Sean the Baptist (in the UCA)

SBL: Good and Bad

I had no real inclination to post detailed reflections on this year's SBL Annual meeting in Chicago. Mark Goodacre pointed out that the use of Twitter was an important part of proceedings this year, and even I had a go at it. Not sure what I think.

Instead, I thought I would list 5 good and 5 less good aspects of the Conference for me, in no particular order.

Good

1. People: always the main event, getting to spend time with so many people who (a) share a professional interest and some of whom (b) you also count as personal friends. It was especially good to connect with members of the Chester TRS Department, my dear, dear friends Alan and Ellie Kreider and Brad Braxton, and many other US and UK friends.

2. Papers: the usual mix, but the highlights were a session on Gender, Sexuality and the Bible, Dale Allison's whirlwind presentation in the John, Jesus and History unit (also mentioned by Mark Goodacre) and Thomas Schmeller's elegant negotiation of the bridge between 2 Corinthians 1–9 and 10–13. I also very much enjoyed the session honoring Chris Rowland and discussing the recent Festschrift in his honour.

3. Meetings: On Saturday morning I met Clifford Green, who is Executive Director of the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works in English project (one more volume to come in 2013) to discuss wider dissemination of the articles gathered together in Pacifica 25.2 (July 2012) which I edited. Green's book on Bonhoeffer's Theology of Sociality was what reconnected me Bonhoeffer's importance, so it was a pleasure to meet with him before going to hear David Congdon talk about Bonhoeffer's understanding of mission.

4. Receptions: Friday and Saturday nights were quiet. Monday was Chester, Oxford, Kings and Scottish, with T & T Clark/Bloomsbury and Sheffield on Monday. T & T Clark's was the best of these.

5. Books: Only 6 purchases of which the most important are NA28 and Konrad Hamann's biography of Bultmann, which I plan to read slowly alongside a re-reading of Bultmann himself over the summer break.

6. Chicago: sorry this makes 6, I wrote the others first, but this also needs to be mentioned. Its a great city.

Bad

1. The McCormick Conference Centre: The epitome of dystopian architecture. Everyone hated it, and not just because of the distances.

2. Bars: reception bars were lightening fast to dismantle at the appointed time, and hotel bars almost all shut up shop by 1am. This left little incentive to stick it out for those 3.30 a.m. discussions about life, the universe and the state of the discipline.

3. Sessions: we need less of them, with fewer papers in each session, to ensure better discussion and interaction by a greater number of qualified and knowledgeable people in the room.

4. Travel: 24 hours door to door: enough said.

5. Books: too many at only 20% discount which meant that they remained unaffordable.

Anyone else have a top 5, or 3, or a list of groans?

Oh, and watch this space for a new reception to be introduced into the Programme Book next year in Baltimore

Old Testament Job Opportunity in Melbourne

My Old Testament colleague here at the Uniting Church Theological College and Centre for Theology and Ministry retires at the end of this year. So, we are now advertising for a new Professor of Old Testament, to start in 2012. Details are as follows:

UNITING CHURCH THEOLOGICAL COLLEGE

 

CENTRE FOR THEOLOGY AND MINISTRY

SYNOD OF VICTORIA AND TASMANIA

 

_________________________________________________________________________________

 

Applications are invited for the position of

 

PROFESSOR OF OLD TESTAMENT

at the Uniting Church Theological College Melbourne

 

The appointee will teach in the field of Old Testament Studies, enabling students of the Theological College and the United Faculty of Theology (an ecumenical Recognised Teaching Institution of the Melbourne College of Divinity) to explore the Old Testament, develop their knowledge and skill for interpreting its texts and to integrate their learning into their theology, preaching, teaching and practice of ministry.

 

The appointee will participate in the preparation and formation of candidates for the Uniting Church Ministries and resource the wider Uniting Church in understanding the Old Testament.

 

Appointment effective from 1 January 2012 for a period of 7 years

 

Closing date:  15 July 2011

 

The full advertisment can be downloaded by clicking on the folloing link Download OT ad April11.

Please feel free to circulate these details as widely as possible. I am happy to have a conversation with anyone who feels they might want to apply.

Professorial Predecessors: John C. O'Neill

In a seminar this morning on Romans 13.1-7 the student presenting made substantial reference to John O'Neill's view that these verses are an interpolation (a view with which I disagree). There was a wry smile on my face, however, for the student and perhaps none of the class could know that O'Neill was one of my predecessors in the role that I now hold. His first academic appointment was as Lecturer of NT at Ormond College, the Presbyterian College in Melbourne that later co-operated with Queen's College to form the Uniting Church Theological College. His appointment seems to have been made when Davis McCaughey, the Professor of New Testament then also became Master at Ormond (more on McCaughey in another post). He only stayed a couple of years.

O'Neill was nothing if not an independent mind.  I think I met him once at a British New Testament Conference years ago. I only really knew him for his interpolation theory in relation to the Pauline epistles, although it is clear that his scholarship ranged wide and deep and is especially creative in relation to issues of Jesus messianic self-understanding and mission.  From Melbourne he moved to take up a position at Westminster College, Cambridge and from there to a Chair in Edinburgh.

He died in 2003.  Tributes can be found from his colleagues Johnston McKay here (this seems to have been the obit. for the Times) and David Mealand (from the Independent here.)

Why George Carey Never Amounted to Much as an Archbishop

HT to Tortoise, commenting over at F&T, who pointed out the more than strange and unsettling resemblance between the singer on the right hand side of this crazy, Christian, beat trio:

and the former, never-amounted-to-anything-much-and-often-deeply-annoying/embarassing former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey:

I know, I know, but I am supposed to be preparing classes for next semester, and needed a little light relief.

 

The World's Best Preacher? And Other Random Thoughts

Ruth Gledhill has a post which includes a reflection on the quality of Rowan Williams' preaching: 'I've heard him preach time and again the most beautiful, evocative sermons that will stand in my soul as guiding lights over a lifetime.' It set me thinking about who is the best preacher I have heard. In early days I would have said a Tony Campolo, or an Eric Delve. But now? The unknown preacher who was caught on tape by Keith Clements and played to a group of Bristol Baptist College students in 1987 sticks out. The sermon was called 'Will a Simple Prayer do at Midnight?" and I still remember the lines: e.g. on Reagan, "I don't care what astrologer the First Lady decides to see, but I do care about the way her husband does his Voodoo economics'. That was a sermon in the black church, and that prompts me also to mention Brad Braxton who is a friend and a brilliant preacher. Sticking to the US - William Willimon (never heard him live but seen clips); Barbara Brown Taylor (ditto); Tom Long (ditto). Back in the UK? honourable mention to Brian Haymes, not least for the sermon he preached at a leaving service for close friends at Didsbury Baptist Church; Mary Coates, for her sermon printed in Silence in Heaven called 'Standing in the Stable' which makes me shiver every time I read it etc etc.

What about you? Who is the best preacher you have heard - combining form, delivery and, importantly, content.

Other random links:

Andy Goodliff has information about the 2010 Whitley Lecture, to be delivered by my friend David Southall.

Steve Harmon draws attention to substantial engagement with his book on Baptist Catholicity in the journal Pro Ecclesia. No library in Melbourne seems to take this journal - so I am looking to find a copy of the articles.

The Guardian has started a new series on aspects of literary theory, The first is on Barthes' notion of the Death of the Author.

George Hunsinger on the historical reliability of the gospels.

The power of Bach's Cello Suites.

Back in the Saddle

I am back at my desk, after a long break over Christmas and New Year and including a week spent avoiding the Melbourne heat down on the Gippsland Lakes. The next few weeks are reasonably quiet, but there is much to do including writing an article on 2 Cor 3, finishing a couple of book reviews and preparing for classes for Semester 1.  I am teaching the following units this semester: Pauline Studies; Ethics in the New Testament and The Theology and Practice of Preaching.

There is also some significant planning to be done: for a Biblical Studies research seminar here in Melbourne, to be launched this year; a one day conference on Paul: Then and Now with John Barclay as a keynote speaker; planning for papers to be given at conferences in July; and several articles to be completed. We also are about to undertake a substantial review of the ministerial formation programme here at the Centre for Theology and Ministry.

The hope is that all this activity will in turn generate some blogging.  Watch this space.

College Photo 2009

Spot which member of Faculty forgot that the photograph was going to be taken past Friday!

The Beaker Folk

Catriona and others have drawn attention to the wonderful resource for contemporary spirituality that is the Community of the Beaker Folk at Husbourne Crawley.  The recent post on Comparative Religious (sic) I: Modern Christian Songs (my personal favourite is Section 3, question 1: "I want to be out of my depth in your love".  How deep, in your opinion, would be sufficient?) is excellent and thought provoking.

However those in need of more extensive exposure to the riches of this community should investigate the Beaker Common Prayer. I hope my good friends in the UCA will forgive me for noting that there are some expressions of worship in the Uniting Church that come very close to this (as, for the record, was also the case in my previous workplace).

Here is Archdruid Eileen on the foundational principles of the commnity:

I can share these three fragments of truth with you. Because let’s face it, they’ve made me happy. So why shouldn’t they make you happy as well? And they are these.

Secret 1 - People want to feel good in religion. They want to feel connected to the Ultimate – whatever that represents. Oh yeah, there’s a few that really like to feel bad – who bash themselves over the head with guilt, see the darkness of what some call sin, and the challenges of temptation - and make everyone else around them feel the same way. But who wants to hang around with them? They’re just depressing. The ones who want to feel a connection with the Divine – they don’t necessarily want to be challenged. They just want to feel good.

Secret 2 - Retreat centres are amazing places. People go there and you can offer them plain food, give them menial tasks to do (tell them it’s "discipline"), just leave them to their own devices (and call it "space"). And then you charge them a fortune. Just like my old school.

Secret 3 - It’s not good enough to let people discover themselves. People have to go abroad to learn news of home. If you offer them the good old Church of England, they’ll think of musty hassocks and dodgy cassocks and stay at home of a Sunday morning. But offer them Celtic Christianity and they’ll hear the wind blowing over the heather and the waves crashing on Iona’s shores. You can tell them to listen to the "whisper of the Wild Goose" – as if wild geese whisper. They honk. But never mind, if it keeps the punters happy tell you can tell them that wild geese sing 15^th century madrigals. Let people sing in Latin and they won’t understand it and they’ll be released from their mundane lives. Tell them it’s Primeval Mystic Truth, discovered by the Ancients, and they’ll swallow anything you want to feed them. Tell them it’s primeval spiritualism, and brings you one-ness with the universe, and they’ll give you all their money.

 

And here is my favourite liturgy

Winter Solstice Eve

Winter Solstice Eve is held at a really good time of day. It means we can get all our worshipping in early and then have the evening off. We celebrate the end of the Beaker year prior to the New Year’s celebrations that occur in a few hours’ time.

Sunset on Solstice Eve in Husborne Crawley is generally round about 4pm. The Beaker Folk are always reminded to be there sharp. This isn't one of those occasions when you can turn up late and wait for the worship to "warm up". It’ll just all be over.

The Gathering in Apprehension

Shivering in the cold of the Winter Air, but glowing in their orange hi-viz, the Beaker People gather on Aspley Heath.

Chorus:

"Raise your banners high. Don't die, Sun - don't die!" (repeat 12 times, in growing despair)

Looking to the South-East in Silence

All: "Is that the sun down there or is it just the floodlights from the Amazon warehouse?"

The Archdruid remembers that the sun sets in the other direction.

Looking to the South-West in Silence.

At the precise time of sunset, the Solstice Fire is lit from the eternal flame. An appropriate song (for example, "Eternal Flame" by the Bangles) may be played.

Chorus:

"Let the flames burn high - Goodbye, Sun - Goodbye!" (repeat 12 times, growing gradually sadder)

Hnaef: Does anyone have a lighter? The Eternal Flame seems to have gone out...

As it grows darker, panic may spread among the congregation. The Gibbon Moon folk, generally of an excitable nature, lose it completely and run off into the woods, howling with fear

Archdruid: Darkness falls and the night is with us. The year is dead.

Young, keen and generally stupid Beaker Folk may leap over the Solstice Fire, once Hnaef has finally lit it, in an age-old and traditional ritual. Those whose hi-viz vests catch fire are doused with water from the Safety Beakers.

The lighting of the Bling

Archdruid: OK, Hnaef - flick the switch

The Orchard is illuminated with the light of a thousand suns, as Santas, Snowmen, inflatable Alan Carrs, flashing lights, Singing Ringing Tree, dancing penguins, a sleigh and about a million blue LED icicles blaze into view. The congregation may go "Aaah".

The Dismissal

Archdruid: Off you go, then. Don’t forget – the midnight ritual is at midnight.

All: Isn’t this where we came in?

 

How to deal with stupid questions

A lovely account of how Derrida responded to one questioner.

Q: “Professor Derrida, do you think you’re a genius?”

Derrida: “No, no, no, no, no, no, nooooooo….. But that doesn’t mean I’m not.”

Q: “Professor Derrida, do you think you’re Jesus?”

Derrida: “Sometimes. Especially when I’m being crucified.”

HT: doctorzamalek

The Apostle Paul and Melvin

For those of you who didn't catch it, The Apostle to the Gentiles was the topic of conversation in Radio 4's 'In our Time'. You can listen online or download the podcast.  I confess to being slightly disappointed with the discussion.  John Barclay and Helen Bond did their best, but were not helped by the kinds of questions that Melvin Bragg wanted to ask, nor by the fact that the other participant, John Haldane, a philosopher, opened up the conversation by introducing categories for interpreting Paul that are less than clear or helpful (from the perspective of NT scholarship at any rate). Anyway, something is better than nothing, and the programme helped me wile away pleasant brisk walk around the park the other evening.