Over the last 20 years I have been involved in a lot of writing projects, but this is only my third big book. I am often a slow writer and each book took years of gestation and labor. These metaphors are intentionally chosen because I feel like all three of these books are my children,…

In his fascinating book on the Sermon on the Mount, Jonathan Pennington seeks to read the Sermon as Christianity’s answer to what he calls “the greatest metaphysical question that humanity has always faced—How can we experience true human flourishing?” (emphasis original, xxxiv). He offers this question as an overall reading strategy for the Sermon—a strategy…

I am grateful for Jonathan Pennington’s wise and insightful study. I learned a great deal from it, and was delighted by its delivery on the promise in its subtitle: to offer a theological engagement with the biblical text. Indeed, Pennington extends the conversation more widely still, drawing Matthew into intelligent and fruitful conversation with both…

“Look at sun that shines upon your brow; look at the grasses, flowers, and the shrubs born here, spontaneously, of the earth. Among them, you can rest or walk until the coming of the glad and lovely eyes— those eyes that, weeping, sent me to your side. Await no further word or sign from me:…

“A life for eternity.” Twenty years ago, that’s how Dallas Willard’s classic The Divine Conspiracy described the life of discipleship pictured in the Sermon on the Mount. He further explains: “that is, a life for eternity because it is already in the eternal.” Willard sees in the sermon Jesus’ answers to the two biggest questions…

In response to my recent post “What in the World is Missiology?” Steve Bevans suggested that missiology has a distinctive contribution to make to other seminary disciplines like systematic theology, church history, or biblical studies. In this post I build on Bevans’ thought, but in relation to the discipline of homiletics.