One stage finished, new stage begins

Happy to say I've finished the coursework phase of my PhD program and now reading for preliminary exams. Hope you will all enjoy a productive summer!

Interview (Markschies @ Marginalia)

I recently read through Jens Schröter's From Jesus to the New Testament and provided a book review for a seminar here at Emory. It seems to me that German scholarship is once again coming up more and more on the horizon of Anglophone speakers, and Schröter is just one of the many German scholars that I think should be read by American students of NT. 

Another figure who would be considered in this group is Christoph Markschies, professor (and previous president[!]) of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and I have heard some of my teachers here at Emory speak very very highly of him (and that does not happen often). His CV is ridiculous and he works quite broadly it seems like beyond maybe what is traditional "NT studies" (though I don't think this is a knock on his scholarship, more a positive thing).

Anyway, I saw that Marginalia conducted an interview with him and it's really interesting to hear him speak about issues in scholarship.

Check it out here.

EDIT: I suppose I should make it clear that Markschies is not actually a "NT scholar" in the traditional sense, his Dr. theol and Habilitation were earned by working in Gnosticism and Arianism respectively. However, as you can tell from the audio, he proposes a more broader expansion of one's area of research and maybe a softening of the walls between "NT studies" and "Patristics"/"Ancient Christianity". A very learned man but seems to be very friendly and interesting to listen to.

QOTD: Molly Worthen

As my final semester of coursework is winding down (finally!) this week, I had some more time to resume other random readings that interested me. I've been slowly reading through books on Roosevelt/Taft, the news, economics, and American religious history. The last book on this list is a book by an Americanist at UNC (Worthen) who recently published that book with the title Apostles of Reason: The Crisis of Authority in American Evangelicalism. I'm not that far into the book, but I'll just leave you with a quick quote from her introduction:

"The evolution of the evangelical community—and whether, and why, it might be called anti-intellectual—is best traced through the lives of elites: the preachers, teachers, writers, and institution-builders in the business of creation disseminating ideas. When critics describe evangelicalism as anti-intellectual, usually they are not blaming ordinary laypeople. A casual glance at the latest Amazon.com best-seller list, chock full of celebrity memoirs and puppy novels, or the amateur talent shows and dating competitions that top the television ratings, demonstrates that when it comes to intellectual shallowness evangelicals have no advantage on the rest of America."

Douglas Campbell (new book + video)

One of my former teachers at Duke Divinity School, Douglas Campbell, is coming out with a new book titled Framing Paul: An Epistolary Account (see here). He's been teaching a course on the life of Paul at Duke for a few years now I think and I remember him describing to us about working on a book about the chronology of Paul's letters, and this seems to be the working out of that project. His Deliverance of God certainly made some waves in Pauline scholarship and I have no doubt that this book will also do the same on discussions about Paul and his letters. He is certainly a provocative thinker and you can love him or hate him but I don't think you can ignore his work. The book should be out late this year, but for now, check out this video:

I...

hope University of Florida loses big to Dayton. That is all.

Yes!

I found out that I recently won the following books from a giveaway (with the lofty title, "The Amazing T&T Clark Book Giveaway of 2014") by the folks over at The Jesus Blog (+ T&T Clark):

(1) Maurice Casey, Jesus: Evidence and Argument or Mythicist Myths? (March 2014)

(2) Chris Keith and Anthony Le Donne editors, Jesus, Criteria, and the Demise of Authenticity (August 2012)

(3) Helen Bond, The Historical Jesus: A Guide for the Perplexed (May 2012)

This is an area of NT studies that continues to spark interest for me, so I'm very happy to add them to my library collection. Thanks to Chris, Anthony, and T&T Clark for this generous giveaway. If you haven't checked out The Jesus Blog yet, go take a look now here.

New journal issues

The newest issues are out for the two following journals:

The newest volume of JSNT (March 2014) looks to be a very interesting volume, as it is an issue devoted entire to two recently published books on the Gospel of Thomas, one by my teacher at Duke University, Mark Goodacre (Thomas and the Gospels: The Case for Thomas's Familiarity with the Synoptics) and the other by Simon Gathercole of Cambridge (The Composition of the Gospel of Thomas: Original Language and Influences). Here is the TOC:

John S. Kloppenborg, "A New Synoptic Problem: Mark Goodacre and Simon Gathercole on Thomas"

Nicola Denzey Lewis, "A New Gnosticism: Why Simon Gathercole and Mark Goodacre on the Gospel of Thomas Change the Field"

Stephen J. Patterson, "Twice More--Thomas and the Synoptics: A Reply to Simon Gathercole, The Composition of the Gospel of Thomas, and Mark Goodacre, Thomas and the Gospels"

These articles are followed by response papers from both Simon Gathercole and Mark Goodacre. I read through both books this past year, so I'm very much looking forward to reading the responses. In my opinion, Mark is one of the best out there on the Synoptics and as always, his book is very well researched and clearly written, so if you're mildly interested in this subject, go check out his book (quite affordable at that). Gathercole's book was informative as well, though it might set you back some $ if you want to own a copy for yourself.

The newest volume of NTS (April 2014) includes a wide variety of articles, likely to contain something for everyone. Here is the TOC:

Christopher M. Tuckett, "What is 'New Testament Study'? The New Testament and Early Christianity"

Paul Trebilco, "Creativity at the Boundary: Features of the Linguistic and Conceptual Construction of Outsiders in the Pauline Corpus"

Brice C. Jones, "A Coptic Fragment of the Gospel of John with Hermeneiai (P.CtYBR inv. 4641)

Brendan Byrne, SJ, "Jerusalems Above and Below: A Critique of J. L. Martyn's Interpretation of the Hagar-Sarah Allegory in Gal 4.21-5.1"

Dorothea H. Bertschmann, "The Good, the Bad and the State - Rom 13.1-7 and the Dynamics of Love"

James B. Prothro, "Who is 'of Christ'? A Grammatical and Theological Reconsideration of 1 Cor 1.12"

David I. Starling, "'We do Not Want You to Be Unaware ...': Disclosure, Concealment and Suffering in 2 Cor 1-7"

Sheree Lear, "Revelation 19.16's Inscribed Thigh: An Allusion to Gen 49.10b"

Go check them out.