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!

QOTD: John Barclay

Teaching/dissertating has been taking up most of my time, hence very little blogging as of late. I recently borrowed John Barclay's Paul and the Gift, a book that has been a highly anticipated work.  As far as I am aware, Barclay doesn't publish a ton of monograph length material, but when he does, people read and listen. I'm less than a 100 pages in, but so far, I think this book is no exception. The book is not germane to my research, but I've very much enjoyed reading it when I can make time. It is a refreshing investigation into a term/concept in Pauline theology that continues to receive much attention, though as Barclay shows, with much terminological and conceptual slippage among those that talk about it. 

Back to the title of my blog post, I will leave you with a short quotation:

"When two different authors speak of divine benevolence or grace, but disagree on its meaning and its implications, this may be not because one emphasizes grace more than the other, or grasps its 'true' meaning while the other does not, but simply because they are perfecting different facets of grace. As we shall see, Pelagius held firmly to the superabundance of divine grace, which was prior to all human activity; but (for theological reasons) he could not accept Augustine's perfection of the incongruity of grace. Augustine did not believe in grace more than Pelagius; he simply believed in it differently." (p. 77)

If you are attending SBL/AAR this year, you probably know that there is a review of his book. I'm planning to catch the session, which I expect will be very well attended. Unfortunately, I also have a meeting with a publisher that overlaps, so I'm hoping someone out there will have some kind of review of the entire session... If you read this and you are attending, please take some notes! :)

Ernst Käsemann Remembered (Audio)

A few months ago, the Pitts Theology Library at Emory University's Candler School of Theology hosted an event inviting Prof. Calvin Roetzel to lecture about Ernst Käsemann (see details here). This is part of an exciting project here gathering Käsemann's correspondence with various scholars around the world. It appears that the audio is now available, check it out here (the audio quality is bad at first, but picks up a bit into the lecture).

VIDEO: The Gospel of Jesus' Wife intro

I saw that the newest issue of NTS (61.3) is devoted entirely to the interesting document called the Gospel of Jesus' Wife. I haven't had a chance to read any of the articles, but it looks like a good range of topics to get at the nature of this text. I also heard that some have done a little bit of mudslinging against those that say yea or nay on this text being an ancient document, but I think it's best to just give this text a fair hearing and see what the various scholars have to say about it in this top peer-reviewed journal.

For an introduction, see this intro video from Simon Gathercole of Cambridge:

HT: Mark Goodacre

VIDEO: Richard Hays @ Lanier Theological Library

Recently, Professor Richard Hays of Duke Divinity School was involved in a panel discussion on what's called "figural reading" of OT in NT. This recalls his earlier work on Paul as well as the more recently work on the Gospels (Reading Backwards), the latter which is part of a larger ongoing project (likely to be completed sooner with his stepping down as the Dean of the Divinity School).

See the video below:

HT: Crux Sola Blog

RIP: J. Louis Martyn (1925 - June 2015)

I was saddened to hear the passing of one of the great NT scholar/theologians of the current generation, Professor J. Louis Martyn (see a tribute by Prof. Gaventa here). During my first semester at Duke Div, I took a course on Galatians with Dr. Susan Eastman, in which we worked through his wonderful AB commentary on Galatians. Thanks to her friendship with Prof. Martyn, we had the great privilege of having him join our last class session in which we talked about Paul and Galatians for three hours. I still remember his graciousness and humility, and he was very much interested in hearing from all of us as much as we wanted to hear from him. He fully engaged with all of our (and I'm sure in many ways, amateur) questions and it was such a great way to end the seminar. Whatever the various criticisms (or praises) that could be had of his AB commentary, to this day I tell my friends/colleagues that it is one of the most readable and interesting commentaries that I have ever come across. 

RIP Professor, it was truly an honor to have met you.