Papers in San Francisco

For those interested, I've got a few fun gigs lined up at SBL and ETS in San Francisco.

SBL: I've got a spot to discuss Darrell Bock and Robert Webb, Key Events in the Life of Jesus and Beverly Gaventa and Richard Hays, Seeking the Identity of Jesus at the Theological Hermeneutics of Christian Scripture group.

ETS: "Raging against the Roman Empire with Romans: The Value of Anti-Imperial Readings of Romans" at the Pauline Studies Session.

TECC Conference

The Theological Engagement with California Culture seminar has put out a call for papers for the November 2011 meeting of ETS. Looks, like, totally, like interesting dude.

PTS Conference on Romans 5-8

In 2012 at Princeton Theological Seminary there is a conference on Creation, Conflict, and Cosmos that is about Romans 5-8. See the details here.

My ETS and IBR Papers On-Line

For those interested, here are links to my papers in Atlanta:

ETS- What is there Between Minneapolis and Durham? A Third Way in the Wright-Piper Debate.

IBR - The Crucicentric Kingdom and the Basileianic Cross: A Response to N.T. Wright.

All on Friday 19 November in Atlanta.

Australasian Christian Conference for the Academy and the Church

Tomorrow in the city of Brisvegas the Australasian Christian Conference for the Academy and the Church begins tomorrow with guest speakers including Markus Bockmuehl and Robert Gordon. It's the first conference that I've been to for a while that won't require 8-24 hrs of travel! I'm giving a paper on "From Concept to Publication" for research students and "Salvation in Paul's Judaism" for the NT section. Hope to see you there!

TFG Sessions

Together for the Gospel Sessions are also available on-line. Lig Duncan's sermon looks interesting, esp. if he exposited the Epistle to Diognetus.

BNTC 2009

I've just got back from the 2009 BNTC in Aberdeen (wonderfully chereographed by Dr. Andrew Clark). Like 2008 in Durham, once more, the rain adversely effected my travel from the event. My poor wife came to join me at the conference but her 2 hr train ride from Inverness to Aberdeen ended up taking 6 hrs due to a diversion through Perth and Dundee! Enough about the infernal Scottish weather, here's my summation:

The setting in Kings College was lovely and proved to meet all our needs, although the corridor that included the tea/coffee area and bookstall was a bit crowded at times. The food was fantastic and I always like Aberdonian Angus Beef on the menu. Several new books were there including Michael Lattke's magnum opus The Odes of Solomon in the Hermeneia series. James Crossley and I autographed a book for one dear lady who brought How Did Christianity Begin? and was amazed that both authors were present to sign her book. Good to catch up with friends in the NT world and was most glad that chaps like Todd Still and Bruce Longenecker had made the effort to arrive from Texas. So all you Yanks should come over and see how NT study is supposed to be done at the BNTC.

Excellent papers this year. Todd Klutz on the Eighth Book of Moses showed that Morton Smith's translation and postulation of three underlying texts was erroneous. At the Paul Group, there was a good presentation by Jeremy Hultin on "Watch Your Mouth: What the Prohibitions of Foul Language Tell Us about Colossians and Ephesians" and he nearly convinced me that eutrapeia means "wittiness" in a positive sense which is censured based on a model of sacred social space. I still think that based on context, it has to have some negative connotation of "coarse" or "vulgar" joking (if wit in general is out of bounds, then I'm in a lot of trouble). The juxtaposition with "thanksgiving" is also strange, but it was a good paper overall. The Paul group then had a panel discussion on "Does Romans Need Addresses?" with Philip Esler, Peter Oakes, Francis Watson, and Angus Paddison. I think Francis Watson brough up some great stuff when he pointed out that all historical-critics and exegetes want to say "yes", but often in the history of interpretation Romans has been interpreted without reference to a concrete social situation being imagined. Everyone rejected Karl Barth's notion that the differences between "now" and "then" are from "trivial" as Barth alleged. Even so, theological interpretation is not opposed to historical situatedness. David Parker continued on with the good tradition of text-critical papers at BNTC. His presentation on "Variants and Variance" had lots of pictures and funny quotes from ancient manuscipts (reminds me a bit of Peter Williams' paper back in 2006 on the prologue of John's Gospel).

On the final day I attended the second temple literature group and enjoyed Jim Davilla's paper on The Book of Revelation and the Hekhalot Literature which showed the various parallels between the two, but wisely did not postulate any kind of literary relationship, preferring instead a common origin in Jewish mystical traditions. After that was Darrell Hannah on "The Elect son of man of the Parables of Enoch" which pointed out that the son of man is pre-existent, not just in name, but ontologically as well. The son of man is known, named, and preserved ahead of his disclosure to all mankind. Regarding 1 Enoch 70.1 where Enoch is identified as the Son of Man, many suggestions have been put forward. Hannah looked at some evidence from Ethiopic texts which insert a preposition to the effect that Enoch is lifted up to the son of man, rather than identified as the son of man, but as Hannah notes, it is not persuasive. More likely (and I agree) the association of son of man with Enoch is a secondary interpolation designed to respond to Christian identifications of the Son of Man with Jesus. That said, and what Larry Hurtado brought up, the current edition of 1 Enoch still works as we get a surprising twist as to who the son of man is at the end of the parables of Enoch - none other than Enoch himself. Finally, Helen Bond's paper on "Josephus on Herod the Great, Domestic Intrigue, and the Politics of First Century Judaea" was a treat that focuses on Josephus' literary account of Herod in book one of Jewish War. She surmizes that Josephus' switch from a positive to negative portrayal of Herod is designed to show that kingship is a bad idea, whereas Israel should be ruled by Rome through a priestly theocracy instead. I think it works, but as several quesitoners pointed out, Josephus may be doing no more than following similar accounts of Judean kings who started well but finished poorly (e.g., David).

Long Weekend of Theology at St. Andrews

The Institute for Bible, Theology, and Hermeneutics, is having three guest lectures over the long weekend of 28 and 31 August at St. Mary's College in St. Andrews. Featured lectures include:

Bruce McCormack (Princeton Theological Seminary)
"Election and the Trinity: Theses in Response to George Hunsinger"

Jeffrey Bingham (Dallas Theological Seminary)
"Reading Rome in Lyons!

John Franke (Biblical Theological Seminary)
"The Freedom of the Word: Reading the Bible in Community"

I've heard all three speak before and they will be worth going to if you're around on those days.

Edinburgh Dogmatics Conference in August 2009

One of the best theology conferences in Scotland (held every second year) is the Edinburgh Dogmatics Conference which is to be held at the Free Church College on 24-27 August 2009. This year's topic is "The Doctrine of Church" and it features Bruce McCormack, Henri Blocher, Andrew Clarke, Michael Horton, John Franke, Jason Curtis, Andrew McGowan, and Paul Nimmo. Do get along if you can!

First Annual Australasian Conference

The first annual Australasian conference for the academy and the church will take place in Brisbane, Australia on the 30th of June to the 3rd of July 2009. The Annual Australasian Christian Conference (AACC) exists to stimulate research and publication by evangelical christian academics. The AACC has two Tracks. Track 1 provides biblical scholars with an opportunity to present research in the areas of biblical studies, systematic theology, ethics and church history. Track 2 provides a forum for academics working in the Humanities, Sciences and Engineering to explore issues at the intersection of Christianity and their specific discipline. To facilitate interaction with academics outside our geographical region the AACC has invited two scholars of international standing to deliver the plenary addresses in 2009: Richard Bauckham and David Baker. Brisbane (aka Brisvegas) is a great city and this looks like it will be a great conference. It is sponsored by the Queensland Theological College and the Australian College of Theology.

Genesis and Christian Theology

Call for Papers: Genesis and Christian Theology

14-18 July 2009

St Mary’s College, University of St Andrews

The University of St Andrews is pleased to announce its third conference on Scripture and Christian Theology. Since the first conference on the Gospel of John in 2003, the St Andrews conferences have been recognized as one of the most important occasions when biblical scholars and systematic theologians are brought together in conversation about a biblical text. The conferences aim to cut through the megaphone diplomacy or the sheer incomprehension that so often marks attempts to communicate across our disciplines. We invite you then to join us and some of the best theological and biblical minds in careful and often lively interaction about one of the most theologically generative of biblical books: the book of Genesis.

We are now calling for papers that integrate close readings of Genesis with Christian theology. While we are interested particularly in explorations of the dynamic relationship between Genesis and Christian doctrine, we also welcome proposals that combine careful reading of the text of Genesis with theological attention to art, creativity, ecology, ethics, the history of interpretation, or Jewish and Christian dialogue.

The call for paper proposals closes on 15 March 2009. Please visit our website for further details or to submit a proposal: www.st-andrews.ac.uk/divinity/rt/conf/genesis09/.

Second British National Patristic Conference

Second British National Patristic Conference
Wednesday 9th –Friday 11th September, 2009
CALL FOR PAPERS.

We are inviting all those engaged in the research and study of early and late antique Christianity to this conference. Our aim is to acknowledge the wide variety of institutional contexts and inter-
disciplinary research cultures, trajectories, questions and approaches, encompassing the history, literature, theology, practice, and material culture of the early Church, including questions of the
relationship between Early Christianity and other religions, philosophies and social contexts both within the Roman Empire and across borders.

The conference programme will provide opportunities for research presentation and discussion and will encourage communication and potential collaboration between participants. The four keynote speakers are Frances Young (Birmingham), Stephen Mitchell (Exeter), Thomas Graumann (Cambridge), and Carol Harrison (Durham). Researchers are now invited to respond to a call for papers of about 20 minutes in length, followed by discussion time.

Please provide the following information by 15th January 2009, to Allen Brent, alb13@hermes.cam.ac.uk or by hard-copy to Faculty of Divinity, West Road, Cambridge CB3 9BS.

1. Your name and affiliation (if any),
2. Paper Title,
3. Abstract of approximately 100-150 words,
4. Brief statement of your current recent research and writing if appropriate.

We would expect to give notice of acceptances by the end of February, 2009. There will also be Workshops for Graduate students, grouped into areas of shared interests. Students are invited to indicate their area of interest and whether they would be prepared to make a brief, five-minute presentation of their work. The closing date for such offers is 1st May. We look forward to hearing from you for what is looking like a very well subscribed conference with some very important contributions from researchers in our fields of study.

Allen Brent
Thomas Graumann
Judith Lieu

British New Testament Conference

I am back from the BNTC held in Durham which was a great couple of days. I was glad to meet up with Tomas Bokedal at Newcastle train station on the way down and we had a great Italian lunch after arriving. There was also the pleasant surprise of catching former Aberdeen students Dr. Preston Sprinkle and Dr. Joey Dodson and it was a delight to finally meet in person Ben Byerly of NEGST. Of course, there was a number of Ph.D candidates from Durham and St. Andrews who provided good company and it is always a delight to see James Crossley.

John Barclay's paper on "Two Versions of Grace: Romans 9-11 and the Wisdom of Solomon" was brilliant. He juxtaposed these two documents and showed how Paul's understanding of grace is genuinely radical since grace does not depend on any quality or virtue of the recipient. Whereas Wisdom was dealing very much with the issue of theodicy (why do bad things happen to good people and vice-versa), Paul sets forth a fairly radical view of divine grace by removing any notion of conditionality. Barclay says in his conclusion: "Paul's discourse on grace and mercy operates fully within Jewish tradition, but also radicalises it to an extraordinary degree by refusing to allow any element of condition or worth as the accompaniment to divine gift. The alternatives Paul refutes, we must insist represent not some special Jewish tendency to emphasise 'works', but the sorts of rationale that any responsible theist would give to the operations of God in history. What makes Paul peculiar is that he makes the conditionality of the divine gift an issue. Elsewhere, in Romans 4, he will suggest an oppositional distinction between pay and gift that is unusual if not unique in antiquity, and in a developed form this will become the central theological anithesis in the different social and economic conditions of the Reformation era. The fact that this antithesis is not operative here in Romans 9 suggests that it still remains only on the margins of his thought. But what is clear here is that by pressing to an extreme the unconditionality of divine gift he defies the normal criteria surrounding the reasonable gifts." When I heard this I had to take off my glasses, rub my eyes, and check to see if it really was John Barclay and not Tom Schreiner speaking. Afterwards I went up to Barclay and asked if he had discovered Banner of Truth lately!

The next morning included good papers at the Hermeneutics Seminar by Ben Blackwell on the New Testament and Patristic Interpretation and Joey Dodson on "Personifications and Citations" in Paul. Halvor Moxnes gave a great paper on Galilean identity at the Jesus Seminar where I tried to convince Phil Esler that Ioudaios means "Jew" as opposed to "Judean" by asking if we have any evidence for a Gentile living in Judea being called a Ioudaios. He wasn't convinced. On the one hand, he was right that there is a definite reference in Against Apion that clearly relates the Ioudaioi to Ioudea, but I still think that Ioudaios is linked to religious identity in many respects.

Great people and books were at the book stalls. I was a good author and handed out flyers of the volume by James and I for SPCK (it was a more shameful act of self-promotion than even I'm used to). Publishers and sellers represented included T&T Clark/Continuum, Albans, STL, and Paternoster. I brought H.D. Betz's Galatians commentary for a bargain. I had a look around Durham Cathedral too (gorgeous and big, much like my sister-in-laws) and layed hands on the crypt of J.B. Lightfoot and asked the Lord for a double portion of whatever he had!! Sadly, the good bishop of Durham was unable to make an appearance. But I heard from a reliable source that he has a book coming out in January which is a response to John Piper's book The Future of Justification so watch out for that one. Speaking of Wright, the fiendish James Crossley got hold of Wright's name tag and was walking around the bar wearing it one evening. I guess the old saying is true, you really do become what you admire! Another highlight was seeing Loren Stuckenbruck, the host of BNTC as Durham department head, and we had a great discussion about the worship of angels in Colossians 2. On that note, I should not forget to mention that on the train I was able to read most of Ian Smith's volume Heavenly Perspective where Smith argues that the Colossian philosophy was a form of Jewish mysticism, which reinforced what I had already suspected.

Loveday Alexander's paper on classics and NT studies based upon Acts was well received and it highlighted for me the continued need to know classical sources for those doing NT studies. My paper on "Jesus the Messiah, A Role Declined? A Response to an Unmessianic Jesus" went fairly well. James Crossley argued against the triumphal entry in Mark as being messianic which I think only convinced him and the furniture. There was lots of good discussion about what passes as "messianic" and is there a conception of "the Messiah" in Judaism or is "the Messiah" an entirely Christian thing. I was cheered to hear that Maurice Casey agreed with alot of what I said and he argued for something similar but without the complications of the title "Messiah". Halvor Moxes, expectedly, made some fitting comments about my handling of N.A. Dahl. Eddie Adams gave a good presentation on Christian meeting places in the first centuries of the Christian era and noted that households (insula or domus - see here) were not the only option with shops, workshops, hired dining rooms, storehouses, baths, and out-of-doors all used as well.

On the way home I shared part of the journey with Dale Martin of Yale University (I missed his paper on Angels and Demons) and had a good chat with him. He was flying on to Copenhagan and probably missed his plane. I also shared the journey (which was delayed by 5 hours due to flooding in NE England) with Patrick Egan of St. Andrews which made a painful trip more comfortable.

Overall, a good time, some good wine, good papers, great company, and terrible trip on the way back.

Visiting Lecturers in Australia

To readers back in Zion, it might interest you to know that:

At the Queensland Theological College in Brisbane, Australia that Bob Jewett is speaking on the reasons for Romans on 20th of June and Mark Driscoll on 28th of August.

Bob Jewett will also be at the Presbyterian Theological Centre in Sydney, Australia on the 5th of June and Andrew McGowan will deliver the Eliza Ferrie Public Lecture on "C.H. Spurgeon: Lessons from a Reformed Baptist " on the 6th of August.

Call for Papers: BNTC Acts Seminar

The Book of Acts seminar at the British New Testament Conference
University of Durham, 4-6 September 2008

This seminar aims to be a forum for considering Acts from various angles: historical, literary, textual-critical, theological, archaeological, the social world, possible links/parallels with other ancient writings, and so on. We are very happy to include discussion of topics which relate Acts to the wider contexts of Luke-Acts and the Pauline corpus, where they are relevant and helpful to the study of Acts, although the focus of the seminar is studying Acts. Papers are welcome from both research students and more established scholars.

If interested please contact:
Steve Walton,
Senior Lecturer in Greek and New Testament Studies
London School of Theology

Tyndale House in 2008

I have recently been appointed secretary for the New Testament studies group of the Tyndale Fellowship. In 2008 the NT study group will be continuing its focus on Petrine studies, i.e. the historical Peter, Petrine literature, and Petrine traditions. If you have an idea for a paper that you'd like to present at the Tyndale Fellowship (it is held in early July) then please email me and it can be considered for inclusion. I am particularly interested in Ph.D cands. who are doing their studies in the area of the Petrine epistles.

Evangelicals and Eschatology Conference

Evangelicals and Eschatology:
Edwards’ History of the Work of Redemption
to LaHaye / Jenkins’ Left Behind

Day conference with presentations by

David W. Bebbington
Professor of History, Stirling University

George M. Marsden
Francis A. McAnaney Professor of History, University of Notre Dame

St Mary’s College, University of St Andrews
Monday, 30 April 2007

10:30 coffee, 11:00 start, with reception to follow
Cost: £20 staff / £10 student

Please send payment (cheques payable to St Mary’s College) by Friday, 13 April.
Short paper presentations are welcome; please send a 100- to 200-word abstract to the address below by Friday, 30 March.

Please direct any enquiries and payment to Darren Schmidt, e-mail dws7@st-andrews.ac.uk or c/o St Mary’s College, South Street, St Andrews, Fife KY16 9JU http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/divinity.

I'm thinking of offering a short paper on one of these topics:

• Detoxing Dispensationalists: 10 Easy Steps
• Lord, Saves Us from the Apocalyptic Soap Opera of the Left-Behind Series!
• Evangelicals and the Apocalyptic Jesus: A Way Forward