I had my Viva a few days ago. Steve Walton and Larry Hurtado, my examiners, scrutinized my thesis thoroughly, yet happily it was accepted with only minor corrections. Now I will become Dr Chris Tilling, I trust all you plebs out there will finally start treating me with a bit of awe and respect!
I have really enjoyed writing my thesis, and I think it makes a decent contribution to the whole Pauline divine-Christology debate. I can now think about getting my work published. Indeed, I think the whole area of Pauline Christology, especially as it impinges on the divine-Christology debate, needs fresh impulse.
Actually, my Viva has got me considering what sort of qualities the future of NT research needs to cultivate. Courage is now right near the top of my list - it takes guts to challenge the views of established authority figures. I think the best of NT scholarship will also develop and encourage a broader vision, one that grasps significance beyond lexical studies and syntactical analysis and dares to look also into related epistemological factors, ontology, interweaving theological themes etc. In many ways, Doug Campbell's The Deliverance of God, represents the sort of work that will move NT research forward.
Without, of course, forgetting all of the necessary ingredients (such as diligence, care, language proficiency etc.), what qualities do you think the next 50 years of NT scholarship needs to develop, to advance debates?
36 comments:
Huzzah! Congratulations Dr. Tilling!
Congrats!
Congrats and I look forward to reading the published thesis. Nice meeting you at SBL by the way.
Congratz, Chris!
Well done!
Congratulations!!!!
Congratulations, Dr.Tilling! Keep up the good work.
Celucien
Congrats!
Congrats, Dr. Tilling!!!
Congrats, indeed, Dr. Tilling.
You are right. It takes courage to challenge the status quo. I pray that you will have that courage, for it is both a difficult but necessary duty.
Congrats!
Jonathan
Congratulations, Chris; that's great news.
Well done, Chris.
In answer to your question, I would say that there actually has to BE debate before the debate can be moved forward. Scholars so often ignore each others work and fail to engage in internet discussions. If "debate" consists of a publishing proposals, rebuttals and counter rebuttals with 5 year intervals, no-one's life span will be long enough for real progress to be made.
Congrats, Doc, that's really fantastic!
As for qualities within NT scholarship, I would be very happy if scholars on all sides would be more open about the partisanship they practice (not only theologically or ideologically but also socially and economically). I think this is essential both for the quality of dialogue that can occur, but also so that scholarship can also be more life forming and transforming than it currently appears to be.
Congrats, once again!
Hi Chris
Thanks for the news via Skype as well. Congratulations, well done etc etc etc.
Chris, Congrats!
Well done mate, very pleased for you.
NT scholarship would really benefit from the participants in debates having the guts and conviction to honestly question their own theological leanings rather than awkwardly defend them regardless of the evidence to challenge them.
It would also benefit from extra funding as well :)
Congratulations Chris, really good news.
Good news, Chris!
Congratulations!
Us plebs treat you with respect? No chance!
Congratulations, Chris - I look at this blog from time to time and look forward to more challenging ideas.
I hover on the edge of theology. One could argue that there is a desperate need for theologians to be more aware of work in other disciplines. Theology is still too much of a closed shop. Has any expert on classical literature endorsed Richard Bauckham's foray into Greek literature on which his thesis - so well explored by you, Chris- depends?. I know that HISTORIANS find the likelihood of eyewitnesses who spoke Greek and lived long enough to inform the gospels very improbable. Richard Swinburne is widely ridiculed by mathematicians for his use of Bayes' Theorem ( it has been said there were probably fifty people working within 500 yards of him in Oxford who could have told him how he was misusing it if he had bothered to ask) and even John Polkinghorne's use of science seems bizarre at times. This does nothing for the status of theology outside theology departments. It is important because if Christians are to take a full part in major debates on ethics, science, etc, they have to be able to write in clear English and persuade others OUTSIDE the discipline. So there is much work to do! Good luck.
Congratulations! As a non-theologian I have learned a lot from (the more serious parts) your blog and I hope you will now find the time to do more thoughtful and "courageous"blogging. It would be great for example to hear more from you about "The Deliverance of God" - and also when is your friend Mark going to post something - or have I missed it?!
ausgezeichnet!
The quality that NT scholarship most needs to develop is the ability to have some impact on the average person in the pew, especially the average evangelical person in the pew. Otherwise it's just eggheads talking to other eggheads.
And here again,
congrats!
I think your ministry needs a revised name bro. Well done.
For me it is humility, I sadly find this lacking. Humility that allows other voices to be heard and challenges them fairly and with great care. I also think anonymous has a point - we need to find creative ways for our work to make its way to the pews and beyond.
Congratulations!!!
Congrats!
Just kidding! Congrats!
DOCTOR Tilling? Is that all? I'm waiting to someday call you SIR Chris! "Hey kids, let's go to the SIR CHRIS! They have gargantuan, grey, peanut-eating theologians there, who employ elephantine logic to lift heavy dogmas!"
Congrats sir!
Any chance you could tell us more specifically what it is that you argue for in your thesis regarding the significance of the Christological language that Paul uses?
Thank you all for your kind comments!
So can I read this thesis somewhere, or at least skim over it stroking my beard and pretending to be interested?
Nailed to a door somewhere perhaps?
Well done.
congrats all the way from Malaysia!
Just picked up the news on your blog – bravo, and congratulations!
Thanks, guys!
Post a Comment