If you’re at or heading to SBL, and still checking your blog reader, I have a booth for you to check out in the book exhibition. Be on the lookout for Stony Run Publishing, who just came out with their first textbook, Interpreting Biblical Literature: an Introduction to Biblical Studies by Michael R. Cosby. For more on the book and on its author, take a look at the first part of my review and my interview with Mike.
November 20, 2009
Looking for a Biblical Studies Survey Textbook?
November 19, 2009
The Pacific Coast is in My Hands
You have been warned! I learned today that I have been selected to be the new Pacific Coast Regional Representative for the Student Advisory Group (SAG) for the Society of Biblical Literature (SBL). As I understand it, I now serve as a kind of imperator of the entire pacific coast, and all of its inhabitants serve at the mercy of my every whim.
Kidding aside, I am very enthusiastic about this opportunity. I look forward to serving as a member of SAG and interacting with student members of my region. According to the description of the position, I am “charged with providing professional development and networking opportunities at the regional level.” That is a challenging and important charge, particularly in this economy. I am honored by the trust the current SAG members have placed in me.
As it turns out, I see that bibliobloggers have at least one other Regional Rep in our midst with Michael Halcomb. See Michael’s post about it. Update: Brandon Wason is on board too! He will be the Regional Rep for the Southeastern region. Michael is the rep for the Eastern Great Lakes region. Talk about a Biblioblogger/SBL affiliation!
November 17, 2009
To the SBL Rookie: You Have No Friends
Says Kevin. Okay, there I go misrepresenting someone again. What he actually says, in his helpful post of tips for the SBL rookie, is this:
8.) If someone seems to “blow you off” don’t be offended. Countless times I have been talking to someone when another person approaches and our conversation ends abruptly. Bear in mind that for many, SBL is the only time for reconnecting with friends and the more years you attend SBL the more friends you will have. In your first year you have no commitments and probably won’t have many friends. By the time you are a veteran every second of SBL will probably be booked with committees, meetings, etc. so it can be hard to make time to connect with your many friends and colleagues.
This is a good reality check. I actually did have lots of friends at SBL–people I knew from seminary, from my church, and people I ran into from my undergraduate days. It made me feel quite important that I had so many people to interact with. But this was when AAR and SBL held their meetings together and I have a lot of AAR friends. I inevitably went my own way, though, to sessions and to browse temptation island the book exhibition.
Kevin talks about going to receptions. My first year at SBL, a certain prominent New Testament professor had told me to meet him at his school’s reception. I had contacted him ahead of time to ask about a possible meeting. I went to the reception and saw all the people there, but my hope of chatting with this holy grail of professors was blocked off by about a hundred fawning students. I was not the only one with this idea.
In my nervousness, I actually paced outside the reception hall trying to look like I had something to do, glaring in at the cloud of witnesses surrounding this grand scholar, waiting for an opening. Several times, I told myself to give up and go back to the room, but then the guy on the other shoulder said I would feel dumb if I gave up. Eventually, I mustered up the courage to wade through the crowd and await a moment of conversation. Then I got my chance and, after blabbering some incomprehensible nonsense to begin the conversation, I actually had a substantive moment of discussion with him.
Most meetings are not so daunting, though they do often produce mixed results. Another time, again while I was still a master’s student, a friend of mine at a top Ph.D. program took me under her wing and sought to introduce me to her own prominent professors at her school’s reception. The first one, a highly esteemed scholar of early Christianity, walked up to the reception with a look on her face showing eagerness for some relaxed fun with her colleagues. When my friend greeted the professor and began introducing me, this great scholar seemed at first quite pleased and was smiling. It didn’t last. When she heard the words, “he’s a prospective student . . .,” she scoffed, let out an “oh please!” sort of laugh and kept walking. A good example of Kevin’s point.
On the other hand, that same friend introduced me to another very well known scholar at that same reception and he took me aside, sat down, and had a very candid chat for about ten minutes. Thankfully, that was the note that I ended on that night.
Actually, if you are a prospective student, you should advertise your status. While it may be a downer for the esteemed scholar looking for a good time, many people love to talk to prospective students. It is a perfect conversation opener. Everybody likes to give advice, so let people know your intentions for graduate work and listen to whatever they’d like to tell you. It will give you some wisdom and help you make connections at the same time. Make sure you’re ready for the question, “Where do you want to study?”
If you’re interested in another “blow off” story of mine, check out this interaction from my first SBL meeting with a sales person at the book exhibition. I still resent that interaction a wee bit, but you have to take it all in stride and enjoy yourself nonetheless.
November 14, 2009
Audio Recordings of SBL Sessions?
Is it a violation of trust to post digital recordings of SBL sessions online? I’m just wondering. Occasionally, some blogger will post mp3 files of some interesting session(s) on their blog for all to listen. I love having that access and have used it in the past myself. The thought occurred to me because I was thinking of how many sessions I would love to go to, but I can’t be in ten places at once. “Wouldn’t it be nice if we had audio recordings of every session at SBL?” I thought to myself. But then, wait. What if I make some terribly embarrassing boo boo while giving a presentation or answering questions? Do I really want that immortalized on the all-knowing internets? Am I giving up any claim to privacy by giving a public presentation?
I think it may be the latter, but what do you think? Should there be some sort of ettiquette here? You must ask someone for a copy of their paper if it is in writing, so should you also ask a person if they mind if you publish their presentation in audio format online?
If I didn’t have this conundrum, I’d say, “SBL! You should go for this!! Record all sessions! Damn the costs.”
Update: Read Chris Heard’s excellent reply regarding intellectual property and copyright on this issue. I’m not sure why I didn’t think of that in the first place. Probably a good thing to keep in mind! Especially for what will certainly be the extensive coverage of my own presentation.
November 13, 2009
Was Hammurabi Sent by God?
Moses says so. Or something like that. This was found on a student exam for a course on Western Civilization in the History Department at UCLA:
Hammurabi was a religious man and whether or not he was truly sent by the Gods is unclear. Some of the laws from Hammurabi’s Codes are later mentioned in the Hebrew Bible which shows that maybe he truly was sent by God or that Moses, the writer of the Torah, was just aware of Hammurabi’s Codes and inserted them into the Hebrew books.
Oh dear me. Mind you, this is for an essay in which the students are to analyze a selection from the Code of Hammurabi which discusses the punishments for poor maintenance of irrigation and the resulting flooding of neighbors’ crops. Nothing about any gods’ role in inspiring Hammurabi or such.
November 7, 2009
Ben Witherington vs. University of Sheffield
This is just getting uglier by the minute, and I’m not entirely sure I understand why it’s even occurring. For those who don’t know what I’m talking about . . . It all started with the threat of University of Sheffield shutting down their biblical studies department. After much international backlash, the school decided to backpedal on that decision. Then, Christianity Today covered the events in this article. Ben Witherington was quoted in that article:
Evangelically minded faculty, including Andrew Lincoln and Loveday Alexander, were not replaced with scholars who held similar views. Other faculty were “bent on the deconstruction of the Bible, and indeed of their students’ faith,” according to Ben Witherington, a New Testament scholar at Asbury Theological Seminary.
When challenged on this (see comments [Update: the comments have since been deleted]), Witherington has not stated that he was misquoted (though he did say something about contacting the author at CT). He also stated that he doubts there will be any public apology for the remarks, presumably either from the reporter or from Witherington himself. In these comments, he says past scholars in the department “at least nurtured people in their Christian faith” (implying the present ones do not). He reaffirms his quoted comments in the article and takes a stance on the hiring procedures at Sheffield, which goes about, he says, “deliberately avoiding hiring people of faith, and further the issue is deliberately trying to deconstruct someone else’s faith.”
To be honest, I’m not certain why Witherington would have been consulted for such opinions in this article in the first place. Why did the CT author, Collin Hansen, consider Witherington an expert on the faculty at Sheffield? True, BW3 earned his Ph.D. at Durham, another UK institution. But this was close to 30 years ago and, more importantly, it wasn’t Sheffield. Okay, so, Witherington has heard things from former Sheffield students. Still, he is not a proper primary source for the situation.
When pressed further by Stephanie Fisher, Witherington directed Steph to Ralph Martin (who is incidentally emeritus faculty with my own seminary alma mater). It seems as though Witherington has heard some things from Martin and is sharing those thoughts. He also refers to “those Sheffield students over many years who found the denials of historical substance in the Bible, among other things, not merely disturbing but problematic.”
In Sheffield dept. chair James Crossley’s most recent reply to Witherington, James explains why Witherington’s comments are unjustified. Do read his comments on the topic. An earlier post pointed out that it is actually illegal for the school to hire on the basis of religion.
This should be a warning to us all, I think. When approached for comment by a news organization, on some subject upon which we are not directly experts, proceed with caution. Perhaps we should just say, “I’m sorry I don’t have enough information about that for you.” Particularly if our comments could be perceived as hurtful to those directly involved with the issue.
Update: I just noticed this comment from Witherington:
Going forward one of the questions that ought to be seriously discussed is the issue of sensitivity to and tolerance of theological differences in the students and a thoughtful addressing of issues when students feel that pejorative comments about the Bible or about their faith are at the least not fair, and hardly value neutral.
Now, I might be comfortable with a bit more challenge to students than Ben seems to be, but as a larger issue, I do think he has a point. There is a delicate balancing act when talking about biblical literature, between doing necessary historical work and–in Witherington’s words–avoiding perceived “pejorative comments about the Bible or about their faith.” The key unknown here, however, is the matter of student perception. It’s not always something that an educator can control.
November 4, 2009
Paul as Complicit in Empire
I’m looking into the whole “Paul and empire” banquet of goodies these days, trying to categorize the scholarship. In my last post, I asked for scholars who might fall into the category of seeing the empire as a bad thing and Paul as complicit in that empire in some way — especially with the undisputed letters. Some scholars make the case that Paul himself in the undisputed letters is a revolutionary and is “domesticated” (so to speak) one step in Colossians/Ephesians (household codes) and still further in the Pastorals (1 Tim 2 and whatnot).
I’d like to ask a related but different question in this post. Namely, what are the specific passages that scholars typically use (or might use) to argue for Paul’s complicity with empire? [I'm not asking whether or not they are correct in their interpretations of these texts.] We can take this topically. I’ll start it off and add more as you all suggest more. Perhaps later we can fill in the specific scholars associated with the complicity argument with these texts.
Political: Romans 13
Slavery: 1 Cor 7:21
Women: 1 Cor 11 & 14
Violence: 2 Cor 10:1-6
“Anti-Judaism”: 1 Thess 2
November 3, 2009
Paul and Empire
I am presently thinking about the different categories of scholars who deal with Paul and the empire. There seem to be two broad categories of those who see the empire as a bad thing and those who say, “What’s the big deal about empire?” Within those who see the empire as evil, there seems to be a spectrum between “Paul as anti-empire” and “Paul as an imperialist.” There are throngs of authors who claim Paul as their herald of anti-imperialism in various ways, of course, but I’m having trouble finding as many scholars who belong to “Empire is bad + Paul is imperialist” category (in other words, a “Paul is complicit in imperial rhetoric and ideology” category). Who all comes to your mind in this category? I am speaking especially of Paul as represented in the undisputed letters.
If anyone wants to challenge my initial typology, I’m quite open to that!
November 3, 2009
Nice Work, Kevin!
Even if he saddened James of the West (who appears to admit his feelings are childish: “When I was a kid . . .” 
) by posting it a day late, I think Kevin has done a wonderful job of highlighting the work of the past month in Carnival 47. Of course, he forgot to share one of my three posts from the past month, but I suppose that can be forgiven. For those of you who don’t know, it was actually Kevin’s birthday yesterday. He’s done us a fine service and on his birthday to boot. So, happy birthday again, Kevin, and good job!
I was impressed by Kevin’s categories this month. I have also been excited about the wonderful audio resources coming out — I was just listening to the NT Pod (by that “golden tongued Brit”) on my commute this morning. Maybe someday I’ll find the time to start a podcast . . .
