Browsing the archives for the scholarship category

12 Dec 09

“Seems” Like Scholarship, But It “Surely” Isn’t

How is it that I can find in a top flight journal of biblical studies an article that does not offer hardly any evidence, but rather uses rhetorical devices that would give my own students poor grades? The current article I am reading is very interesting and I appreciate the scholar’s perspective quite a bit. [...]

14 Comments Posted in scholarship, writing by Patrick George McCullough
4 Sep 09

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 [...]

2 Comments Posted in biblical studies, books, gender, memes, scholarship by Patrick George McCullough
24 May 09

Generalist Versus Specialist in Biblical Scholarship?

Mike Bird notes his co-authored (with Craig Keener) piece in the SBL forum, “Jack of All Trades and Master of None: The Case for ‘Generalist’ Scholars in Biblical Scholarship.” While we need both specialists and generalists in academia, this article is an apology for a generalist approach–as the field of biblical studies has descended ever [...]

1 Comment Posted in academia, biblical studies, pedagogy, scholarship by Patrick George McCullough
17 Apr 09

Near Perfect Agreement: Tom Yoder Neufeld

Nick asked an interesting question on his blog, a question that I often consider. Is there any person (”scholar, theologian, pastor, or just regular person in your life”) with whom you agree almost all the time? How about the reverse? A while back, I was answering one of my father-in-law’s theological or biblical questions. We [...]

2 Comments Posted in Yoder Neufeld, academia, anabaptism, intellectual integrity, new testament, scholarship by Patrick George McCullough
7 Apr 09

Laborious Sentences

Scholars need to get a hold of themselves with long sentences. This is one sentence, taken from a book on the historical study of Jesus:
The component features that have been chosen for inclusion in the historical reconstruction and the overall framework in which the details are examined involve awareness of the literary and rhetorical forms [...]

11 Comments Posted in grammar, scholarship, writing by Patrick George McCullough
16 Jan 09

We need more umph in scholarly rhetoric…

I’m just reading through Josephus’ Against Apion and read this line:
There is the evidence which Apion should have considered, had he not himself been gifted with the mind of an ass and the impudence of the dog, which his countrymen are wont to worship. [2.85]
Beautiful, especially the last clause there. This statement comes after Josephus’ [...]

4 Comments Posted in Josephus, humor, quotes, rhetoric, scholarship by Patrick George McCullough
7 Oct 08

Christians Writing about Judaism (with Bias)

This past Monday, I gave my first oral presentation (my first assignment!) of my doctoral career at UCLA. For our class on “Jews, Gentiles, and Christians in the Roman World,” taught by Ra’anan Boustan, we first covered the historiography of how Christian writers have treated Judaism throughout the millennia. The major works that I presented [...]

0 Comments Posted in anti-judaism, anti-semitism, apologetics, bias, classes, jewish-christian relations, judaism, scholarship, ucla by Patrick George McCullough
12 Mar 08

Are we still reading the Bible like any other book?

One of the big themes in the history of research on the New Testament is the idea that the Bible should be read like any other historical book. This idea is sort of what kicked off modern research on the Bible in the first place. With the dawn of the Enlightenment, scholars started thinking, why [...]

7 Comments Posted in hermeneutics, historical-critical method, scholarship by Patrick George McCullough
12 Feb 08

Hey, I know, let's blame it on the Jews…

Yesterday a friend of mine, who had just come back from an interfaith retreat and had picked up a cold, said, “The Jews made me sick.” Well, she was sitting in between two Jews, both with bad colds, at a dinner during the retreat and she happened to pick up what they had. But, given [...]

1 Comment Posted in NT studies, jewish/christian relations, judaism, new testament, prophecy, scholarship, whiston by Patrick George McCullough
26 Jan 08

Doing Biblical Scholarship Online (with Google Books)

My blogging efforts have helped immensely as I have been seeking out my research interests as a student of New Testament and Christian origins. Before beginning the blogging journey, I had little idea what might be available for the student and scholar online. So, I have created a separate resource page for those interested in [...]

2 Comments Posted in biblioblogging, books, online, scholarship by Patrick George McCullough