Peers at St Andrews and I have launched a new blogging venture. It grows in part out of the Scripture & Theology Seminar at St Mary's College, the divinity school here, and it takes that name.

Take a look, read about the concept, and if you have any interest, think seriously about participating. Go to: http://www.scripturetheology.net/

If this collaborative effort takes off, Occasional Publications may start living up to its name more than ever. Not that I have any plans to close up shop. It's just that work of this sort is better shared.

Brevard Childs' final book is due out with Eerdmans in the fall. Meanwhile, here is the table of contents.

1. The Search for Paul’s Theology 1
I. Recent Historical Attempts 1
II. The Pauline Corpus 3
III. The Hermeneutical Problem of Interpreting the Corpus 7
IV. Historical Criticism and Canonical Context 10
1. Elements of Continuity 13
2. Elements of Discontinuity 15
V. The Role of a Text’s Background 17
VI. Criteria for Canonicity 19
1. Apostolicity 21
2. Catholicity 22
3. Orthodoxy 23
VII. The Biblical Canon and the Problem
of Textual Reception 24

2. Alternative Proposals for the Problem of Interpretation 29
I. Ulrich Luz: Wirkungsgeschichte 29
II. Richard B. Hays: Intertextual Reading of Scripture 32
III. Frances Young: The Ethics of Reading Paul 39
1. The Development of Young’s Understanding 40
2. A Critical Assessment of Young’s
Hermeneutical Proposals 42
IV. Luke T. Johnson: Exegesis and Hermeneutics 46
1. Johnson’s Interpretive Approach 47
2. Critical Reflections on Johnson’s Proposals 48
V. Wayne A. Meeks: The Social Context
of Pauline Theology 50
1. Meeks’s Approach Outlined 51
2. Examples of Meeks’s Social Interpretation 52
3. A Critical Evaluation of Meeks’s Approach 56
4. The Role of the Canon and Jesus’ Identity 60

3. The Shaping of the Pauline Corpus 65
I. The Letter to the Romans 65
II. The Pastoral Epistles 69
III. The Hermeneutical Significance
of the Canonical Structure 75

4. Exegetical Probes: Introduction and Guidelines 79
I. Paul’s Apostolate and the Gospel 81
1. Characteristic Features of Paul’s Apostleship 83
2. The Theological Implications of Canon 96
II. Abraham’s Faith in Galatians 3 and Romans 4 97
1. J. C. Beker’s Categories of Contingency
and Coherence 97
2. J. Louis Martyn’s Analysis of the Role
of the “Teachers” 99
3. A Canonical Reading of Abraham’s Faith
according to Paul 103
4. Justification in Philippians 108
5. Justification in the Pastorals 110
6. Hermeneutical Implications 111
III. Life in the Spirit 112
1. Romans 8:1-27 113
2. Galatians 5:13-26 115
3. The Canonical Relation of Romans 8
and Galatians 5 117
4. 2 Corinthians 3:1–4:6 122
5. Richard Hays and Ernst Käsemann
on 2 Corinthians 3 135
IV. Community Gifts and Worship 138
1. 1 Corinthians 12–14 139
2. Romans 12:1-21 143
3. Canonical Shaping of Romans 12
and 1 Corinthians 12 145
4. Ephesians 4:7-16 148
V. The Order of the Church and Its Offices 153
1. Introduction: The History of the Debate 153
2. The Pastoral Letters in the Debate 156
3. The Broadening of the Discussion 157
4. The Contributions of German Catholic Scholarship 159
5. Hermeneutical Implications of the Debate 164
VI. The Weak and the Strong 167
1. 1 Corinthians 8:1–11:1 167
2. Romans 14:1–15:13 171
3. Comparison of Corinthians and Romans 173
4. The Weak and Strong within the Pauline Corpus 175
VII. Israel and the Church: Romans 9–11 178
1. Form, Function, and Purpose of Romans 9–11 178
2. Paul’s Gospel Grounded on Israel’s Scriptures 183
3. The Hermeneutics of Paul’s Use of Scripture 189
4. The Canonical Function of Romans 9–11 192
VIII. The Apocalyptic Shape of Paul’s Theology 194
1. The Old Testament Background of Apocalypticism 195
2. Characteristic Features of Apocalypticism 197
3. Apocalyptic and the Growth of Early Christianity 199
4. Apocalyptic Traditions within the Pauline Corpus 206
5. Theological and Canonical Implications
of Apocalyptic 216

5. The Canonical Framing of the Pauline Corpus 219
I. Acts of the Apostles 219
1. The Debate over the Canonical Role of Luke-Acts 219
2. The Canonization of Acts 223
3. The Goals, Purpose, and Function of Acts 226
4. The Hermeneutical Effect of the Canonization of Acts 231
5. The Singularity of Paul’s Letters
and Their Corporate Form 234
6. Kähler’s Hermeneutic and the So-called
Historical Paul 236
II. Hebrews 237
1. Critical Issues 237
2. Major Theological Themes of Continuity 239
3. Themes of Radical Discontinuity 241
4. Exhortation and Parenesis 242
5. The Humanity of Jesus 244
6. The Major Hermeneutical Issues at Stake 244
7. Reasons for Inclusion of Hebrews
in the Pauline Corpus 248
8. The Effect of Hebrews within the Pauline Corpus 249

6. Theological Implications of the Pauline Corpus for Interpretation 253
I. The Theological Integrity of a Canonical Reading 253
II. TheCanonical ContextasanInterpretiveGuide 254
III. Canonical ShapingandReaderInterpretation 255
IV. TheHermeneutical DialecticinReadingtheCorpus 255
V. TheHistorical andCanonical Paul 256
VI. TheChristological Contentof thePaulineWitness 257
VII. TheFaithfulnessof GodtoHisPromises 258
VIII. TheEschatological-Apocalyptical Witnessof Paul 258

A recent election-season piece by David Mamet, "Why I Am No Longer a 'Brain-Dead Liberal,'" caught my eye. Usually I think Mamet's always worth a read.

It also sent me looking for other Mamet stuff, and I landed on an old Salon intervew (1997), from which any number of quotes might be lifted. Since Occasional Publications has been living up to its name lately, I'll take this one on the internet. The final rant is perfect.

Somewhere, you wrote about the mass media, including the computer industry, conspiring to pervert our need for community. That the dream of having all this information at our fingertips to make us godlike is really doing the opposite and making us forget our humanity. Could you elaborate on that?

It's not really that they're conspiring to, but they might as well be. If you sit down in front of the television with 700 channels, there's probably something on those channels that's going to interest you. It's a very good way to get stupid very quickly.

There's nothing you get from television? The information is just a delusion?

I absolutely think so. If there's any information, it's purely accidental. Furthermore, I don't think there is any information to be gotten from television. I think it's an illusion. It's an interesting narcotic.

Even documentaries or historical programs?

No, it's television.

What about the Internet and the promise of all this information becoming available?

I don't know anything about it, but I'm sure it's worse.

My review of Der Bibelkanon in der Bibelauslegung: Methodenreflexionen und Beispielexegesen (eds Egbert Ballhorn, Georg Steins) has at last been published on RBL.

To view or download the review, go here.

Tags: Deutsch, Canon

Last week The Nation posted an intriguing piece on politics and the new wave of American evangelicalism. Read it all...

I'm working on a new web-based project, which has siphoned off most of the small reserve of energy I had for this blog. Until I unveil the new project, I can share this amusing widget:

Robert Krause, the chef for whom I once worked, and his wife, Molly, were listed in the latest issue of Food & Wine among 100 food "bests" for 2008. As the Lawrence, KS paper explains, the Krause operation earned a no. 11 spot on "tastes to try in 2008" list. Part of the F&W write-up is online, here.

You can read more about their work here, here and here (with photos), and see especially this photo-set on Flickr and their homepage, krausedining.com.

The Nature of Biblical Criticism Author: John Barton ISBN: 9780664225872 Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press         Release: May 2007 Format: Paperback         Pages: 206 My Rating:

Over the weekend I finally read the above. I had picked it up at SBL last summer, in Vienna, and skimmed parts of it thereafter, but I only just blocked out time to read it carefully from cover to cover.

I resist the urge to say much about it yet, or even to rate it. I'll have to interact with the book in my dissertation and I don't want to pre-empt what I'll say there. I do note, however, that this essay of Barton's, which originally heralded The Oxford Bible Commentary in September 2001, anticipates themes in the book at several points. This is especially true of the last two sections, "A Turn to Theology" and "'Advocacy' Readings." Under the former, for instance, Barton states

Every so often there is a movement to ‘reintegrate’ biblical studies and theology, or to ‘give the Bible back to the Church’. I personally believe that scholars have never really taken it away from the Church, and have often indeed been if anything too ‘reverent’, avoiding hard critical questions. But there can be no doubt that many people do feel there is a division between the scholar in the study and the worshipper in the pew, with the preacher in the pulpit uneasily wedged between them. And a repeated reaction to this perception has been to try to develop some way of making biblical study more ‘theological’.

Similarly in the book he concludes: "There is a battle going on at the moment between those who believe that biblical criticism is too much in the grip of a secular and skeptical spirit and those who think it has still not managed to escape the hand of ecclesiastical and religious authority. My sympathies lie on the whole more with the second group" (185).

Barton's dissent from the many advocates of theological exegesis makes his new book essential reading for those with an interest in the same. He sees his program as closer to the essence of true religious reading, which makes it especially provocative. That his thoughts show evidence of long reflection (themes from his classic Reading the OT [1984] are also present in 2007) makes the argument all the more important.

Of course, not all will agree with Barton's diagnosis, let alone his prescription. Regarding canonical approaches he writes (in the online essay, but again in line with the book):

Older biblical criticism was often practised by scholars who did have a high commitment to the inspiration and authority of Scripture. But they thought the proper way to study it was first to analyse it critically in the ways I have described, and only then to move on to questions of its religious significance. This was true of Catholic and Protestant biblical scholars alike. The newer movement denies that this division of labour is desirable, or even possible.

But practitioners of the canonical approach are likely to reply that any division of labor will be different simply because the task envisioned is different. In short, Barton's work aims at the very core of the confessional exegesis movement (if it is proper to speak of such a thing). In particular he targets Brevard Childs, Chris Seitz, Francis Watson, and Walter Moberly. And debate with these figures (indeed, among them) has long been underway.

Finally, I understand that a response to Barton's book, by Moberly, is already due to appear this year in JTI (issue 2/1). One hopes that engagement from all parties will turn up fresh soil where the ground has already so often been plowed.

Tags: Barton, Theological Exegesis, Moberly

Featured in yesterday's Morning Star, the weekly newsletter from Wycliffe College, is an editorial by Chris Seitz. Appropriate to the venue, it includes a few personal reflections. And it sounds a familiar theme in Seitz's work—"accordance," as the title indicates.

Brevard Childs' death is mentioned. St Andrews is remembered. Richard Bauckham's Eyewitnesses book is commended, and this leads into a brief discussion of Irenaeus on the accordance of eyewitness testimony with the scriptures.

Read it all. It's not long.

Tags: St Andrews

Tyndale University College has announced a call for papers for a conference to take place this May 28–30. The conference title is "The Holy Trinity in Holy Scripture: Interpreting the Bible for the Church."

The line-up so far looks quite promising, not least because of the Scotland connection!

Dr. John Webster
Professor of Systematic Theology, King's College, University of Aberdeen
Dr. Lewis Ayres
Associate Profesor of Historical Theology, Candler School of Theology, Emory University
Dr. Kathryn Greene-McCreight
Assistant Rector, St. John's Episcopal Church, New Haven, Connecticut
Dr. Nathan MacDonald
Lecturer in Old Testament, St. Andrews University
Dr. Ephraim Radner
Professor of Historical Theology, Wycliffe College, University of Toronto
Dr. Christopher Seitz
Professor of Biblical Interpretation, Wycliffe College, University of Toronto
Dr. Peter Widdicombe
Associate Professor of Religious Studies, McMaster University

It seems there is still room for a few more presenters. More details are available here.

Yesterday, for a variety of reasons, I finally left dot mac and shifted this entire site to a full-featured host. The domain is www.danieldriver.com, and www.vetustestamentum.com will bring you here as well.

Hopefully the transition is not too painful for you frequenters of these pages. To make it as smooth as possible, I've kept the RSS feed links the same, so blog subscribers should not need to change anything (though I noticed this morning that Google Reader aggregated 100+ old posts as new entries—simple solution: mark all as read).

Please do update those links. For the meanwhile I've put up redirect scripts at all the old locations.

Finally, I have tightened up the content somewhat. Let me know if you've got suggestions for improvements; I've made a few recently, and would gladly make a few more.

Got babies on the brain, and US politics? Even if not, I (we) enjoyed Slate's latest slide show, The Baby Primary.

(By the way, happy birthday, mom.)

Tags: Humor