Luke is the grand prize winner of our giveaway and will receive copies of 5 Baker Academic titles – including J.R. Daniel Kirk’s Jesus Have I Loved, but Paul?

Our five runner-up winners are Dieter Thom, Dave Reynolds, Brook Fonceca, Leslie Keeney, and C. C. Almon! They will each receive a copy of Jesus Have I Loved, but Paul?

Thank you to all of you that entered and who followed the blog tour.

In case you are itching for another tour, our sister division Brazos Press has a blog tour for Peter Enns’ new book The Evolution of Adam: What the Bible Does and Doesn’t Say about Human Origins next week (Jan. 30 – Feb. 3).

Check out the blog tour announcement here.

He writes:

If I have read Daniel rightly, I am more than sympathetic to his perspective on the relationship between Jesus and Paul. And I am particularly grateful for his stress on the story of Israel within which both Jesus and Paul lived, moved and breathed. I affirm, also, his impulse to see the outcome of the story, or the effects of the story, as utmost important. Jesus lived, died and rose again to enact a Kingdom and new creation. Paul sought though a ministry patterned on Jesus’ death and resurrection to proclaim the good news of the Kingdom to the gentiles for the purpose of bringing about the obedience of faith among them (Rom 1:5; 16:26).

Read the entire post here.

Dr. Joel Willitts is Associate Professor in Biblical and Theological Studies at North Park University and College Pastor at Christ Community Church.

Joel currently blogs at “Euangelion“.

Tony begins by writing:

OK, I’m going to be a little tough on my friend, Daniel Kirk, in this post. Daniel is, admittedly, to my hermeneutical right. He’s a New Testament prof at my alma mater, Fuller Seminary, and I have a great deal of respect for him. But the chapter in his new book on homosexuality, while more generous than many evangelicals, falls short. It does so because it recapitulates the familiar meme, Love the Sinner, Hate the Sin.

Read the entire post here.

Dr. Tony Jones is an adjunct professor, sought-after speaker, and author of many books – including The Church Is Flat: The Relational Ecclesiology of the Emerging Church Movement (2011).

He currently blogs at “Theoblogy”

He writes:

So what does it look like to love our homosexual neighbor as ourselves? The last few pages of the chapter wrestle with that admittedly complex question. I won’t delve into specifics at the moment, but the general thrust is this – is it loving the GLBT community as we would want to be loved if we deny them rights that we would never want others to deny to us?

We’ve failed miserably in our treatment this group of people, but the Christian narrative of love and self sacrifice might just point a way forward.

Read the entire post here.

Mason Slater is a MA student at Grand Rapids Theological Seminary, a freelance writer/blogger, and a publishing consultant.

He currently blogs at “New Ways Forward”

He writes:

Kirk proposes that Jesus and Paul understand sexuality in much the same way through the same biblical framework. I agree. Jesus and Paul were both conservative about sexuality (Paul went as far as to advocate celibacy as a superior state, see pp. 168-169). They understood some expressions as holy and some as sinful. Do we as the church align with them?

Read the entire post here.

Brian LePort is a ThM student at Western Seminary where he also received a MA in Biblical and Theological Studies.

Brian currently blogs at “Near Emmaus“.

He writes:

I was asked to review chapter seven, Liberty and Justice for All? Overall  I have enjoyed Kirk’s approach to Paul as he seeks to demonstrate the connections between the messages of Jesus and Paul via the story of Israel. I think he provides a fresh, accessible approach to Paul that will help many.

Read the entire post here.

Dr. John Byron is Associate Professor of New Testament at Ashland Theological Seminary.

He currently blogs at “The Biblical World”

He writes:

There is a limit to what can be achieved in a single chapter. A number of important exegetical issues are not touched on—I would highlight the metaphor of “headship”, which I don’t think denotes one who has authority over another in Hellenistic Greek, and the curious verb authenteō in 1 Timothy 2:12, which certainly does not mean “to have authority over”; and there is no discussion of 1 Corinthians 14:34-35. So the reader should not expect an exhaustive treatment of this difficult subject.

But that is not the purpose of the book. What Kirk sets out to do is to show that a “storied theology” of the New Testament is both coherent and practical—that the shift away from the traditional categories of Protestant theology does not leave us stranded up a narrative creek without an ethical paddle. This is where the real strength of the book is to be found.

Read the entire post here.

Andrew Perriman is the author of several books, including Speaking of Women: Interpreting Paul (IVP, 1998) and The Future of the People of God: Reading Romans Before and After Western Christendom (Wipf & Stock, 2010).

He currently blogs at postost.net.

In an excellent post, Julie concludes:

Although I would have liked this chapter to offer more constructive suggestions for navigating gender in the New Creation, I appreciate the ways in which it reframes the conversation regarding Paul and women. For those of us who have never felt comfortable with the options given to us for how we should handle Paul, it proposes an affirming yet realistic engagement that allows both Scripture and the transformative redemptive power of Christ to co-exist as part of the narrative of God’s people.

Read the entire post here.

Julie Clawson is the author of Everyday Justice: The Global Impact of Our Daily Choices (IVP, 2009).

She currently blogs at JulieClawson.com.

Jim found several points of contention, but concluded by saying:

In sum, God both includes, and excludes. ‘Simply being human is not enough to claim membership in the family of God’ (p. 114). Though, Kirk goes on to suggest, we may all be surprised one day to discover who really is ‘in’ and who really is ‘out’. I concur.

I’ve engaged Dan’s work so intently because it deserves close attention, and not because I’ve found reading it unfruitful. Quite the contrary. I hope others will read it as closely because if they do, they’ll learn a good bit.

You can read the entire post here.

Dr. Jim West is Adjunct Professor of Biblical Studies at the Quartz Hill School of Theology and Pastor of Petros Baptist Church in Petros, Tennessee.

He currently blogs at “Zwinglius Redivivus“.

He writes:

 In all this, I applaud the trajectory of Kirk’s interpretation of Jesus and Paul (and particularly in Chapter Five, where Kirk treats the topic of inclusivity — but that’s not my chapter to discuss). I would argue with him on points of detail here and there, but these would be the sorts of argument that we might conduct convivially over a pint of Chip 71 or Cart Blanche, or perhaps one of Kirk’s own home brews. Kirk speaks from a vision informed by Hays and Gorman, adopting the trope of ‘discipleship as playing/improvising a role in the divine drama’ popularised by Wright (pioneered by Lash and Young, redeployed by Vanhoozer, and focussed into ethical principle by Wells), yet with a voice of his own. Kirk’s Jesus Have I Loved… exemplifies the best sort of New Testament theologising in current scholarship — richly grounded in (critical) appropriation of Scripture, remaining recognisably close to Scripture’s own words, arranged so as to reveal a persuasive greater coherence.

Read the entire post here.

AKM Adam (PhD, Duke University) is Lecturer in New Testament at the University of Glasgow.

He currently blogs at “AKMA’s Random Thoughts”.