A New Book Covering Academic Journals

 I am pleased to report that I have just signed a book contract to publish Academic Journals in Biblical Studies: Their Value, Use, and Misuse. Most of the book is written already, but I will be sending out a survey to select academics that will provide me with some invaluable data. (My plan is that the survey will eventually be open to any interested academic who emails me and has published at least one peer-reviewed journal article in the relevant disciplines.) The publisher is Cambridge Scholars Publishing, not formally affiliated with Cambridge University but initially created by Cambridge alumni [and for the record, they do not charge authors for anything]. I intend to have the book completed and submitted to them by October 1st, 2027, if the Lord allows.

The working outline is as follows (though I may be moving chapters 3 and 4 more towards the end of the book):

Chapter 1--Academic Journals: What Are They and Why Should You Care?

Chapter 2--Writing for Peer-Reviewed Journals

Chapter 3--A Methodology for Determining Rankings for Academic Journals

Chapter 4--Ranking the Journals [a four-tiered ranking system, drawing from data from the survey, among other things]. This will improve on my current list, found here.

Chapter 5--What Do You Owe the Writer? A Respectful Challenge to Editors and Peer-Reviewers

Chapter 6--The Use and Abuse of Journals as Personal Metrics

Chapter 7--The Case against Journals that Charge Authors Money

Chapter 8---Conclusion

Appendix 1--The Survey

Appendix 2--The Survey Data

Appendix 3 [?]--Some Personal, Subjective Observations on Writing for Academic Journals

A New Theological Journal (Promissio), and how to analyze and rank it.

**Corrected "per page" to per paper" on 3/11/2026.** 

I was interested to discover a new online journal the other day, Promissio: A Journal of Confessing Theology (open access, click here), with Winter 2026 being the first issue. My initial impression of it is fairly positive. In the midst of my ongoing quest to become the most thorough and helpful chronicler of academic journals for biblical studies, however, this new journal raises two questions for me: (1) How do I know it's legit? and (2) Where do I rank it in my list?

The first question becomes all the more significant since there are "predatory journals" out there even in biblical studies (I have seen them) that are not qualified to publish articles, and there are also journals, such as Religions and HTS Theological Studies that I would not consider "predatory" but which nonetheless have dubious academic credentials because they charge authors exorbitant prices while mass-producing hundreds of articles a year. Let me illustrate that with Religions: in 2024, this journal published 12 online-only issues. The first issue (Jan 2024) contained 140 articles. The second issue contained 110 articles. The twelth issue contained 159 articles. Average that out over 12 issues = 136 articles per issue (even though a few of those would have been invited articles, free from the authorial charge). Now Religions, as of June 2025, charges $2,193.15 per paper converting from Swiss Francs). If we subtract 36 articles an issue, on average, as invited articles and thus free from charge, we end up with 1,200 articles a year, which comes out to more-or-less $219,300 a year from "Article Processing Charges." This is absurd, and most definitely the complete opposite of best practices for academic journals in biblical studies. In my opinion HTS Theological Studies is even less respectable than Religions these days, because in addition to their similarly-staggering author fees and mass-producing of articles, they have had to retract quite a few articles (e.g., vol. 79, no. 4; August 2023) and published (without retraction) an article that defended Haman and seemed to imply that the Jewish people were villains in the book of Esther (see my response in JSOT).

Now, I am pleased to report that Promissio passes that first test, evidencing no hint of profit-based mass-production. The journal does not, so far as I can tell, require that the author pays (and in my opinion no respectable journal in Biblical Studies, to my knowledge, does charges authors with the exception of OTE [at much lower rates than Religions]). In addition, the first issue has a very reasonable four main articles plus two review articles.

The second test is to check the editorial board. I sampled three, including Paul R. Hinlicky (general editor), who is quite well-published as a Lutheran theologian, clearly an excellent choice to add academic credibility to a journal. I had more difficulty analyzing the two others on the editorial board I randomly chose, however, in that they seemed to lack credentials in the area of peer-reviewed scholarship. Now, the journal does state that "All manuscripts for publication are reviewed by two scholarly peers in the area of the subject matter"; still, my main question for Promissio would be: "Are the peer-reviewers for the various articles themselves published specialists in regards to the content of the paper?" A fair analysis in this regard, however, would require a more thorough analysis of the editorial advisors and their CVs.

The third test would be to look at the journal's description of itself and its description of the article submission process. Both of them are generally solid, from an academic perspective, with one area of extra commendation. The journal's purpose can be summed up in this paragraph:

"The title of the journal, Promissio, points to the essential form of the word of God as the promise of forgiveness, life and salvation vouchsafed for us in the resurrection of Jesus the crucified Messiah. The subtitle of our journal points to the theological task as confessing concretely the liberating Lordship of Jesus with all that entails in the articles (articulations) of the faith in him for every new context as that has been heard afresh in the proclamation of the promising gospel. Promissio will be a journal that does confessing theology in continuity with the Lutheran Reformation by integrating the disciplines of theological exegesis of Scripture, church history, dogmatics and missiology that have been harmfully siloed in the modern period."

The area of extra commendation is that Promissio specifically mentions retractions and how it would handle them, not something I've seen too often in other journals.

One minor note regarding the design of the website (in case anybody from the editorial staff happens to read this): As of writing (2/27/26, 11:43 am Central US time) the page entitled "About the Journal" does not actually appear in the drop-down menu entitled "about." Consequently, it's a bit difficult to find the "About the Journal" page, which should ideally be in a prominent position.

So where should we place Promissio in the rankings? Although I overall liked what I saw, and the articles in the first issue seem to be pretty solid, it initially goes at level 4, just because it is brand new, but as soon as it begins to be cited in scholarly literature (even if that is primarily Lutheran literature), I would probably bump it up to level 3. Hypothetically this could go up to level 2 if it turned into one of the main Lutheran journals and was noticed significantly by non-Lutherans. For that reason we might see Wisconsin Lutheran Quarterly eventually bumped up to level 2, even though the SBL handbook does not list it. Denominationally oriented journals can indeed go fairly high, which is why at the suggestion of somebody in the comments section of my original post I bumped up Andrews University Seminary Studies to level 2.

A New Resource to Bring German Scholarship to English-Speaking Students

I was surprised the other day to find an article in a journal abbreviated "AGNTS." I was not familiar with that acronym, and as a self-styled "expert" on journals in biblical studies (trying to write a book on the topic; no luck yet finding a publisher!), I was puzzled that I had not yet encountered this journal, nor could I for the life of me figure out what the abbreviation would stand for! ("Anglican Greek New Testament Studies"?? "The Articulate Gazette for New Testament Scholars"?? "Articles for the Glorification of Neo-orthodox Trinitarian Studies"??)

As it turns out, AGNTS stands for a journal entitled Accessible German New Testament Scholarship, a one-of-a-kind publication which promises to be a very helpful resource. It is accessible here.

Now, I took two semesters in German for my PhD (basic German, and then the brutally difficult theological German), both classes under a native speaker (and major Johannine scholar), Dr. Andreas J. Köstenberger, and I was most definitely not his best student (theological German had three results: "pass, fail, or do remedial work"; I got the third option). I have nonetheless tried to quote directly from German sources in my academic work (I'm rather proud of my original translation of Julius Streicher's disturbing perspective on the book of Esther, published in my article in JSOT in 2024). Also, because the Lord is awesome and has a sense of irony, I married a wonderful German woman from Hamburg who can now provide me with even further help on my academic research in German! Nonetheless, I welcome all the help I can get with interacting with German sources.

In a nutshell, this journal, edited by Wayne Coppins and Jacob N. Cerone (a fellow SEBTS grad) provides you with "a curated collection of significant contributions to New Testament scholarship from the German-speaking world" (from the introduction by the editors). This includes both past German scholars (e.g., Peter Stuhlmacher, who passed away just last year) and current German-speaking scholars (Christoph Heilig, University of Zurich), translated from German into English. This volume consists solely of previously published material, and so far all of it was translated by Wayne Coppins (kudos! That's a lot of work).

The article most relevant to my own research is Stuhlmacher's "The Tübingen Biblical Theology of the New Testament--A Retrospective," originally published in 2017 in Theologische Beiträge. Having just finished teaching New Testament Introduction, however, I also noted with interest William Wrede, "Letter to Adolf von Harnack on Jesus as Messiah and Paul as New Beginning."

Although not your "normal" academic journal, AGNTS promises to provide some valuable material for students of the New Testament, and I am greatly looking forward to future volumes.

Regarding academic journal articles, part 3--Journals that can be spiritually beneficial

In previous posts (here and here), I have discussed the importance of journal articles for academic research, including the top evangelical journals and the top journals for biblical academia overall (a ranking that is open to constant revision!). Now I'd like to discuss something a bit outside "normal" academia, namely specific journals that can challenge you spiritually (and by "challenge you spiritually," I don't mean "Good gravy, that's the worst heresy this side of Marcion! I must immediately post something on social media comparing it to Nazis!"; instead, I mean "Possess the potential to help me become a better servant of Jesus Christ").

1. Themelios: available here. My hat is off to this journal for offering an excellent blend of academic and practical. Although not devoid of solid academic articles (I'm thinking especially of Edward Glenny's ground-breaking discussion of different theological approaches to the LXX), this journal consistently publishes material that is meant to speak directly to the Christian's spiritual life. It trends towards the Reformed-Calvinistic side, but nonetheless has very helpful material even for those not of that theological persuasion (including myself!). Case in point: D. A. Carson ("the Albert Pujols of New Testament scholarship" [you may quote me on that]) writes an excellent mediation on "Subtle Ways to Abandon the Authority of Scripture in Our Lives."

2. Emmaus Journal: once again, an excellent hybrid of academic material and practical theology, published by the faculty of Emmaus Bible College. Back issues up until 2012 (as of this moment) are available on Galaxie Software. EMJ consistently deals with practical, church-oriented matters. Case in point: volume 13.2 (2004), the dialogue between Jay Swisher and Lisa Beatty on "What Kind of Music Does God Like?" (I greatly appreciate Lisa Beatty's gentle corrective to Jay Swisher that music being "intelligible" is very important!). Another example: David J. MacLeod in vol 21.1 (Summer 2012) offers a theological and practical discussion on Christian singleness (a discussion that has been often neglected).

3. Faith & Mission: this used to be the official journal of my own alma mater, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. It is no longer published, and has been more-or-less replaced by the Southeastern Theological Review, which probably has higher academic standards (and, too be fair, STR itself quite often has excellent articles). However, F&M had some excellent practical-minded, church-oriented articles, especially in the 2000s after the completion of the conservative resurgence. I think, for example, of David R. Beck's helpful theological and practical study of "Evangelism in Luke and Acts" in the Spring 2003 issue of Faith & Mission (vol. 20.2). F&M provides solid examples of scholarship combined with readability and practical value.

Plenty of other practically-minded journals exist, of course (for example, Journal for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood and Priscilla Papers both focus on the relationship of men and women and how that plays out in the church and in the home, although the two journals approach the matter from two radically different perspectives!). Furthermore, even among top-tier mainstream journals, occasionally an article will crop up that has practical ramifications. For example, the [in my humble-but-correct opinion] excellent article by Hae-Kyung Chang, "The Christian Life in a Dialectical Tension? Romans 7:7-25 Reconsidered" in Novum Testamentum 49 (2007), on the second page of the article, makes it clear that Chang's exegesis is directly concerned with the practical-theological ramifications of this passage for Christian counseling. [And, for the record, Chang's article convinced me of his position, broadly speaking; thus I cite his article favorably in my dialogue with Steven Cowan in JETS vol. 55.4].

In conclusion, "academic study vs. spiritual application" can be a false dichotomy. Reading academically may, in fact, benefit you spiritually.

On the humorous side, I conclude with this excellent quote by John Wesley, which I found in Dr. Beck's article discussed above. Wesley once received a letter from a man saying "The Lord has told me to tell you that he doesn't need your book learning, your Greek and your Hebrew." Wesley responded:
"Thank you sir. Your letter was superfluous, however, as I already knew the Lord has no need of my 'book-learning' as you put it. However—although the Lord has not directed me to say so—on my own responsibility I would like to say to you that the Lord does not need your ignorance either."

Academic journals accessible online: Part 3 (key foreign language journals)

The first post in this series focused on journals that would be beneficial to Christians in general, for any kind of research (e.g., gathering background info for your Sunday School lesson), while highlighting those available for free on-line. The second post focused on journals that grad students should be familiar with, depending upon their field of study, once again pointing out what was available on-line. Finally, this section will mention more obscure, foreign language journals that doctoral students might need to consult (at least 3 of these journals were cited in my own dissertation/forthcoming book). Please note that archive.org can be helpful as far as viewing older, public domain issues of some of the more long-lived journals.

One final comment. It goes without saying that doctoral students need to be citing foreign language sources in their papers, and quite a few foreign language articles and essays (but especially articles) should show up in his or her dissertation. You don’t have to be a genius to do this, but just persistent (working with a foreign language source would take me a lot more time than working with an equivalent English source, and it’s not like I was reading anything from start to finish, either!) Nevertheless, doctoral students need to be familiar with all significant research on their topic, not just what’s readable in their own language.

1. Archive für die Reformationsgeschichte. Website: click here.    Not available for free. Interestingly, however, older issues are viewable for free at archive.org (click here).

2. Biblica. Website is here, but issues are viewable for free here.

3. Biblische Zeitschrift. I struggled finding the actual website for this journal (might work on it later), but older issues may be viewable at archive.org, here.

4. Foi et Vie. Website is here. Could not find any options to view past issues.

5. Kerygma und Dogma. I don’t think I found the home website per se, but past issues may be purchased here.

6. Revue des sciences religieuses. Excellent! Full text issues are available up through 2009 (as of the time of this post). Go here. 

7. Revue d’histoire et de philosopie religieuses. Click here. In a reversal of the norm, articles since (not before) 2002 are available for free.

8. Zeitschrift fur die neutestamentliche wissenschaft. Click here. Articles must be purchased, but older issues may be viewable for free at archive.org (click here).

9. Zeitschrift fur die alttestamentliche wissenschaft. Click here. Same as above, articles must be purchased, but older articles viewable for free at archive.org (click here).

Academic journals accessible online: Part 2

We are fortunate to live in an age where you don’t necessarily need a quality seminary library to do serious study of Scripture, whether for personal benefit or for a class. In the previous post, I listed journals available online (for the most part broadly evangelical) that I thought would be beneficial even to those not going to seminary or grad school. Today, I am listing (with a minimum of commentary) journals for more academic study. Every grad student in seminary or other master’s degrees in Biblical Studies or theology should be familiar with and able to utilize these journals. Next post we’ll look at some of the more obscure yet important journals that will be beneficial to doctoral students.

So here we go (in alphabetical order), with links. Let me know if I’ve missed any that are important for MA/M.Div. level Biblical studies. Please note: I’m listing even journals that require a subscription or a purchase to view a back issue. I want students to be aware of the important journals, and $10 for a back issue may be worth it for a good paper grade, or a better understanding of a topic. In just a couple cases, articles do not seem to be viewable online at all (seriously, people, get with the times!)

Also note: a lot of the articles that are not free can be digitally “rented” for a 24-hour period for a reasonable fee.

Final, important note: obviously most of you don’t intend to take hours a day to browse through journals just to see if your topic comes up. The SAGE website offers a search engine, and many of the individual journal websites (e.g., Theological Studies) have a search engine for their own journal. The downside with SAGE is that you generally have to pay for articles you want to read.

The Bible Translator—click here.

All articles viewable for free through 2012.

Biblical Theology Bulletin—click here.

Available through the SAGE website. Unfortunately, purchase or a subscription is required to view back issues.

Catholic Biblical Quarterly—click here.

Unfortunately, a subscription is required to view back issues.

Evangelical Quarterly—click here.

Archived articles are viewable for free up until 2008. However, there are some broken links, and some earlier articles (e.g., 1930s) are not yet viewable.

Expository Times—click here.

Available through the SAGE website. Unfortunately, purchase or a subscription is required to view back issues.

Filologia Neotestamentaria—click here. 

Articles are viewable for free through 2008 (they haven’t updated this site in a while, but the archive links still work). May I admit a personal favorite, and recommend Jody Barnard’s excellent article on verbal aspect theory? (click here). It’s pretty much the main reason I have yet to buy in to verbal aspect theory à la Port, et al.

Harvard Theological Review—click here.

Unfortunately, articles must be purchased.

Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus—click here.

Unfortunately, individual articles must be purchased or rented.

Journal for the Study of the New Testament—click here.

Articles must be purchased or rented.

Journal for the Study of the Old Testament—click here.

Available through the SAGE website. Unfortunately, articles must be purchased or rented.

Journal of Biblical Literature—click here.

Sadly, I can’t figure out if back issues of this journal are viewable online or not, whether with purchase or for free. A pity, because this is the premiere journal of biblical studies (and has been in existence for 130+ years)

Journal of Semitic Studies—click here.

Articles must be purchased.

Journal of Theological Interpretation—click here.

Apparently not viewable at all online, except for a free sample issue. You can, however, view the titles of individual articles.

Neotestamentica—click here.

Articles are viewable for free up through 2000.

New Testament Studies—click here.

Purchase or rent required.

Novum Testamentum—click here.

Articles must be purchased.

Old Testament Essays—click here.

Articles are viewable for free through 2001.

Perspectives in Religious Studies—click here.

Sadly, there does not seem to be any way to view articles online (though you can look at the abstracts).

Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith—click here.

Basically every single issue is accessible for free! Wow! Some of the earlier ones are only available in HTML, and not PDF, but still, this is great!

Princeton Theological Review—click here.

Though a student-run journal, each issue is downloadable in its entirety for free (PDF format).

Reformed Theological Review—click here.

Articles must be purchased.

Review and Expositor—click here.

There does not seem to be any way to view articles online.

Scottish Journal of Theology—click here to search the journal.  Click here for list of contents.

Articles must be purchased.

Theological Studies—click here.

Articles available for free up to 5 years before the current issue. Also, this site contains its own search engine for the journal!

Theology—click here.

Available through SAGE, but articles must be purchased.

Theology and Science—click here.

Apparently articles are not viewable online (though the tables of contents are).

Theology Today—click here.

Apparently an archive is coming soon, but for now there doesn’t seem to be a way to view articles online.

Toronto Journal of Theology—click here.

Articles must be purchased.

Vetus Testamentum—click here.

Articles must be purchased.

Weslyan Theology Journal—click here.

Does not appear to be viewable online, though it does have a search engine.

Academic journals accessible online: Part 1

Call me old-fashioned, but I prefer an actual book in my hands rather than one of them “new-fangled” I-pads or what-not. Nevertheless, when it comes to research in Biblical studies, the majority of folks probably aren’t going to live close enough to a decent library to access some of the better evangelical (and secular) journals that deal with Biblical research. Fortunately, many top-notch journals have started making their articles available on-line. Since the point of this blog is to function as a resource for those interested in Biblical studies, I am going to list and discuss some of the more important journals and link to their websites.

This topic will be posted in three separate sections. Today’s post will deal with the evangelical and accessible (but important) journals that contain articles which even less-formally educated Christians might be interested in. The second post will deal more with more specialized journals (as well as secular journals) that focus on a particular section of Biblical studies but are essential for serious academic work.  Finally, the third post will deal with obscure and foreign language journals that doctoral students should be familiar with.

Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society

To access articles, click here.

This journal allows anybody to look at articles up until the most recently published. So, at the time of this writing, anybody has access to all articles through 2010.

The strength of JETS is that it covers a broad range of topics associated with evangelical life and theology, from justification in the New Testament to a recent article on Biblical literacy in Ireland to a call for more academics to go teach in foreign countries (written by a friend of mine).

Tyndale Bulletin

To access articles, click here.

This is the cream of the crop of evangelical scholarship. Like JETS, anybody can access all but the most recent journals. Unfortunately, the free archives stop at 2007. You can download an article in either Word or PDF format.

Themelios

To access articles, click here.

This journal is strictly an on-line journal (though initially it was paper-and-ink), and is actually now run by The Gospel Coalition. All articles are available for free in PDF format. The strength of this journal is that, in addition to more academic articles, it also includes discussions of a more practical nature (e.g., the April 2013 issue has an article by Eric Ortlund entitled “The Pastoral Implications of Wise and Foolish Speech in the Book of Proverbs”). As such, this journal caters to all Christians more than any other journal on this list.

Science and Christian Belief

To access articles, click here.

British journal run by “Christians in Science” and “The Victoria Institute.” Anybody can access its articles except for the past 5 years. Though not an evangelical journal per se (and much of the writers are theistic evolutionists), this journal contains many beneficial articles including the recently published very moving personal testimony by Jürgen Moltmann, and an excellent article by R. J. Berry dealing with “Adam” as representing a real person (and its importance for Paul’s theology in Romans). Also, this is a great place to read some top scientists and philosophers (e.g., Polkinghorne, who is both!) discuss issues in their field.

Bulletin for Biblical Research

To access articles, click here.

Another solid, broadly evangelical journal. Anybody can access all but the last 4 years of articles.

Detroit Seminary Journal

To access articles, click here.

Most journals associated with a specific school don’t seem to want to share them online (see below), but fortunately Detroit Baptist Seminary is an exception. By the way, this is the only self-identifying fundamentalist journal that consistently puts out scholarly articles on par with, or at least within the ballpark of, the other journals on this page. It is also the best source to go to if you want to learn more about the history of, and issues within, fundamentalism.

I also wanted to list here Bibliotheca Sacra, Westminster Theological Journal, and Trinity Journal, but those three are all associated with a particular school and do not offer free access to their articles (though at least Westminster offers a few “sample” articles you can download).

Some final thoughts: Unlike popular level articles, most books, and personal blogs (including this one), academic journal articles represent hours of critical research and a thesis that attempts to make a contribution to scholarship. What you read in, say, Tyndale Bulletin may not be the most original thought in the world (“nothing new under the sun” and all that), but it will be a usually be a higher-quality thought than you will be get elsewhere. Furthermore, these articles are (usually) peer-reviewed. That means that (in theory, at least) one does not get published on the basis of their name alone; they must actually have something interesting to say. Conversely, a totally unknown person can get published, if they have something to say that makes a genuine contribution to scholarship. These journals have anonymous referees (almost always established scholars) that weed out shoddy work. There is some subjectivity involved (I can attest to that: one journal rejected a paper that another journal accepted a couple months later), but overall this is where significant theological discussions begin.

Despite the rigorous scholarship behind these journals, they can still benefit ministry. I have more than once incorporated findings of a journal article into my own Sunday School lessons or sermons (being careful not to pass off somebody else’s idea or quote as mine), while occasionally a journal article will actually challenge or encourage me spiritually. In other words, academic research and spiritual edification are not mutually exclusive!!

One more note: “academic” does not necessarily mean “jargon-filled.” This will actually depend upon the author. And you don’t have to read an article through all the way to benefit from it, either. Skimming can give you just enough food-for-thought and get the theological portion of your brain humming.. If, however, you intend to critically interact with an article, make sure you read it thoroughly, more than once. I can’t stress that enough. Plagiarism and misrepresentation are the two great sins of academic thought!