Top scholars including N.T. Wright headed to Australia in July

From Eternity Newspaper

NEWS | Sophie Timothy

Thursday 4 April 2013

Writer and popular New Testament theologian N.T. Wright will be among hundreds of scholars visiting Perth in July for the largest gathering of New Testament specialists ever to be held in the southern hemisphere.

It will be the first time the Society for New Testament Studies has met in Australasia, and a number of local scholars have been selected to present papers alongside their international counterparts.  Among them are Ridley Melbourne’s Principal Brian Rosner (formerly of Moore College, Sydney) and Theology Lecturer Mike Bird (previously of Queensland Theological College).

Mike is currently working on a New Testament Introduction co-authored with N.T. Wright and he’s organised for N.T. Wright to spend a week in Melbourne before heading to Perth.

N.T. Wright will speak at three public conferences in Melbourne during the week of July 16-20, the first of which will be held at Ridley, where he will speak on “Paul, Jesus, and the Mission of God’s People”, while the second conference is based on his new book: “Paul and the faithfulness of God”. He’ll then finish his visit to Melbourne with some filming and a two-day conference for the Uniting Church of Australia on “Wisdom’s Feasts” before leaving for Perth.

N.T. Wright is a Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at the University of St Andrews, Scotland, and was the Bishop of Durham until 2010.  Not afraid to challenge the status quo, N.T. Wright has made ripples in evangelical circles in the last 20 years by questioning the reformed/traditional understanding of the relationship between salvation and the law in the Apostle Paul’s writings. This so-called “New Perspective” aims to take into account a more positive view of Jewish beliefs at the time of Christ. The traditional view is seen as oversimplifying their relationship to God, as based on keeping the law. The most outspoken critics of the New Perspective include John Piper and D.A. Carson. It is a topic which will no doubt be canvassed during Tom’s time in Melbourne.

52 tips about Apologetics

These are not originally mine, rather, they are from Brian Auten, from apologetics315.com

I hope these help you in your apologetics endeavours.

1. Be first a person of prayer with a goal to know the Lord.

2. Be a continual reader.

3. Know both sides of the issues.

4. Listen to as many good lectures as possible.

5. Listen to every debate you can get your hands on.

6. Learn from the best debaters.

7. Learn from the worst debaters. (what not to do)

8. Find a mentor if you can.

9. Apologetics is not a boxing match; it’s walking along side another in dialogue.

10. You’re not in it to win arguments; you are in it to win people.

11. Be mindful of your spiritual life above your apologetics studies.

12. Allow your apologetics studies to be worship unto the Lord.

13. Your wife doesn’t want to hear about your online debates.

14. Don’t talk about apologetics at the dinner table, unless you are with apologetics buddies.

15. Find like-minded friends to fellowship with and reflect on apologetic issues.

16. Get input and feedback from other apologists and mature Christian peers.

17. Pray for the people you are interacting with. If you don’t pray for them, what do you expect to accomplish?

18. Never respond to blog comments in an emotional state. Cool off first and pray.

19. Remember, you don’t have to win the whole world.

20. Study how Jesus interacted and communicated with people.

21. Remember that you have the truth.

22. Pray all the time.

23. Spend time with your family.

24. Enjoy worship at your church.

25. Get away from the apologetics stuff for a while regularly.

26. Avoid taking extreme views and ignoring other options.

27. Study logic and critical thinking; it will help you more than you can imagine.

28. Get into public speaking and learn communication skills. And learn to spell.

29. Always seek first to win the person.

30. You don’t have to respond to every possible objection.

31. Study theology alongside or before you get into apologetics.

32. Study and understand different apologetic methodologies and don’t defend your method to the death.

33. Read Pascal’s Pensées.

34. Read stuff that challenges you to think hard.

35. Be humble; you know so little.

36. Draw from the expertise of others.

37. Specialize if you can.

38. Understand the spiritual condition of those you are interacting with.

39. Understand the psychological reasons people have for holding their views.

40. Admit it when you are wrong.

41. Realize that there is no end to the subject; get in it for the long haul.

42. Don’t rush your studies.

43. Don’t be a hypocrite. Stay pure.

44. Poor character will destroy your apologetics.

45. An apologist is ultimately an evangelist; so first know how to share the Gospel well.

46. In evangelism, start with the Gospel and use apologetics only if the need arises.

47. Realize that not everyone at your church is going to be as excited about apologetics as you are.

48. Apologetics is about loving people; remove the love from your apologetic and you fail.

49. You don’t have to know every answer, just where to go to get the answers.

50. Apologetics can bolster faith and dispel doubt, but it cannot bend the will.

51. The results are up to the Lord.

52. At the end of the day, are you walking with Jesus?

What would you add?