The T. F. Torrance Lectures (formerly, Scottish Journal of Theology Lectures) are underway at the St Andrews this week. Professor Bruce McCormack of Princeton is the featured speaker. These have traditionally taken place at Aberdeen. I have just learned that there is good reason to be in Aberdeen this weeks as well, and I am strongly thinking about catching a train to the North tomorrow afternoon for the

William Robertson Smith Conference

Thursday 6th December 2007, The Seminar Room, Humanity Manse, 4.15 - 7.15 p.m.
University of Aberdeen
 

Programme

4.15pm
William Robertson Smith: Social Scientist or Theologian?
Professor Robert Segal  (University of Aberdeen)

5.00pm
William Robertson Smith and J. G. Frazer: 'genuit Frazerum?'
Professor Robert Ackerman

5.45pm
Wellhausen, Robertson Smith and the Sociology of early Arabia and ancient Israel
Professor J.W. Rogerson  (University of Sheffield)

6.30pm
From Pietism to Totemism:William Robertson Smith and Tübingen
Professor Bernhard Maier  (University of Tuebingen)

The symposium will continue on Friday 7th at 9.30 with:
William Robertson Smith's early Work on Prophecy - the Beginnings of Social Anthropology?
Professor Joachim Schaper  (University of Aberdeen)
and followed by a general discussion of the work and influence of Robertson Smith

(Follow this link to the official conference page, with full details.)

Early tomorrow I depart for home (hooray! it's been too long!), and I'm leaving the blog behind until I get back from SBL. So with an eye to SBL already, I offer a few top picks after a glance through the program guide. It's massive, so I'm sure to have missed something. The first things that stand out to me fall into four groups:

1. Giants of the Recent Past
2. Psalms
3. Theological Exegesis
4. Canon

Giants of the Recent Past

The Brevard Childs session has collected quite a list of participants:

Christopher Seitz, Wycliffe College, University of Toronto, Presiding
Gary Anderson, University of Notre Dame, Panelist
Erhard Gerstenberger, Philipps Universität-Marburg, Panelist
Richard Hays, Duke University, Panelist
Alan Cooper, Jewish Theological Seminary of America, Panelist
Kavin Rowe, Duke University, Panelist
Mark Elliott, University of St. Andrews-Scotland, Panelist
Ephraim Radner, Wycliffe College, University of Toronto, Panelist

That's 11/18/2007, 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM, Room: 30 E - CC.

And a session for James Barr was more recently put together, with the following panelists:

Samuel Balentine, Union Theological Seminary and Presbyterian School of Christian Education, Presiding
William Abraham, Southern Methodist University, Panelist
Joseph Blenkinsopp, University of Notre Dame, Panelist
Douglas Knight, Vanderbilt University, Panelist
Archie Lee, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Panelist
Mervyn Richardson, Leiden University-The Netherlands, Panelist

Meets 11/19/2007, 1:00 PM to 3:30 PM, Room: Manchester A - GH.

Psalms

In addition to my own session (and see a new translation of Psalm 102 on this site), I noticed two sessions in particular.

S19-83, Scripture in Early Judaism and Christianity, in a joint session between Scripture in Early Judaism and Christianity and Book of Psalms, meets 11/19/2007, 1:00 PM to 3:30 PM, Room: 28 D - CC. The Theme is Psalms in Judaism and Christianity: Studies in the History of Interpretation of the Psalter, and the schedule is:

Esther Menn, Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, Presiding
Medieval Jewish Psalms Interpretation
Adele Berlin, University of Maryland College Park, Panelist (30 min)
Alan Cooper, Jewish Theological Seminary of America, Panelist (30 min)
Moshe Bernstein, Yeshiva University, Respondent (10 min)
Heidelberg Psalms Project
Manfred Oeming, Panelist (20 min)
Andreas Wagner, University of Heidelberg, Panelist (20 min)
Joachim Vette, Panelist (20 min)
Discussion (20 min)

A second joint session of the same groups, S19-126, also on Psalms in Early Judaism and Christianity, meets 11/19/2007, 4:00 PM to 6:30 PM, Room: 23 B - CC. Participants:

Rolf Jacobson, Luther Seminary, Presiding
Scott R. A. Starbuck, Whitworth University
Afterlives of Royal Psalm Lyrics (30 min)
Tze-Ming Quek, University of Cambridge
"I will Give Authority over the Nations": Psalm 2:8-9 in Revelatiom 2:26c-27 (30 min)
Scot Becker, University of Aberdeen
The Magnificat among the Biblical Inset Psalms (30 min)
Aaron Canty, Saint Xavier University
The Nuptial Imagery of Christ and the Church in Augustine's "Enarrationes in Psalmos" (30 min)
Janet A. Timbie, Catholic University of America
Psalm Recitation in the White Monastery (30 min)

Theological Exegesis

In this category session S17-28, Theological Interpretation and the Canon of Scripture, could go into two of my categories. Hopefully the separation from Sanders and McDonald (see below) will not truncate dialog between the groups. This session meets 11/17/2007, 9:00 AM to 11:30 AM, Room: Manchester F - GH. The agenda is:

Edith Humphrey, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, Presiding
Stephen B. Chapman, Duke University
The Canon Debate: What It Is and Why It Matters (20 min)
Thomas Holsinger-Friesen, Spring Arbor University, Respondent (10 min)
Discussion (15 min)
Daniel J. Treier, Wheaton College
A Looser "Canon"?: Relating William Abraham’s Canon and Criterion in Christian Theology to Biblical Interpretation (20 min)
William Abraham, Southern Methodist University, Respondent (10 min)
Discussion (15 min)
Richard Paul Thompson, Northwest Nazarene University
Scripture, Community, and Conversation: Rethinking Theological Interpretation Canonically (20 min)
Jacqueline Lapsley, Princeton Theological Seminary, Respondent (10 min)
Discussion (15 min)

Papers were to be posted at http://fc.asburyseminary.edu/~theological_interpretation/index.html — but I can't get the link to work.

S17-82, on Christ in/and the Old Testament, is notable. It meets 11/17/2007, 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM, Room: Cunningham - GH. The lineup is:

Christopher Seitz, University of St. Andrews-Scotland, Presiding (10 min)
Kathryn Greene-Mccreight, St John's Episcopal Church, Panelist (10 min)
Robert Wall, Seattle Pacific University, Panelist (10 min)
John Goldingay, Fuller Theological Seminary, Panelist (10 min)
Christopher Wright, Langham Partnership International, Panelist (10 min)
Murray Rae, University of Otago, Panelist (10 min)
Discussion (45 min)

S17-130, on Reading the Book of Genesis Theologically as Christian Scripture, meets 11/17/2007, 4:00 PM to 6:30 PM, Room: 28 C - CC. Lineup:

Bill Arnold, Asbury Theological Seminary, Presiding
J. Richard Middleton, Roberts Wesleyan College
The Significance of the Call of Abraham (Genesis 12:1-3) for a Canonical Reading of Scripture (30 min)
Discussion (15 min)
R. R. Reno, Creighton University
Satan, Temptation, and the Fall (30 min)
Discussion (15 min)
Jeffrey L. Morrow, University of Dayton
Genesis 1-3 in a Liturgical Context: The Role of Liturgy in Christian Theological Interpretation of Scripture (30 min)
Discussion (15 min)

S19-138 is a book review session of Christopher R. Seitz, Prophecy and Hermeneutics: Toward a New Introduction to the Prophets (Baker Academic, 2007), meeting 11/19/2007, 7:00 PM to 8:30 PM, Room: Santa Rosa - MM. Reviewers and respondent are:

Gary Anderson, University of Notre Dame, Presiding
Martti Nissinen, University of Helsinki, Panelist
David Petersen, Emory University, Panelist
Marvin Sweeney, Claremont School of Theology, Panelist
Christopher Seitz, University of St. Andrews-Scotland, Respondent

Finally, S20-04, under Christian Theology and the Bible, considers New Proposals in Christian Theology and Bible. It meets 11/20/2007, 9:00 AM to 11:30 AM, Room: Randle A - GH, and features:

Stephen Fowl, Loyola College in Maryland , Presiding (10 min)
Mark Elliott, University of St. Andrews-Scotland
Theological Insights on and from Leviticus 1-7 (30 min)
Gregory W. Lee, Duke University
Calvin and the New Perspective: Covenant as Ground for a Nuanced View of the Law (30 min)
Break (10 min)
Clayton Libolt, River Terrace Church
A Conversation with Nicholas Wolterstorff's Divine Discourse (30 min)
George C. Heider, Valparaiso University
Atonement and the Gospels (30 min)

I also just noticed an early session, S16-55, The Faith of Jesus Christ: Exegetical, Biblical and Theological Studies, which meets 11/16/2007, 12:30 PM to 5:30 PM, Room: 28 A - CC. On tap are:

Michael Bird, Highland Theological College
The Faith of Jesus Christ: Problems and Prospects (15 min)
Stanley Porter, McMaster Divinity College
Lexical and Semantic Reflections on Pistis (30 min)
Douglas Campbell, Duke University
The Faithfulness of Jesus Christ in Romans and Galatians (30 min)
Preston Sprinkle, Aberdeen University
Pistis Christou as an Eschatological Event (30 min)
Break (15 min)
Ardel Caneday, Northwestern College, St. Paul
The Faithfulness of Jesus as a Theme of Pauline Theology (30 min)
Francis Watson, University of Aberdeen - Scotland
The Faith of Jesus Christ (30 min)
R. Barry Matlock, University of Sheffield
The Faithfulness of Jesus Christ in Romans and Galatians (30 min)
Mark Elliott, University of St. Andrews-Scotland
The Faith of Jesus Christ in the Church Fathers (30 min)
Benjamin Myers, University of Queensland
The Faithfulness of Christ in the Theology of Karl Barth (30 min)

Canon

The last of these three sessions is the one I'm most looking forward to, though as I say I hope the physical separation from the first session under Theological Exegesis, above, doesn't mean the groups wind up talking to themselves.

S17-25, Rethinking the Concept and Categories of 'Bible' in Antiquity, meets 11/17/2007, 9:00 AM to 11:30 AM, Room: Salon 5 - MM. Participants:

James E. Bowley, Millsaps College, Presiding
K. L. Noll, Brandon University
Rethinking Literary Function in the Emerging Hebrew Canon (25 min)
Francis Borchardt, University of Helsinki
Concepts of Scripture in 1 Maccabees (25 min)
Ian W. Scott, Tyndale Seminary
Is the Bible always Scripture?: The "Low" View of the Pentateuch in the Letter of Aristeas (25 min)
Sara Parks, McGill University and Aaron Ricker, McGill University
Harry Potter Canon Discourse and the Biblical Canons (25 min)
Robert A. Kraft, University of Pennsylvania
Finding Adequate Terminology for "Pre-canonical" Literatures (25 min)
James E. Bowley, Millsaps College
Terminating Terminology (25 min)

S17-119, Orality, Textuality, and the Formation of the Hebrew Bible, meets 11/17/2007, 4:00 PM to 6:30 PM, Room: Del Mar A - GH, to discuss the theme Rethinking Business as Usual in Light of Orality and Textuality. On tap:

Susan Niditch, Amherst College, Presiding
Joachim Schaper, University of Aberdeen
The Textualisation of Israelite Religion in the Context of the "Orality and Literacy" Debate (30 min)
Frank Polak, Tel Aviv University
The Voiced Text in the Hebrew Bible: From Epic Song to Biblical Narrative and Midrashic Exegesis (30 min)
William M. Schniedewind, University of California-Los Angeles
Rethinking Inner-biblical Exegesis and Biblical Criticism in Light of Orality & Textuality (30 min)
Werner H. Kelber, Rice University
Implications of the Oral-Scribal Approach to Tanach Studies (30 min)
Discussion (30 min)

And finally, S19-16, Function of Apocryphal and Pseudepigraphal Writings in Early Judaism and Early Christianity (through 3rd to 4th centuries CE), meets 11/19/2007, 9:00 AM to 11:30 AM, Room: Manchester H - GH, on the theme Theoretical Issues. The schedule is:

Lee Martin McDonald, Acadia Divinity College, Presiding
James A. Sanders, Ancient Biblical Manuscript Center
Non-Masoretic Literature in Early Judaism and its Function in the New Testament (20 min)
Craig Evans, Acadia Divinity College, Respondent (5 min)
Discussion (5 min)
James H. Charlesworth, Princeton Theological Seminary
The Book of the People from the People of the Book (20 min)
Discussion (5 min)
Lee Martin McDonald, Acadia Divinity College
What Do We Mean by "Canon"?: A Look at Some Ancient and Modern Questions (20 min)
Loren Johns, Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary, Respondent (5 min)
Discussion (5 min)
Ken M. Penner, Acadia Divinity College
Citation Formulae as Indices to Canonicity in Early Jewish and Early Christian Literature (20 min)
Jonathan Soyars, Princeton Theological Seminary, Respondent (5 min)
Discussion (5 min)
Sarah L. Schwarz, Haverford College
Pseudepigrapha Among the Pagans?: Exploring the Boundaries of Audience (20 min)
Discussion (5 min)

If you're going to be there, look for me and say hello.

Tags: Childs, Psalms, Theological Exegesis, Canon

John Hobbins of Ancient Hebrew Poetry has recently performed a deep crawl of blogs related to the Bible. His attempts to map them have garnered some attention (Iyov wonders, "what am I?") and if the attempt is open to challenge, I can at least note with gratitude my own inclusion.

Yesterday John cataloged a few bloggers indebted to Childs in a post preliminary to the final mapping, which he later followed up with a charge to let canonical exegesis take a wider view. One worry of his may be that conversation in this camp (if it is even proper to speak of such a thing) is insular. He writes, "It bothers me when Bible blogdom becomes a monologue among like-minded Christians." John does a good job taking his own advice, however, and omits to name names:

Scholar-bloggers fall into two categories. Those that keep a blogroll and interact with a community of other bloggers, and those that don't. Those that don't abuse the genre. Here is a list of the worst offenders: [omitted by a thoughtful editor].

The complaint leveled at canonical exegesis links to B. Sommer's review of Michael Fishbane's Haftarot commentary to reinforce the point that canonical reading should learn from Jewish as well as Christian history of reception.

I confess that I try to keep something of a low profile as a blogger, not for fear of conflict, but because as an impoverished grad student time is about the only commodity I have to my name. Having had a Childs-related (because research-related) online presence for not quite three years, it was with bemusement, but not envy, that I noted Phil's success in launching a vigorous debate about Childsean hermeneutics just this September. I have followed the discussion there as best I can, but have confined myself mostly to posting links in my sidebar/blogroll. In Phil's own words, "I've been having online dialogues of the most colossal proportions. So involved, in fact, that I have no time or energy to write anything substantial today." Which is a major reason I've had to keep my distance.

Nevertheless, John's post managed to draw me out this morning. I have commented on it already (with a PS), and I repeat my remarks here as well, in part so I can link them up:

Hi John,

I have been very reluctant to get drawn into the debates that have recently surfaced online even though, as you note in the sidebar, there has been some "astoundingly thoughtful comment." That's because (a) I'm working against several deadlines at the moment, (b) I've been working on the particular problem of Childs' reception too long probably, so little seems fresh on the Q to me, and (c) I have some doubts about blogs as a medium for advancing the state of the Q here when so much energy has been expended on it in more traditional media over the last 2.5 decades. Also, though the reasons why I was drawn to my PhD topic are complex and rightly point to an appreciation of Childs' work on my part, this is not uncritical. I find myself wondering about how to get out from under this first project in the next.

Nevertheless, you have drawn me. I'm still facing immanent deadlines, so I'll have to get to it.

James makes a good point, and so do you, John, in response. It has often been claimed that Childs frequently changes his mind (so Barr above all, but by no means exclusively), and typically I think this perception has been overstated. On this precise point, it is unquestionably true that Childs had to rethink some of his initial work on what he calls "the mystery of Israel" (see chapter 4 of my forthcoming dissertation). Fishbane is a great figure to bring up at this juncture.

Rolf Rendtorff, as a self-professed Christian canonical reader, is another. He fell out with Childs over precisely this issue (see his review of BTONT in JBTh 9). I don't know if you've seen his Leviticus commentary yet, but it represents a career-long effort to give the Jewish reception of the Hebrew Bible its due. For Rendtorff this is an imperative for Christians reading the OT.

On the other hand, though Childs moved from talk of midrash (Jewish in his view) to allegory (the traditional Christian reading strategy—I know that can sound over simple, but its how he sees it), he still strove to be a student of the Jewish tradition. When I interviewed him in Cambridge I pushed him exactly here. Why no midrash anymore? His answer came out as advice to a student—you'll never master the material; trust me, I've tried. Also, Jewish readers themselves don't agree on these things.

To my mind the best further reading here is Childs' 1999 essay "The Almost Forgotten Genesis Commentary of Benno Jacob." Not only does it tell the the story of Jacob's Genesis commentary, it also alludes to Jacob's Exodus commentary, which Childs used heavily in his own commentary of 1974. The astonishing thing is that Childs, when in Jerusalem [in 1963], secured a copy of the then almost unknown manuscript and brought it back to Yale. He was making serious use of it decades before it was printed (first in English translation [1992], and only very recently in its German original [1997]). There is a deep commitment to Jewish readings which really never leaves, even though he gains clarity over the years on what an explicitly Christian reading of the tradition entails.

Personally I haven't sorted out where I stand on these issues. At the seminar paper I gave on the topic last week there seemed to be quite a bit of sympathy for Rendtorff's position over against Childs'. Still, the latter is (in a sense) the lectio difficilior. Should a Jewish and Christian scholar really come to different results on that basis? (If no, why not?) I agree with your general point, however. It would be ironic indeed if Childs became a warrant for "canonical readers," what ever that may mean, to neglect Jewish reception in preference for Christian. Fortunately, some of the best theological readers today (who follow Childs at times and do not follow Childs) avoid this: Walter Moberly, Markus Bockmuehl, etc.

Incidentally, I also agree with your comment on Cook's blog about the neglected works. The only real Wirkung the NT Intro got seems to have been among Roman Catholic scholars in Germany. And James Kugel explicitly mentioned the sensus literalis essay in his respectful comments at the small Childs session at SBL Vienna this summer, but who has worked with it seriously?

I'm quite happy for any discussion of this to continue on John's page, where it originates, but I did want to put my answer in a broader context as well.

I might add, too, that my focus on Childs of late is born of at least three things: his recent passing, my work locating his, and an increasing reluctance to speak too far beyond my competence. I do think the scope of Occasional Publications will broaden once I dig into the next project.

Tags: Childs, Theological Exegesis, Midrash

SBL in San Diego is fast approaching, particularly as I travel that way early to see my family and home state (Oregon) for the first time in ages. My paper on Psalm 102 (or read the proposal) is nearly ready, and for those of you who may wish to acquaint yourselves with the subject matter, I post below Robert Alter's new translation of the psalm in question.

1 A prayer for the lowly when he grows faint and pours out his plea before the LORD.
2 LORD, O hear my prayer,
and let my outcry come before You.
3 Hide not Your face from me
on the day when I am in straits.
Incline Your ear to me.
On the day I call, quickly answer me.
4 For my days are consumed in smoke,
and my bones are scorched like a hearth.
5 My heart is stricken and withers like grass,
so I forget to eat my bread.
6 From my loud sighing,
my bones cleave to my flesh.
7 I resemble the wilderness jackdaw,
I become like the owl of the ruins.
8 I lie awake and become
like a lonely bird on a roof.
9 All day long my enemies revile me,
my taunters invoke me in curse.
10 For ashes I have eaten as bread,
and my drink I have mingled with tears—
11 because of Your wrath and Your fury,
for You raised me up and flung me down.
12 My days inclined like a shadow,
and I—like grass I withered.
13 And You LORD, forever enthroned,
and Your name—for all generations.
14 You, may You rise, have mercy on Zion,
for it is the hour to pity her, for the fixed time has come.
15 For Your servants cherish her stones
and on her dust they take pity.
16 All the nations will fear the name of the LORD,
and all the kings of the earth, Your glory.
17 For the LORD has rebuilt Zion,
He is seen in His glory.
18 He has turned to the prayer of the desolate
and has not despised their prayer.
19 Let this be inscribed for a generation to come,
that a people yet unborn may praise Yah.
20 For the LORD has gazed down from His holy heights,
from heaven to earth He has looked
21 to hears the groans of the captive,
to set loose those doomed to die,
22 that the name of the LORD be recounted in Zion
and His praise in Jerusalem
23 when peoples gather together
and kingdoms, to serve the LORD.
24 He humbled my strength on the highway,
he cut short my days.
25 I say, “O my God.
Do not take me away in the midst of my days!
Your years are for all generations.
26 Of old You founded the earth,
and the heavens—Your handiwork.
27 They will perish and You will yet stand.
They will all wear away like a garment.
Like clothing you change them, and they pass away.
28 But You—Your years never end.
29 The sons of Your servants dwell safe,
their seed in Your presence, unshaken.”

My only question: I get why you'd want to keep as much of the ancient character in the translation as possible, but does "Yah" in verse 19 really count as a translation? Seems like punting.

Tags: Psalms

Professor of Old Testament: the job vacancy left by Christopher Seitz has at last been filled by Kristin De Troyer. She will take up the post on 1 June 2008.

Tags: St Andrews

I'm still digging into Psalm 102 for my upcoming SBL paper. Today I left the dusty library shelves and turned instead to a few online resources. Commentators of note include:

• Augustine (and here and here in the Confessions)
• Thomas (OK, not yet to 102, but mentioned here etc)
• Calvin (esp here and here; cf Gn 36, 25, Ex 15, 32, Lam 5, Is 16, 29, 37, 49, 51, 54, 63, 66, Jonah, Dn 2, 7, Jer 19, 31, Ps 22, 51, 72, 114, 109, and here, here, here, etc)
• Adolf Harnack on Athanasius
• Metered by Isaac Watts
• Calvin and Augustine are also here

I'll keep looking, of course.

Tags: Psalms, PhD

After a fortnight of long days, and in them the sudden onset of a cold, my Friday afternoon was brightened when a postal worker knocked and handed me a package from Amazon. (It's the first mail I've received since the postal strikes.) Couldn't guess what it was—it had been routed through Germany and I'm pretty much the only one in the house who orders German books—and was most pleased when it turned out to be copies of the two books I last blogged about. I've only glanced at them now, but they look well worth the time I want to give them. I may say a word about them later if I get the chance.

Most of all thanks to fuller (my dad, and undoubtedly this blog's longest standing reader). It was a most thoughtful gift.

Tags: Psalms

James Kugel and Robert Alter, two of the most notable American Hebraists working today, have both surfaced in mainstream media publications recently. (This via PaleoJudaica, which mentioned the stories here and here [compare here].)

The New York Times reviewed James Kugel's gargantuan How to Read the Bible on Saturday. Kugel, who calls himself and American and a Zionist, and who proved his conviction by relocating from Harvard to the Orthodox Bar-Ilan Univeristy outside Tel Aviv (he says he did it for the tomatoes), has started a web site in connection with the new book, www.jameskugel.com. The site is a work in progress, though it does already contain an appendix on "Apologetics and Biblical Criticism."

The NYT review focuses on Kugel's thesis that "ancient interpreters" and "modern scholars" have interpreted the Bible in radically different ways.

Charles Augustine Briggs, a 19th-century pioneer of modern biblical scholarship, declared that by sweeping away the “rubbish” of centuries of biblical interpretation, modern scholars would finally “recover the real Bible.” Professor Kugel admires the audacity and genius of scholars like Briggs, but he believes that in their contempt for the “rubbish” of ancient interpretation, modern scholars have let the “real Bible” elude them. They have been left, instead, with “the raw material that made up the Bible.”

The reviewer wonders if the two approaches have to be seen as irreconcilable. Given this summary, I imagine I can see why Kugel was among the few who came to the Childs session in Vienna this summer (mentioned near the end of this post).

Yesterday, NPR's All Things Considered (one of the things I miss most about commuting in the US of A) broadcast Robert Siegel's interview of Robert Alter, about his new translation of the Psalms. In the interview Alter explains why "soul" is a bad translation of "nephesh." Translations can be "like those thick layers of veneer that were put down on paintings in the Victorian period so you couldn't see the true colors." They impose later ideas about the division of body and soul, or about the soul surviving after death, onto the ancient text. "I scrupulously avoided 'soul' in order not to give the wrong impression."

Alter also reads Psalm 8, drawing attention to translation choices that aim to preserve the strong rhythms and compactness of the original Hebrew. He comments about the strange mythical language preserved in Psalm 82, which has God among the gods. "Our God, the big guy, presides over the assembly." He summarizes the message to the small-g gods: "You're going to be demoted to human status because you haven't done your job of administering justice."

Listen to the entire interview. It's not long. NPR also includes an excerpt of Alter's translation and commentary on Psalm 23.

Very much looking forward to browsing both books when I can get my hands on them.

POST SCRIPT (20 Sept): Kugel's online appendix is worth reading. In it he actually goes after Alter a bit (similarly Jon Levenson, whose Death and Resurrection of the Beloved Son I reviewed just last night), proving that the alignment which brought them together here does not entail alignment in other matters—obviously.

Professor Kugel, if you should happen to find this, thank you for your efforts on your web page, especially for publishing some real content there.

Tags: Psalms

Georg Steins is co-hosting two session in Vienna on the closure of the canon, one in the morning and one in the evening of Tuesday, 24 July. I hope to be there. Details and abstracts, from the SBL program book, are as follows:

24-09

EABS: The Closure of the Hebrew Bible Canon: Inside and Outside Perspectives / Der Abschluss de Kanons der Hebräischen Bibel. Innen- und Außensichten Session I

7/24/2007

8:30 AM to 11:30 AM

Room: HS 28 - Hauptgebäude

Georg Steins, Universität Osnabrück, Presiding
Johannes Taschner, Kirchliche Hochschule Bielefeld-Bethel, Presiding

Georg Steins, Universität Osnabrück
Zwei Konzepte - ein Kanon. Zur Gestalt und Gestaltung des TaNaK / Two Concepts – One Canon. Form and Design of the TaNaK (30 min)
Discussion (15 min)

Johannes Taschner, Kirchliche Hochschule Bielefeld-Bethel
Die Reichweite der Kanonformel in Deuteronomium 4,2 / How Far Does the Canonic Formula of Deuteronomy 4:2 Reach? (30 min)
Discussion (15 min)
Break (30 min)

Andreas Ruwe, Universität Greifswald
Zur Entstehung des Pentateuch: Kanonisierung als fortschreitende Konstitutionalisierung / On the Formation of the Pentateuch: Canonization as progressive Constitutionalization (30 min)
Discussion (30 min)

24-35

EABS: The Closure of the Hebrew Bible Canon: Inside and Outside Perspectives / Der Abschluss de Kanons der Hebräischen Bibel. Innen- und Außensichten Session II

7/24/2007

1:30 PM to 4:30 PM

Room: HS 28 - Hauptgebäude

Georg Steins, Universität Osnabrück, Presiding
Johannes Taschner, Kirchliche Hochschule Bielefeld-Bethel, Presiding

Egbert Ballhorn, Universität Osnabrück
Psalm 151: Eine Innensicht Davids - außerhalb des Psalters / Psalm 151: David from Inside, Outside of the Psalter (30 min)

Matthias Millard, Kirchliche Hochschule Bielefeld-Bethel
Der Kanon als ein didaktisches Konzept / The Canon as a Didactic Concept (30 min)

Carola Krieg, Universität Mainz
Der Bibelkanon - Javne - Rabbinsche Stimmen / The Canon of the Bible, Javne, Rabbinical Voices (30 min)



A number of the contributers are involved in the soon-forthcoming Der Bibelkanon in der Bibelauslegung: Beispielexegesen und Methodenreflexionen, edited by Steins and Ballhorn.

From about a year ago I found this list of contributors scheduled for that volume:
Egbert Ballhorn (Hildesheim), Christoph Dohmen (Regensburg), Thomas Hieke (Regensburg), Matthias Millard (Bielefeld-Bethel), Tobias Nicklas (Nijmegen), Karl-Wilhelm Niebuhr (Jena), Silvia Pellegrini (Berlin), Klaus Scholtissek (Würzburg), Ludger Schwienhorst-Schönberger (Passau), Georg Steins (Osnabrück), Johannes Taschner (Bielefeld-Bethel).

Looks like the SBL sessions could be a good preview for the book.

Tags: Deutsch, Canon

Georg Steins sends regrets in an official response on behalf of the Institut für Katholische Theologie, at the Universität Osnabrück, because (in his words) "wir in Osanbrück viel zu verdanken haben." The letter appears here with his permission.


Sehr geehrte Frau Childs,

mit großer Bestürzung und Betroffenheit habe ich die Nachricht vom plötzlichen Tod Ihres Mannes, des Kollegen Professor Brevard S. Childs, erhalten. Als Direktor des Instituts für Katholische Theologie an der Universität Osnabrück spreche ich Ihnen, Ihren Kindern und der ganzen Familie mein aufrichtiges Beileid aus.

Mit Brevard S. Childs verliert die internationale Bibelwissenschaft eine mutige Persönlichkeit und einen herausragenden Gelehrten. Ihr Mann gehört zu den Pionieren einer Neuen Biblischen Theologie in der zweiten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts. Seine Wiederentdeckung des Kanons als Schlüssel einer theologischen Bibelinterpretation hat zahlreichen Kolleginnen und Kollegen nicht nur einen Weg gewissen, sondern eine breite Bahn geöffnet, auf der wir in noch unerforschtes Neuland gelangen können. Ich wüsste keinen anderen Exegeten zu nennen, dessen Werk in den zurückliegenden Jahrzehnten in der Fachwissenschaft so tiefe Spuren hinterlassen hat.

Die neue Richtung des „canonical approach“ findet in der deutschsprachigen Exegese erst allmählich größere Beachtung; lange Zeit stieß der Ansatz ihres Mannes in der Fachwelt auf Skepsis, nicht selten auch auf Ablehnung. Die Bibelwissenschaft in Osnabrück ist dem Wirken Ihres Mannes schon seit längerem auf besondere Weise dankbar verbunden: Wir, d.h. mein Kollege Professor Christoph Dohmen (der jetzt in Regensburg lehrt) und ich, haben Anfang der 90er Jahre begonnen, das Werk Ihres Mannes intensiver zu studieren und mit seinem Blick die Bibel als Kanon zu reflektieren. Von Christoph Dohmen kam dann die Anregung, das großen Werk „Biblical Theology of the Old and New Testaments“ ins Deutsche zu übersetzen; die Übersetzung ist schließlich 1994 und 1996 unter dem schönen Titel „Die Theologie der einen Bibel“ in zwei Bänden beim Herder Verlag in Freiburg im Breisgau erschienen.

Das Werk Ihres Mannes hat für nicht wenige Exegetinnen und Exegeten der jüngeren Generation in Deutschland schon jetzt gewissermaßen „kanonischen“ Rang erreichen, in dem Sinne, dass es auch unabhängig von seinem Autor weiterwirkt und immer neue Kräfte freisetzt – zum fortwährenden Hören auf das Wort Gottes in den vielen Worten der einen Heiligen Schrift.

Wir wollen Gott danken, dass er uns und der Welt diesen Diener des Evangeliums geschenkt hat, und wünschen Ihnen und Ihrer Familie in all Ihrer Trauer und Ihrem Schmerz das feste Vertrauen auf den, der unseren Anfang und unser Ende in seinen guten Vaterhänden hält.

Es grüßt Sie

gez. Georg Steins

Tags: Deutsch, Childs

Brevard Childs died on Saturday, 23 June 2007, in New Haven. He sustained injuries from a bad fall in a few days earlier from which he was unable to recover. Born 2 September 1923, he was 83 years old.

The following brief biography is excerpted from Gerald Sheppard, "Childs, Brevard (B. 1923)," in Historical Handbook of Major Biblical Interpreters (ed. Donald K. McKim; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1998), 575-584. The correction in the first line is courtesy of C. R. Seitz.

Childs grew up in Southern Presbyterian churches [sic—He was baptised Episcopalian in Columbia SC. It was only when he moved north to Queens (a consequence of his father's ill health) that the family attended the Presbyterian Church. He and Ann attended an anglican church in Cambridge.] and studied at the University of Michigan (A.B. and M.A.). After serving in the army in Europe during World War II, he earned his B.D. at Princeton Theological Seminary before pursuing a doctorate at the University of Basel, Switzerland. At Basel Childs studied Old Testament with Walther Eichrodt, among others. In addition to his studies in Basel, he took advantage of Near Eastern scholarship at Heidelberg University.

In Basel Childs met his wife, Ann, who had attended some of Karl Barth's lectures with him. This was an exciting period for theological study. Besides the vigorous table talk among the visiting and local students, inexpensively published journals of essays and debates between theologians, biblical scholars and historians further stimulated the intellectual atmosphere.

At the University of Basel Childs completed his dissertation on the problem of myth in the opening chapters of Genesis just at the the time when Walter Baumgartner replaced Eichrodt as the senior Old Testament scholar. Creating consternation at the time, Baumgartner informally refused to accept the methodology of Childs's dissertation, so Childs had to change his plans in order to undertake a full revision, now informed by a new grasp of form-critical analysis. That obligation helps explain why Childs became one of the leading tradition historians in North America. The revised dissertation, Der Mythos als theologische Problem im Alten Testaments (1953), was never published, though Childs circulated major portions of it under the title A Study of Myth in Genesis 1–11 (1955) among his wide network of English-speaking scholarly friends.

In 1954 Childs began teaching Old Testament at Mission House Seminary and in 1958 accepted a teaching position at Yale Divinity School...

Childs was the Sterling Professor of Divinity at Yale University, where he remained an emeritus professor for the duration of his life.

I met Childs breifly at his house in Cambridge last spring. He and Ann spoke fondly of their student days in Europe in the early 1950s, and Childs remembered in story his many “unforgettable teachers,” including von Rad, Zimmerli, Cullmann, Bornkamm and Barth. (Compare the prefaces to Myth, Memory, Exodus, and especially to IOTS, NTCI, OTTCC and BTONT.) Due in part to this training, he was able to bridge the gap between German and Anglo-Saxon scholarship as few ever have. His passing is marked with sadness not least because he was one of the last Old Testament specialists to control the entire field, Old and New. His readers frequently note how very much more he read than the rest of us.

Childs' work is among the most misplaced of any biblical scholar since Hermann Gunkel, except that in Gunkel's case the methods associated with him (Gunkel did not exactly approve of "form criticism"), at first controversial, soon won almost unanimous support. Childs wrote at a time when a broad consensus had ceased to be a possibility.

Childs spent a lifetime confronting the dissolution he experienced. As he explains in the preface to his landmark Introduction to the Old Testament at Scripture (1979),

Twenty-five years ago, when I returned home from four years of graduate study in Europe, the area within the field of the OT which held the least attraction for me was Introduction. I supposed that most of the major problems had already been resolved by the giants of the past. Even allowing for the inevitable process of refinement and modification, could one really expect anything new in this area? I was content to leave the drudgery of writing an Introduction to someone else with more Sitzfleisch.

Two decades of teaching have brought many changes in my perspective. Having experienced the demise of the Biblical Theology movement in America, the dissolution of the broad European consensus in which I was trained, and a widespread confusion regarding theological reflection in general, I began to realize that there was something fundamentally wrong with the foundations of the biblical discipline. It was not a question of improving on a source analysis, of discovering some unrecognized new genre, or of bringing a redactional layer into shaper focus. Rather, the crucial issue turned on one’s whole concept of the study of the Bible itself. I am now convinced that the relation between the historical critical study of the Bible and its theological use as religious literature within a community of faith and practice needs to be completely rethought. Minor adjustments are not only inadequate, but also conceal the extent of the dry rot.

Major controversy followed the publication of IOTS in 1979. Few were won over to the new approach, and a handful (some very prominent) insisted that an allegedly incoherent method stood in need of reconstruction. On the other hand, at a Yale lecture in the early 1980s, Rolf Rendtorff asked Childs to translate for the audience his reaction to IOTS: Es war als fielen mir die Schuppen von den Augen.

This anecdote is related by Christopher Seitz, who prominently among Childs' students has defended the sanity of the canonical approach (for the Rendtorff story see Seitz's essay in Canon and Biblical Interpretation, p84). Much like Gunkel's reception at an earlier time, however, it proved easier to assume that the challenge to the reigning order signaled more chaos than creation. As Machiavelli once wrote, "the innovator has for enemies all those who have done well under the old conditions."

Seitz is close to the mark, I think, when he writes of a later book (1992): "Childs's Biblical Theology may prove to be a book in search of an audience, and for that reason it will be judged by the widest variety of readers as learned but unsatisfactory and by an even smaller audience as the most brilliant proposal for theological exegesis offered in recent memory, but one unlikely to gain the sort of foothold necessary to transform the church in its use of scripture."

It is still much to early to assess the significance of Childs' long and productive career. I know a few who place themselves in the second, smaller group—some who have passed through St Andrews in recent years. I myself came to the controversy late, and I maintain hope that many more in my generation will avail themselves of the immense learning and insight on offer in Childs' work. Like me, more may come to wonder about the contents of the book (on the NT again!) Childs never had the time to complete, or failing that, to recognize the complexity and enormity of the task he undertook as a Christian exegete.

The funeral service will be held this coming Saturday, with and family and close friends in attendance.

At this time our thoughts and prayers are with Ann, the family, their close friends. Brevard Childs is lamented for the acumen and memory that passes with him. His personal warmth, gentleness, and charity make the loss sadder still. May his memory be for a blessing.

Tags: Childs, PhD

Listed here are links to other online mentions of Childs' passing. Some include personal reminiscences. I have artificially set the date and time back, obviously, and for a time I will add links as they multiply.

In the Blogosphere

Stephen Cook :: Prayers Requested for Prof. Brevard S. Childs
Kevin Wilson :: In Memorium: Brevard Childs
Stephen Cook :: Sad Announcement :: Loss of True Giant :: More Details
Kendall Harmon :: Brevard Childs RIP :: including a comment by Ephraim Radner
Jim West :: Brevard Childs has Died
Airton José da Silva :: Sobre Brevard Childs, que faleceu ontem
Benjamin Myers :: Brevard Childs
Christopher Heard :: R.I.P. Brevard Childs
Charles Halson :: In Memoriam, Brevard Childs
Graham @ Leaving Münster :: Brevard Childs - Rest in Peace
Michael Westmoreland-White :: R.I.P. Brevard S. Childs (1923-2007)
Scott Clark :: Brevard S. Childs
Jim Davila :: Brevard Childs
Justin Taylor :: Brevard Childs (1923-2007)
Andy Goodliff :: Brevard Childs (1923-2007)
Claude Mariottini :: Brevard Childs
Peter Matthews :: Brevard Childs 1923-2007
Henry Neufeld :: In Memory
Jason :: Brevard Childs Died
Michael J. G. Pahls :: Brevard Springs Childs (1923-2007)
Richard Floyd :: Personal Reflections on the Death of Brevard Childs
*I have ceased to update blog posts. If you want to add another, please paste the URL in the comments.*

Official Notices and Obituaries

Frank Brown :: Yale Divinity School Announcement
Georg Steins :: Universität Osnabrück (posted on this site)
Christopher Seitz :: SBL Obituary, Brevard S. Childs 1923-2007 (excerpted here)

Tags: PhD, Childs

There once was a guy called von Rad,
whose learning was not a facade.
He argued for credo,
which since got torpedoed
by design (say some) of Mossad.



Tags: Humor

Always exciting to get a new book in the mail. Two I expect this week:

Joseph Groves. Actualization and Interpretation in the Old Testament (SBL Dissertation Series, 86) . Atlanta, Scholars Pr: 1987.

Ed Ball, ed. In Search of True Wisdom: Essays in Old Testament Interpretation in Honour of R E Clements (JSOTSup 300). Sheffield, 1999.