Thinking about the "ugh" and the "mmm"
Since the annual meeting for the Society of Biblical Literature (SBL) is coming up later this month, and it’s my first run-in with the bigwig conference, it may be a good time for me to think about what I am interested in pursuing as a potential scholar. What captures my attention, passions, and interests in the field of biblical studies? I’m still trying to figure this out myself, so I’m just going to do a list format here. And maybe I should start with what I don’t want to do, since that’s easier to know.
Things that make me go “ugh…”:
- Highly speculative historical reconstruction of events: What is the dating for Paul’s various letters to the Corinthian churches? Did the exodus really happen and, if so, when? What were the origins of the Dead Sea Scrolls community and who was the “Wicked Priest”? It’s not that I don’t appreciate the work that others do in trying to figure these things out, but it’s just not my bag, baby. These actually are pretty tame as far as speculation goes. Generally, the more speculative it is, the more abhorrent I find it.
- Source and redaction criticism: Did one definitive “Q” source exist (that is, a source used by both Matthew and Luke) and of what did it consist? What parts of the Pentateuch were written by the J, E, D, and P sources? Again, not bad work, but not for me.
- Highly philosophical interpretive methods: Highfalutin language and incomprensible systems and grids is a major turn off. I do like a bit of poststructuralism in moderation, but for me, it can sometimes skate the edge of boredom.
- Historically disconnected and overly postmodern “reader-response” criticism: Boy if that doesn’t show my bias, eh? I don’t like history to reign supreme in hermeneutics, but I also don’t think that each individual reader is the be all and end all of the interpretative endeavor.
- Solely ideological criticism: I am a feminist and at times I like to dance with… (no, not with the devil in the pale moonlight)… liberation theology. I think that it goes over-the-top, however, when it is an undergirding hermeneutical method. I appreciate the work that some feminists and liberationists are doing to ask the difficult questions, but I worry about losing historical perspective . . . similar to my concerns about reader-response criticism.
Things that make me go “mmm…”:
- Jesus: This is a little complicated. I’m not into a ton of speculation about the “historical Jesus,” but I don’t mind it as much as other speculative issues. I’m more intrigued by how Jesus is remembered by the New Testament documents and what that means for the history of the church and for Jesus followers today. But I do enjoy thinking about Jesus’ historical and cultural context. This is the purpose for historical research for me: not figuring out exactly how things happened, but pondering the significance of the surrounding culture (especially early Jewish culture).
- Anabaptist hermeneutics: What does critical New Testament scholarship mean when interpreted through the lens of a radical lived-out faith community? For example, what do we do with the early chapters of Acts and the Sermon on the Mount?
- Intertexuality: What is the relationship between various texts? As far as specific textual relationships go, having taken VanderKam’s course on early Judaism, I’m particularly interested in Second Temple Judaism. I’m also interested in texts that have no direct link (that we know of) and yet still share similar language and themes.
- Narrative or literary criticism: I like looking at the final form of the text in Scripture and wondering what it means, rather than contemplating what its source was and how it came to be… blah, blah, blah.
- Canonical criticism: What is the relationship of this text within the larger canon and what might it have meant to the community which pulled it together? I like the emphasis on community here. Inspired community formed the canon and hopefully an inspired community interprets it. My former pastor and newly inaugurated Goshen College president, Jim Brenneman (who studied with James Sanders) has dragged me a little closer to canonical issues.
- Apocalyptic literature: The last year or so of seminary life has really hit home the idea that apocalyptic literature was not an escape from present requirements but a motivation to “stay the course,” as it were. I’ve fallen in love with Matthew 25 and I think I could do a dissertation just on that text!
- Second Temple Jewish literature: I mentioned this above, but I think it deserves its own bullet point. I really enjoy reading about Jewish ideas around the time of Jesus and the early church. I can see myself getting into rabbinic literature at some point, but I’m not there yet.
- Some text criticism: Though you might think it too laborious for one such as myself, I nevertheless do enjoy doing some nitty gritty textual research. I really like some of the things I’ve read from Bart Ehrman (even though we don’t hang our hat on the same theological presuppositions).
In sum, I am not enthused by a lot of historical speculation, but don’t like total historical apathy. In that way, I would hope for some balance between the extremes. Most of my “mmm” category entails thinking about interpretation. Historical context is good only in service to our reading of the biblical text, not the other way around. At least that’s my way of looking at it. At the end of the day, the most important question to me is: what do we do with the words and narratives of Scripture?
To be perfectly honest, though, what really excites me is working through issues with other people. My eyes are more towards teaching, communicating, and discussing difficult things about biblical interpretation than it is making a name for myself on the details of lonely scholarly work. But you have to go through the latter to get to the goal of the former. And it’s not that I’m terribly adverse to
the academic minutia, that just isn’t my focus. Some of it is more interesting than other parts, but I don’t want to get lost in the abyss of research while forgetting the joy of the community.
[By the way, the pictured teacher is Brian Smith at Messiah College (my esteemed alma mater). Brian is hands-down and without-a-doubt the most significant inspiration that I have in becoming a teacher of biblical studies. He's an OT guy, but that's okay. Some of us need to take a look at the introduction to the New Testament 
KIDDING! Anyway, he's the best teacher I've ever had and I want to be like him.]
Super-human Scholar Powers
On his blog, my friend talked about what superpower he would pick of he had a choice for one. He went through the various arguments for and against the different possibilities (like how flying would be cool, but he might get sucked in by the intake valve of a low flying jet-liner). He decided on teleportation because of its ease of connecting with faraway friends. Then he offered the challenge to his readers: “What would you pick? Telepathy? Telekinesis? Tele-evangelism (please, no)?” While I was tempted by that last one (I hear the money’s pretty good), I surprised myself with a new idea: Super Scholar. This was my thought:
As long as I had the option of turning it on and off, I think I would want to just know what is in a book and really understand its contents by laying my hand on it. I wouldn’t want to take away the pleasure of reading novels or magazines, but as a graduate student, it would be awesome to not have to read all the required books. Think of it: on top of all the necessary nonfiction works of my field (including commentaries), I could use it with dictionaries and encyclopedias, lexicons, language textbooks (!), sacred works from all the known religions. I wonder if it could expand to nontraditional book formats, like ancient papyri or clay tablets discovered in archeological digs or cavewall writings. Taken to the next level, maybe it could even handle electronic resources somehow, like whole websites, blogs, ebooks, etc. Dude, I could be, like, super scholar.Maybe it could even go the other way too…. It’d be great if I could have thoughts just appear in writing on my word processor program. All that time I spend trying to think of how to word thoughts… BAM, it’d be gone. Just transferred right there on the screen.Write a publishable article? Easy. Dissertation? No problem. Monumental scholarly book? Piece of cake. I tell you what, man, the more I think of the possibilities for Super Scholar, the more I can’t imagine wanting to trade it for any other power. Although, the whole teleportation thing would be right up there on the list.
What strikes me about this thought, after contemplating it, is just how self-serving it is. Where is my attention to Spiderman’s mantra that “with great power comes great responsibility”? No, this would just make my life easier. And maybe make me famous for my super scholarship. How could I serve the greater good of humankind with this vast knowledge and writing abilities? Well, there is the indirect benefit of income from book sales and speaking engagements. I could be like Rick Warren and do a “reverse tithe,” living on 10% of my income and giving away the rest. I figure if I could write enough books (a couple thousand, for instance), even if they weren’t bestsellers, I could bring in that kind of money.
Beyond that, I suppose I could try to use my intellect to try to foward the cause of Jesus discipleship with great new ways to conceptualize it. Maybe I could gain such a reputation for my scholarship that I could rub elbows with world leaders and show them where they are right and wrong. But these things are getting into apologetics and ethics. Remaining in biblical studies, maybe I would be able to figure out new ways of exposing how the Bible is misused by both conservatives and liberals alike. I would be able to do this in the classroom, in churches, public lectures, articles in popular media, appearing on talk shows, etc. I would have to work hard not to just use it for myself. With great power comes great responsibility. Maybe I should pray for this new superpower.
Leave no thought unpublished
I am currently reading Markus Bockmuehl’s Seeing the Word: Refocusing New Testament Study for Marianne Meye Thomson’s course on New Testament Research Methods. It is both insightful and witty. One of his points especially stood out for me while I was reading today, particularly considering a previous post of mine. Bockmuehl is addressing the fragmentation of New Testament studies, in which each area of the discipline goes about its business without regard to the others. He then focuses in upon the infiniteness of publications within all of NT subfields since the time of C. H. Dodd:
By any standard it is now impossible to keep up with the sheer quantity of publications, increased exponentially by two and a half decades of word-processing technology. Jorge Luis Borges’s famous short story ‘The Library of Babel,’ first published before World War II, has never seemed more eerily prophetic than in the digital age. The ‘publish or perish’ mentality, long since dreaded especially by junior scholars, has become an all-encompassing output culture that is at once wholly unrealistic in its expectations and encouraging of staggering superficiality in its Diktat to leave no thought unpublished. In Britain, these effects are further aggravated by a goverment-imposed ‘research assessment’ culture, whose obsession with the regular appraisal of individual ‘outputs’ leaves the very survival of some departments hostage to an intellectual short-termism biased against the traditional testing and maturing over time of research projects large or small. (33-4, emphasis mine)
“To leave no thought unpublished.” That sure brings biblioblogging (or any other kind of blogging) to my mind. I don’t think that biblioblogging is the next technological revolution in New Testament studies, but rather it is another symptom of that “output culture” to which Bockmuehl refers. As I read this book and take this course, I will be thinking about my purpose in pursuing New Testament studies. What voice will I find as I walk towards academia? How can I simply be real without getting sucked into the “‘publish or perish’ mentality”? They are hard “identity” kinds of questions and now is that exciting time when I especially need to be asking them.
still learning how production works…
I had a nice long conversation with my good friend, Matt, the other night. We’re friends from back in high school and he was a groomsman in my wedding. We got to talking about our careers and made some parallels. Matt is in the film industry. He majored in Film at Emerson College, spent a few years in Los Angeles, and now lives in New York City. His lifestyle is such that he never has to apply for a job. Once you’re in the network, you are called upon to join other projects that are starting up. This year, Matt has not had more than two days off at a time, which can be exhausting given the long hours put into each filming project.
All of this work has been in the “production” category and my friend is now looking to jump into his “real career” of directing and writing. So when he takes a much deserved month-long vacation in South America at the end of this year, he will be doing some career soul searching and logistical planning. Now that he knows the production side of the business, he’s going to work on some of his own projects that he will write and direct himself… just short bits that he can use to show off to some companies that may hire him to work on commercials and music videos. Matt’s dream is not to direct music videos, by any means, but it is the next step in the journey. Someday, of course, he would like to do his own films.
“So, do you want to be the next Spielberg?” I asked him. “No. I don’t want to be ‘the next’ anybody.” Matt just wants to be himself and go at his own pace. He sees some people prematurely jumping ahead in their film careers in the NYC scene and he is not impressed. Matt tells me that there are so many people in charge of things that have no idea how film production works. If a person is too eager to jump ahead, they will get in over their heads. His dream is to get to the point where he can work on and promote projects that excite him. “And if that makes me ‘the next’ whatever, then so be it.”
The “jumping ahead” concept resonates with me. There are plenty of people within my own view that seem to be superficially “jumping ahead” in biblical studies. I have no real knowledge of this, I can only judge on appearances. The recent Biblioblogs interview with Peter Head reveals some interesting thoughts in this regard. In the interview, this distinguished textual critic calls “biblioblogging” a fad. He states,
Quickly expressed thoughts do not generally lead to wisdom. And the cultivation of wisdom is what intellectual work is all about. Blogs aren’t self-evidently therefore necessarily bad, just as it is not necessarily bad to give 100 seminarians an outlet for their half-baked ideas.
And continues, by pointing out the marketing aspect of blogs:
Another thing we need to recognise is that blogs are basically a marketing exercise — the blog enables marketing of the person behind it and/or their products. This can be overt (blogger advertises his own books and recommends them) or covert (blogger is seen to be clever or up-to-date), but seems to me to be basically universal.
Biblioblogging, such as I am attempting on kata ton biblon, is perhaps one of those routes used for “jumping ahead” of things. Peter (as he would like to be called) does not denounce biblical studies blogs out of hand so much as he puts them in their place. Indeed, if I’m honest, this is a place for my own half-baked seminarian ideas and it is even a place for me to do some covert marketing of my image. These are not bad things per se, but I don’t want them to consume me. Both talking with Matt, and reading Peter Head’s interview, have reminded me that I should slow down a bit and not worry too much about getting ahead. While some bibliobloggers are doing series on single Greek words in the New Testament, pumping out several detailed blogging posts per week, I have to recognize that that’s not me.
I do want to discuss ideas that interest me on this thing, but I’m more concerned with foundational issues. Right now, I’m interesting in documenting my own journey and what it means to try to become a scholar. If I jump ahead of things and try to be some world class blogging exegete right now, then I will be missing out on some necessary building blocks to my intellectual integrity and character. It is these building blocks that I hope to explore with more depth on this page. In terms of Matt’s career, I am still in the learning-how-production-works phase. And that’s okay.
My So-Called (Seminary) Life…
Ah, the blissful days of Summer! The birds chirping in the air. The calm waves lapping upon the Malibu beaches. The palm trees swaying in the peaceful wind. To break open an irresistible epic novel. To admire the majestic landscape of Southern California on a satisfying hike. If only such things could be the objects of my attention!
Instead, the Summer has been quite taxing. When my friend Kent asked me what I was doing with my Summer and I told him, he said, “Wow. That’s pretty much the most I’ve heard of anybody doing with their Summer.” Kent’s overstatement has certainly felt true during this busy season! I began the Summer with two 2-week “intensives” back to back. The first was Systematic Theology 2 with Dr. Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen and the second was Introduction to Early Judaism with James VanderKam. Incidentally, Dr. Kärkkäinen had assignments due on every day of the two week course. Then, while my second intensive was taking place, Dr. K had three assignments due on the first Friday and a research paper due on the second Friday. Meanwhile, I was frantically reading texts from Second Temple Judaism from the time I got out of class (at noon) until I went to bed. We had a midterm test for the Judaism class on the second Monday and a Final exam on the second Friday. If you followed all that, you would not be surprised to read that I was not readily available to others during this time! (This is not to complain about the classes in themselves, mind you, because they were fantastic otherwise. Dr. VanderKam’s course was especially envigorating.)
Alas, there is some breathing allowed after the first four weeks. But I did not mention that, during these four weeks, I had simultaneously begun a Theological German course at Fuller and a GRE course taught by Kaplan. Not much got done for these classes in the first weeks, so I have been catching up since then. My days are now spent studying high school math, highfalutin vocabulary, and German texts that I marginally understand with a big dictionary sitting next to me. But wait, there’s more! As an undergrad at Messiah, I took two years of Greek and was subsequently a Greek teaching assistant, so I would like to pass out of the required one year of Greek here at Fuller. To do so, I must dust off Greek vocabulary and grammar from the spare bedrooms of my brain and take the test (hopefully before Fall class registration, so I can take a class that requires Greek next quarter). If it is to be accomplished, it is quite urgent and I’m planning on taking it in the next week or so. The GRE will be in early September. Oh, and I almost forgot to mention that I have to do my 10-page research paper for Introduction to Early Judaism by September 15th. Oh where, oh where, has my Summer gone? Seminary took it away from me.
But I know that this is what I’m signing up for, getting on the doctoral studies track. It just helps to articulate it from time to time… and vent. Besides, kata ton biblon wants to know how I feel. It beckons to me for my thoughts and reflections. It is this great void that cries out for completion. And who am I to disappoint my poor, needy blog?
Pursuing a Career of Holy Scholarship
It is a strange thing to pursue academics in the area of a sacred text. I am entering dangerous territory upon which many millions around the globe stake their entire belief system and worldview. Another issue is that I am studying the text which is normative for my own faith as a disciple of Jesus. On top of this, one might wonder if the whole enterprise of academe is contrary to that discipleship:
- Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all
- He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly
- If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again. But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return.
- Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned.
- Why do you call me “Lord, Lord,” and do not do what I tell you? I will show you what someone is like who comes to me, hears my words, and acts on them.
- I tell you, among those born of women no one is greater than John; yet the least in the kingdom of God is greater than he
- If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it. What does it profit them if they gain the whole world, but lose or forfeit themselves?
I have somewhat schizophrenic identities when it comes to this pursuit. On the one hand, I want to do what my Bible professors at Messiah College did for me: prodding my presuppositions, guiding my inquiring mind, speaking to my questions of faith. For example, if I were to teach at my alma mater one day, I would then hope to be a mentor to students. I would seek to connect issues of faithful discipleship to intellectual integrity within biblical studies. I would want to be involved in services and ministries with students and other faculty members in the nearby city of Harrisburg. And have discussions with members of the Messiah community about what our responsibility is to the trailer park that hides just beyond our campus borders.
On the other hand, in my weak moments, I have delusions of grandeur. I imagine myself armed with an Ivy League doctorate, a prestigious postdoctoral fellowship, record sales with my groundbreaking dissertation. Patrick George McCullough would be a household name among seminarians and other such Bible geeks of the English speaking world, heck, the whole globe. I would have speaking engagements bringing in $2000 a pop and book deals rolling through the door to my enormous office at some impossibly competitive school. All of this with a wonderful family life to boot.
Perhaps I am being a tad hyperbolic, but some form of that ridiculous dream lies beneath my calm, composed, and reasonable exterior. It is hard not to want praise for my name, money for my words, and respect for my reputation when I reach some distant goal of being a top brass scholar. But to get there, it would seem I have to promote myself, give up my cross and follow the “world.” Even if I do not want to be all of these bombastic aspirations, striving after the ideals of scholarship, I must still “play the game,” as it were. I need to make myself look spectacular. My professors need to love me, my grades need to be perfect, and I need to measure up to the best on the GRE (don’t even get me started on standardized tests). I need to serve those who will best serve me when it comes time to write a recommendation, or put in a good word, or even someday write a blurb on the back of a book. In the meantime, I have to make sure I look better than all of my peers. What was that about the first being the last and the last being the first? When it comes to the kingdom, am I shooting myself in the foot to intentionally try to pump up my image? To try to beat out the competition?
These are a few of the fundamental questions I have about a life of biblical scholarship as it relates to my faith. At a later date, I will have to take up those tricky “conflict of interest” questions on how my faith might bias my scholarship of my own community’s normative sacred text. That’s all for now.
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Elsewhere . . .- Blog titles beginning with "A" to "Z" on your reader Mark Goodacre
- Of making many books there is no end Chris Brady
- Free Online: The Liddell-Scott Jones Lexicon S and C
- Does Higher Criticism Attempt to “Destroy the Bible”? II agathos
- Steven J. Friesen and the Identity of Satan’s Throne in Pergamum alan
- Does Higher Criticism Attempt to “Destroy the Bible”? agathos
- Bloomsbury buys Continuum Mark Goodacre
- Imperial America Peter J. Leithart
- C.F.D. Moule on the Birth of the New Testament d. miller
- Responding to Kostenberger (with comparisons to Marshall) Jeremiah
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