Browsing the archives for the books category

Christians, Associations, and the State

I’m working on a paper on voluntary associations in the Roman world. The paper itself is not about Christ-confessing communities as associations, but is looking at the other evidence for collegia/thiasoi. Nevertheless, I was reading Stephen Wilson’s chapter to Voluntary Associations in the Graeco-Roman World and he had an interesting comment regarding Christian communities and [...]

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Wanna Write a Dictionary Article?

Here’s an opportunity for you. Many folks already know about the forthcoming Dictionary of the Bible and Western Culture (Sheffield Phoenix Press) edited by Michael Gilmour and Mary Ann Beavis. They are still looking for contributors for an April 2010 deadline. Here is a description of the project:
This student-friendly resource will provide undergraduates with basic [...]

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Looking for a Biblical Studies Survey Textbook?

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 [...]

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3 Paul Books: Which One Would You Choose?

Let us say that you have a limited amount of time because of, for example, your teaching responsibilities and your nine month old baby at home. And then, let us say you have an option to choose one of three books on Paul to write a five page review with your limited time. Which one [...]

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Now, There's a Book I Have to Read . . .

Dramatic movie preview voice: “Just when you thought all the dust had been settled, one man has come to shake it off. The writing was on the wall, and he decided to reread it. He enters the arena where two groups battle over the true meaning of identity. He searches through every city in the [...]

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Mike's Meme: 5 Most Influential Female Biblical Scholars

Picking up on the gender, gender, gender theme of the week, Mike has initiated a helpful new meme. As I was talking with a friend about the issue of female bibliobloggers, we wondered how the percentage of female bibliobloggers differed from the percentage of female biblical scholars. We tried to name as many female biblical [...]

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What Would You Look for in This Book's Index?

So, you happen to pick up a book entitled Violence, Scripture, and Textual Practices in Early Judaism and Christianity (Brill, 2009), either for your research or just out of curiosity. The book is a collection of essays on themes of violence, rhetoric, and identity formation in ancient Judaism and Christianity.
When you flip to the index, [...]

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Mike Bird's "Mission as an Apocalyptic Event"

I am reading through Mike Bird’s published dissertation, Jesus and the Origins of the Gentile Mission, as part of my Graduate Summer Research Mentorship at UCLA. Through that I noticed his 2004 article in Evangelical Quarterly, “Mission as an Apocalyptic Event: Reflections on Luke 10:18 and Mark 13:10.” If you are familiar with my research [...]

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My Five Burning Scrolls (the five books meme thingy)

Though it is a late in coming, I was previously busy with my grand translation project earlier. So, here’s my stab at the five books meme begun and cataloged by Ken Brown. I was tagged by Kevin Scull and kind of unofficially by John Hobbins, so it’s time to live up to my tagged responsibilities. [...]

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A James Revolution!

Pretty much every book or commentary–and most articles–on James highlight the fact that James is one of the most neglected books of the New Testament, relegated to that catch-all category, the “catholic epistles”. For most protestants, following Luther’s declaration about it being an “epistle of straw,” James takes a backseat to Paul. The Anabaptists seem [...]

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