Judgment, Noahic style

It appears now that the CERN particle accelerator experiments did not create a 'black hole' and suck the earth and all its inhabitants into something approximating the size of Jim West's brain.

As I awaited news from Switzerland, my mind turned to God's covenant with Noah:

"I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth" (Gen. 9:11)

If the CERN experiment did destroy the world, one could argue (although that would be pretty difficult, what with the world shrunk to the size of a pea) that God had not been faithful to his covenant with Noah to have allowed such a disaster to have occurred (though I note that Goldingay in his OT Theology comments that God never promised to stop humans themselves from destroying the world!).

However, literature in second Temple Judaism could refer to the coming eschatological judgement in a way that explicitly compared the future with the destruction experienced in the Flood. In other words, God's covenant with Noah - to not destroy so cosmically - lasts until the eschaton (cf. passages in the Similitudes of Enoch, for example).

You may know the Caird, Wright etc. school of thought which seeks to understand certain important NT eschatology passages as colourful yet non-literal language used merely to invest history with cosmic significance. But if some second Temple literature could speak of the coming judgment with Noahic-trouble sized rhetoric, it doesn't sound like events in history were being spoken of, but rather the end of history itself.

No doubt I should read Edward Adams' monograph, Stars Will Fall from Heaven: Cosmic Catastrophe in the New Testament and Its World, which has been confidently touted by some of my readers as the ultimate refutation of Wright on this subject. Of course, if the hermeneutic of, for example, the authors of 1 Enoch could be more literal in terms of eschatological doom, it doesn't follow that the same is necessarily true of the synoptics.

Quote of the Day

On the reason for the multivocality of the Old Testament witness:

[T]he biblical material itself ... refuses to be reduced or domesticated into a settled coherence. This refusal may not be simply a literary one but a theological one, pertaining to its central Subject. The restless character of the text that refuses excessive closure, which von Rad understood so well, is reflective of the One who is its main Character, who also refuses tameness or systemization. Thus it is the very God uttered in these texts who lies behind the problems of perspective and method

Walter Brueggemann, Theology of the Old Testament (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1998), p. 42

Book Review – Dictionary of OT Wisdom, Poetry & Writings

Thanks to IVP for a review copy of the Peter Enns and Tremper Longman III ed. Dictionary of the Old Testament Wisdom, Poetry & Writings.

This is the third Old Testament volume in the now famous IVP "Black Dictionary" series, offering almost 150 articles covering, as the blurb says, 'all the important aspects of Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Psalms, Song of Songs, Lamentations, Ruth and Esther'. Of course, as with any similar reference dictionary, the articles will be uneven, yet these volumes have already established themselves as reflecting quality scholarship even if the spectrum of perspectives is more narrow than that represented by, say, the Anchor Bible Dictionary. But whatever your academic standpoint, at 1,000 pages this volume will need to be a to-hand resource for anybody working on the field of Wisdom, Poetry or Writings. Contributors include the likes of Brueggemann, David deSilva, Peter Enns, John Goldingay, Allan Millard, Philip Johnston, and many others, and a sample of some entries listed under 'A' can be found here. Of course, one major bonus this volume has to offer is that the various bibliographies will be up-to-date.

The earlier IVP volumes could fall into the trap of functioning like a compendium of sporadic apologetic essays on various themes, rather than rounded reviews of scholarship and serious contributions to academia – even though they were stil immensely useful. My impression was that this apologetic trend reduced in the following NT related volumes, a shift in general ethos that I suspect has continued with this volume (though I haven't, of course, read all of the articles so I cannot say for sure). Either way, I am very glad to have the Dictionary of the Old Testament Wisdom, Poetry & Writings on my shelf and I will make regular use of it.

"At last, a fully comprehensive, fascinating compendium of information about Psalms, Wisdom literature and other writings of the Old Testament! From characters such as Ruth to major Wisdom books such as Job, from scholarly method to major theological themes, this volume gives us articles of real depth and substance. Its broad and thorough remit includes contributions on Jewish and Christian tradition, festival worship, ancient Near Eastern background and Hebrew language from a range of highly qualified experts in the field. An essential reference book for all serious-minded students of the Hebrew Scriptures."

- Katharine J. Dell, Senior Lecturer in Old Testament Studies, University of Cambridge

SPTC Webpage facelift

The able folks at HTB have updated the St Paul’s Theological Centre (SPTC) webpage, and I think it looks pretty cool. If anybody can think of any other suitable quotes to go at the top of the webpage, drop me a note in the comments.

I suggest a word game instead of a quote, saying “Make sense of the following: Instantly Money Chris Ministries Holy Tilling Very Really Donate or Guilty Feel”

Or perhaps: “Come to learn more about the Bible; Leave, drunk on the swill of Bultmann, having your universe demythologised to oblivion”

Or: “Read, diligently study and agree with everything penned by Tom Wright - the sure way to good grades in your New Testament modules”

Or: “Aids to patch up your flailing Sacred Canopy” (I know, I suppose that isn't funny even if you have read Peter Berger)

Or: “Free weekly live demonstrations on how not to handle the New Testament”

Or: “Don't ask the NT Tutor difficult questions that make him look stupid – he took a large dose of gamma rays as a kid and has been known to turn green”

For the Chrisendom uninitiated, I am of course kidding ... (apart from the Wright bit)

Is the Pope the number 1 German theologian?

Cicero Magazine thinks so.

But their list is so off-whack it's almost offensive, so I am not taking it altogether too seriously (they put Anselm Grün on place 11 [!] ahead of Wolfhart Pannenberg and Eberhard Jüngel, on places 21 and 22 respectively!!! Enough to make me cough up my tea)

Quote of the Day

"Christian Theology is not, in its most elemental form, a terribly tame and dutiful discipline; students of theology need to be intrepid and bold, even passionate"

Mark A. McIntosh, Divine Teaching: An Introduction to Christian Theology (Blackwell, Oxford: 2008), x

Quote of the Day

On what 'really happened' in the Old Testament:

"The pressing question almost everyone would agree is not, 'Did it happen?' but rather, 'Why on earth did they tell their story like that?'" (in John Holdsworth's entertaining SCM Studyguide, The Old Testament, 54)

I would simply add, in the spirit of Brueggemann, that the pressing question is also 'What on earth does their story actually say?'

Inducted into SPTC

Today in London I had the joy of being officially inducted into the staff of St Paul's Theological Centre. I can't tell you how exciting all of this is. To top it off, I returned home to find my new computer speakers, WinTV USB stick and digital aerial ... so I'm busy watching Family Guy!

My thanks to David Vinson for kindly sending me a copy of Kenton L Sparks' God's Word in Human Words: An Evangelical Appropriation of Critical Biblical Scholarship! This looks like a hugely helpful volume on a massively important and open-ended discussion.

Book review: Enoch and the Messiah Son of Man

My thanks to the kind folk at Eerdmans for a review copy of the Gabriele Boccaccini ed. Enoch and the Messiah Son of Man: Revisiting the Book of Parables (Cambridge: Eerdmans, 2007).

Given my new teaching commitments, the move to the UK, my need to finish my doctorate while holding down a full-time job etc., my book reviews will become less detailed and thorough – at least until the middle of next year. Nevertheless, I plan to accurately introduce you to some great books in the following weeks. For a perfectionist like me, it will surely be difficult to keep my comments to a minimum!

Today I wanted to draw attention to the important book noted above. I read this from cover to cover in a few days, thirsty for more knowledge on what I was slowly coming to realise was a hugely important text for early Christianity: the Similitudes of Enoch (chapters 37-71 of 1 Enoch). Most consider these chapters to have influenced at least Matthew's eschatological discourse, and a copy of the first chapters of 1 Enoch were very possibly known in the earliest Christian community in Jerusalem (as Jude 14 testifies, at least if the author of Jude is considered a member of the Jerusalem church. Bauckham thinks so: Richard J. Bauckham, Jude, 2 Peter [Waco, Tex.: Word Books, 1983], 14–17; Bauckham, "Jerusalem," 86; Richard J. Bauckham, Jude and the Relatives of Jesus in the Early Church [Edinburgh: T. and T. Clark, 1990], 171–78. Whether he is right about this or not will be disputed, of course, and I refer to David R. Nienhuis' new volume Not by Paul Alone for discussion – a book on my 'to read' list). Certainly, Enochic ideas were floating around in the first century that influenced the young Christian movement, and these chapters of Enoch are a crucial window into that world of thought. And one need not accept the developed (and questionable) speculations of Margaret Barker, or such like, to swallow this pill: understanding the Similitudes of Enoch will help one better understand early Christianity. Conservatives and all others simply need to accept this. Indeed, 1 Enoch is actually still considered canonical in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Daniel C. Olson, in Enoch: A New Translation (North Richland Hills, Tex.: BIBAL Press, 2004), details well the many ways 1 Enoch is important for understanding early Christianity in his introduction, so I refer to that for more on this subject (though, frankly, I don't see much, if any, influence of these chapters on Paul – and the supposed allusions proposed by Nickelsburg in his commentary and Anchor Bible article leave me decidedly unconvinced. At the very least, Paul was still breathing in a landscape touched by Enochic myths).

So if the above 'pill' needs to be swallowed, how does the Boccaccini volume shape up to the task of helping one better understand the issues involved in scholarly discussion on the Similitudes?

In a word: brilliantly.

This volume was the most important help for me in clarifying my thoughts on numerous fronts concerning 1 Enoch 37-71, it showed me where modern scholarly discussion is 'at' in relation to the chapters (the contributors are leading scholars in the field, including Boccaccini [bet you didn't see that one coming!], Nickelsburg, Knibb, VanderKam, John Collins, Grabbe and many others – see the full list here) and provided a number of excellent examples of scholarly acumen. Perhaps my favourite article was Matthias Henze's utterly brilliant and devastating response to an essay of the volume's editor (cf. "The Parables of Enoch in Second Temple Literature: A Response to Gabriele Boccaccini" pp. 290-98). The articles were well organised and managed to retain something of the dialogical character of the Enoch Seminar at Camaldoli, upon which the book is based, and thus made the reading experience all the more enjoyable.

Of course, in any volume like this the essays will be uneven. But instead of griping about this or that article/argument, I do want to raise one objection: there is no index in the back, not for authors, subjects or, most importantly, for the primary texts. Nicht Gut! I would also recommend that the reader not uncritically accept Sacchi's concluding summary regarding the supposed consensus concerning the dating of 1 Enoch 37-71. In other words, don't think you can read the conclusion alone!

Whether you are interested in learning more about the Similitudes of Enoch, or whether you are an Enochic scholar, there is much in the precious volume. In terms of 1 Enoch 37-71, this is, by miles, the first non-commentary book that I would recommend.

Islam researcher doubts existence of the prophet Mohammed

This ought to cause a bit of a stir!

Your favourite theology quotations

Oh pool of collective theological brilliance, what are you favourite theology quotes, ones that manage to say something profound in a punchy way?

For example: "If our faith does not stretch our minds it will probably not stretch our lives" - Mike Lloyd.

While looking on the net for similar lines I came across this slightly more cynical offering by Dawkins: "What has 'theology' ever said that is of the smallest use to anybody?" ... which, of course, says more about his knowledge of theology than anything else!

Quote of the Day

"Christologie wird bei Küng wieder neu, was sie ursprünglich einmal war: eine Suchbewegung unter der Leitfrage: Wer ist dieser? Welchen Gott verkündet er?"

Karl-Josef Kuschel in his essay "Hans Küng: Neue Horizonte des Denkens" in Hans Küng – eine Nahaufnahme, p. 57. With an impressive list of contributors and at only 10 euro, this book is what German's would call a definite schnäppchen.

My thanks to Hans Küng

For kindly sending me a copy of the new book: Hans Küng – eine Nahaufnahme. A nice touch is that it arrived in the post on my last full day in Germany, and that in the front Küng wishes Anja and I all the best for, as he puts it, 'Merry Old England'!

I haven't gotten too far into the book yet, but Karl-Josef Kuschel's chapter, "Hans Küng: Neue Horizonte des Denkens", is simply brilliant – a must read for anyone interested in Küng's work.

Guest Book Review: Pagan Christianity

Cardinal Spin* reviews Pagan Christianity, by Frank Viola and George Barna.
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Utter crap

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* Disclaimer: The views expressed in articles published on Chrisendom are those of the authors alone. They do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of Chris Tilling Really Very Holy Ministries, or its staff, nor do they represent the views or opinions of Her Majesty the Queen, the McDonalds restaurant chain, the Pope, or any entity of heavenly, intermediary or earthly nature. Just that of the author.

Finally back in the UK and online

After two very long car journeys, a plane flight and much hassle with my laptop, I am glad to say that I have safely arrived in the UK ready not only for my new teaching position, starting on the 16^th of September, but also for the London School of Theology NT conference. I am very much looking forward to meeting folk, and I gladly have the opportunity to present and receive feedback on my own paper 4 pm tomorrow afternoon, so here is my usual request for your prayers:

Dear Lord, may all the attendees at the LST NT conference blindly love Chris' paper, and may the unrighteous, those who are tempted to disagree with his obviously anointed thesis, stub at least one toe on a desk as punishment. Amen.

Happy Birthday Jim West!

Yes, that most prolific, controversial and Zwinglialtrous of authors, the Bultmannaphile Jim West, celebrates his birthday tomorrow. Unfortunately, I will be on the road all day so cannot mark the occasion on the proper date, plus I need to write this straightaway before I pack the computer into a box. So here is a raised glass to my good friend, the king on the chessboard of biblioblogs, the 'main man' on the floor at SOTS. To be remarkably inventive: may you live long and prosper. Let's face it, life would be a duller matter without Jim's blog, not to mention our regular conversations on MSN Messenger.

But now that I have gone out of character and publically been nice toward the man, expect the worst from my keyboard for the next few months.

Driving to the UK

Tomorrow we set off to London loaded with more books than the suspension of most Vans can carry, a large dollop of heaviness of heart at the countryside, friends and family I am leaving, and a huge serving of excitement about the new St Mellitus post, seeing my family again and all of the new friends I hope to make (yes, please be my friend – I pay good rates).

If you are the praying sort, do think of us driving from Tübingen to London tomorrow.

It is nice to be quoted

Especially when I agree with myself.

This is the new banner of opensourcetheology:


The graphic links to information about Andrew Perriman’s book, Otherways, and I fully stand by my cited comment. Whatever Perriman publishes I get my hands on as soon as possible - few authors stimulate my thought as much. My brain was busy with aspects of his argument in Re:Mission yesterday, as I went to pick up cardboard boxes for the move. Great fun! And despite what Crest says, the book has nothing to do with being an ‘emergent Driscollite’!

Surprise Quote of the Day

"Reading Paul is not reading other people's mail. It is reading mail meant for all of us, however we may construe Paul's message"

No, not from the pen of a conservative trying desperately to refuse the historical situatedness of the biblical text, but from Alan Segal's essay ("Universalism in Judaism and Christianity") in Paul in his Hellenistic Context, ed. Troels Engberg-Pedersen, p. 29.

Fruit-loop link of the day

File this one in the same draw that contains the concaveworld and flat-earth cosmologies.

Disclaimer

Given that I am about to take up the post of NT Tutor at St Mellitus, I suppose I had better add a disclaimer to this blog at some stage, to the effect that 'the opinions here expressed are not necessarily representative of St Mellitus or St Paul's Theological Centre, but usually only reflect those of a slightly caffeine-high Chris Tilling'. I say 'usually' not only because I have the occasional guest poster, like Richard Bauckham and more importantly Cardinal Spin, but also because I later realise I don't always agree with what I've written!

Update: I have added a temporary disclaimer to the sidebar

Guest Book Review: OT Ethics

My thanks to Phil Sumpter for the following review, and to the kind folks at IVP for the copy.

Christopher J. Wright, Old Testament Ethics for the People of God (Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 2004)

The title alone is enough to make you baulk at the scope this volume attempts to achieve. This isn't just a description of the ethics of ancient Israel, nor is it a description of the ethics found in the literary deposit of this community: “the Old Testament.” It is an attempt to locate the ethics of both within their true Sitz im Leben, the lived contemporary reality of the true Israel, the Church. Before we even enter its pages, then, one can expect at the outset an attempt to integrate historical critical, literary, philosophical, and theological concerns in a synthesis of the like rarely encountered in the guild of biblical studies. Whether Wright has succeeded will remain to be tested by those with an adequate knowledge in all these areas. Critique by specialists in only one area will run the risk of confusing the particular with Wright's broader vision.

A three-dimensional approach to OT ethics such as this, which strives both for descriptive accuracy and theological normativity, cannot be content to tell us “what the OT said.” A model is needed in order both to integrate the parts and span the horizons, and this is the task Wright's first section: A Structure for Old Testament Ethics. He takes the now well-known route of “world-view” analysis (á la N.T. Wright) in order to provide a context in which to make sense of and correlate the mass of OT ethical material. Though he often talks of “what an ancient Israelite thought,” it is clear that the world view he has in mind is the one presupposing the entire OT canon – an entity with its own hermeneutical and theological integrity (see footnote 3). If one poses this totality the four “world-view questions” (Where are we? Who are we? What's gone wrong? What's the solution?), we come up with an “Israelite” answer along the following lines: we are in God's creation, created for relationship in the image of God, the created order is in a state of fallenness due to our rebellion and so God's solution has been to initiate a historical project of redemption. The “we” in the narrow sense is Israel, elected to be the means of God's redemption in the world. As Wright goes on to explain, this “we” can be expanded in different directions: either paradigmatically to stand for humanity as a whole, eschatologically to stand for the redeemed community of the eschaton, or typologically to refer to the church.

Wright identifies three primary “actors” in this world-view who stand in triangular relationship to each other: God, Israel and the Land. This so-called “ethical triangle” provides Wright with a framework for sifting through the diverse OT material as well as a foundation for expanding the OT material beyond its original horizon.

These three “pillars of Israel's faith” are padded out in the following three chapters. Accordingly, the “theological angle” provides us with the “fundamental axiom” of OT ethics: “ethical issues are at every point related to God—to his character, his will, his actions and his purpose” (23). Wright takes us through the OT's presentation of God's identity, particularly as it is manifested in the narrative accounts of his actions. This activity, salvific in nature, provides a foundation for ethics. God takes the initiative (e.g. the exodus), his people respond, and obedience flows out of thankfulness for this action. These actions are combined with God's speaking (e.g. at Sinai) in order to bring about his purposes for creation through Israel. Wright sums up the heilsgeschichtliche context: “Old Testament ethics, based on history and bound for a renewed creation, is thus slung like a hammock between grace and glory” (35). In the meantime, our actions should be grounded in a knowledge of this God as we emulate him by “walking in his ways.”

The “social angle” references Israel on the triangular grid. Wright points out that within the aforementioned meta-narrative, redemption has a social dimension. In Gen. 12:1-3 God responds to the fall by choosing a nation, which was to pattern, model and be a vehicle of this redemption. In terms of the application of OT ethics, then, our hermeneutical procedure must take very seriously the communal nature of the people of Israel. We must not jump from isolated principles to the present, but rather first locate that principle within its original social context. Only then can we draw an analogy with present “Israel,” before going on to see the implications for the world at large. Yet the distinctive nature of this nation as opposed to the other nations must not be lost. This nation has a unique experience of God, which gives its history a didactic quality. Through it we learn about God (the “theological angle”) and we learn how to live (the “social angle”). In short, Israel is God's paradigm, an important concept for Wright as he attempts to make Israel's ethics ours. According to Wright, a paradigm is

a model or pattern that enables you to explain or critique many different and varying situations by means of some single concept or set of governing principles” (63).

Israel as paradigm helps the Church today implement what was true then to a new situation now.

The final essential element in Israel's world view is the Land, providing us with an “economic angle.” When understood within Israel's story, we see that the promised land is a theological entity, part of the pattern of redemption. The understanding of the land as both divine gift and divine tenement, for example, has what Wright calls “enormous paradigmatic power” for the appropriation of Israel's economic ethics. Within the divine economy, we see that the welfare of the land and its inhabitants functioned as a “covenantal measuring gauge,” signally the quality of the relationship between God and his people.

Following the belief that “God's relation to Israel in their land was a deliberate reflection of God's relation to human kind on the earth” (183), Wright moves on in the following two chapters to work out the implications of this “redemptive triangle” for the ethics of ecology and economics in general. In the case of ecology, for example, he discovers parallels to the affirmations made at the narrower level concerning Israel in the land of Canaan: “divine ownership (the earth belongs to God, Ps. 24:1) and divine gift (the earth he has gifted to humanity, Ps. 115.16)” (103)—the so-called “creation triangle.” This double claim becomes the foundation for Wright's ethical reflection in the following two chapters. The fact that a concern for ecology is largely foreign to the authors of the Bible demonstrates how we can paradigmatically appropriate the Bible's principles for issues beyond the Bible's original horizon.

The most intriguing chapter is the sixth, in which Wright, having now illustrated ways in which the Bible can be paradigmatically appropriated, rises once again to theory in order to discuss two others ways of appropriating the OT: the eschatological and the typological. By means of fascinating triangular diagrams, he shows how these different methods are distinct yet complementary. Paradigmatically interpreted, for example, the land becomes the earth as it is now: cursed. Eschatologically, the past becomes a template for the new, and so we have a foretaste of the new creation. Typologically, for the apocalyptic community caught at this point in the “in-between-time,” the land is now fulfilled by the koinonia, the fellowship of believers. This complex interrelationship is then demonstrated exegetically in relation to the jubilee (Lev. 25).

The rest of this main part of the book is dedicated to further ethical issues: politics and the nations, justice and righteousness, law and the legal system, culture and family and finally the way of the individual. The volume is rounded off in Part 3 with a historical overview of the church's wrestling with this question, a bibliographic overview of the contemporary attempts to deal with the question of OT ethics from a confessional standpoint and a detailed discussion of hermeneutics and authority in the OT. A final appendix presents us with some broad perspectives which Wright finds helpful for setting the “Canaanite question” within it the context of broader biblical considerations. Though Wright doesn't feel he has solved the issue, he feels these considerations help “contain” them.

In response, I can only echo a critic's comments on the blurb at the back of the book: this book is “truly a magnum opus and should be at the top of the reading list for any student, teacher, minister or layperson interested in the relevance of the first part of the Bible to modern ethical issues.” Issues that have dogged the church since its inception are taken up once again and re-articulated in a clear, logical and thorough manner, taking into account the latest developments in rhetorical, literary, and, to a degree, canonical criticism. Whether Wright's conclusions become the consensus opinion of the next generation obviously remains to be seen, but I can't imagine future discussion of the issue ignoring the well-thought out arguments laid out in this book.

Breaking News: Jim West is being replaced

In an historic and unanimous decision, the Church Committee of Jim West's Baptist Church have voted to remove their Pastor from active service and to replace him with a new preacher. To quote their official statement, their new appointment preaches sermons "that make much more sense than those of Pastor West".

While we should all keep the West family in our prayers at the moment, having seen some online video footage of West's successor, I can understand their decision. 

Thought of the Day

Better not to be a minimalist or a maximalist because the variety of literature in the biblical canon(s) tends to resists being explained in terms of only one or the other.

Shed a few tears

I'm standing just a week or two before moving back to England, so today I took the last of my Tübingen library books back to the library (I had over 150 out at once for a while)

It was tough parting with those guys – been with me for years. I stuck my bottom lip out at the lady who scanned my books in to try to make her feel guilty, hoping she would say 'aw, go on then, take this one as a gift for your faithful use of our library for 6 years'.

But no. All I got was a flippin nod. And so all my beloveds were left behind on the book cart, no doubt as distraught as me.

I took the opportunity to run a few cats over on the way home to calm my nerves.

But to cheer me up, the storm we had today made for perfect conditions for a few drive-by-baptisms. What made it particularly sweet was that David, my passenger, is a Latin language expert, so he (while I was concentrating on covering the baptismal candidates with an anointed wave of muddy street water) could lean out the window and perform the necessary liturgy in Latin (in nomine Patris... etc) – which makes it even more holy, of course. Today's candidates seemd to get particulaly excited - waving their hands all over the place, jumping up and down. Veritably Florida-like in its charismatic effects.

But my blatant lying aside, I will seriously miss Tübingen library. Perhaps it is the world's best theology resource.

Alternative Worship

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Theological conversion: the day Brueggemann messed with my head

As many of my readers know, I used to be a screaming conservative street preaching 'it's not religion it's a relationship' ethical black and white liberal = evil Catholic bashing Christian pop music listening shine-Jesus-shine singing puritan paperbacks reading borderline-Fundie. While there is much about that background for which I am grateful, I'll never forget the day I was sitting in a bus (prayerfully) listening to a Brueggemann lecture on the OT portrayal of God.

What a shock it was for my theological world. At that stage I didn't know too much about Brueggemann expect that he wasn't on my usual 'safe' list. But his dismantling of my assumption that exegesis and systematic theology exist in a straightforward relationship was a world shaking moment from which I never recovered. The Old Testament, I learned, was not a book of settled theology; it was doing theology and generating a variety of testimonies concerning God. Perhaps von Rad had the same effect for an earlier generation, but having listened to Brueggemann I left the bus literally feeling sick; sick, but forever delivered from naive assumptions that had crippled my engagement with the bible and theology. I struggled with what he said, but later I came to very much appreciate the door he opened into a new theological world. So thanks, Walter.

A New Laptop

This week I have wasted more hours than I care to remember installing software, copying files to, internet updating etc. my new laptop. It is a PC because the Apple version is obviously evil. Besides, with 320 GB HD, 3GB RAM, 2 Ghz Duo core CPU – this was love at first sight. More importantly for a cheapskate like me: the price was right. Plus it was called 'Multimedia-Knaller', so we had to buy it!

All this means, of course, that my usual stream of blog-related lexical diarrhoea shall continue unabated.

A Perfect Birthday Gift

Jim West's birthday is around the corner, and I found the perfect gift for him at Amazon. The figure's name seemed so utterly appropriate for Jim.

Also, you will see that there are some cheap models available via the 'used & new' option. Although I still thought it a bit too much to spend on him.

Book Review: The Quest for Paul’s Gospel

First, my thanks to T & T Clark for a review copy of Douglas A. Campbell, The Quest for Paul's Gospel: A Suggested Strategy (London: T & T Clark, 2005)

The Quest for Paul's Gospel is an ingenious and innovative, if unusual, book. Rather ambitiously, Campbell attempts to sketch a 'grand strategic' plan for understanding Paul's Gospel, an approach for understanding the Apostle's thought in its entirety.

First, Campbell seeks to justify the necessity for such a grand-strategic thesis. Importantly, he defends himself against potential postmodern objections which would question the need to conceptualise and systematise an objective Gospel at all. Contrary to this, and other issues, Campbell believes his project is vital in recovering Paul's theology for the church out of the hands of anti-theological readings most notoriously represented by Heikki Räisänen. Only by postulating a coherent Pauline understanding of 'Gospel' can the Apostle speak powerfully to and through the church today.

To this end Campbell's argument proceeds in three steps.

In step one he details the main strategic options for understanding Paul's Gospel. The main contenders, he argues, the following three models: justification by faith (JF), pneumatologically participatory martyrological eschatology (PPME - similar to what many have designated as an 'apocalyptic' approach), and salvation-history (SH). Importantly, in chapter 2 he maintains that only one of these models, unless Räisänen's anti-theology approach is accepted, must be adopted at the exclusion or subordination of the others. They cannot all be right. For Campbell, the PPME model constitutes the heart of Paul's Gospel.

In chapter 3 he elaborates on what is meant by PPME, offers reasons why 'apocalyptic' is not the best label, and details the relationships between the various words, 'pneumatologically', 'participatory', 'martyrological', and 'eschatology' which constitute the PPME model. Importantly, he makes a case for the elimination of the SH model as a contender for Paul's Gospel by assimilating its concerns into his preferred PPME model.

Step two of Campbell's argument seeks to answer such questions as what the PPME Gospel is, and what it means for the church today. To do this he examines the narrative dimensions of Paul's letters, particularly that of Romans 5-8, what he calls 'the textual heartland' of the PPME approach. His analysis isolates the story of Christ in Paul's letters, one which includes trajectories of Christ's descent and ascent. An added strength of the PPME model, in light of Campbell's analysis of the model in terms of the Christ-story, is that it involves a complete soteriology.

Chapter 5 is an extended meditation on Galatians 3:28, a passage Campbell believes presents the PPME model in nuce. In particular, the abolitionist thrust of the passage evidences the a-posteriori (not a priori) logic of the PPME model. Whereas the SH and JF models both assume a first phase or given state-of-affairs, and from this point work forwards, the 'PPME model works backwards. It is an a-posteriori account of salvation, a retrospective model, which begins with the solution and then defines the problem in the light of this revelation' (47). This is one reason why it is impossible to adopt the JF and/or SH models together with the PPME model. They belong in completely different theological worlds and can only relate to one another via subordination or exclusion.

In light of this Campbell examines, as a case study, the question of gay ordination in relation to Paul's Gospel understood in terms of the a-posteriori nature of the PPME model. Essentially, Campbell argues that to be consistent to the PPME heart of Paul's Gospel, one can argue that gays can be ordained as such sexual distinctions are rendered null and void in light of Christ (here building on his reflections on Gal. 3:28). That Paul's ethical reasoning appears to explicitly contradict Campbell's assertions can be explained on the basis of the Apostle's own inconsistency: when Paul reasons ethically a priori, from the way things are, from creation, the Apostle falls into the binary ethics of exclusion and oppression that the heart of his Gospel actually negates (according to the PPME model). So Campbell writes: 'Paul's analysis of society in terms of serried binary oppositions lacks theological authority. It is neither christologically derived, not fundamentally scriptural; it depends on Athens, not on Jerusalem' (120). The a-posteriori logic of the PPME model, on the other hand, recognises that 'the clearest insight that we get into God's purposes as given to us in Christ in redemption is also our clearest insight into creation' (119). And so the PPME model helps the church to creatively think ethically through modern issues in a way that is faithful to the heart of Paul's Gospel even though it may need to critique the apostle where he has not been consistent enough to his own proclamation. This makes for fascinating reading! In chapter 7, Campbell argues that the a-posteriori, retrospective logic of the PPME model also helps clarify the relation between Paul, Judaism and the law in a way that is acceptable in a post-Holocaust world.

Step three of Campbell's thesis seeks to engage with what he considers is the main competitor to the PPME model, namely the JF model. If his own model is to win the battle as a coherent explanation of the heart of Paul's Gospel, then it needs to either eliminate or subordinated the JF model, and to justify this move exegetically where the JF model appears to have a strong foothold. To do this he engages with two terms that are foundational to the JF model: 'faith' and ' works of law'. But in order to first grasp the scope and nature of the JF model, he brilliantly examines the JF model in more depth in terms of its contractual construal of Paul's Gospel. While the contractual JF model 'has a rigorous internal coherence...; and number of explanatory strengths; an impressive church-historical pedigree; and a reasonable number of supporting texts in Paul, including an extensive section of his most important that, Romans' (164), the entire contractual understanding of Paul's Gospel is deeply flawed. Its main difficulties cluster around its portrayal of 1. Natural theology; 2. The justice of God; 3. Christ and the Atonement; 4. The nature of Judaism; 5. conversion; and 6. The nature of Christian existence. Campbell's prose sparkles with energy as he lampoons the JF model on these fronts.

This analysis of the JF model leads to a deconstruction of its supposed basis in Paul's letters. First Campbell disputes that its understanding of faith is coherent with Paul's notion of pistis (chapter 9). In chapter 10 Campbell builds an impressive and convincing case that pistis in Galatians 3:15-29 is best understood christologically, as indicating Christ's faithfulness -- not the faith of believers in Christ. Finally, in Chapter 11, Campbell attempts a complete rereading of Romans 1:18-3:20 in such a way that contradicts the reliance of the JF model on this text. Rather than expressing the apostle's own considered opinion throughout, Paul, so Campbell argues, presents the understanding of his Jewish-Christian opponents in these chapters, and through his argument cleverly undermines them.

Campbell cuts to the chase in his conclusion and states that: 'my central contentions have been that the theological future of Paul, and hence much of the church, lie in what I have called the PPME model of his Gospel, and here only. Every other objective spells disaster, but this objective holds the promise of total victory' (262).

A Response

What is one to make of this brilliant and often persuasive thesis? There are undeniable strengths to Campbell's arguments, sharpened as they are by Campbell's impressive intellectual grasp of the many interlocking issues and themes. In this respect one could mention his analysis of the narrative dimension in Paul. Campbell focuses on the Christ-story, one actually found in some Pauline texts and is thus not merely a story presupposed by 20^th century scholars. This way of dealing with narrative in Paul has some advantage over narrative patterns that are not actually found in Paul. The ethical vision of Campbell's thesis is also exciting and his criticisms of the contractual nature of the JF model almost worth the price of admission alone. However, while I was much stimulated by Campbell's proposals, I have not often marked a book with so many question marks! I will limit myself to mentioning the following potential problems with his thesis.

1. Campbell cites NT Wright as the 'foremost representative ... today' of the SH model (cf. 24 n.22). And the SH model, Campbell tells us, reasons only a priori. But I argue that this is a straw man portrayal of the SH approach. Indeed, Wright himself is a clear example of a broadly SH approach which embraces continuity and discontinuity most effectively (cf. his Romans commentary where he explicitly states the vital necessity to grasp both continuity and discontinuity [N. T. Wright, "The Letter to the Romans. Introduction, Commentary, and Reflections," in The New Interpreter's Bible, ed. L. E. Keck, et al. (Nashville: Abington, 2002), 402-3], and Paul: Fresh Perspectives [London: SPCK, 2005] where he masterfully works this out in detail through various themes)


2. Construing Paul's theology in terms of a-posteriori and a priori approaches may make a lot of sense in 20^th century, especially post-Barthian, theology. However, and building on the previous point, I remain unconvinced that it is a helpful way of seeking to categorise Paul's Gospel so as to illuminate the flow of thought in Paul's letters themselves. As Francis Watson has argued:
   

   'For Paul, it is more important that scripture should shed light on Christ than that Christ should shed light on scripture. Paul has no independent interest in the meaning of scripture as such: the meaning of scripture is identical to its significance, and both are to be found in its manifold, direct and indirect testimony to God's saving action in Christ. Scripture is not a secondary confirmation of a Christ-event entire and complete in itself; for scripture is not external to the Christ-event but is constitutive of it, the matrix within which it takes shape and comes to be what it is. Paul proclaims not a pure, unmediated experience of Christ, but rather a Christ whose death and resurrection occur "according to the scriptures" (1 Cor.15.3-4). Without scripture, there is no gospel; apart from the scriptural matrix, there is no Christ. The Christ who sheds light on scripture is also and above all the Christ on whom scripture simultaneously sheds its own light. In Galatians 3, for example, Paul does not simply assert that scripture must be read differently in the light of Christ, so as to refute opponents who appeal to scripture on their own ground. Rather, Paul's rereading of scripture is determined by his single apostolic preoccupation with the Christ-event, which must be interpreted through the lens of the scriptural witness' (Francis Watson, Paul and the Hermeneutics of Faith [London: T&T Clark, 2004], 16-17)

3. A good litmus test for whether one has understood Paul is to ascertain whether too much in Paul's letters speaks against a certain case. To push Pauline material away as theologically inconsistent with the heart of Paul's Gospel (as Campbell does in relation to Paul's ethics) or as the views of Paul's opponents (as Campbell does in relation to Rom. 1:18.3:20) should thus raise warning signals that Paul has simply been misunderstood. Indeed, Campbell's argument in relation to Romans 1-3 is perhaps the weakest link in his chain. While Paul could cite his opponents or positions he would later critique (as in 1 Cor. 8, for example), Paul's 'irony' in Romans 1-3 is not so marked (there is, for example, no hoti marking a view not his own, and the argument of 1:18 simply flows on from 1:17 thematically – especially clear if one keeps the content of the cited Habakkuk in mind).


4. Finally, the tone of the book is, in my judgment, overly polemic and employs far too many aggressive military metaphors to make his argument. I agree with Michael Gorman's comment on an earlier post on this blog here, and look forward to his forthcoming (fall 2008) Eerdmans book, Inhabiting the Cruciform God: Kenosis, Justification, and Theosis in Paul's Narrative Soteriology, which pursues a 'more synthetic model' than Campbell's.

These point aside, I would end this review with a hearty recommendation. If you have recently discovered the SH model and/or have begun to feel that the JF model does not square as well with Paul's texts as you previously believed, then before you simply lock, stock and barrel accept the approach of, say, Wright or Dunn, give Campbell's PPME model a hearing. Not only has it much to offer the exegete in terms of insight, it has a tremendous amount of potential for wisely thinking through a variety of both theological and ethical matters.

CTRVHM is coming back to England

After about 6 years in Germany, living just outside beautiful Tübingen, we are moving back to London, UK. Not only that, but I am moving back to take up a post as NT Tutor at St Mellitus College and St Paul's Theological Centre! *Chris enters another double-whopper super sized Graham Kendrick Benny Hinn-ised angelic chorus of 'Hallelujahs'!*

Of course, this is all extremely exciting for us. I will detail more in due time (the last few weeks have been rather hectic, as you can perhaps imagine), but I cannot tell you how much we are looking forward to working with everyone at Holy Trinity Brompton, St Mellitus College and St Paul's Theological Centre.

Here is their announcement.

Our sincere thanks to all those who prayed and were in any way involved in the whole process.

Guess the Author

'[D]ogmatics as such does not ask what the apostles and prophets said but what we must say on the basis of the apostles and prophets'

Not hard, this one. So here is the idea: the first to get it wrong gets picked on by the rest of us for a week or two.

Recent Purchases

While in London, a couple of weeks ago, I purchased the following books:

• John Ziesler, Paul's Letter to the Romans. For just 1 pound! A big Benny Hinn 'AAMMMMEEEENNN' for that (and a Benny Hinn 'TOUCH!' for good measure)
  
• Robin Parry, Worshipping Trinity. I have already mentioned this one. A fun and important read, especially for those of us in the broadly evangelical / charismatic tradition.
  
• Graham Tomlin, The Provocative Church. Ever have the feeling that evangelism and theology often operate in two different worlds? Or that those interested in one are inversely interested in the other? Ever wondered why the NT doesn't often speak about 'telling your friends' about Jesus? Reading this has both been challenging and liberating at the same time, and Anja too is now reading it (which is always a good sign!)
  
• Francis Watson, Paul, Judaism, and the Gentiles. Picked up at LST bookshop (thanks for the loan, Nick!). I haven't started it yet, but I am really looking forward to this one.
  
• Mike Bird, A Bird's-Eye View of Paul. I had this as a pdf already, but it is so good I just had to get a hard copy. I will use this when I teach Paul.
  
• Michael Lloyd, Café Theology. While I'm not finished yet, this has been a delight to read. Very rarely will you find a footnote to Derek Prince, immediately followed by a footnote to Hans Urs von Balthasar. But you do in this book! Though he has taught theology at Oxford and Cambridge Universities, and is presently lecturer at St Paul's Theological Centre, he writes very smoothly for a wider audience. It will help some to think through their faith at a completely new level, and prompt others to simply put the book down and worship. Highly recommended (You may know Mike - and Graham above for that matter - from Godpod).
  

Yesterday I popped into a few bookshops in Tübingen. I found some great deals:

• Richard Swinburne, Was Jesus God? I've not read any Swinburne before, so this will be a new experience for me.
  
• Peter Stuhlmacher, Biblische Theologie des Neuen Testaments. Band 1 (Jesus and Paul). Flippin only 16 euro! YEEEEESSSSSSSSSS!
  
• Utterly shockingly, I found a special deal on Alois Grillmeier's five volume work, Jesus der Christus im Glauben der Kirche. Get this: five volumes for only 39,90 euro! Originally these books totalled to 274 euro! I saved 234,10 euro!
  

Right, enough blogging. I'm off to read.

Your advice once again

Someone mentioned a book in the comments to the previous post, namely Teaching at University: A Guide for Postgraduates and Researchers by Kate Morss.

Would anybody suggest any other book recommendations on giving lectures, marking papers and such like?

Probing your collective wisdom

Let us imagine you could teach a NT introduction course to 1^st and 2^nd year undergraduates in 10 sessions. In this imaginary scenario there is already a really superb looking syllabus, but you simply want to think through different options.

What would you suggest should be covered? What themes, NT books, background matters, exegetical approaches, etc. would you want to see discussed? Especially if you preach regularly, what have you found to be of the most enduring help when you look back on NT introduction courses?

I quickly dashed off the following without adding too many details – yet soon realised it was too much to cover in 10 sessions! Nevertheless, I will leave it unchanged and simply ask what would you alter, delete or add to the following:

Session 1: An overview of the Biblical Drama (A discussion on the basic trajectories of the biblical narrative(s), with an emphasis on the place of the NT in the unfolding drama; narrative criticism)

Session 2: Historical Jesus debate (The various modern approaches [Jesus as Cynic, restoration eschatology, etc.]. Testimony, historicity and theology – Bauckham)

Session 3: Matthew's Gospel (or Mark, or Luke?) – engaging in depth with one Gospel (what is a Gospel? the place of the Gospel story in the unfolding biblical drama; analysis of parables; the synoptic problem; miracles)

Session 4: The Olivet discourse, the passion and resurrection (including a look at textual and redaction analysis)

Session 5: Acts, and mission of the early church (historical criticism)

Session 6: Foundations for understanding Paul (epistolary and social scientific analyses, creation and covenant, Messiah, apocalyptic, monotheism, Paul's biography)

Session 7: Romans 1-11 (models of interpretation, Käsemann, Wright, Esler)

Session 8: 1 Corinthians (including a look at rhetorical analysis; Christology)

Session 9: Hebrews (middle Platonism or scripture? Intertextual analysis)

Session 10: Revelation (Apocalyptic and political subversion)

I would really appreciate any thoughts. For those of you who know what this is about, please don't say anything in the comments ...

Margaret Barker on the web

I stumbled across her webpage today: http://www.margaretbarker.com/index.html

While I find some of her arguments quite unpersuasive and even odd, she is a biblical scholar of considerable reckoning. With a writing style that reminds me a little of Martin Hengel, she consistently makes delightfully creative links between different literature, primary texts she knows extremely well. Have a look at her numerous papers, made available online on the above-mentioned webpage under the 'Papers' tab. I'll order her Temple Theology (SPCK, 2004) in the next few days.

Fundamentalism + belligerence = disturbing Youtube videos

This Fundie preacher apparently forgot 2 Timothy 2:24-25: "the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kindly to everyone, an apt teacher, patient, correcting opponents with gentleness"

Utterly shocking. How should theologians best seek to respond to this kind of perversion of Christian behaviour?

For Corinthian Aficionados

Albert V. Garcilazo's, The Corinthian Dissenters and the Stoics, has received a glowing RBL review by Stephan Joubert. It is on my list of 'to reads'. A number of years ago Graham Tomlin argued for an Epicurean background for the same group ('Christians and Epicureans in 1 Corinthians' JNTS, 1997, 68. pp. 51-72).

Quote of the day

From the 'Author's Preface' to the first of Dunn's two-volume Word commentary on Romans:

'When the possibility of contributing Romans to the Word Biblical Commentary was put to me ten years ago I almost declined the invitation'

Thank God he didn't!

Friday is for Flatulence

As you do, I just typed into the search engine of my Libronix Digital Library the word 'fart'.

Douglas Stuart's Word commentary on Amos returned the following bibliographical reference

Fart, G. "The Language of Amos, Popular or Cultic?" VT 16 (1966) 312–24.

Poor bloke, I bet he had an interesting time at school. It makes me wonder what the 'G' stood for? 'Great'? 'Gaseous'? - both of which would have made for hours of playground fun. And if we want to be utilitarian in our ethics (greatest happiness for the greatest number), there is a case for making it morally necessary that G. Fart should be so named – for the happiness of all of his school 'friends'.

Oh yes, Tübingen library also has the following item:

Weber, Susanne L., Surface gravity waves and turbulent bottom friction: the evolution of the wind-wave spectrum in shallow seas, Utrecht, Rijksuniv., Diss., 1989

Which resulted from searching the great Tübingen theological resources library for 'wind' and 'bottom'.

As one does.

Don't look at me like that!

Actually, Tübingen library yields far worse. I also found a 1985 Microfilm document (Beeinflussung des Trunkenheitsgrades durch kombinierte Alkohol- und Medikamenteneinnahme) penned by a certain Peter Schitter. Either he was bullied at school for that or he ought to have been (utilitarianism).

Back in Germany

And a few books the richer.

And I was ill, flippin eck. Hence the lack of blogging.

But my health returned today, thankfully, so time to inflict more posts on the world of biblioblogdom...

One of the books I purchased in England is Robin Parry's Worshipping Trinity. Robin has written an immensely readable book, encouraging that the charismatic church re-grasps the Trinity in its worship. Even though his message is very important and thus serious, it had me laughing aloud on the tube every now and then. Having detailed the problematically practically 'unitarian' and 'Jesus only' content of much evangelical worship, he writes:

I vividly recall a sermon illustration used some years ago in the church. The visiting preacher took a frog and placed it in a pan of cold water and slowly heated the water until it boiled. The point was that if you turn up the heat slowly the frog doesn't notice and will hang around whilst getting boiled alive! I hasten to add that the illustration is in fact mythical and the frog was not a real one (although, interestingly, this fact was not revealed until later and yet we all sat smiling uncomfortably as the chap boiled what we took to be a real frog – fuel for psychology books there). I suspect that slowly but surely there has been a shift away from full Trinitarian worship towards worship that is often in practice 'unitarian'. This shift is not uniform, it is not the same in all churches, it sometimes waxes and wanes, and it has hardly reached boiling point, but I want to blow the whistle and say, 'FROGS OF THE WORLD UNITE! We're being boiled alive here! Let's leap out of the pan before the bubbles start rising!' One simply has to ask the painful question, 'At what point does worship cease to be Christian worship and become simply Christians worshipping?' (pp. 2-3)

Especially if you are an evangelical with charismatic leanings, like myself, this book is a real 'word in season'. This reminds me to point out the online English translation of Jüngel's Trinitarian Prayers for Christian Worship (a pdf file).

Neologism of the Day

Main Entry: Wrighteous
Phonetic pronunciation: [EnTeeWright-eous]
Function: noun

This noun is used to denote a type of biblical exegesis that is characterised by astonishing accuracy and insight. It can also be used, in less formal settings, adjectivally: ‘that academic is one Wrighteous dude’; ‘he is a Wrighteous exegete’ etc. Verb: If one finally grasps the meaning of a biblical passage then one can say that he has Wrighteoused it: ‘I Wrighteoused the living Bultmann out of that reading of John 3’ etc.

Quote of the Day

On the train coming back from central London today, I read the following Moltmannian delight:

"God is nowhere greater than in his humiliation. God is nowhere more
glorious than in his impotence. God is nowhere more divine than when he becomes man"

The Trinity and the Kingdom, Jürgen Moltmann, 119

The last line, being the end of a meditation on incarnation and kenosis, struck my theological inner man with particular force. "God is nowhere more divine than when he becomes man". I can't help but feel that there is something wrong with the claim, but perhaps the problem is mine. A true thought-provoker!

What do you think of this?

Namely, of the lyrics of Brian Doerksen’s song “Thank You For The Cross”.

I am simply curious to hear whether it gets your thumbs up, or down, and why you think as you do.

I will only add here that the tune seems rather out of phase with the lyrics at times. When the music goes all soft and extended, as if expecting a worshipful raised hand or such like, you are singing "Every one of us deserves to die"!

I tend to think this may be a line the death metal monk may better capture than the soft twiddles of a guitar and piano!

Video care of Scott Bailey's grin-inducing blog

His death scream at about 18 or 19 seconds in to the clip makes me chuckle every time I hear it. I may try to occasionally make the same sound if I run out of Marmite in Germany, get checkmated in a game of chess, hear bad teaching in a semon, get stuck behind a slow driver, or other such situation.

Chrys Caragounis responds to the Gaventa review

A few days ago I published Alisha Paddock’s helpful review of Beverly Roberts Gaventa's, Our Mother Saint Paul (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2007)

Chrys Caragounis, Professor in New Testament Exegesis at the University of Lund, read Alisha’s review and sent me some of his thoughts concerning the claim that Paul, in 1 Thessalonians 2:7, “portrays himself both as an infant and as a nurse, taking care of her own children” (Alisha’s summary of one of Gaventa’s argument).

Chrys strongly disagrees with this reading!

I have uploaded his 1 page letter as a pdf here. Do give it a read as on all such Greek language matters, Chrys is an internationally recognised leading authority. I think it is exciting that blogs like this can facilitate such scholarly dialogue.

By the way, the article, which he refers to in his letter, can be downloaded here. Click the top option, “Did Paul Behave?”

I sent Alisha a copy of Chrys' letter before I left for England, and she has already written a brief response in the comments to her guest post. I think it is the mark of a good review that it generates such discussion. So if you want to review any more, Alisha .... :-)

I must say, Chrys' article is rather impressive, and it functions, I would add, as a good case study to demonstrate one of the points made in his book The Development of Greek and the New Testament. Namely, that a linguistic and philological inquiry needs to address “the evidence of the entire history of Greek” (p. 5 of his online version of the Festschrift article).

A London Visit

Tomorrow I am flying to England on important business. Apart from hopefully finding time to visit the LST Bookshop, I won't divulge the reason for my trip here. I simply want to say that any prayers are much appreciated for a blessed time.

Besides, I'm getting through my Asda Teabags, and if they run out ... pandemonium breaks loose.

Time to stock up, in other words, with the essentials:

• Marmite
• Asda Teabags
• More Asda Teabags

So if you see a slightly overweight but devastatingly handsome chap in London, obsessively reading theology books, stuffing his face with salt and vinegared fish and chips almost constantly - that may well be me. I need a fix every now and then to control my specifically English shaped vices.

A new blog of note

My friend Robin Parry of Paternoster has just started his own blog, and his first few posts are simply delightful. But don't be too clever and witty, Robin, it will just make the rest of us look bad – and then I'll have to delete your blog like I deleted Jim... No. I won't finish that sentence.

Do check it out:

http://theologicalscribbles.blogspot.com/

Over 1,000 posts on Chrisendom

Time for a bit of self-congratulating nonsense.

I just passed 1,000 posts for Chrisendom; this is number 1003. I have had enormous fun in the process - and have learnt a lot from many of my readers' comments too.

To celebrate the occasion I'm going to make myself a cup of tea ... and suggest a little competition.

The challenge is to complete the following sentence. The winner will be posted, from the Chrisendom Merchandise Department, a bottle of CTRVHM Miracle Healing and Sin Removal Holy Phlegm (apply to forehead). Plus a bit of honour.

Complete this sentence (wicked suggestions get eschatologically judged)

"Chrisendom has now over 1,000 posts of sheer brilliance, theological innovation, exegetical insight, ecumenical subtlety, and ...."

Books that have made me cry

1. The Pan Guide to Circumcision without Anaesthetic
   
2. Jim West Writes a Commentary on your Favourite Bible Verse (series)
   
3. 1001 Recipes with Onions
   
4. The Penguin Guide to Becoming a Eunuch: The Blunt Scissors Edition
   
5. Little Johnny Gets Pelted in the Face with Yellow Snowballs by Andrew and his Older Brother

Quote of the Day

"Anyone who perceives God's presence and love in the God-forsakenness of the crucified Son, sees God in all things"

Jürgen Moltmann, The Trinity and the Kingdom, 82

Guest Book Review: Our Mother Saint Paul

My thanks to WJK for a review copy and to Alisha Paddock for her review.

----------------

Beverly Roberts Gaventa, Our Mother Saint Paul, Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2007. 218 pages, $24.95.

In Our Mother Saint Paul, Beverly Roberts Gaventa embarks on a project long in the making. Gaventa has long been interested in Paul's use of metaphors, especially those referring to the role of mother. She not only combines articles previously written, but also brings them up to date by adding new insight and research. In this book, Gaventa takes on two tasks. First, she investigates four passages in which Paul uses maternal imagery and second, she explores Paul's theology, specifically in Romans, keeping God's apocalyptic act at the forefront of her discussion.

In part one, Gaventa argues, and rightfully so, that the passages in which Paul employs maternal imagery have been neglected or glossed over in recent scholarship. After isolating these passages, Gaventa discovered that Paul uses these metaphors to add new dimensions to the apostolic office. In 1 Thessalonians 2:7, Paul portrays himself as both an infant and as a nurse taking care of her own children. Apostles are not only to be innocent and childlike, but also "the responsible adult" who tends "charges with care and affection" (27).

In Galatians 4:19, Paul writes that he is going through the pain of labor again until Christ is formed. Paul is so desperate not to let Galatians return to their pagan ways, he is willing to go through the painful birthing process again. Gaventa argues that Paul shows how an apostle is to "birth" people into the family of God.

In 1 Corinthians 3:1-3a, Paul is dealing with spiritually immature believers who cannot handle solid food, but milk provided by a "nursing" Paul. This utilization of maternal imagery has a three-fold function. One, it stresses the importance of the concept of family (which is lacking in the Corinthian community). Two, it "places Paul at the margins of what is perceived to be 'genuine' manhood," to show the apostolic role is of servant leadership (50). Three, it emphasizes the bond between Paul and the Corinthian believers which is akin to the bond between a nursing mother and her child.

In the final passage (Romans 8:22), Paul is not the one who takes on the role of mother, but it is all of Creation which is in labor. Here Gaventa contends that one has to read this text apocalyptically. Even though Creation is in labor, what is awaited is not Creation birthing something, but God's actions of adoption and redemption (57).

The second part of Our Mother Saint Paul attempts to place the passages from part 1 into their proper apocalyptic context. The first half is an in-depth look at Paul's autobiographical remarks in Galatians 1 and 2. Gaventa argues strongly that these verses should not be looked upon only as an apology, but as a way to show how the singular gospel Paul preached puts an end to "all prior commitments, conventions and value systems," including Paul's Jewish beliefs (93).

The second half of part two thoroughly examines the letter to the Romans and its apocalyptic context. Gaventa explains that God had an active role in handing over Creation to "cosmic conflict" (113). She also clarifies that the idea of sin in Paul's letter is more than a transgression, but an anti-God Power (capital 'S' Sin) that is defeated by Jesus' resurrection (127). With this defeat of the cosmic powers believers are liberated, but this freedom comes with certain behaviors and boundaries. Believers are actively to support one another, be engaged in prayer and thanksgiving, all serving in the house of the Lord. The boundaries of the believing community are "the shared memory of God's action" against Sin and Death and "God's persistent calling and saving" of both Israel and Gentiles (143).

One of the more important contributions to Pauline discussion OMSP brings is a new framework in which to deal with the issue of women in the Church. Gaventa maintains that Paul's gospel is one that "obliterates worlds" (68). There is no room for gender in Christ. Instead we are a new creation in which identity markers mean nothing. Gaventa does not attempt to answer the questions she poses, but to present them in order to prompt more discussion.

Beverly Roberts Gaventa sheds light on texts and wrestles with issues that have been in the dark too long. But there is one issue I have with the book. Part one and part two do not seem to be connected. After the introduction of part two, there is no mention of maternal imagery; the focus turns wholly to explaining Paul's apocalyptic context. Gaventa needed to work a bit harder keeping the theme of maternal imagery at the forefront of the reader's mind. This might have been achieved had there been a conclusion to the book. A summary would have helped the reader place the metaphors mentioned in part one into their apocalyptic context. Overall, Gaventa sets forth a new and refreshing perspective that will add much to Pauline scholarship, doing a wonderful job going where few men have gone before.

Alisha Paddock

Manhattan Christian College
Manhattan, Kansas

Neologism of the Day

Main Entry: Zwinglis
Phonetic pronunciation: [schwinglis]
Function: noun

This noun is used to denote an uncontrollable and ferocious public flatulence that not only embarrasses the suffering party, but also causes multiple vomits from watching bystanders. Plus children cry and need therapy for years afterwards. Precisely this state of affairs is called 'having the Zwinglis'. As a verb: 'the man zwinglied on the pavement, and the people began to puke'. Participle: 'look at that poor soul, he is zwinglining like a park water sprinkler'. Adjective. 'zwinglian stains are hard to remove, even with fire'.

Neologism of the Day

This is the first in a series proposing new words that should be added to the dictionary.

Main Entry: Asbestosunderpantsinsurancepolicy
Phonetic pronunciation: [aspestos-underpants-insurance-policy]
Function: noun

This noun is used to denote certain versions of the gospel preached in some more conservative pulpits. It can also be used adjectively, e.g. 'That pulpit thumper sure laid on thick the asbestosunderpantsinsurancepolicy gospel, today'. As a verb it becomes, e.g. 'I asbestosunderpantsinsurancepolicied the men's bible study group'.

Link of the month

R.T. Jones has provided the entire Judeao-Christian world a religious service by putting to music the Philo passage blogged here yesterday.

No, I'm not kidding!

Immediately you will find that Philo becomes curiously relevant and trendy again ... in a Pop Idol kind of way.

I'll be nodding my head to this one for weeks, all the more prepared to whip it out at the opportune moment. This is to music what a toilet is to a man with a weak bladder caught in a traffic jam for the last 4 hours. A total musical release.

Actually, it is rather brilliant - almost genius, in a song lyric ear-molestation type of way. I still can't get the tune out of my head ... ('those who hate virtue')

http://rtjones.wordpress.com/2008/07/08/singing-philo-helps-me-communicate-better/

Philo helps me communicate better

At the beginning of Philo's On the Confusion of Tongues there is a particularly tortured defence of the divine logic behind the Babel incident. In Conf. 33 Philo writes of ...

'those who hate virtue and who love learning, use speech as their ally for the exposition of doctrines which are disapproved; and again, on the other hand, virtuous men employ it for the refutation of such doctrines, and for establishing the irresistible strength of the better and true wisdom'

Step one: Memorise the above Philonic nugget. Step two: Enjoy various social conversations until you are contradicted and opposed by some disagreeable person. Step three: After the expressed disagreement, mutter Philo's words under your breath a few times so that it can just about be heard. Step four: When Philo's bombshell has carved a moment of silence in the conversation, flirt a self-righteous glance in the direction of your detractor. Step five: Walk away feeling rather smug that you quoted Philo from memory.

How do you understand the ‘δικαιοσυνη θεου’ in Paul?

Yes, that's anew picture of me on the right. Ladies, get a control of yourselves – I'm already married.

Many of you no doubt know the many different options for understanding the phrase 'δικαιοσυνη θεου' in Paul. As I am about to teach on this subject, I would find it most helpful and interesting to hear from any of you how you understand this phrase. As a righteousness from God, or, as Luther put it, 'die Gerechtigkeit, die vor Gott gilt'? Or as God's own righteousness? If so, how would you understand that? Relationally? Covenantally? Or how? Or would you perhaps see both subjective and objective readings somehow involved? Or sometimes one, sometimes another? Shower me with your wisdom!

To show my own hand, I usually understand this phrase (and yes, also in 2 Cor. 5:21, despite what some say) as referring to God's covenant justice and faithfulness.

Book Reviews

I thought it might be useful to list all of the book reviews on this blog. I may have left one or two out, but here are all I found today.

I'll update this page with each new review.

My book reviews:

• Enns and Tremper Longman III ed. Dictionary of the Old Testament Wisdom, Poetry & Writings
• Gabriele Boccaccini ed. Enoch and the Messiah Son of Man: Revisiting the Book of Parables
• Douglas A. Campbell, The Quest for Paul's Gospel: A Suggested Strategy
• David Flusser, Judaism of the Second Temple Period. Volume 1. Qumran and Apocalypticism
  
• Parry, Robin, and Mary Healy, eds. The Bible and Epistemology
  
• Multipart: Goldingay, Old Testament Theology. Volume 1: Israel's Gospel, and Old Testament Theology. Volume 2: Israel's Faith.
• Multipart: Hauerwas, Prayers Plainly Spoken
  
• Eds. Thomas C. Oden, and Cindy Crosby, Ancient Christian Devotional: A Year of Weekly Readings
  
• Klyne R. Snodgrass, Stories with Intent: A Comprehensive Guide to the Parables of Jesus
  
• Michael J. Gorman, Reading Paul
  
• Tom Sine, The New Conspirators: Creating the Future One Mustard Seed at a Time.
  
• Andrew Perriman, Otherways: In Search of an Emerging Theology
  
• David Bentley Hart, The Doors of the Sea: Where was God in the Tsunami?
  
• Colin Duriez, AD 33: The Year That Changed the World
  
• Multipart: Gordon D. Fee, Pauline Christology: An Exegetical-Theological Study
  
• Multipart: Richard Bauckham, Jesus and the Eyewitnesses
  
• Eckhard J. Schnabel, Der erste Brief des Paulus an die Korinther
  
• Multipart: Chris VanLandingham, Judgment and Justification in Early Judaism and the Apostle Paul
  
• Thomas A. Robinson, Mastering New Testament Greek: Essential Tools for Students
  
• Scott J. Hafemann, Paul, Moses, and the History of Israel
  
• Larry W. Hurtado, How on Earth Did Jesus Become a God?: Historical Questions about Earliest Devotion to Jesus
  
• Short note on three books: Peter deRosa, The fatal flaw of Christianity, Marcus Borg, The Heart of Christianity, and Brian J. Walsh and Sylvia C. Keesmaat, Colossians Remixed: Subverting the Empire.
  
• Multipart: Hans Küng, Der Anfang aller Dinge
  
• John Franke, The Character of Theology: An Introduction to its Nature, Task and Purpose
  

Guest book reviews (reviewer in brackets):

• Jerry L. Sumney, Philippians: A Greek Student's Intermediate Reader (Luke Welch)
• James McGrath, The Burial of Jesus: History and Faith (Nelson Moore)
• Christopher J. Wright, Old Testament Ethics for the People of God (Phil Sumpter)
• Beverly Roberts Gaventa, Our Mother Saint Paul (Alisha Paddock)
• Alister McGrath, Doubting (Nelson Moore)
  
• Nick Solly Megoran, The War on Terror: How Should Christians Respond? (Phil Sumpter)
  
• Meich Pearse, The Gods of War: Is Religion the Primary Cause of Violent Conflict? (Phil Sumpter)
  
• Luke Timothy Johnson, Hebrews: A Commentary (David M. Moffitt)
  
• Andrew Purves, The Crucifixion of Ministry (Phil Sumpter)
  
• Mikeal C. Parsons, Luke: Storyteller, Interpreter, Evangelist (Luke Welch)
  
• Gerald R. McDermott, God's Rivals (Kathrin Wanner)
  
• Neil Livingstone, Picturing the Gospel: Tapping the Power of the Bible's Imagery (Phil Sumpter)
  
• Marcus Jastrow, Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature (David M. Moffitt)
  
• Lee Martin McDonald, The Biblical Canon: Its Origin, Transmission, and Authority (Dr. Thomas Scott Caulley)
  

Your preferred model for understanding Paul’s gospel

I will shortly be publishing here a long overdue review of Douglas A. Campbell's highly stimulating work, The Quest for Paul's Gospel: A Suggested Strategy (London: T & T Clark, 2005). His chapters on homosexual ordination, and the one on the 'justification by faith' in terms of its contractual construal were particularly fascinating!

As I shall explain, he offers three main models for understanding Paul's gospel:

1. The 'justification by faith' one
   
2. The 'salvation history' model and
   
3. The pneumatological participatory martyrological eschatology model (which in important ways is similar to what others call an 'apocalyptic' model) – Campbell makes a case that this is the best one to adopt.

What is your preferred model for understanding Paul? Salvation history? Apocalyptic? Justification by faith? Something else?

I think that in order to understand Paul's letters, one must accept a certain amount of salvation historical continuity. This also carries with it the recognition that there is no free-floating object called 'Christ' unrelated to the scriptures and the scriptural story(ies) (a point Watson makes in Paul and the Hermeneutics of Faith – another book I will review in the next few weeks). Nevertheless, to understand Paul's letters one must equally accept a degree of discontinuity, novelty and outrageous creativity in Paul's thinking in light of his relation to Christ. If we insist too strongly on one or the other we will misrepresent the Apostle.

With those points in mind, I like to understand Paul's gospel in terms of salvation history (informed at points by the 'justification by faith' approach) and apocalyptic. Indeed, the mysteries God reveals in apocalyptic literature is often the plan of God's saving actions, i.e. salvation history! They do not exist in either/or (a point made beautifully by Wright in Paul: Fresh Perspectives).

Zum Thema: NT Wright hat in allem mehr recht als Zwingli

In ALLEM.

Selbstverständlich. Unzweifelhaft. Gewiss. Natürlich. Zweifellos. Sogar beweisend

Nie vergessen

Zwingli is to Wright what a cave painting is to a Michelangelo or Monet, what a course of leeches is to antibiotics or penicillin, what an albeit vigorous and tasty carrot is to a three course meal at the Ritz Hotel. Anybody who denies this hasn't understood Wright.

Not to be provocative, of course ...

Baptismal Verse Ideas

If you are a churchgoer you may have a tradition of choosing a bible verse for those being baptised or confirmed. Kid 1 comes to the front, is either dunked, sprinkled, or awarded a piece of paper, and is given a bible verse too. Kid 2 does the same but receives a different bible verse. They are usually of the 'God is with you' sort, which is fair enough. But I thought it would be interesting to swap some of the texts the night before to spice things up a bit in the service, and to provide a tad more variety.

To give to the porky one (yea, yea, porky like me. I saw that one coming):

Judges 3:17 'Then he presented the tribute to King Eglon of Moab. Now Eglon was a very fat man' (Fat like you)

To give to the one that annoys you:

1 Chronicles 1:24-26 'Shem, Arpachshad, Shelah; Eber, Peleg, Reu; Serug, Nahor, Terah' (Get some existential soul-stroke out of that one, sonny)

To give to the whimpering spotty one with no friends:

Hosea 1:6
'Then the LORD said to Hosea, "Call her Lo-Ruhamah"' (explain Lo-Ruhamah means 'not loved')

Or if you think that is a bit too mean, you could unleash the following on the spotty one:

Jude 23 'hating even the coat from the flesh spotted' (for particularly spotted flesh)