the priority gap in religious higher education

Inside Higher Ed has an interesting article by Scott Jaschik from about a week ago on the gap in priorities between instructors and students in postsecondary religious instruction. It's based on an AAR session of which I was unaware. Here are some excerpts:

The ‘Great Divide’ in Religious Studies
When it comes to introductory courses in religion and theology, the big division isn’t a question of faith, but of priorities.

Students want lots of discussion in class sessions and they want to learn facts about religious groups. They also want to become better people. Professors aren’t opposed to any of those things, but they are much more interested in teaching critical thinking. While the numbers vary, the gap between students’ and professors’ goals for these courses is evident at both religious and non-religious institutions.

These are among the results of a national survey of introductory courses in religion and theology. The study will be published in book form next year, but the lead investigator — Barbara E. Walvoord of the University of Notre Dame — gave a preview of the findings Sunday to a standing-room-only audience at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion. She spoke of the “great divide” between what professors want to accomplish and what students want to achieve — and a panel of professors who teach intro courses offered their take on dealing with the divergence.

[...]

Faculty and Student Priorities for Intro Religious Studies Courses

Goal	Faculty at religious colleges	Students at religious affiliations	Faculty at secular colleges	Students at secular colleges
Develop critical thinking	84%	65%	92%	59%
Develop students’ moral and ethical values	52%	73%	25%	54%
Develop students’ own religious beliefs	42%	70%	8%	51%
Consider or strengthen students’ commitment to a particular set of beliefs	29%	63%	17%	43%

Walvoord noted that the statistics are surprising for many kinds of institutions — noting the low percentages of professors at religious institutions with moral and religioius agendas for their students, and the high percentages of students at secular institutions with hopes for such an experience in class.

Among other findings:

• Students are much more interested than professors in learning facts about religion and discussing “big questions” about the meaning of life.
• Discussion is crucial to students. When students in “highly effective” courses were asked what part of the classes was most helpful, discussion was the top answer. When those same students were asked about how the courses could be improved, the top answer was: more discussion.
• Many students take courses in religious studies fully expecting their views to be challenged. About 40 percent of “secure Christians” (those with no doubts about their faith) reported that they expected their beliefs to be challenged — with some predicting that their beliefs wouldn’t change as a result and others open to the possibility that it might.

[...]

Do read the whole article. It brings to mind a previous Inside Higher Ed article that I did not blog about, the one on professors and belief in God: Not So Godless After All.

snowblog redux

After a year off from shoveling snow while in England, I'm back in the thick of it. We've been hit by an early blast of winter: several inches of snow and daytime high temperatures hovering around -20°C (-4°F). And when you get this kind of weather in November around here, you know it's going to be a long winter...

1 thessalonians: introduction - a select, annotated bibliography

A list of even the best material on 1 Thessalonians would run into hundreds of items. Here's a selection and brief description of some of my favourites for my own study of the letter.

Commentaries

Best, Ernest. A Commentary on the First and Second Epistles to the Thessalonians. Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson, 1987. Repr. of Black’s New Testament Commentaries. London: A & C Black. Harper’s New Testament Commentaries. New York: Harper & Row, 1972.
Nearly thirty-five years on, Best is still one of the best. If only he were around to update his work in light of recent discussions.

Bruce, F. F. 1 and 2 Thessalonians. Word Biblical Commentary 45. Waco, Tex.: Word, 1982.
Classic Bruce: consistently careful, complete, and conservative.

Elias, Jacob W. 1 and 2 Thessalonians. Believers Church Bible Commentary. Waterloo, Ont.; Scottdale, Penn.: Herald, 1995.
Though this one is probably not among anyone else's top picks, it should be. A very sane look at the exegetical issues with a level eye toward the appropriate application of the letter's message.

Green, Gene L. The Letters to the Thessalonians. Pillar New Testament Commentary. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002.
Green's commentary is worth its price just for the introduction alone, with its extensive discussion of the city of Thessalonica within the region of Macedonia.

Holmes, Michael W. 1 and 2 Thessalonians. NIV Application Commentary. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1998.
Like all those in this series, Holmes' commentary majors on application of the text; but his exegesis, while not thorough, is solid.

Malherbe, Abraham. The Letters to the Thessalonians: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary. Anchor Bible. New York: Doubleday, 2000.
This is the best commentary currently available. Attentive to both historic and current interpretation and exegetically sound. As one would expect from Malherbe in light of his previous work, this commentary is excellent in setting 1 Thessalonians within its Hellenistic context, but less so in considering the Jewish facets of Paul's thought.

Marshall, I. Howard. 1 and 2 Thessalonians. New Century Bible Commentary. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans; London: Marshall Morgan & Scott, 1983.
Classic Marshall: consistently careful, complete, and conservative.

Richard, Earl J. First and Second Thessalonians. Sacra Pagina 11. Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press, 1995.
Many useful insights, but idiosyncratic in many of his conclusions. Holds to a complex literary background to 1 Thessalonians, with the letter being a composite of several others.

Wanamaker, Charles A. The Epistles to the Thessalonians: A Commentary on the Greek Text. New International Greek Testament Commentary. Exeter: Paternoster; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1990.
A solid and important commentary, but Wanamaker's perspective on the order of the letters (2 Thessalonians written before 1 Thessalonians) at times gets in the way.

Witherington, Ben, III. 1 and 2 Thessalonians: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary. Grand Rapids; Cambridge: Eerdmans, 2006.
This one's hot off the press, so I haven't had time to work through it yet. A glance indicates that it will be useful in much the same way as Witherington's other commentaries: good on setting the letter in its social and rhetorical context.

Others could be mentioned, including those by Martin, Morris, Smith, and Williams, but these are the ones that have been most helpful to me thus far.

Ones to watch for: Karl Donfried, International Critical Commentary; Victor Furnish, Abingdon New Testament Commentary; Helmut Koester, Hermeneia; Jeffrey Weima, Baker Exegetical Commentary.

Highlights in other languages: Béda Rigaux' Les Épîtres aux Thessaloniciens, though 50 years old, is an amazingly thorough commentary; Traugott Holtz' Der erste Brief an die Thessalonicher is my pick in German, but I'll readily confess I haven't interacted with German commentaries much beyond the scope of my dissertation passage.

Monographs and Edited Collections

Collins, Raymond F. Studies on the First Letter to the Thessalonians. Bibliotheca ephemeridum theologicarum lovaniensium 66. Leuven: Leuven University Press, 1984.
A collection of articles by one of the deans of Thessalonians scholarship.

Collins, Raymond F., ed. The Thessalonian Correspondence. Bibliotheca ephemeridum theologicarum lovaniensium 87. Leuven: Leuven University Press, 1990.
A collection of articles by many top scholars, with more than twenty focused on 1 Thessalonians.

Donfried, Karl P. Paul, Thessalonica, and Early Christianity. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans; London: T&T Clark, 2002.
A collection of articles by another dean of Thessalonians scholarship.

Donfried, Karl P., and Johannes Beutler, eds. The Thessalonians Debate: Methodological Discord or Methodological Synthesis? Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2000.
A collection of articles coming out of an SNTS seminar in the late 1990s, focused especially around issues related to 1 Thessalonians 2.

Nicholl, Colin R. From Hope to Despair in Thessalonica: Situating 1 and 2 Thessalonians. Society for New Testament Studies Monograph Series 126. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
A thorough contextual analysis of the Thessalonian letters, with conclusions very similar to those I have articulated.

Still, Todd D. Conflict at Thessalonica: A Pauline Church and Its Neighbours. Journal for the Study of the New Testament Supplement Series 183. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1999.
A thorough analysis of the opposition in Thessalonia, with conclusions very similar to those I have articulated.

There are many others that could be mentioned, including important works by Ascough, Donfried, Jewett, Malherbe, Smith, and so on, but these are the ones that have been especially helpful for me to this point.

- table of contents -
<- a narrative summary

thessalonian watch: white tower as museum

As noted by the Athens News Agency, the famed White Tower of Thessaloniki is being converted into a museum:

Thessaloniki's trademark White Tower will officially serve as a museum, beginning next year with a permanent exhibition on loan from the nearby Byzantine Museum. A multimedia platform within the the Tower's circular walls will also allow visitors the opportunity to view the city's 2,300-year history on video walls. The White Tower, located on the northern port city's sea wall, will reopen to the public with the inauguration of the exhibition in mid 2007, officials said here on Wednesday.

For more info, see the museum website: Byzantine Museum: The White Tower.

washington report: caesar salad in caesar's empire

The ETS and SBL annual meetings are over for another year. I'm absolutely exhausted after this year's meetings, but they were well worth the trip.

Two highlights stood out on Wednesday. First, I met up with Mike Bird and Alan Bandy for lunch, enjoying Caesar salads in the heart of Caesar's empire (pic 1). I'm sure we made quite a motley crew (and the opening to a bad joke): an effervescent and incandescent Australian exiled to Scotland, a staid Canadian (i.e. a non-American North American), and a friendly Southern Baptist American. Wednesday afternoon I presented my paper. I think it went well, and there were even a couple of extra people that weren't bribed to be there. It was a special treat to have a former professor of mine at my presentation, Chip Anderson, as he's the one who really provided the initial spark of interest for me in New Testament studies. Unfortunately, I had the disadvantage of presenting at precisely the time the book exhibit first opened for the conference, and attendance at those parallel sessions dropped significantly from the previous ones. Or it was because of my garlic breath from the Caesar salad at lunch.

First thing Thursday morning I ran into the book exhibit and snapped up some books, including Richard Bauckham's new book Jesus and the Eyewitnesses (the ink was still wet) and Ben Witherington's long-awaited commentary on the Thessalonian epistles (I immediately checked: he's got the "word of the Lord" in 4:15 wrong, along with almost everyone else). Much of the rest of the day was spent as I spent a good chunk of time during the rest of the conference: meeting with potential candidates for our College's vacant position in Old Testament, and hanging out with my roommate and colleague Oz Lorentzen.

Friday was more of the same, but I did manage to click a pic of D.C.'s contribution to New Testament scholarship: Q Street (pic 2). It does exist, it seems to be fairly well-defined, there's evidence of prior work on it, and it appeared to have a well-established community around it. And as far as I could tell it didn't seem to meet up with anything called Atonement.

On Saturday morning I cruised the Mall with my former theology professor, Ken Radant. We first paid homage to the civic religion of the locals at its westernmost temple (pic 3 and pic 4), after which we strolled eastward past the OOUS ("Obelisk of Unusual Size") (pic 5). A highlight of the day was the exhibit on "Bibles before the Year 1000" in the Freer Gallery: they had the opening leaves of the Gospel of Thomas, the Egerton Papyrus, and several other treasures on display. Here we duly paid homage to our own scholarly religion: shuffling past one another in hushed silence, broken only by unintelligible expressions as we genuflected before the display cases to see the relics better. After performing my religious duties for the day, I rushed to the Convention Center in time to catch the ubiquitous Mike Bird present his birthday paper. I then ran into a few people at the book exhibit (they weren't too badly hurt), including Tyler Williams and Mark Goodacre.

As far as conference papers go, Sunday was the best day for me. I began the day, though, with a quick breakfast and general catching-up at the University of Birmingham reception. It was good to see my doctoral supervisor, David Parker, though it brought back terrible memories of dissertation deadlines which I've worked hard to suppress over the past three months. My first afternoon session was the lively Synoptic Gospels one with Simon Gathercole, Deirdre Good, Rikk Watts, and Jimmy Dunn (hey, everyone else calls him Jimmy, and I have met him, so lay off). After this I and other bloggers (and, judging from the tight fit, most of the conference attenders) went to the John, Jesus, and History session. Sean Freyne, Craig Evans, and Richard Bauckham presented interesting papers, and Ben Witherington's paper was especially memorable. Then Mike Bird, Joel Willitts, Brandon Wason, Danny Zacharias, Matthew Montonini, and I crashed the Hendrickson reception for supper before Matthew and I headed over to the IVP reception for dessert. The evening was topped off with a terrific presentation by N. T. Wright on the problem of evil and the cross. There's nothing like a Starbucks coffee, a couple of caramel squares, a little return from exile, a dash of covenant faithfulness, a pinch of reversal of Caesar's empire, and some good company to finish off a terrific but tiring conference.

gearing up for sbl

The week has finally arrived: a whole week of international academic conferences related to theology and biblical studies.

Normally I look forward to this week of ETS and SBL with great anticipation. It's a time to take a break from the teaching routine, to rub shoulders with friends and famous, to salivate over the latest books, and to stock up on those little hotel shampoo bottles. It normally leaves me physically tired but psychologically re-energized.

But this year, I must confess, I think I'd rather stay at home. I know I'm not supposed to say that, but it's true. This has been such a busy and exhausting semester so far, that I think I'd rather just have a week at home, recharging my batteries with my family.

Still, there's much to look forward to this week. I'm presenting my first paper at an international conference (yes, it's almost ready). I've got some lunch dates booked with some good friends. I'm meeting with some good candidates for our vacant Old Testament position at the College. There are always the books. Oh, and there may be one or two sessions to attend (is that why we have these conferences?).

Yes, it should be a good week.

lest we forget

Today is November 11, Remembrance Day, and what better way to remember as a Canadian than by quoting the well-known poem by Canadian John McCrae, In Flanders Fields:

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

sbl and its "holy huddle"

A recent article in the Chronicle of Higher Education by Jacques Berlinerblau, (What’s Wrong With the Society of Biblical Literature?) is causing a bit of commotion in the blogosphere. Berlinerblau essentially accuses the SBL of doing a "holy huddle": being too religious, and too removed from the populace. I've got no profound thoughts of my own on this that go beyond what's already been written, so I'll simply point to some of the more extended discussions I've seen around the blogs: Tyler Williams, Stephen Carlson, Loren Rosson, Danny Zacharias, and now Mark Goodacre.

Meanwhile, I'm going to have to do my own huddle over the next few days, finally turning some focused attention to finishing my conference paper. Well, okay, I'll be honest: I need to turn some focused attention to actually writing my conference paper. I promise it will be ready on time. [Crosses fingers behind his back] Really, I do.

1 thessalonians: introduction - a narrative summary

In the middle of the first century, around 50 C.E., three men walked into the ancient Macedonian city of Thessalonica, coming from the east along the Via Egnatia. They brought news of an event that had occurred in the east, in Judea, an event which, in their minds, was so momentous that it must be proclaimed both to Jews and to non-Jews throughout the known world. The event was the resurrection of an otherwise obscure itinerant Jewish teacher and miracle-worker and imperially crucified messianic claimant: Jesus of Nazareth. This event, so these men believed, was nothing less than the imposition of the coming age upon the present age, and a divine declaration of the significance of Jesus, including his prior life and crucifixion. Together, Jesus' life, death, resurrection, and coming royal arrival--Jesus himself--was "good news" of epic proportions and world-transforming significance. This was, in their eyes, real "good news," unlike the so-called "good news" of imperial propaganda. What was the accession of another human emperor, or the temporary peace of a troubled region, compared with the coming of the one true "Lord" and "Saviour" to set the world right, bringing eternal peace and lasting deliverance from oppression, evil, and even death?

These three men--Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy by name--quickly set up shop in a city forum, working non-stop to provide for their needs as they shared their message with any who would listen. But they did not only work with their hands and speak with their mouths, they gave of their hearts and lives as well. It was not long before they had a following, a committed community of like-minded people who believed, proclaimed, and lived out the good news of Jesus in faith, love, and hope, in spite of opposition and in imitation of the missionaries, in imitation of Jesus himself. While initially some of these were adherents of the local Jewish synagogue which the missionaries had briefly attended, eventually most of these came out of non-Jewish backgrounds, turning from their idolatry to serve the one true God and to wait for Jesus' royal arrival from heaven. They soaked up Paul's teaching as he expounded the significance of Jesus' death and resurrection for their lives, spoke to them about the coming royal arrival of Jesus, and urged them to live lives worthy of the future saving rule of God. This community, including Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, experienced much opposition in Thessalonica, but Paul had warned them this would happen. Thus, it was no great surprise--though still a great sorrow--when Paul was forced to leave the city, perhaps (so they may have thought) never to return.

After this abrupt departure, Paul turned south toward Athens and Corinth. As he did he wondered about the young community of Jesus-followers he had left behind in Thessalonica. Would they remain faithful to the teaching they had received, or would the opposition they faced turn them against the good news of Jesus? With a troubled heart, Paul eventually sent Timothy to find out about the Thessalonian community and then restlessly watched for his return. When Timothy did return, he brought good news of the Thessalonians' continued faith and love in spite of opposition, news which had even reached to the surrounding regions. However, the initial hope of the Thessalonians, their future-focused faith, was turning to despair as more than one of their fellow believers had died. They began to wonder if collectively they were in danger of moving outside the sphere of divine favour, and they were certain that their dead were individually outside of the scope of eschatological divine salvation.

Paul and his fellow missionaries did not hesitate. They knew that a letter must be sent to the Thessalonian community, encouraging them in the certainty of their divine election, urging them to continue in their faith and love toward God and one another, and bringing them back to hope regarding their future and the fate of their dead. The only way to accomplish these objectives was to remind them of the foundation of these truths, to remind them of what they already knew: the good news of Jesus centred on his salvific death and resurrection.

And thus was born the letter we know of as 1 Thessalonians.

- table of contents -
<- the pauline response (3) - select bibliography ->

missing england

There's not a day that goes by that we haven't thought of some aspect of our time in England last year. These last few days have been particularly nostalgic, prompted by the weather and the calendar. We had a cold snap here last week, a few days of ice and snow and below-freezing temperatures, and we never experienced anything like that last year. Last year at about this time we went on our first visit to Warwick Castle on a gorgeous November day (the picture to the left). And yesterday was Guy Fawkes' Night, Bonfire Night, the Fifth of November--the build-up to which was just as fascinating to us as the night itself. You can read our account of this English experience here.

brandon wason blogger of the month

Brandon Wason is Blogger of the Month over at Biblioblogs.com. Be sure to read his interview.

review of fowl's philippians

As promised several months ago, my Themelios review of Stephen Fowl's commentary on Philippians in the Two Horizons New Testament Commentary series is now online: Review of Stephen E. Fowl, Philippians. See also my previous thoughts on the book here.

biblical studies carnival xi

Welcome to the November 2006 edition of the Biblical Studies Carnival! Thanks to all who have written such stimulating blog posts and to all who submitted posts for inclusion.

Search Tools

There have been several posts this month related to online search tools of various kinds. James Spinti (Idle Musings of a Bookseller) noted the new Google custom search, sparking Danny Zacharias (Deinde) and Tim Bulkeley (SansBlogue) to create their own larger search engines. Check out Deinde's search and SansBlogue's search, and then read Tim's comments on the comparison.

Also this month, Chris Tilling (Chrisendom) noted the new Index Theologicus, an index to theological journal literature developed by the University of Tübingen. And be sure to see Zack Hubert's invitation (Zhubert.com) to add his Bible Browser to your website.

The Tanakh

Stephen Cook (Biblische Ausbildung) produced a series of posts sparked by Peter Enns' Inspiration and Incarnation, in which he engaged the question of myth in the Hebrew Bible: part one - part two - part three. Chris Heard (Higgaion) posted part 14 (!) of his extended review of Simcha Jacobovici's The Exodus Decoded; he has links to all the previous parts at the bottom of that post. And rounding out posts on the Torah, Jeremy Pierce (Parableman) posted a useful summary of various commentaries on Numbers.

Moving into the Prophets, Kevin Edgecomb argued on Biblicalia that the "Disobedience and Exile" motif "should not be considered evidence of a Deuteronomistic source, but only rather of a prophetic understanding of history that was shared by many cultures over many centuries." Claude Mariottini, in "Yahweh and Other Gods," provided a helpful description of the various gods mentioned in the Old Testament, with a promise of more to come related to Israel's henotheism. Chris Heard critiqued the TNIV's translation of some passages in Isaiah and Jeremiah, including the famous Isaiah 7:14 text. Stephen Cook continued his series on "Life after Death" in ancient Yahwism with several posts: just click on the latest post to move back through previous ones in the series. And in a more general vein, The Miner at Mined Splatterings offered "10 Propositions on Violence in the Old Testament."

The Writings were not left off the charts this month, with two helpful contributions by Tyler Williams (Codex): "A Form-Critical Classification of the Psalms according to Hermann Gunkel," and "The Costly Loss of Lament for the Church."

The New Testament

A good place to start this month's highlights related to the New Testament and early Christianity is James Crossley's series at Earliest Christian History on "Why Christianity Happened," summarizing the chapters of his book by the same name: so far part one - part two - part three - part four. Another item of general interest related to the New Testament and early Christianity was Alan Segal's post at The Busybody on "Some Social Dimensions of Life after Death." And Peter Head's question at Evangelical Textual Criticism on the number of letters in each of the Greek New Testament books prompted some interesting comments, as well as a separate blog post by Rick Brannan (ricoblog).

Focusing in on the Gospels and Acts, Davide Salomoni posted an extended discussion of Jesus' self-understanding, as well as a fascinating look at animals in the Synoptic Gospels. Brandon Wason (Novum Testamentum) examined Luke's use of Socratic tradition in describing the death of Jesus, interacting with Greg Sterling's 2001 article on the topic. Prompted by Mark Goodacre's comments at NT Gateway, Stephen Carlson (Hypotyposeis) explored the question of Lukan redaction in Q 6:39a. Richard Anderson (dokeo kago grapho) posted some reflections on "The Amish and the Pharisees" in light of the tragic events in a Pennsylvanian Amish schoolhouse last month. And Chris Price at CADRE Comments examined the argument that Acts is to be understood as an example of ancient novel, in the end finding that argument wanting.

The Pauline epistles were probably the busiest place to be among the biblioblogs in October, and Mark Goodacre was responsible for much of the effort. Mark's September post on "The Jerusalem Council: Gal. 2.1-10 = Acts 15" drew plenty of comments, enough to prompt Mark to write a "Response to Critics" in October. Mark then continued his discussion of Galatians by honing in on the thesis that Paul lost his battle for the churches in Galatia: see his "Paul's lack of travel plans," "Paul's loss of Galatia I," and the summary post "Paul's loss of Galatia II." These posts in turn sparked posts on other blogs, such as those by Loren Rosson (The Busybody) and Phil Harland (Religions of the Ancient Mediterranean).

Phil Harland also produced some helpful posts on "Paul's apocalyptic worldview" and "Paul and the Super-apostles at Corinth." Michael Pahl (the stuff of earth) continued the introduction to his blog commentary on 1 Thessalonians. Over at Better Bibles Blog, Suzanne McCarthy has posted three items so far on "Junia the Apostle" in Romans 16:7: part one - part two - part three. And finally on Paul, Stephen Carlson provided some food for thought on textual criticism and the interpolation theory for 2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1.

The Christian Apocrypha

Judas made the blog charts this month. Rick Brannan posted a three-part review of Bart Ehrman's The Lost Gospel of Judas Iscariot: part one - part two - part three. And Stephen Carlson celebrated three years of Hypotyposeis by listing his ten most popular posts in those three years--most of which are related to the Gospel of Judas. On the Apocrypha more generally, Jim Davila's report (PaleoJudaica) of the Ottawa Workshop on Christian Apocrypha is worthy of note: part one - part two.

And finally...

You may want to check out Darrell Pursiful's "Very Short Commentaries" at Dr. Platypus on all the biblical books (six words each!). And if you haven't yet seen Richard Rhodes' walk through a German cartoon as an illustration of the art of translation, be sure to check it out at Better Bibles Blog. By the time it's funny, you've learned something about translation.

Watch for Biblical Studies Carnival XII next month, hosted by the inimitable Jim West. Thanks for stopping by!