Sean the Baptist (in the UCA)

Creation, Conflict and Cosmos: A Conference on Romans 5-8

Thanks to Mike Bird for pointing me to these details about a May 2012 Conference to be held at Princeton Theological Seminary. The list of speakers is impressive, and I am glad to see that there will be opportunity for short paper presentations - something on the relationship between Romans 5 and 2 Corinthians 5 perhaps. I will be on study leave in the first half of 2012, with some of that time spent in the US (hopefully), so this is now going into my diary.

Merrill Kitchen on 'Jesus and His Brothers' in Matthew

Last night was the Annual General Meeting of the Melbourne branch of the Fellowship for Biblical Studies hosted at Queen's College, where I happen to live which means that I have a mercifully short journey to these events.

It was a good evening with a large turnout that meant we were a bit squashed around the dinner table. The paper was delivered by the outgoing President, Merrill Kitchen who was, prior to retirement, Principal of the Churches of Christ Theological College in Melbourne.

Her paper was entitled 'Another Exile: 'Jesus and his Brothers' in the Gospel of Matthew'. Taking her cue from features of the Matthean genealogy (particularly the references to 'Judah and his brothers' and Jeconiah and his brothers' as well as the confusing Matthean enumeration in 1.17 which seems to miscount the 3rd list of names as 14 when there are only 12 or 13) she made a case for Matthew viewing the initial and ongoing disciple community in the light of exilic traditions. Matthew uses 'exile' as a way of accounting for the conflict between his own community that other Jewish communities and as such it is a motif that seeks to construe the community as remaining within but distinct from Judaism. This time, however, the exile is not in Eygypt or Babylon but in Galilee. The inclusio established by Matthew 28.10: 'Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee' sets up a model in which Jesus and his 'brothers' find refuge from a hostile Judea in Galilee. Matthew's own audience (who may be located in Galilee - a suggestion that elicited some strong responses) are therefore to be understood as brothers of Jesus, but also as 'children' of his God, and thus as the missing 14th generation of the genealogy.

I found it a fascinatng paper, alerting me to features of Matthew that I had not previously noticed. I a, sure that the full paper will find its way into print before too long.

The Peter Barcham Lecture: 'A Third Race?: Paul and the Creation of Christian Identity'

In a couple of weeks I am giving the Peter Barcham Lecture at Gisborne Uniting Church: Monday 6th September at 7.30 pm. It is one of the joys of being involved in the Uniting Church that a number of local churches have these annual lectureships, often endowed in memory of significant past church members.  Here is my title and abstract:

A Third 'Race'?: Paul and the Creation of Christian Identity

Some of the earliest Christian believers came to understand and describe Christians as a ‘new’ or a ‘third race' (the other two being Jews and Gentiles). In this lecture I take a look at whether the evidence from Paul’s letters can be used in support of this quest for a distinctive Christian identity. Understanding Paul’s complex and often confusing statements about the relationship between his new faith in Jesus Christ and his ancestral religion, takes us into the heart of his theology and helps us to see what forms Christian identity might assume in the modern world.

John Dominic Crossan in Melbourne

For those who haven't picked up on the news, you may be interested to know that John Dominic Crossan will be visiting Melbourne later this month to give 3 days worth of lectures, plus a public evening lecture. The organizers of the visit are the Progressive Christian Network here in Victoria. I disagree with lots of what Crossan says (after all he did say 'If I am wrong about the sources then I am wrong about everything') but have huge admiration for other aspects of his work, his concern to be appropriately popular in his writing, and his turn of phrase ('A Galilean hippy in a world of Augustan yuppies' being my favourite.) I will be there for some of the lectures, and would encourage anyone who can to come along.

Further details and registration information can be found here.

Synod Bible Studies Taster: A Day in the Life of Jesus

In a couple of weeks I will be giving the Bible Studies at the UCA Synod of Victoria and Tasmania. The theme of the Synod is 'Living God's Transforming Story' (one of those titles that has every evidence of being the result of the deliberations of a committee). However, for some reason it was good enough to prompt me to take a look at Mark's gospel.  Here is what I have come up with for the 4 studies:

The Ingredients of Transformation – A Day in the Life of Jesus

 

The aim of the four studies is to take 4 episodes from Mark’s account of the initial 24 hours of Jesus’ public ministry, and through an exploration of these dramatic scenarios, to consider the necessary ingredients of a transformation that takes its cue from the good news that in Jesus, the reign of God has broken into the reality of this world.

Title: Kingdom Proclamation: Mark 1.14-15

Focus: transformation occurs when action is interpreted by proclamation and when the reality of this world is named as the arena in which God’s rule can be known. A transforming church must give attention to its ability to name God in the world in a way that bears witness to what God has done in Jesus Christ.

Title: Kingdom Invitation: Mark 1.16-20

Focus: transformation occurs when a new possibility is offered for life in the world. A transforming church must give attention to its ability to continually offer to the world a persuasive invitation to join the revolution that begins as Jesus calls his first followers.

Title: Kingdom Confrontation: Mark 1.21-28

Focus: transformation occurs when there is clarity about what must be resisted in the light of God’s intended rule. A transforming church must give attention to how it names and resists evil as a way of making a space and creating a silence in which truth can be heard and seen.

Title: Kingdom Restoration: Mark 1.29-45

Focus: transformation occurs when those who have heard and responded to the good news, and who have learned what must be resisted in the light of it, commit themselves to practices that bring the rule of God into direct contact with the reality of human need. A transforming church must give attention to the ministry of healing as an urgent priority.

I am looking forward to preparing and writing the studies.  On top of the stack of books on Mark is Joel Marcus' fine Anchor Bible commentary.

Paul: Then and Now - Conference Announcement

The final details of the conference that we are hosting here on May 28th 2010 are now available. Click here to download the poster and please publicize the event as widely as possible. The papers being offered on the day are:

Keynote Paper

“Paul, Reciprocity and the Modern Myth of the Pure Gift”

John Barclay, Lightfoot Professor of Divinity at the University of Durham, UK.

 

Other Papers

“Paul and Apocalyptic - What is At Stake?: Considering the Implications of Douglas Campbell’s The Deliverance of God”

Sean Winter, Professor of New Testament at the Uniting Church Theological College (United Faculty of Theology and Melbourne College of Divinity)

“Paul and the Death of Jesus”

James McLaren, Associate Professor and Reader in the School of Theology, Australian Catholic University

It promises to be an excellent day, so please, if you are in Melbourne and can attend or want to travel from interstate, email me and let me know.

My Paper at ANZATS This Year: Ministry in the New Creation (2 Cor 5)

I heard recently that my paper proposal for the ANZATS conference being held in Melbourne this July has been accepted.

‘Ambassadors for Christ’ (2 Corinthians 5.20): Ministry in the New Creation in 2 Corinthians 5.

2 Corinthians offers a sustained example of theological reflection in the light of eschatological conviction. At the heart of the letter lies Paul’s account of the new creation in 2 Corinthians 5. Far from engaging in apocalyptic speculation for its own sake, however, Paul is keen to identify and secure his audience’s ongoing participation in the deliverance of God through Christ. This paper will explore the dynamics of this profound and important chapter, with a view to clarifying the nature of Paul’s core theological convictions and persuasive aims. In particular we shall attend to the importance of locating the ministry of reconciliation within the context of God’s act of new creation. The connection between Paul’s apocalyptic convictions and the designation of the Christian community as ‘ambassadors for Christ’ will be thus be a key theme. It is hoped that the paper will offer further support for a reading of Pauline theology that holds apocalyptic/eschatological convictions at the centre, and offer a timely reminder that the shape of effective ministry is to be determined by the dramatic and disruptive event of God’s advent in Christ.

Advance Notice: Day Conference on Paul - 28th May 2010

Over the next few weeks I will be putting together the final details about a conference being planned here in Melbourne, coinciding with a visit from Professor John Barclay, Lightfoot Professor of Divinity at the University of Durham.

John will be speaking at the Fellowship of Biblical Studies on Thursday 27th May.  On Friday 28th he will give a paper as a part of a day conference jointly planned by the Australian Catholic University and the Melbourne College of Divinity. Other papers, on a Pauline theme, will also be given.

Paper titles and further information will be available in due course. But if you would be interested in attending the conference then please send me an email at [email protected] - teachers and postgraduate students from within the ACU and MCD are especially encouraged to attend, and if you want to make plans to come from interstate, then please put the date in your diary. I can give some information about accommodation options should that be helpful.

Conferences in July 2010

As I have already noted, the first week or so in July is going to look pretty packed with conferences here in Melbourne and beyond.

First up will be the MCD Centenary Conference that I gave details of a while ago, this will run from 5-7 July.

This is immediately followed by this year's ANZATS Conference running from July 7-9. The flyer for the conference is available here, and the call for papers here. The theme for this is:

The Future of God: Eschatology and the global challenges of the future

That God ‘will be who God will be’ is not in question. But the future of God’s
people, of humanity, of the earth and the whole cosmos – these are very much
open questions. Christian faith places its trust in the One who raised Jesus from the
dead, the great sign of the prophets’ vision of a new creation in which all things
would be transformed. What does it mean to live in the light of this hope, that the
future is God’s? How shall we speak of the unknown – and the unknowable?

The 2010 ANZATS/ANZSTS Conference will explore these questions in depth,
drawing on the scriptures, Christian tradition, the natural and social science.

Breaking news is that Professor Paul Fiddes will be in Melbourne to speak at the MCD and ANZATS conferences - this is great news.

Hot on the heels of these two ecumenical events is a Conference running from the 9th-11th July, at the Centre for Theology and Ministry dedicated to exploring theological issues in the Uniting Church of Australia. More information can be found here.  Again here is the conference summary and timetable:

Engaging the Basis

The conference will seek to:

• provide an opportunity for scholarly discussion, debate and exchange of ideas about the theological responsibilities of the UCA and the particular theological commitments of the Basis of Union
• establish a context whereby such a discussion would engage theological scholars, theological teachers, church leaders and other interested parties
• stimulate – through the conference itself and an anticipated volume of conference papers – serious reflection in the wider UCA on the role of theology in the church’s ministry of worship, witness and service.

It will meet these goals by focusing very deliberately and with scholarly discipline on a number of key theologically significant phrases of the Basis of Union. The conference will also include a public forum which will both explore the theological intentions of the Joint Commission on Church Union when it was writing the Basis and reflect on how the Basis has shaped the actual life of the UCA.

Further details of exact titles of the various papers will be posted closer to the time of the conference.

Ben Myers will be at the Engaging the Basis conference (and maybe the others), but with others will be scooting back to Sydney for the Colloquium with Sarah Coakley that he mentioned a while ago, this runs from 12-13 July, which I hope to attend even though July 13th is my birthday!

Roll on July!

Melbourne Institute for Spiritual Studies: 2010 Programme

I am due to speak at the Institute for Spiritual Studies in September this year, and have just sent off the abstract:

Ambassadors for Christ: Mission and Ministry in the New Creation in 2 Corinthians 5. 

2 Corinthians 5 is one of the most profound and important chapters that Paul ever wrote. Through close attention to the dynamics of the text, we will explore the way in which Paul locates the mission and ministry of the church and its ministers in the context of God’s act of new creation. The connection between Paul’s apocalyptic convictions and the designation of the Christian community as ‘ambassadors for Christ’ will be a key theme. The implications of this vision for the church’s self-understanding in the contemporary context and the spirituality that in turn sustains the vision will also be considered.

The full programme for the Institute can be found here.  Other highlights include Peter Carnley and Gerald O'Collins on the local and universal church; my colleagues at Trinity College holding a  day conference on 'Is Scripture Enough?';  Paula Gooder on Paul and Mysticism and William Countryman on The Church: Power and Sex.