Martin Hengel and Theology Students

Along with Jason Maston, I am editing a collection of essays that came out of the 2010 Tyndale Conference held in honour of Prof. Martin Hengel (Earliest Christianity: History, Literature, and Theology) to be published - hopefully mid year - by Mohr/Siebeck. We have a preface by Jörg Frey who colourfully records his first encounter with Prof. Hengel as an undergraduate student in Tübingen. Here's the opening paragraph:

"This scene was unforgettable. During the orientation days for new students of Protestant Theology– beginning winter semester 1983/84 – representatives of the famous Tübingen Faculty in the Evangelischen Stift had to introduce the various theological disciplines. Every one of them tried to feature the importance of their subject for theology as a whole, but they all missed to create that real tingle that could have fascinated the novice. Only one went beyond limits. He did not keep talking about his scholarly field for very long, but instead he put great emphasis on its object, the New Testament. Whilst pulling a little, heavily worn blue booklet – his old “Nestle-Aland” – out of his pocket, swinging it through the air, he urged his audience with great vigour: “Read this book! In Greek! It’s a good book.”

I think I shall make this my new teaching slogan:"Lesen Sie dieses Buch! Auf Griechischen! Es ist ein gutes Buch".