If you've been following along with the blog the last few years, you've probably heard various rumblings about a new blog platform. You might have even have periodically wondered, "Is that project still happening? What's the latest?"  We're excited to let you know that the first phase of the new platform we've been working on behind the scenes is finally ready to launch on Monday, September 8th. The blog will briefly go offline during this time. Here’s what that means: The blog will likely be down for 8–12 hours, though it could take up to 2 days. During that time you’ll just see a maintenance message when you navigate to the website. If any scheduled posts are impacted, they will simply be published when the site is back up and running. You won't miss anything! When it’s back up, you won’t notice any visible changes. The blog will look and work just the same for the time being. The difference is under the hood. We’ve cleared out years of technical debt, which means from here [...]

I now provide a bullet point list that summarizes "at a glance" Paul's very first surviving letter (and therefore the earliest Christian writing of any kind that we have!), along with some questions to reflect on based on this very interesting text.  It's a short but fascinating letter; if you don't remember it very well, give it a re-read; and do see what I've said about it in this "Nutshell" series, see the posts here: 1 Thessalonians in a Nutshell 1 Thessalonians: Who, When, Why 1 Thessalonians for Further Reading Here now is a quick overview/summary of key points: At a Glance:  1 Thessalonians I Thessalonians is the earliest of Paul’s epistles, and thus the earliest book of the New Testament and the earliest surviving Christian writing of any kind. It can be used to provide clues concerning how Paul went about his missionary activities. He evidently did not preach on the street corner or stage evangelistic rallies, and he did not (contrary to the book of Acts) begin by preaching in [...]

We recently shared part one of a post written by Platinum blog member, Mark Reichert. You can find the first part here. Here now is the second part of his two-part reflections in which he offers his own reconstruction of what might have happened after the crucifixion. So what do I think really happened? There is no way to know for sure but I can put together a story that seems plausible and makes sense to me. I believe Jesus and his following traveled to Jerusalem for Passover during the governorship of Pontius Pilate. How large a following I do not know though enough for it to be considered a “following.” Once there, he came to the attention of Roman and/or Jewish authorities in a negative way. Either he said, or someone accused him of saying, that he was “King of the Jews.” I highly doubt the account in Mark that states Jesus was bound by Jewish priests and elders and brought before Pilate. This would be like Palestinian authorities turning a [...]

In earlier posts I provided discussions of both 1 and 2 Corinthians: their major emphases and themes, what we know about their context, when they were written, and why.   Check them out here: 1 Corinthians in a Nutshell 1 Corinthians: Who, When, and Why? 2 Corinthians in a Nutshell 2 Corinthians: Who Wrote It, When, and Why? Below is a concise summary of both discussions (each book “At a Glance”), taken from my book The New Testament: A Historical Introduction (Oxford University Press) and some questions for reflection to help you think through some of the issues that the books (and scholarship on them) raise.     1 Corinthians at a Glance First Corinthians is written to a church located in Corinth, in the Roman province of Achaia, a city with a reputation for dubious morals in antiquity. Paul had established the church by converting former pagans to faith in Jesus; most of his converts were poor and uneducated, but some came from the upper classes. The different socioeconomic levels of the Corinthian Christians may [...]

Dear Fellow Bloggers! I want to let you know that I will not be able to respond to comments this week (or a bit more: July 21-28).  BUT, the blog itself will be going along swimmingly.  I've queued up all the posts for the week , you can make all the comments you want as normal, Jen will  be on top of all things as usual, and all else will be AOK,  likely even thriving.  I just won't be around and will not be able to respond to comments. So sorry!  But, well, not totally.  I'm  off for the week on a meditation retreat -- not, as normally happens, with others but all by my lonesome, living the life of the anchorite.  Kind of.  I'll be in a reasonably remote place in a nice part of the world where I can meditate, read, hike, think deep thoughts, figure out my life (and all things of universal significance),  recharge my depleted batteries, and hope they don't need to be replaced.  I did something [...]

I'm just about finished (finally) with a reasonably polished draft of my next book, The Origins of Altruism: How the Teachings of Jesus Transformed the Moral Conscience of the West.  We have decided to turn the moment into a fund-raising opportunity for the blog. Unlike our other fundraisers, where we suggest an amount but accept whatever you can pay, for this one we are asking for set donation amounts for anyone who can and wants to participate.  If you can't afford this, no fears! The book itself will eventually be published and you can read it to your heart's content.  But if you want to see it in its prepublished state, make comments on it for me, and be acknowledged by name in the Preface (if you choose; this is not a requirement!), then this is the fundraiser for you! I will also be sending it out to colleagues in the field who are expert in one or another of the areas I cover in my discussions (there are a lot of them).  But since it [...]

The ancient triumph of Christianity proved to be the single greatest cultural transformation our world has ever seen.  Without it the entire history of Late Antiquity would not have happened as it did.  We would never have had the Middle Ages, the Reformation, the Renaissance, or modernity as we know it.   There could never have been a Matthew Arnold.   Or of any of the Victorian poets.  Or of any of the other authors of our canon: no Milton, no Shakespeare, no Chaucer.  We would have had none of our revered artists: Michelangelo, Leonardo, or Rembrandt.  And none of our brilliant composers: Mozart, Handel, or Bach.  To be sure, we would have had other Miltons, Michelanglos, and Mozarts in their place, and it is impossible to know whether these would have been better or worse.  But they would have been incalculably different. By conquering the Roman world, and then the entire West, Christianity not only gave rise to a vast and awe-inspiring set of cultural artifacts, it also changed the way people look at the world [...]

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