Friend of the blog Baker Academic Press is sponsoring a giveaway of Matthew Bates's Salvation by Allegiance Alone. We know, we know . . . this is a blog about historical Jesus studies. But we know that our readers are interested in the important developments in the study of early Christianity as a whole and this book has managed to cause a ruckus. Here's the press's description:
"We are saved by faith when we trust that Jesus died for our sins. This
is the gospel, or so we are taught. But what is faith? And does this
accurately summarize the gospel? Because faith is frequently
misunderstood and the climax of the gospel misidentified, the gospel's
full power remains untapped. While offering a fresh proposal for what
faith means within a biblical theology of salvation, Matthew Bates
presses the church toward a new precision: we are saved solely by
allegiance to Jesus the king. Instead of faith alone, Christians must
speak about salvation by allegiance alone. The book includes discussion
questions for students, pastors, and church groups and a foreword by
Scot McKnight."
You know the drill. You can enter the giveaway by (1) leaving a comment, (2) signing up to follow the blog and leaving a comment saying you did, (3) sharing the giveaway on any and all forms of social media and leaving a comment saying you did, or (4) the wild card entry. For this wild card entry, you have to tell us a book or article that completely changed your opinion on something; you started the book or article holding one idea and you finished holding another. It doesn't have to be limited Biblical Studies or New Testament Studies.
I shared to Facebook.
ReplyDeleteAs for the wildcard entry, Donald Fairbairn's "Life in the Trinity" fundamentally altered the way I understand the purpose and nature of salvation. I'd never heard of theosis before, and hearing it explained by a Protestant Patristics scholar was incredible.
Matthew Bates FTW!
ReplyDeleteI listen to On Script and enjoy it greatly. Looking forward to adding this book to my library. (Mark Olivero)
ReplyDeleteYes, please.
ReplyDeleteShared on WordPress, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ Already follow the blog.
ReplyDeleteHere's my comment! "Becoming the Gospel" by Michael Gorman was required for my NT2 class taught by Frank Dicken. That book blew my mind in terms of Pauline theology. Before that book/that class, I hadn't heard of cruciformity, nor had I heard of "the new perspective on Paul."
ReplyDeleteNow I love that stuff. Gorman explains it all very nicely, too.
I also followed the blog, just for the fun of it.
ReplyDeleteShared on Facebook and Twitter
ReplyDeleteShared
ReplyDeleteIt would be great to win this book.
ReplyDeleteI already follow the blog.
ReplyDeleteEldon Jay Epp blew the concept of the "original text" out of the water for me in his article, "The Multivalence of the Term 'Original Text' in New Testament Textual Criticism"
ReplyDeleteSign me up. I promise to read it.
ReplyDeleteI shared this on Facebook!
ReplyDeleteI shared this on Twitter!
ReplyDeleteAs for the wildcard entry, Scot McKnight's "The King Jesus Gospel" changed the way I view the gospel and evangelism. I read it in college, right in the middle of taking an otherwise very "soterian" personal evangelism course, and it opened my eyes to how the Bible's own summaries of the gospel narrative usually sound *very* different than modern American Christian summaries of the gospel!
ReplyDeleteRetweeted Dr. Keith on Twitter.
ReplyDeleteThe article "Jeremiah 31: Infant Baptism and the New Covenant" by Richard Pratt sealed the deal for me with paedobaptism.
ReplyDeleteShared to Facebook along with a comment on how this view needs to receive more attention!
ReplyDeleteI'd like to read this book!
ReplyDeleteSuper excited about this book! Thanks for shedding light on what is sure to be an excellent resource.
ReplyDeleteI'll be sharing this on Twitter.
I shared on Facebook!
ReplyDeleteTweeted on the Twitter.
ReplyDeleteShared on Google+.
ReplyDeleteI also follow the blog.
ReplyDeleteI am expecting that 'Salvation by Allegiance Alone' will transform the ways I understand salvation :)
ReplyDeleteBook marked this blog and shared it on Facebook.
ReplyDeleteI already have the book and I'm reading it so I'd pass the giveaway copy on if I won. Big fan of the OnScript podcast that Matthew Bates hosts.
Read it. Great book - distinction between gospel culture and salvation culture in Chapter 9 is worth price of book. Would love to win this copy and give to my pastor.
ReplyDeleteJust shared it on my Facebook!
ReplyDeleteShared it to my Facebook group "Dealing with the Bible".
ReplyDeleteI signed up to follow the blog on my feed reader, and shared to Twitter. Thanks for the offer!
ReplyDeleteConsider this an entry :-)
ReplyDeleteThe Myth of Persecution by Candida Moss was pretty formative. It upended my presumption that Christians were always and everywhere intentionally targeted for persecution during the first few hundred years.
Also, she goes into several martyr stories and shows their sometimes questionable and fanciful nature.
Atul Gawande's book Being Mortal changed my perspective on medicine, from it being primarily about finding ever more ingenious ways to stop people drying to it being about finding ways to help people live good lives while they can.
ReplyDeleteshared on Twitter... also fixed problem of NOT being of blogs twitter account. (already follow blog)
ReplyDeletewildcard:
ReplyDeleteHilary of Poitier's commentary on Matthew. Reading carefully his brief commentary lit within me a fire to study carefully the Early Christianity that preceded him.
Stanley Stowers makes me mad the first time I read him; I learn and change my mind, though, when I inevitably return to his argument.
ReplyDeleteThis is a comment.
ReplyDeleteFrom Dr. G: I need this book!
ReplyDeleteTo support or serve as foil to my thesis that Judaism and Christianity are an idealized version of ancient serfdom, and obedience to idealized human "lord"s.
Now found on my Google Plus site.
Shared on FB... Pick me! Pick me!
ReplyDeleteBart Erhman's 'How Jesus Became God'. Although I don't agree with everything Bart says and his methodology (which mostly includes the archaic criteria of historicity), it was my first step away from a very apologetic and conservative approach to my Christian faith. I now endorse and agree with the conclusions of his book which were very hard for me to accept when I was conservative and inerrancy-driven.
ReplyDeleteCommenting.
ReplyDeleteHays' Echoes of Scripture in the Letters of Paul. Before reading that book, I thought interpretation was very scientific and if I put in enough time then I would get it all, which was depressing for me. Now it is a lot more of an art and there is a lot more beauty to it, plus it made me rethink an authorial-intention understanding of meaning.
Shared on Facebook
ReplyDeleteI already follow the blog...
ReplyDeleteShared on Facebook. Love to win this!
ReplyDeletefollowing
ReplyDeleteNot really theological but the only book I could think of that would fit that category: "The Kite Runner" really changed my view on Afghanistan and the Problems in this part of the world and brought me a greater appreciation of the rich Afghan culture...
ReplyDeleteDefinitely interested
ReplyDeleteWildcard
ReplyDeleteGoodacre's work on the problems of Q and the strengths of Luke's use of Matthew. I don't know if I would say that it caused me to do a 180, but it certainly moved me from "undecided" to "fully convinced."