New from Fortress: Covenental Conversations

A recent announcement from Fortress:

Covenantal Conversations: Christians in Dialogue with Jews and Judaism

Eight key topics for Jewish-Christian relations today

This useful volume, edited by noted theologian Darrell Jodock and including leading thinkers both Christian and Jewish, explores the shared theological framework, special historical relationship, and post-Holocaust developments and current trouble spots that situate the Jewish-Christian relationship today. Covenantal Conversations is a special gift to students, scholars, and Christians of all descriptions who wish to understand the vital link and special promise that Jews and Christians share.

Eight special topics or talking points get special attention from the chief contributors and their dialogue partners: Judaism Then and Now, Covenants Old and New, Law and Gospel, Promise and Fulfillment, Difficult Texts, Promised Land and Zionism, Healing the World and Mending the Soul, and Jewish-Christian Relations in a Pluralistic World.

Contributors include Esther Menn in conversation with Krister Stendahl, Ralph Klein in conversation with Isaac Kalimi, and six other conversations and responses.

Darrell Jodock is Drell and Adeline Bernhardson Distinguished Professor of Religion at Gustavus Adolphus College, St. Peter, Minnesota.

Order your copy today!

Regional SBL

I recently learned that my paper proposal for the upcoming New England Regional Meeting of the SBL (April 18 at Andover-Newton Theological School) was accepted. The proposal was based upon my first term paper at Yale--written for Prof. Adela Collins in the fall of 2005. Here's the abstract:

Splish, splash: the symbolism of water in the Book of Revelation

Nearly two thousand years after its initial composition and dissemination, the Book of Revelation remains among the most enigmatic and inscrutable components of the biblical canon. Generations of clerics, commentators, scholars, and students have struggled to penetrate the thick veneer of historical, cultural, and hermeneutical patina which has so successfully hidden its secrets. But as Adela Yarbro Collins, Frederick Murphy, and other sensitive modern exegetes have noted, attention to Revelation’s original historical and literary milieu provides the most illuminating insights into its character and purpose. A cursory examination of the book reveals that its author is heavily dependent upon the symbolic imagery of the ancient Near East, as found in portions of the Hebrew Bible and in the literature of other contemporary societies. The author often utilizes this imagery in a fairly universal way, incorporating it into his own work while retaining and exploiting the intrinsic emotional and thematic connotations present in his source material. This paper will present an extended analysis of one of the most pervasive of these symbolic elements: the element of water, which appears more than two dozen times throughout the work in an array of forms. With this analysis in hand, it is eminently clear that the author of Revelation has appropriated three established aquatic archetypes—the tumultuous sea and other raging waters; life-giving rivers, streams, and springs; and the elements of the storm—as crucial buttresses for his presentation of the Christian God as the sole possessor of sovereign power.

New from Tyndale Tech: The Tyndale Toolbar

The most recent edition of David Instone-Brewer's eminently useful Tyndale Tech series has been released. In this edition, Instone-Brewer outlines the features of the new Tyndale Toolbar, a remarkable free resource which every serious scholar, student, and pastor should immediately add to his or her browser. Links to Greek and Hebrew lexicons, bibliographic resources, and a huge number of Bibles are all available at the click of a mouse, without any tedious or repetitive searching, bookmarking, etc. And for those of you who feel that a picture truly is worth a thousand words, here's a visual outline of the toolbar:






Check it out!

RBL Highlights: 3/14/08

A few highlights from this week's Review of Biblical Literature, including the reviews of and responses to Prof. Joel Kaminsky's Yet I Loved Jacob: Reclaiming the Biblical Concept of Election which were originally presented at the SBL Annual Meeting. Those of you unable to attend this session should first read the reviews and then the book itself; it's a fresh, innovative contribution to biblical studies (which can't always be said in this day and age!).

Joel S. Kaminsky
Yet I Loved Jacob: Reclaiming the Biblical Concept of Election
Reviewed by Benjamin D. Sommer
Reviewed by Jacqueline Lapsley
Reviewed by Ellen F. Davis
Reviewed by Joel N. Lohr
Reviewed by Patrick D. Miller
Response by Joel S. Kaminsky

Richard J. Cassidy
Four Times Peter: Portrayals of Peter in the Four Gospels and at Philippi
Reviewed by Patrick J. Hartin

Ira Brent Driggers
Following God through Mark: Theological Tension in the Second Gospel
Reviewed by Elliott Maloney

Katharina Galor, Jean-Baptiste Humbert, and Jurgen Zangenberg, eds.
Qumran, The Site of the Dead Sea Scrolls: Archaeological Interpretations and Debates (Proceedings of a Conference held at Brown University, November 17-19, 2002)
Reviewed by Kenneth Atkinson

New from Fortress: Mark and Method

A recent announcement from Fortress:

Mark & Method
New Approaches in Biblical Studies
Second Edition

Since its publication by Fortress Press in 1992, Mark and Method has been an invaluable resource for the study of Mark, and of the range of methods used in interpreting the New Testament. This second edition offers a new introduction and chapters brought up to date with the latest developments in interpretation, including new chapters on Cultural Studies and Post-Colonial Criticism.

The contributors include: Janice Capel Anderson, Stephen D. Moore, Elizabeth Struthers Malbon, Robert M. Fowler, David Rhoads, Tat-Siong Benny Liew, and Abraham Smith.

Order your copy today!

Celebrate with the Authors of YDS

For those in and around New Haven, this is always a good time:

The 13th annual Yale Divinity School Faculty Book Party, celebrating books (and other media) produced by YDS/ISM faculty in this academic year...

TUESDAY, MARCH 25th 2007
4:30-6:00 p.m.
YDS COMMON ROOM

Champagne, food, and general merriment in good supply.

ALL ARE WELCOME!

RBL Highlights: 3/6/08

A few highlights from this week's Review of Biblical Literature:

Dale C. Allison Jr.
Studies in Matthew: Interpretation Past and Present
Reviewed by Bogdan G. Bucur

John J. Collins and Craig A. Evans, eds.
Christian Beginnings and the Dead Sea Scrolls
Reviewed by Matthew Goff

Jeffrey A. Gibbs
Matthew 1:1-11:1
Reviewed by Charles L. Quarles

John H. Hayes and Carl R. Holladay
Biblical Exegesis: A Beginner's Handbook
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=5970
Reviewed by David Allen

William Loader
The New Testament with Imagination: A Fresh Approach to Its Writings and Themes
Reviewed by Sean P. Kealy

Jerry L. Sumney
Philippians: A Greek Student's Intermediate Reader
Reviewed by Robert Keay

New from Fortress: Faith and Human Rights

A recent announcement from Fortress:

Faith and Human Rights: Christianity and the Global Struggle for Human Dignity

Is faith friendly to human rights or not?

The UN's 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights stands as a highpoint of twentieth-century moral deliberation, yet sixty years later human rights are widely denied, evaded, or ignored around the world. Where are religious persons in this situation? Here a philosopher and a theologian address the issues with authority, clarity, and genuine passion in a way that does not spare religion or even religious people, who have been among the most egregious violators of human rights in the world.

Faith and Human Rights argues that the idea of human rights is not exclusively religious, but that its realization in practice requires urgent action on the part of people of all faiths—and of no faith. The authors contend that while faith has much of value to contribute here, the world's religions will require vigilant reappraisal if they are to function as genuine partners in the global struggle for human dignity. Acknowledging the ambiguous moral legacy of their own tradition, Christianity, the authors draw on Christological themes to draft blueprints for a culturally sensitive "theology of human rights."

Order your copy today!

Additions to SBL Forum

New articles have been posted on the SBL Forum:

Towards an Ethic of Liberation for Bible Translation, Part 1: Ideology (Steven M. Voth)

Ancient Languages Are Still Around, but Do We Really Know How to Teach Them? (Rachel Halabe)

The Wiki Way: Improving Your Class Notes Using the Internet for Online Student Collaboration (Carl N. Toney)

Bernie McGinn Comes to Yale

The legendary Prof. Bernard McGinn will be lecturing at Yale tomorrow:

Bernard McGinn
Professor Emeritus of Historical Theology, Chicago Divinity School

"The Evangelical Pearl: The Last Masterpiece of Medieval Women's Mysticism"

Tuesday, March 4, 5:30 PM
Room 108, Whitney Humanities Center (Located at the corner of Church St. and Wall St.)

Part of the series Yale Lecturers in Medieval Studies (http://www.yale.edu/medieval/lectures.html)

Please join us for Professor McGinn's lecture, with a reception to follow.

"The Other in Second Temple Judaism": A Conference in Honor of John Collins

A conference has been organized at Amherst College in honor of my advisor, Prof. John J. Collins:

The Other in Second Temple Judaism
A Conference in Honor of John J. Collins

Friday, April 4 and Saturday, April 5, 2008
The Cole Assembly Room, Converse Hall
Amherst College, Amherst, MA 01002

A native of Ireland, Professor Collins is the Holmes Professor of Old Testament Criticism and Interpretation at Yale Divinity School. He has published widely on the subjects of apocalypticism, wisdom, Hellenistic Judaism, and the Dead Sea Scrolls. His books include The Scepter and the Star: The Messiahs of Apocalypticism in the Dead Sea Scrolls; Jewish Wisdom in the Hellenistic Age; and The Apocalyptic Imagination. He is co-editor of the three-volume Encyclopedia of Apocalypticism and has participated in the editing of the Dead Sea Scrolls. He is editor of a monograph series for the Brill-titled Journal for the Study of Judaism Supplements and of the journal Dead Sea Discoveries, and has served as editor of the Journal of Biblical Literature and as president of both the Catholic Biblical Association and the Society of Biblical Literature.

Sponsored by the Willis D. Wood Fund
Free and Open to the Public

For directions, lodging, and registration for lunch/dinner on April 5th, please see our website at http://www.cswebtech.com/collins/conference.html.

PROGRAM PARTICIPANTS

Carol Newsom, Emory University; "God's Other: The Intractable Problem of the Gentile King in Israelite and Early Jewish Literature"
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Samuel L. Adams, Union Theological Seminary/Richmond, "Poverty and 'Otherness' in Second Temple Instructions"
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Karina Martin Hogan, Fordham University, "Elusive Wisdom and the Other Nations in Baruch"
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Joel Kaminsky, Smith College, "Israel and the 'Other' in Late Biblical and Early Rabbinic Thought"
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Antonios Finitsis, Pacific Lutheran University, "The 'Other' in Early Postexilic Period: The Argument According to Haggai and Zechariah 1-6"
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Patricia Ahearne-Kroll, Ohio Wesleyan, "The 'Other' in the Study of Second Temple Judaism: The Question of Jewish Authorship and the Case of Artapanus"
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Daniel Harlow, Calvin College, "Idolatry and Otherness: Israel and the Nations in the Apocalypse of Abraham"

CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS

Susan Ackermann, Dartmouth College; Adela Yarbro Collins, Yale University; Susan Niditch, Amherst College

RBL Highlights: 2/28/08

A few highlights from this week's Review of Biblical Literature:

Cilliers Breytenbach, Johan C. Thom, and Jeremy Punt, eds.
The New Testament Interpreted: Essays in Honour of Bernhard C. Lategan
Reviewed by Douglas Estes

David Buttrick
Speaking Conflict: Stories of a Controversial Jesus
Reviewed by John J. Pilch

J. W. Childers and D. C. Parker, eds.
Transmission and Reception: New Testament Text-Critical and Exegetical Studies
Reviewed by Erroll F. Rhodes

Rachel Hallote
Bible, Map, and Spade: The American Palestine Exploration Society, Frederick Jones Bliss, and the Forgotten Story of Early American Biblical Archaeology
Reviewed by Eric M. Meyers

John R. Hinnells, ed.
A Handbook of Ancient Religions
Reviewed by Martin Ramey

Shane Kirkpatrick
Competing for Honor: A Social-Scientific Reading of Daniel 1-6
Reviewed by John J. Collins

Aquila H. I. Lee
From Messiah to Preexistent Son: Jesus' Self-Consciousness and Early Christian Exegesis of Messianic Psalms
Reviewed by Sam Janse

Yay for Serene Jones!

Congratulations to Prof. Serene Jones, the new president of Union Theological Seminary:

Theologian Serene Jones Leaving Yale Divinity School to Head Union Theological Seminary

Serene Jones, the Titus Street Professor of Theology at Yale Divinity School, has accepted an offer to serve as president of Union Theological Seminary in New York City, a school with a long history of ties to YDS and where Reinhold Niebuhr, one of YDS’s most illustrious graduates, once taught.

The appointment was announced Feb. 25 by Union, which said Jones will assume her new position on July 1. Union, which like YDS is ecumenical in orientation, had conducted a six-month search to fill the post being vacated by retiring president Joseph Hough, a 1959 graduate of YDS.

“Serene Jones will be greatly missed at Yale Divinity School and within the broader university community,” said Yale Divinity School Dean Harold Attridge. “She has been a vital member of the YDS faculty since 1991 as a teacher of theology, but her influence has extended far beyond the classroom.

“Serene has been an active participant in day-to-day life on Sterling Divinity Quadrangle, and she has been one of the primary links between YDS and Yale’s professional schools, particularly Law, and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences—where she has played significant roles in the Department of Religious Studies, the Department of African American Studies, and the Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies program”

In making today’s announcement, David Callard, chairman of Union’s Board of Trustees, stated, “Dr. Jones’s exceptional leadership style and distinguished scholarship make her the ideal person to lead this vibrant theological institution, which has been home to notable scholars Reinhold Niebuhr, Paul Tillich, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

“With Dr. Jones’s vision and commitment, Union is positioned not only to continue its role as a leading institution of theological education but also to be a strong voice at a time when religion, with all its pluralistic manifestations, has become an increasingly powerful and divisive issue.”

Jones expressed excitement about taking the reins at Union but noted that she is leaving with fond feelings about her time at Yale—which has included not only 17 years as a teacher but the time she spent earning an M.Div. at YDS and a Ph.D. in theology at the Graduate School, and her early childhood years. Jones was born while her father was pursuing his own degree at YDS, and she grew up around the Yale campus as he completed work on his B.D. and, then, his Ph.D.

“I am thrilled to be at the helm of a institution of theological education as esteemed and historic as Union Theological Seminary,” said Jones. “I am very sad to be leaving Yale, however. My time here—now more than half my life—has been filled with countless treasured friendships and an ongoing sense of intellectual companionship that’s been as rich as it has been expansive.

“Yale Divinity School is a magical place for ministerial formation—no other place like it on earth. The Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program is a community marked by academic earnestness and lively intellectual commitment. And the project I have participated in at the MacMillan Center—The Women, Religion, and Globalization Project—has been the most exciting collaborative endeavor of my career.

“I feel privileged to have benefited from Yale’s many resources over the years, and I will take a great deal of what I learned at Yale with me. After twenty-six years, Yale has seeped into my bones.”

In an interview published in the winter 2005 issue of Spectrum, Yale Divinity School’s alumni magazine, Jones described her teaching style this way: “What I spend most of my time doing is trying to engage and expand [students’] imaginations and hence their deepest desires. I teach and write to their imaginative universes—to the landscape of images, expectations, and possibilities that form the dramatic mental worlds in which their thoughts unfold.”

Emilie M. Townes, the Andrew W. Mellon Professor of African-American Religion and Theology at Yale Divinity School and current president of the American Academy of Religion, said, “I do not think it is a wise or faithful thing to stand in the way of a profound call. It is clear that this is what Serene is answering with her decision to accept Union’s presidency.” Townes, who came to YDS from a teaching position at Union, added, “I believe that she will lead Union wisely and with incredible creativity and foresight and not only will Union be blessed by her leadership, but all of theological education.”

And Margaret Farley, a close colleague of Jones and the Gilbert L. Stark Professor Emerita of Christian Ethics, said, "As an outstanding theologian, an interdisciplinary presence at Yale, a colleague, and friend, Serene Jones will be sorely missed at Yale Divinity School. Nonetheless, her talents are multiple and stunning, so I am delighted that she will now have an opportunity to exercise new forms of leadership not only at Union Theological Seminary but within the national and international communities of theological education."

Laura Wexler, professor of American Studies and professor of Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies program, called Jones “an integral and vibrant member” of the program who is “committed to fostering feminist scholarship and activism.” In Jones’s role as acting chair of WGSS, Wexler noted, she has brought “energy, vision and leadership to the program as it seeks a higher profile in the university at large.”

Said Wexler, “Through her work in gender studies she has also forged a significant new alliance between the Yale Divinity School and the main campus as one of three principle investigators (along with Cheryl Doss and myself) of the Women, Religion and Globalization grant newly awarded by the Luce Foundation to the Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies Program, the Yale Divinity School and the MacMillan Center. I am proud that WGSS has nurtured, and been nurtured by, this exceptional theologian who is so very, very alive to women’s local and global challenges.”

“Clearly, Serene is one of the outstanding young theologians on the American theological landscape, and Union is fortunate to have her at the helm,” Attridge said. “We wish Serene the very best and look forward to continued interaction with her as she pursues new challenges at one of the nation’s great institutions of theological learning.”

Welcome Back, Jim West!

Although this is a little late (he's already written 22 posts in less than two days!), I feel compelled to add my name to the list of those grateful for Jim West's return to the biblioblogging world, despite his initial qualms about doing so. Before his exhaustive and exceedingly popular blog was senselessly deleted by hackers a few days ago, his words frequently rang out throughout cyberspace, calling us to examine and discuss the latest developments in the world of biblical studies, the latest deplorable depravities committed by deviant clergy, etc. Many people have written that they always considered Jim to be a provocative dialogue partner despite dramatic differences of opinion; I, on the other hand, frequently found myself in agreement with his charming rants, with one significant exception (I happen to like Wikipedia, while he thinks it's an abomination). I look forward to reading Jim's ever-humorous musings over my breakfast once more, and encourage everyone to give his new blog a look.

New from OUP: The Origins of Pilgrimage

This looks interesting... too bad I've got no free time in which to read it. ;-)

Pilgrimage in Graeco-Roman and Early Christian Antiquity
Edited by Jas Elsner and Ian Rutherford

This book presents a range of case studies of pilgrimage in Graeco-Roman antiquity, drawing on a wide variety of evidence. It rejects the usual reluctance to accept the category of pilgrimage in pagan polytheism and affirms the significance of sacred mobility not only as an important factor in understanding ancient religion and its topographies but also as vitally ancestral to later Christian practice.

RBL Highlights: 2/21/08

A few highlights from this week's Review of Biblical Literature:

David E. Aune, ed.
Rereading Paul Together: Protestant and Catholic Perspectives on Justification
Reviewed by James D. G. Dunn
Reviewed by Philip F. Esler

Giorgio Jossa
Jews or Christians? The Followers of Jesus in Search of Their Own Identity
Reviewed by Michael F. Bird

John S. Kloppenborg
The Tenants in the Vineyard: Ideology, Economics, and Agrarian Conflict in Jewish Palestine
Reviewed by Richard L. Rohrbaugh

J. Ed Komoszewski and Robert M. Bowman Jr.
Putting Jesus in His Place: The Case for the Deity of Christ
Reviewed by D. A. Carson

BAR Comes to Cyberspace

This just in:

EXCITING NEWS!
March/April BAR is Free and Open Online!

That's right! The entire March/April edition of BAR is free online. It just got much easier to share your favorite BAR articles with friends. And that's not all. Web exclusive "BAR Extras" will let you dig even deeper into the new issue. After reading BAR's cover story on a scholar's bold identification of a royal seal with the infamous Queen Jezebel, read other related articles on this fascinating woman. View more photos of BAR's intriguing "What Is It?" item. Read more on Emmaus and about the fascinating phenomenon of house shrines, including background information on the mysterious house shrine featured exclusively in the new issue of BAR. We're proud to share this issue (and its extras) with you. Please share it with others!

A Breath of Fresh Air with Bart Ehrman

Bart Ehrman's recent 45-minute appearance on NPR's Fresh Air, which focused upon issues related to his new book God's Problem: How the Bible Fails to Answer Our Most Important Question--Why We Suffer, may be heard here.

This Weekend: Religion and Violence

This weekend at the MacMillan Center:

Yale Conference on Religion and Violence, MacMillan Center Auditorium
Saturday, February 16th (8:30 am - 6 pm)
Convened by the MacMillan Center Initiative on Religion, Politics, & Society

The conference on Religion and Violence will take an interdisciplinary approach towards analyzing the relationship between religion and political violence by bringing together historians and social scientists. The fundamental question we hope to begin exploring is if there is something unique or different about religion that leads particular patterns of conflict across time and space.

The day-long event will consist of two panels and a keynote speaker. The first panel, relating to premodern societies, consists of Hugh Kennedy, Professor of Arabic, School of Oriental and African Studies, and Mack Holt, Professor of History, George Mason University. The second panel, relating to the modern period, consists of Paul Brass, Emeritus Professor of Political Science and International Studies, University of Washington, Seattle; Jennifer Todd, Associate Professor of Politics and Director of British and Irish Studies, University College, Dublin; and Malika Zeghal, Associate Professor of the Anthropology and Sociology of Religion, University of Chicago Divinity School. Our keynote speaker will be the distinguished historian Robert I. Moore, Emeritus Professor of History at Newcastle University.

Looking for Something to Do This Summer?

The editors of Biblical Archaeology Review may be able to help...

GREAT SUMMER OPPORTUNITY!
New Dig Site Lets Volunteers "Spend Your Summer in the Past"

A unique new Web site, http://findadig.com, provides visitors with everything they need to know about volunteering at more than two dozen archaeological excavations in the Middle East and Europe. The new Web site has been created by the editors of Biblical Archaeology Review (BAR), the most popular magazine in its field.

Findadig.com contains:
* In-depth descriptions of more than 30 sites currently undergoing excavation
* The historical and Biblical significance of each site
* Descriptions of how volunteers will help at the site of their choice
* Profiles of the dig directors
* Essays by winners of scholarships provided by the Biblical Archaeology Society, which enabled them to join a dig this past summer. Application forms for 2008 scholarships are available on the site.

Participating in a dig requires no previous experience; all that is needed is an enthusiasm for the adventure of digging up the past.

Visitors to findadig.com can also order a free e-book, I Volunteered for This?!, an informative, amusing and sometimes touching collection of articles by dig volunteers culled from BAR. Isn't working on a dig site a dirty and sweaty job? It sure is! But people wouldn't trade it for anything. Almost everyone who has been part of an archaeological excavation describes it as the experience of a lifetime.

Visit http://findadig.com to see why.