{"id":25584,"date":"2014-08-12T11:25:02","date_gmt":"2014-08-12T15:25:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/exploringourmatrix\/?p=25584"},"modified":"2014-08-12T11:25:02","modified_gmt":"2014-08-12T15:25:02","slug":"bringing-the-gospel-to-sbl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2014\/08\/bringing-the-gospel-to-sbl.html","title":{"rendered":"Bringing the Gospel to SBL"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Under the heading of this post\u2019s title,\u00a0I will share one example of what it can mean that is appropriate, and one example of what it could mean that is not.<\/p>\n

Matthew Malcolm has suggested<\/a> that it would be interesting to have a program unit or other session at the Society of Biblical Literature conference about the gospel in the New Testament \u2013 in other words, what the message was that was proclaimed by various individuals and groups in the early Christian movement, as evidenced by the New Testament writings. I think that\u2019s a great idea, and could be really interesting.<\/p>\n

On the other hand,\u00a0Matthew Emerson discussed<\/a> reactions to a recent review in RBL written by David Maas<\/a>, which concluded with the following:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"To read Schreiner\u2019s book is to matriculate in his classroom, as it were. He writes for a\u00a0room full of like-minded seminary students. These students will appreciate Schreiner\u2019s\u00a0strong conservative voice that unites the whole of biblical revelation around God\u2019s\u00a0persistent kingdom march. There will inevitably be those who never enroll in his class. He\u00a0explicitly writes that he is not writing a technical work for the scholarly community (x)\u00a0that gives careful consideration to text-critical issues. Moreover, those outside Schreiner\u2019s\u00a0conservative interpretive circle will not even audit his class. Schreiner himself notes that\u00a0\u201cno book can accomplish everything\u201d (xv), nor will his book resonate with everyone (xv).\u00a0However, whoever enters his classroom via his book will undoubtedly benefit from his\u00a0call to come see the beautiful King.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Emerson\u00a0seemed to think that the problem with the review was the explicit faith commitments of its author. It was not. The issue, in my opinion, is that the review did not merely offer a review from a scholarly perspective that reflects religious commitment, but that the review crossed over into the language of devotion on the one hand, and taking mean-spirited swipes at those who are not conservative on the other. It seems to me that an academic organization can most effectively include a variety of faith perspectives and non-religious perspectives when it is recognized that that organization is\u00a0a place for scholarly conversations, and not an appropriate venue for devotional or evangelistic activities, nor a place where one should take pot shots at other groups rather than engaging their views in a serious, respectful, and\u00a0critical scholarly fashion.<\/p>\n

I think Matthew Malcolm\u2019s\u00a0suggestion would be a great addition to SBL\u2019s focuses.<\/p>\n

I think that SBL has already gone far enough in the direction of allowing voices to be heard which play fast and loose with the definitions of academic research. As Emerson rightly points out, we all have biases, and so\u00a0the notion of excluding biases viewpoints from the academy is a nonsensical one. But that doesn\u2019t justify adding devotional, anti-religious, anti-liberal, or any other sort of language to academic reviews that\u00a0simply doesn\u2019t belong there.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Under the heading of this post\u2019s title,\u00a0I will share one example of what it can mean that is appropriate, and one example of what it could mean that is not. Matthew Malcolm has suggested that it would be interesting to have a program unit or other session at the Society of Biblical Literature conference about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":22694,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[136,88],"tags":[3202,3203,4089,10835,11511],"class_list":["post-25584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-evangelicals","category-society-of-biblical-literature","tag-evangelicalism","tag-evangelicals","tag-gospel","tag-sbl","tag-society-of-biblical-literature"],"yoast_head":"\nBringing the Gospel to SBL<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Under the heading of this post's title,\u00a0I will share one example of what it can mean that is appropriate, and one example of what it could mean that is\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2014\/08\/bringing-the-gospel-to-sbl.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bringing the Gospel to SBL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Under the heading of this post's title,\u00a0I will share one example of what it can mean that is appropriate, and one example of what it could mean that is\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2014\/08\/bringing-the-gospel-to-sbl.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. 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