Gabriele Boccaccini is a University of Michigan professor teaching Second Temple Judaism and early rabbinic literature. He's also a renowned Enoch specialist. I've been reading his 2020 book Paul's Three Paths to Salvation (Eerdmans). I am planning to write a (very) critical book review soon and have it published somewhere. Today's post only concerns a … Continue reading Boccaccini, Paul’s Three Paths (2020)
The One True Messiah: Jesus
Allow me to ask you two seemingly unrelated questions: Have you ever seen the face of a “messiah”?; have you ever seen something that combines all three, i.e., Islam, Hinduism, and Christianity? You can answer “yes” to both if you’ve seen the photo I attached above. When I was driving by a mosque yesterday, I … Continue reading The One True Messiah: Jesus
God Does Not Show Favoritism
Twenty-four years ago (1998), I attended a small Christian church in Kyongju, South Korea. It was only a temporary involvement because I was part of the church’s ministry of helping immigrant workers learn Korean. Although I occasionally sensed the theological eccentricity of the pastor, he was a nice man. The real shock came when he … Continue reading God Does Not Show Favoritism
T. S. Eliot and the Apostle Paul
The 1948 Nobel Literature Prize laureate T. S. Eliot (1888-1965) wrote the seminal essay titled "Tradition and the Individual Talent" (1917). This short paper was a fire he shot that was to be eventually heard around the world within less than a century. As the title of the article shows, Eliot contrasts tradition and the … Continue reading T. S. Eliot and the Apostle Paul
Three Perspectives on Paul’s Relationship to Judaism
The traditional view (Old Perspective) presents Paul as being in a hostile relation to Second Temple Judaism; according to the Old, the Apostle Paul left Judaism because Judaism was legalistic. So, in the Old Perspective, Judaism and Christianity parted ways and exist as distinct entities. The so-called New Perspective, too, pits Paul against Judaism, but … Continue reading Three Perspectives on Paul’s Relationship to Judaism