Divinity United

Jason Maston asked me some questions recently about the recent book I co-edited on the relationship between biblical and systematic theology: https://dunelm.wordpress.com/2014/11/10/ben-reynolds-on-biblical-and-systematic-theology-author-interview/. Thanks, Jason and the Dunelm crew.

The 2013 spring colloquium will be on the topic of Proverbs 8 in the trinitarian debates between Athanasius and the Arians: "Proverbs 8 and Christian Theological Interpretation of Scripture".  The date is Friday, May 17. More information can be found here .

Tyndale House has recently begun a wiki site called Biblical Weblinks . From my brief perusal of the site, there are some great links and helpful information for students of Biblical Studies, Theology, and other related disciplines. It is definitely worth checking out, particularly as it grows.

Here's a brief video on the importance of learning the biblical languages with interviews by Peter Williams and others connected with Tyndale House Library in Cambridge.

My colleague Daniel Driver's book Brevard Childs, Biblical Theologian: For the Church's One Bible was reviewed in RBL last week. The reviewer made some great comments. Here is the conclusion: "This is a thick book, probably not one would read for sheer enjoyment. Driver has succeeded, however, in presenting a complex process of conceptual development and growth in the mind of an outstanding scholar and thinker to the reader in the form of a story. This must be the most definitive and authoritative source on Brevard Springs Childs. As time progresses, the academic world will be better equipped  to value the contribution of Childs. It is fortunate that we have this book, which was written almost entirely when Childs was still alive."

Robert Gundry's fifth edition of his Survey of the New Testament came out in June 2012 (just six months ago). The new edition has some added photos and a different pagination, but one of the biggest benefits is available online through Zondervan's " Textbook Plus ." Students are able to create an account and have access to online quizzes and flash cards that match the "People to Remember," "Places to Remember," "Terms to Remember," and "How much did you learn?" sections at the end of each chapter. The focus of all these materials is clearly on student learning, and now there are multiple ways for students to engage in active learning. Gundry's survey textbook is still one of the best NT surveys, in my opinion, because of the way in which students are encouraged to actually read the text of the NT rather than merely reading about background content. The historical, cultural, social, and biblical context information is not ...

Continuing through The Cambridge Companion to Evangelical Theology (ed. Timothy Larsen and Daniel J. Treier), John Webster presents a dense and sharp critique of evangelical theology on Christology in his essay "Jesus Christ." Any evangelical theology of Jesus or even NT study of Jesus should take into account Webster's challenges. Here are two such comments: "Contemporary evangelical historians of Jesus and his early followers are certainly more sophisticated then their forbears, and a good deal more relaxed about the need to defend the viability of confessional orthodoxy or the reliability and authority of the apostolic witnesses. What they have in common with earlier work is the fact that their arguments are historical, not theological, and direct themselves primarily to historical reason rather than the judgment of faith. In this sense, they continue the evangelical tradition of Christology "from below" -- not in the sense of proposing a "lo...

I just added a link under "Biblical Studies Resources" to BiblicalStudies.org.uk . This is a great resource for looking up commentaries, articles, and other secondary literature for studying the Bible. The site had some links to articles for a current project I am working on. Take a look and see what it has to offer.

Saturday, February 4, 2012, is the 3rd Tyndale Biblical Studies Symposium . There will be seven papers given by Tyndale Faculty and alumni. The time is from 9:30am-4:00pm. No lunch is provided but there will be coffee and tea. It looks to be a great day.

It is less than a month until the Wycliffe Centre for Scripture and Theology fall meeting 2011 . The program looks to be interesting and engaging. One of the presenters is Tyndale's own Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies, Dr. Stanley Walters (PhD, Yale). The meeting will take place at Wycliffe College, University of Toronto on Friday, October 21. The program is as follows: Discussion will focus on Isaiah 9 in reception history, and on connections here with Legaspi's recent book,  The Death of Scripture & the Rise of Biblical Studies (OUP, 2010). Time Participants Friday, 21 October 2011 9:30 am Ephraim Radner Greeting & Introduction 10:00 am Gary Anderson Isaiah 9 with a focus TBD 11:00 am Michael Legaspi Isaiah 9 and the work of Robert Lowth 12:00 pm Stanley Walters Review of Legaspi’s The Death of Scripture… 1:00 pm everybody Lunch provided for attendees & presenters 2:00 pm Joseph Mangina Response to morning presentations...

Larry Hurtado has recently made some comments about the state of the British PhD on his blog (see links below). Apparently some NT PhD candidates in the UK are submitting PhD theses when they do not have a reading knowledge of Koine Greek, German, or French. Nor is it apparent that some students can understand and explain the textual variants of a passage from the Nestle-Aland apparatus. It is disappointing (although not entirely shocking) that some UK PhD candidates have come to this point. The blame can largely be placed on the universities (and I think the supervisors of these students should shoulder some of it, unless of course, the students have not heeded their supervisors warnings and advice. The latter does happen!). Hurtado explains in the third post listed below some of the pressures placed on UK universities by the government that have led to this.  As the graduate of a British PhD programme, I understand how this can happen. The situation is unfortunate and only spel...

Making Sense in Religious Studies: A Student's Guide to Research and Writing was published in August 2011 and will prove to be an excellent resource for undergraduate students of Religious Studies. The majority of the information in the book will also be useful to non-Religious Studies students as the book also provides advice on the basics of university life and students' academic responsibilities. This Oxford University Press publication authored by Margot Northey, Bradford A. Anderson, and Joel N. Lohr introduces students to university and higher education in the first three chapters, including time management and writing. General information that will be useful to most university students includes chapters on writing essays, writing book reviews, studying for and taking tests, giving oral presentations, documenting sources, common grammatical errors, and more. The chapter on reading religious texts is clearly specific to Religious Studies, as are most of the examples in t...