New commentary on Acts

Hello readers! I know it's been a long time since my last post, it has been a truly busy season trying to write the dissertation, finish up some teaching work, work as a TA for the college, send stuff off for review, etc. etc. I hope this post finds all of you in good spirits despite what is a tumultuous season in American politics.

I wanted to point out a fairly new commentary by one of my teachers, Professor Carl Holladay, Acts in the New Testament Library series. It was a long work in progress and I know he's very happy to see it finally out in print:

It's a beautiful hardback volume and it also contains a very good section (among other important things throughout!) concerning the text of Acts, which I'm sure many scholars will benefit from for years to come.

I think it will be out in the bookstands at SBL/AAR in San Antonio, so get yourself a copy there if you are able! Unfortunately, I will not be attending this year, but if you are going, I wish you all safe travels and an enjoyable time in SA.

RIP: D. Moody Smith

I received word through the grapevine that Professor D. Moody Smith passed away a couple days ago at the age of 84. He was already retired by the time I took my masters degree at Duke, but obviously his influence there continued. In one of my first seminars at Duke, I took a Greek exegesis course on the Gospel of John with Dr. Joel Marcus. One of the main textbooks assigned for his class was Dr. Smith's John commentary in the Abingdon series. It was great to work through the entire commentary over one semester, and to this day I recommend it to those who are seeking a concise but insightful commentary to supplement their reading of the Fourth Gospel.

I did not have the privilege to learn from him personally but I'd like to think that my teachers at Duke were influenced by their senior colleague with the result that his knowledge was also translated down to the next generation of students such as myself.

RIP, Dr. Smith.

For details about a memorial service, please see here.

BOOK NOTICE

I just saw that Professor Kavin Rowe from Duke University Divinity School has a new book which is set to come out very soon, titled One True Life: The Stoics and Early Christians as Rival Traditions (Yale University Press, March 2016): 

I know he's taught NT and Greco-Roman philosophy at Duke Div on multiple occasions and I'm sure that was part of what he was working on here as well as his earlier book. The blurb from Yale is as follows:

In this groundbreaking, cross-disciplinary work of philosophy and biblical studies, New Testament scholar C. Kavin Rowe explores the promise and problems inherent in engaging rival philosophical claims to what is true. Juxtaposing the Roman Stoics Seneca, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius with the Christian saints Paul, Luke, and Justin Martyr, and incorporating the contemporary views of Jeffrey Stout, Alasdair McIntyre, Charles Taylor, Martha Nussbaum, Pierre Hadot, and others, the author suggests that in a world of religious pluralism there is negligible gain in sampling from separate belief systems. This thought-provoking volume reconceives the relationship between ancient philosophy and emergent Christianity as a rivalry between strong traditions of life and offers powerful arguments for the exclusive commitment to a community of belief and a particular form of philosophical life as the path to existential truth.

I also noticed that he is listed as a full professor now on Duke's website which is quite amazing (if it isn't an error) because he finished his PhD not that long ago at Duke. This probably speaks to his scholarship and other contributions to the school which from everything I've heard has always been very positive. It'll be interesting to see how this book is received once it's out; I wouldn't be surprised if there will be a future SBL session engaging with his book.

Novum Testamentum 58.1 (2016)

Just wanted to bring to your attention the newest issue of Novum Testamentum 58.1 (2016), that includes an article by my friend and colleague here at Emory University, Devin White.

See the TOC:

Armin D. Baum, "Mark's Paratactic και as a Secondary Syntactic Semitism," 1–26

Devin L. White, "Confronting Oracular Contradiction in Acts 21:1–14," 27–46

Hans Förster, "Der Begriff σημειον im Johannesevangelium," 47–70

Seon Yong Kim, "Paul and the Stoic Theory of οικειωσις," 71–91

And a few book review articles.

Go check it out.

Christian Theology and the World of Law? (VIDEO)

One of the great things about being at Emory is that it is a school that values the study of religion and maintains on its campus the Center for the Study of Law and Religion. Early last year, Richard Hays of Duke Divinity School and Michael Welker of Heidelberg University came to give the McDonald Distinguished Scholar Lectures about the subject of Christian theology and Law.

Check out the video below:

VIDEO: Paul and "gift"

If you were at AAR/SBL this year in Atlanta, and your interest is in NT, or even more narrowly, Pauline studies, you would have likely heard about John Barclay's just published book, Paul and the Gift. On top of that, maybe you had the chance to attend the session devoted to reviews of Barclay's book, with a very serious panel consisting of Joel Marcus, Margaret Mitchell, and Miroslav Volf. I had kind of a packed schedule, so I only caught the back end of Dr. Marcus's review (honestly, all I remember is him saying that Paul and the gift is a gift that keeps on giving and some comments about 4 Ezra) and stayed for most of Dr. Mitchell's review before I had to scoot out for a meeting and run back when Barclay was giving some final comments. Again, I had to leave early again, so needless to say, I didn't get to hear a lot of the interactions regarding Barclay's book.

Also, I had meant to finish reading Barclay's book before this session but my schedule got ahead of me, so it was helpful to hear from Marcus and Mitchell on some of the perceived shortcomings of Barclay's book–though as far as I could tell, it was very well received despite the critical comments about it. In my opinion thus far, the book is very well organized and clearly argued; it seems to me that Barclay's book dances along that fine line between the appropriation of method(s)/analytical tool(s) (in Barclay's case, the 6 "perfections" of gift/grace) and careful sifting through the primary sources. Honestly, it's rare to find a book of this length and quality that doesn't seem unnecessarily long or difficult to read given the technical fine points of book x. It's so clear and well organized to the degree that I think even a non-specialist could derive huge benefits from reading his book.

Anyway, if you are interested, I also saw that there is a short clip of Barclay explaining his project. Check it out:

Book Notice: Bultmann

I want to mention a recently published book titled, Rudolf Bultmann: A Companion to His Theology (Cascade) by David W. Congdon. On his most recent blog post (go here) he mentions a promo by which you can receive 40% through Nov. 15. 

Bultmann and his Theology of the New Testament still receives plenty of attention even in NT scholarship, seen for example in the recent publication of Beyond Bultmann. Last year in SD, SBL held a session devoted to this book (room was packed), and all the participants did a great job presenting their own interactions with Bultmann. My own supervisor also wrote an essay for the volume, though he was not in the SBL session. I'm still intrigued by his hermeneutical methods and his NTT, and I think Congdon's book will be a welcome addition to helping Bultmann dilettantes like myself wade through his vast oeuvre beyond just his Theology. Go buy a copy if you're interested!