beginning to be seen as something temporary, something … Continue Reading

Queer Holiness: A Review and Critique IV: Revelation, Scripture, and Science

Joshua Penduck writes: In this long review, I have explored several critiques of Charlie Bell’s book Queer Holiness. In Part II, I looked out how despite all the merits of his book (some of which were outlined in Part I), his polemical rhetoric has led to problems of internal inconsistency, privilege, strawmanning, othering, a lack of … Continue Reading