Divinity United

My copy of  'Who Is This Son of Man?' The Latest Scholarship on a Puzzling Expression of the Historical Jesus  (LNTS 390) edited by Larry W. Hurtado and Paul L. Owen just arrived the other day. I am looking forward to making my way through the essays. Hopefully, I will have time to add some comments on them from time to time. Larry Hurtado's summary essay is of most interest to me, especially since a number of the essays come from different perspectives on the Son of Man debate and do not represent a consensus as much as the varying positions on the questions surrounding  ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου  in the Gospels. The description on the back reads: 'This volume is the first ever collection of scholarly essays in English devoted specifically to the theme of the expression "son of man". It describes the major competing theories which have addressed, among others, the following questions. What is the original Aramaic expression that lies behind the Greek phrase, and...

A week ago today we had our graduation chapel, and the processional hymn was "Praise the Source of Faith and Learning" -- words by Thomas H. Troeger, music by Richard H. Pritchard. The words and music can be found here . According to the Harvard University Hymn Book (p. 494), the hymn was commissioned by Duke University and "reflects the school's motto, 'Faith and Learning.'" For some reason, we did not sing the fourth and final verse, which brings it all to conclusion. We ended with the third verse which has the intriguing lines about "our learning" curbing "the error which unthinking faith can breed, lest we justify some terror with an antiquated creed." The hymn is an excellent hymn for academic settings, especially for those institutions that attempt to bring together faith and learning. The hymn is a reminder that human knowledge can "only partial truth impart", and it is a prayer: Blend, O God, our faith and lea...

My friend David Eastman has just had his thesis published with SBL/Brill . It is entitled Paul the Martyr: The Cult of the Apostle Paul in the Latin West . Hopefully, I can get a hold of a copy soon. Knowing David, it will be good and thorough. His book highlights the growing interest (or renewed interest) in early Christianity, namely what Christians were up to and believed in the first few centuries. Here is the blurb from the back of the book, including the recommendations from Adela Yarbro Collins and Lawrence Welborn: Ancient iconography of Paul is dominated by one image: Paul as martyr. Whether he is carrying a sword--the traditional instrument of his execution--or receiving a martyr's crown from Christ, the apostle was remembered and honored for his faithfulness to the point of death. As a result, Christians created a cult of Paul, centered on particular holy sites and characterized by practices such as the telling of stories, pilgrimage, and the veneration of reli...

The University of Aberdeen School of Divinity, History & Philosophy has finally filled the Kirby Laing Chair in New Testament Exegesis. Steve Mason will begin his post in July 2011. The post was vacated by Francis Watson at the end of the 2006-2007 academic year. The official notice that Professor Mason is filling of the chair can be found on the Divinity website . Professor Mason has held the Canada Research Chair in Greco-Roman Interaction at York University (not far from here) in Toronto, Ontario. His background in the Greco-Roman world and Josephus will significantly strengthen what the Divinity Faculty at Aberdeen can offer postgraduate students, especially the emphasis on historical backgrounds for the NT and Christian origins.

The biennial Enoch Seminar will be meeting in Milan, Italy the last week of June. The topic of this year's seminar is "Second Baruch and Fourth Ezra: Jewish Apocalypticism in Late First Century Israel." The schedule of papers and participants can be found here . Some of top scholars in the area of Second Temple Judaism will be presenting on various aspect of these two late first century apocalypses. The format of the seminar is designed for discussion with responses to almost every paper. It looks to be a good conference.

Timothy George has an excellent article on the shift in biblical interpretation toward theological exegesis and history of interpretation/reception history in the March 2011 First Things . The article is entitled 'Reading the Bible with the Reformers: We ought to read Scripture the way Luther and Calvin did' and is not so much about Luther and Calvin as it is about renewed interest in the importance of theological hermeneutics and the avoidance the Enlightenment division between academic study Scripture and the devotional study of Scripture. Early in the article, George addresses the problem of 'biblical presentism' in which the main focus of biblical interpretation is to answer the question: 'What is the Bible saying to us now?' George traces this perspective to Friedrich Schleiermacher and argues that the Protestant acceptance the historical-critical method of biblical interpretation was a response to this sort of feeling-centered, biblical presentism. But ...

Just a disclaimer, I have not read the book and I probably will not in the near future for time reasons. But there has been a raging debate about the book, universalism, heaven, hell, etc. even before the book appeared. It started with Rob Bell's introduction video spot. Kevin DeYoung has responded to the book with a lengthy critique . Now, Rob Bell has been interviewed by Martin Bashir on MSNBC who does not throw any softballs. The difficult questions keep flying. And here are Ben Witherington's comments on the interview.