I am currently reading through the massive tome in honor of Richard Hays, The Word Leaps the Gap (Eerdmans, 2008), and I skipped ahead of many chapters to read what EP Sanders had to say about the topic ‘Did Paul’s Theology Develop?’  There is much to report here on Sanders’ many insightful thoughts in reflection on his academic journey, but overall the major thrust of the essay is to differentiate between his use of the terms unsystematic and coherent (and... Read more

Lately I have received a flurry of questions about the job market for PhD students who wish to teach in a university or seminary.  Here are some questions I have received and my reflections. WHAT IS THE JOB MARKET LIKE? It has always been bad odds for PhD candidates, but because of the ‘economic crisis’ in America, it has gotten much worse.  For one of the positions I applied for, there were over 100 candidates and it was not even... Read more

One of my few SBL book picks was Greg Beale’s We Become What We Worship: A Biblical Theology of Idolatry (IVP, 2008).  Beale is known for his work on the use of the OT in the New and especially Old in New in the book of Revelation.  He would, though, consider himself to be a biblical theologian and has true competency in both testaments.  Therefore, he is certainly well-suited to take on this task.  Also, he is a committed believer... Read more

At some point soon I will be posting more on my experience interviewing at SBL and what I learned from the experience. I have had a lot of questions from friends and fellow students about navigating this process. For now, I want to address an important issue: teaching experience. If you are looking for an academic position, more likely you will end up in a small liberal arts Christian college (as opposed to a research-intensive university or seminary position). That... Read more

Recently, Zondervan has come out with a new NT survey textbook called THE NEW TESTAMENT IN ANTIQUITY: A SURVEY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT WITHIN ITS CULTURAL CONTEXTS. The authors all come from the same institution – Wheaton College – Gary Burge, Lynn Cohick, and Gene Green. Does the world need another survey book? That’s a difficult question to answer because the line between ‘want’ and ‘need’ is unclear. Nevertheless, the authors do attempt a justification for their decision to pen... Read more

This is a post that is based on a series of exchanges between Mike Gorman and John Poirier on a previous blog post of mine.  Mike’s and John’s comments about Theological Intepretation are interesting for many reasons, one of which because they are representative of dominant views in modern hermeneutics and both capture their positions with verve and skill.  I have edited portions and added some headings only for ease of access to readers; I have not intentionally changed any major statements. Michael... Read more

The holiday time is a wonderful season for sipping hot mochas, playing in the snow, watching Elf and National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation and…stocking up on lots of books!  This year I have been blessed many times over by generous friends, relatives, and journals that are willing to give a poor student some very expensive books to review (for free!).  I don’t know why I presume my book picks interest you, but perhaps you did not know some of these books... Read more

My most popular post is “Interested in a NT PHD” (see page link above); as it is nearing 4,000 hits, I am thinking of doing a significant revision, update, and expansion.  Hopefully it will also now include how to actually survive the PhD process, to suceed in paper presenting and article writing, and also to navigate through the job application and interview process. I would, at this stage, be interested in knowing what kinds of questions some of you have about... Read more

At a departmental function this weekend I had a nice chat with a scholar I trust.  I asked him which monograph series he encourages his own doctoral students to publish in.  He had recommended specifically Walter de Gruyter and Mohr Siebeck.  I had asked him why he did not mention the UK publishers.  He commented that a well-known UK series has a policy that they want short 80,000 word manscripts, following the trend of some universities which have set their... Read more

Every thesis has an argument.  In order to argue something “new” or “original” you need to know what has been argued before and where you can go with your own research.  There is a certain kind of thesis, a very common one, which is largely a negative argument: Professor So-and-so’s theory on X in respect to Y is WRONG.  Or, perhaps a lighter version: My solution to the problem Y is correct, which means that Professor So-and-so’s theory is WRONG.... Read more