Jones on Job

I had the privilege of interviewing my PT professor Hywel Jones about his work on the book of Job. It can be found at the Creed or Chaos website.

Poetry

I had the opportunity to teach a Sunday school session on the subject of Christian poetry recently. Here is the audio. We looked at four poems, from the likes of T.S. Eliot, John Donne, and George Herbert.

Also, I led one section in our Ethics class on "The Law and the Sermon on the Mount." Hopefully nothing too radical.

College slogans

I'm back...but I can't promise to be consistent. I know this is necessary for truly worthwhile blogs, but time is "more than money" as Switchfoot says.

Anyhow, for fun and also for academic purposes I've compiled a list of Christian college slogans. You might ask what the purpose of such a collection is. I think at the very least they show that colleges, just like any business corporation, have to encapsulate their "image" in a statement that reveals something about itself. Also in many ways these slogans portray the "vocational shift" that higher education in general is taking. Here they are: what do you think?

His World. Your Calling.

No Greater Task: hearts and minds renewing God’s world.

Find your place in God’s world.

Catch the Spirit.

The Opportunity Place--God's Special Place for You

Firmly grounded, fully engaged.

Momentum for Life.

Engaging the culture, changing the world.

A Matter of Mind and Spirit.

A Global Center for Christian Thought and Spiritual Renewal.

For Christ and Scripture.

Challenge your mind...build your faith.

For Christ and for liberty.

A Better Paradigm. A Higher Education.

Blog Vacation

This blog will be on vacation for one month, because the blogger will as the British say, "be on holiday." I'm not an avid enough of a blogger to get a replacement while I take a break, like superstar evangelical blogger Justin Taylor. So until next time, keep it real.

Stop footnoting yourself

Joe Kazinski has written a book about wiffleball.[1] In it he basically argues that one of the main problems with wiffleball playing these days is that people treat it like baseball, when it is not. This is partially true, but altogether obvious. In my previous work, I have argued a more compelling case that wiffleball is more like tee-ball.[2] For the fact of the matter is, as I have maintained in subsequent works,[3] wiffleball is performed within the rubric of the nascent state of ball and bat, so that the child-like re-enactment of one’s repression is figuratively displayed in the aggression of pitching and hitting. Reviewers of my work lauded its genius.[4] Kazinski’s work leaves much to be desired, but mine does not (see for example my recent Wiffleball Nation and For the Love of Wiffleball). It is clear that the outstanding expert on this subject is the present writer.
[1] “Why I am the best at wiffleball”
[2] “Why I know more about wiffleball than anyone else” – published by me, written by me, edited by me.
[3] “The Wiffleball Bible” – by me.
[4] It must be said that one of the reviewers was my cousin, and the other was a student of mine. But they nonetheless displayed the scholarly objectivity and detachment necessary in academic reviews.

I read a book review recently that was basically like the mock-review above: instead of being an explanation, appreciation, and criticism of the book under consideration it ended up being a discussion of the merits of the reviewer's own work. This straight up ticked me off as a selfish and amateurish piece. What's more, I cannot believe that the journal (which is semi-reputable) allowed this to be published! Perhaps the only thing worse than a review of this sort is a book of this sort - where the author interacts with no one but himself and his previous works. If you are going to think of yourself as the world-expert on any given subject, start a blog. But don't actually publish something with such presumption!

Ayn Rand U.

Just what we need: a college dedicated to reviving the philosophy of Ayn Rand. It's called Founders and of course its website looks attractive.

Dead Sea Scrolls Introductory Works

Note: I am not an expert in the history and text of the Dead Sea Scrolls: this is the reason I decided to read these introductory books for amateurs. Given that I am planning on seeing the exhibit of the DSS in San Diego soon, I wanted to be a semi-informed observer. Here are my brief thoughts on each resource:

1. The Dead Sea Scrolls: A Very Short Introduction by Timothy Lim (OUP, 2005)

Lim offers a great overview of the finding of the Dead Sea Scrolls, as well as a summary of the scholarship on the scrolls. He also includes an entertaining chapter of some of the political and academic drama surrounding the issues of ownership and accessibility of the scrolls since their discovery. Particularly helpful is his discussion of how the DSS contribute to our understanding of the history of the OT text - he points out the major areas in which they have filled in certain gaps in the textual transmission process. His account of the Qumran community is engaging, although he does not do justice to alternative theories that place the origin of the manuscripts outside the Essene community. However, he also does well to place the Essenes in their original context of second temple Judaism. In my estimation, even if the scrolls weren't produced at Qumran, it still helps to know about the time and place in which they first existed, and Lim does provide us with a good glimpse of the original context.

2. What are the Dead Sea Scrolls and Why do they Matter? by David Noel Freedman (Eerdmans, 2007)

Freedman is a formidable scholar of the OT, Early Judaism, and the Dead Sea Scrolls. However, this book is very accessible. Written in a question and answer format, the book covers all the introductory questions like "How were they discovered?" "What were the distinctive beliefs of the Qumran community?" and "How do the DSS relate to Early Christianity?" His discussion of the eschatology of the Essenes fills in a gap that was uncovered by Lim's book: so if you aren't up to date on the terms "children of light, wicked high priest, and son of light" this book is a good place to turn. Also, Freedman is clearly an expert on OT textual criticism, but he is also able to explain the differences and similarities between the DSS, the LXX, and the Masoretic text in a way that is easily understandable. The book also has a helpful glossary of terms related to the DSS. This is the first book I would read if I was completely unfamiliar with the Dead Sea Scrolls.

3. The Meaning of the Dead Sea Scrolls: Their Significance For Understanding the Bible, Judaism, Jesus, and Christianity by James C. VanderKam (Harper, 2004)

For those interested in a more in-depth introduction, this is the place to look. It is an update of his 1994 work "The Dead Sea Scrolls Today." Unlike Freedman and Lim's work, VanderKam gives several example translations of various passages from the scrolls and places them each in their theological, communal, and historical context, while addressing its relation to the Hebrew Bible, etc. He also devotes more space (which is good!) explaining the alternative theories of the scrolls' origins, although in the end he comes down siding with the traditional Essene community hypothesis. Since it's a larger introductory work, it contains pictures, graphs, and manuscript charts that might aid the visually inclined. He also includes some more technical discussion on the method of dating, and the technology used to study the manuscripts. Of course no book about the DSS would be complete without at least some writing about the scandals and controversies associated with their preservation and editing, and VanderKam does well to present this section in an equally scholarly tone as the rest of the work.

Lastly, for those interested in translations of the Dead Sea Scrolls, there's a few affordable ones out there:

1. "The Dead Sea Scrolls: A New Translation" by Michael Wise and Martin Abegg
2. "The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English" by Geza Vermes