As 2007 draws to a close, I've taken a little time to implement updates to the entire site. It doesn't quite count as an overhaul, but some navigational improvements are overdue, and new content has been TK for all too long.

Excuse the inevitable clutter as the changes are published. And please let me know if problems arise.

While it is still 2007 I felt I should mention two new collections of essays on canon ("kanon" in the German spelling). I've had the chance to work through them both by now, and have just submitted a review of the larger collection to RBL. Since it has to be approved by the editors first, I expect it will not appear there for a few months yet (but if you're desperate for an English summary, feel free to contact me).

The first to appear, in September, was Bernd Janowski, ed., Kanonhermeneutik: Vom Lesen und Verstehen der christlichen Bibel (Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener, 2007). It contains essays from six contributors.

          

The second to appear, in November, was Egbert Ballhorn and Georg Steins, eds., Der Bibelkanon in der Bibelauslegung: Beispielexegesen und Methodenreflexionen (Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 2007). It contains 21 essays by 17 scholars. I quoted from this volume here recently, and I will certainly link my review once RBL processes it.

Tags: Deutsch, Canon, Psalms

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.)

Ben Myers shares the sad news that T. F. Torrance died yesterday, in Edinburgh. He also posts a eulogy by George Hunsinger.

Myers has previously linked a series of audio lectures by Torrance, and at least once before hosted an appreciation of Torrance, by Ray Anderson of Fuller.

Of interest also might be the T. F. Torrance Theological Fellowship, now in its fourth year. Their site includes a well-documented biography of the theologian.

Two friends of mine at St Andrews, also research students but in systematics (and students of T. F.'s nephew, Alan), had the chance to visit Torrance a year or two back. They reported that, despite a failure of short-term memory due to a stroke, his long-term recall was still remarkably acute.

Requiescat in pace. Our thoughts are also with the family.