What are biblical studies conferences for? Do they need a change?

Why do you go to SBL or British NT conference?  I highly doubt that the answer will be: ‘I want to hear the papers.’  Don’t get me wrong – all day you attend papers, but is that really the main reason?  Often you will be signing up for the conference before really knowing the paper titles.  When you go home, do you really say: wow, I am so glad I went to all of those papers?  No, usually one or two papers, often the ones you didn’t plan on going to, turned out to be interesting or helpful for your research. (On the other hand, small conferences on a focused topic, would be helpful specifically for the papers).

Why is this the case?  To some degree it is a reflection of the times.  First, biblical studies is, sadly, so fragmented that so many of the papers are on highly specialized subjects.  Secondly, advancements in technology, information dissemination, and communication means that you don’t really need to be travelling to conferences to hear updates from scholars in your area.  This happens through blogs and books and article are published much faster than they used to be.  Let me give an example of how times have changed.  I was working on a paper and John Barclay lent me a paper he gave on a similar subject.  I tried to find out (on the internet) where this paper is going to be published so I would know how to cite it.  I discovered that it formed part of a conference in Germany on Romans 9-11 that took place recently.  I browsed the other papers in the program, all by top scholars.  One, in particular, was very interesting to me, so I emailed the scholar (again, an amazing technological advancement!) and she sent me her paper and told me where it was going to be published.  This kind of little activity that went on (from Barclay to me to this other scholar) would have been impossible thirty years ago.

If I read abstracts from a coming conference (like SBL) and I think a paper sounds interesting for my research, I can bet that if I email the person (esp. if they are a student or young scholar) they will send their paper to me or chat with me (on Facebook or something) to aid me.  To be honest, SBL and BNTC are really not about the papers, though in a wider perspective they are significant for shaping scholarship.

I think the real value is discussion and interaction, which often happens best in an informal setting (like at the pub or during meals).  How can we capitalize on this?  Longer meals ? 🙂

Seriously, though, we need to think about how we can change to suit the real needs of scholars.  Suggestions were made that there be more book reviews sessions and less ‘open topic paper sessions’.  I think having working groups devoted to a single topic (like SNTS or CBA) is helpful.

I would like to see workshops on things like publishing, using media and technology in the classroom, and, of course, discussions on things like the value of blogging (Howard Marshall told me he refuses to waste time reading blogs).

Instead of just lots of papers, we need to decide what the best use of our time is and in what areas scholars are in need of face-t0-face contact.  I think a change is needed….soon…